- The Cantatas of J. S. Bach. With their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text
Since its first publication in 1971, Alfred Dürr's Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach has been the definitive reference work on this subject. It will remain so for the foreseeable future, thanks to Richard D. P. Jones's fine translation and revision and the new edition from Oxford University Press. When first released in hardback in 2005, this book's sheer heft and steep price gave many of us pause, but now there's an affordable paperback version as well. Can an online version be far behind?
Originally a two-volume handbook, The Cantatas of J. S. Bach packs more into a single volume than even the most recent German editions [End Page 620] of Dürr's now-classic study. His book is simultaneously historical analysis and catalogue, reference work and text, serving scholars and students of these endlessly fascinating pieces in equal measure. The new OUP edition is the best place for English speakers to find a concise history of a particular cantata or an accurate translation of a libretto; it's also the best single book for university-level courses on this subject. Those familiar with the various German editions will be pleased with the Oxford volume's spacious page layout and greater clarity. Most important, the book reads surprisingly well in English. Dürr's voice has lost none of its distinctiveness in translation, even in those places where Jones discreetly departs from the original text to take account of recent scholarship.
In contrast, the line-by-line translations of the libretti do not always read well, and this is partly by design: Jones is more interested in the literal meaning of these words than the poetry they serve. For instance, in the libretto to Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, his rendering of the alto aria 'Kreuz und Kronen sind verbunden/Kampf und Kleinod sind vereint' as 'Cross and crowns are bound together / Contest and prize medal are united' is accurate but ungainly. I prefer the translation by Vera Lucia Calabria on an American Bach Soloists CD: 'Cross and crown are joined together, conflict and gem are combined', which makes better alliteration and at least approximates the catchy rhythm of the original. On the other hand, Jones's translations are a useful antidote to the many archaic and flowery English renderings of Bach cantata texts online and in print, and as such they work well alongside Dürr's straightforward prose.
Dürr's handbook has always been the most academic and the most complete study of the Bach cantatas intended for general readership. The only other publication that treats every single cantata is Gillies Whittaker's The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach (Oxford, 1959), which appeared at more or less the same time as Dürr and Georg von Dadelson's revolutionary findings on the chronology of these works and thus became instantly outdated. Alec Robertson's similarly obsolete The Church Cantatas of J. S. Bach (New York, 1972) is a less ambitious book, intended as a companion to Charles Sanford Terry's Joh. Seb. Bach Cantata Texts, Sacred and Secular (London, 1926). (The latter has since been supplanted by Melvin Unger's Handbook to Bach's Sacred Cantata Texts: An Interlinear Translation with Reference Guide to Biblical Quotations and Allusions (Lanham, Md., 1996) and Richard Stokes's J. S. Bach: The Complete Cantatas in German-English Translation (Lanham, Md., 1999) as well as a number of websites.) Books by Stephen Daw (The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach: The Choral Works (Rutherford, NJ, 1981)) and W. Murray Young (The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: An Analytical Guide (London, 1989)) make modest contributions to the literature on the Bach cantatas, but neither has Dürr's command of both the music and the scholarly industry swirling around it. This...