“Christ lay in death’s dark prison.”  Why does a piece of music with so sombre a title engage so many musicians, our own beloved Carlos amongst them?

To attempt an answer, I turned to a few websites and to John Eliot Gardiner’s comprehensive book on Bach, “Music in the Castles of Heaven.”  What follows is by no means a comprehensive answer, but hopefully a starting point for anyone who might like to investigate further.

The 1600’s were dark times in that part of Germany where the Bach family of musicians lived and worked.  Wars and pestilence were rife, creating unsettled conditions for producing even basic foodstuffs.  Man’s expected lifespan was around 30 years, much less than the Biblical threescore years and ten.  Johann Sebastian was an orphan by his eleventh birthday, and spent his teenage years tossed between the households of an uncle and an elder brother.  Child deaths were frequent; Bach himself lost his first wife at a tender age, and 12 of his 22 children before maturity.  Death was always just around the corner, from illness, famine and fighting.

Johann Sebastian had the apparent good fortune of being sent to the school where, over 100 years previously, Martin Luther had been a pupil.  Of course, Martin Luther was considered a rebel in his own lifetime, but over the intervening century his revolutionary ideas had taken hold as they resonated with the places and times.  Church services owed much to Luther, especially in the hymns which he composed for use in worship.  He is reported to have once said, “Why should the devil get all the good tunes?” and was not beyond writing hymns to be sung to popular folk songs, still in regular use in Bach’s day.

School was not all it seemed.  There was no discipline; children seemed to do what they liked, and Johann Sebastian was no different.  Perhaps he was bored because there was no one to stimulate his emerging talent and vivid imagination, so he was frequently absent.

Bach felt Luther’s influence very strongly.  At that time, explanations for many issues such as illness, natural disasters and so-on were non-existent.  Something had to explain the ups and downs of life, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong.  Faith was essential to survival, and Luther’s brand of faith was well accepted.  Luther felt he was doing God’s work on earth:  Bach also felt that he was doing God’s work.  Luther was bringing people to an understanding of God and of Christianity through words.  Bach felt that he was called to do the same thing through music.

Bach composed Cantata BWV 4 at the age of 22, whilst applying for a job as organist at the church in his home town.  It is likely that he was keen to show his prospective employers just how a cantata should be written.

The words are a hymn by Martin Luther.  They seem dour and forbidding.  But it soon becomes apparent that they are not about death, but about life.  Each verse is a different way of affirming that life triumphs over death, that Christ triumphs over Satan, that right triumphs over wrong.  Hence it is that every one of the seven verses, however sombre the opening words, concludes with at least one “Hallelujah!” and in most cases many resounding “Hallelujahs!”

In the music, Bach’s revolutionary and rebellious streak comes out.  He uses Luther’s original chorale as a base, sung by different voices in each movement, and he ornaments it unendingly for dramatic effect.  He illuminates and embellishes the text as the music does more than just reflect the words: the two are completely intertwoven and indivisible. He uses striking changes of key and other musical devices to good effect.  Perhaps most dramatically, at the end of the first chorus he switches without warning from slow and meditative to fast and furious.  Imagine hearing that for the first time one Sunday morning in 1707!

Bach was not a saint.  He was arrogant.  He continually argued with his employers.  He spoke ill of those who attended divine service and did not bother with the music.  But this was just his frustration at these people getting in the way of his calling: to write the most imaginative music to bring glory to God, the fount of all belief, and in so doing to strengthen the faith of believers whilst also bringing non-believers into faith.

I hope this reflection helps to put the Cantata in context and helps everyone to fully enjoy rehearsing and performing this wonderful music.