Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig, BWV 26

*Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig*
Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig
BWV 26
Chorale cantata by J. S. Bach
	Michael Franck, author of the hymn's text and melody
Occasion	24th Sunday after Trinity
Chorale	"Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig"; by Michael Franck
Performed	19 November 1724
Movements	6
Vocal	SATB choir and solo
Instrumental	horn; flauto traverso; 3 oboes; 2 violins; viola; organ; continuo;

Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Ah, how fleeting, ah how insignificant),^[1] BWV 26, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 19 November 1724.

The cantata is based upon the hymn "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig", versed and composed by Michael Franck in 1652. The tune was later edited by Johann Crüger. It is the only time Bach used this hymn, except BWV 644 (Orgelbüchlein). Its theme, the transience of human life, is the only connection to the prescribed gospel reading. The first and last stanza are used unchanged in both text and tune: the former is treated as a chorale fantasia, the latter as a four-part closing chorale. An unknown librettist paraphrased the inner stanzas as arias and recitatives. Bach scored the cantata for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of horn, flute, three oboes, strings and continuo.

History and words

Bach wrote the cantata in 1724 in his second year in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity.^[2] That year, Bach composed a chorale cantata cycle, begun on the first Sunday after Trinity.^[3] The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Colossians, a prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–14), and from the Gospel of Matthew, the story of the Raising of Jairus' daughter (Matthew 9:18–26). The cantata is based on "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig", a hymn in 13 stanzas by Michael Franck (1652),^[4] to a melody by Johann Crüger (1661),^[5] "a meditation on the transience of human life and of all earthly goods".^[6] This aspect is the only connection to the gospel. An unknown poet retained the first and the last stanza unchanged the outer movements 1 and 6 of the cantata. He derived the four inner movements as a sequence of alternating arias and recitatives from the inner stanzas.^[3] John Eliot Gardiner points out that "several of Bach's late Trinity season cantatas" concentrate on "the brevity of human life and the futility of earthly hopes".^[7]

Bach first performed the cantata on 19 November 1724.^[3] It is the only time that he used this hymn.^[8]

Music

Scoring and structure

Bach structured the cantata in six movements. The text and tune of the hymn appear unchanged in the outer choral movements, a chorale fantasia and a four-part closing chorale, which frame a sequence of alternating arias and recitatives. Bach scored the work for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of a horn (Co) doubling the soprano in the chorale, flauto traverso (Ft), three oboes (Ob), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), organ (Org) and basso continuo.^[9]

In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows the Neue Bach-Ausgabe.^[9] The keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4/4).^[2]

Movements of *Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig*
No.	Title	Text	Type	Vocal	Winds	Strings	Others	Key	Time
1	Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig	Franck	Chorale fantasia	SATB	Co Ft 3Ob	2Vl Va	Org Bc	A minor
2	So schnell ein rauschend Wasser schießt	anon.	Aria	T	Ft	Vl	Org Bc	C major	6/8
3	Die Freude wird zur Traurigkeit	anon.	Recitative	A			Org Bc
4	An irdische Schätze das Herze zu hängen	anon.	Aria	B	3Ob		Org Bc
5	Die höchste Herrlichkeit und Pracht	anon	Recitative	S			Org Bc	E minor
6	Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig	Franck	Chorale	SATB	Co Ft 3Ob	2Vl Va	Org Bc	A minor

Music

The opening chorus, "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig" (Ah, how fleeting, ah how insignificant),^[1] is a chorale fantasia. The instruments play concertante music, to which the soprano sings the cantus firmus line by line. The lower voices act as a "self-contained group", mostly in homophony, and "declaim the individual lines of text in unison at the end of each choral passage, using a melodic formula derived from the beginning of the hymn." Bach illustrates the imagery of the text, "fleetingness and insubstantiality" in motifs such as "abrupt chords separated by pauses and ... hurrying scale figures".^[6] Gardiner comments:

Long before the first statement of Franck's hymn (sopranos doubled by cornetto) Bach establishes the simile of man's life to a rising mist which will soon disperse. Fleet-footed scales, crossing and recrossing, joining and dividing, create a mood of phantasmal vapour.^[7]

The musicologist Julian Mincham compares the instrumental music to "mist and fog, images which imply movements of wind and air" and hears the lower voices as "evincing a feeling of primeval power and solidarity".^[8]

In the first aria, the text "So schnell ein rauschend Wasser schießt" (As quickly as rushing water)^[1] is illustrated in the flute, the violin and the tenor voice by "fast-flowing" music,^[6] "each musician required to keep changing functions – to respond, imitate, echo or double one another – while variously contributing to the insistent onwardness of the tumbling torrent".^[7]

In a recitative for alto, "Die Freude wird zur Traurigkeit" (Joy becomes sadness),^[1] images such as flowers speak of transience until the grave.^[8] The Bach scholar Klaus Hofmann describes it as a "far-reaching coloratura [which] culminates in an uneasy dissonance".^[6]

In the last aria, an "unusual oboe trio"^[3] accompanies the bass voice in "An irdische Schätze das Herze zu hängen" (To hang one's heart on earthly treasures).^[1]^[3] Gardiner comments: "He scores this Totentanz (Dance of the dead) for three oboes and continuo supporting his bass soloist in a mock bourrée", the oboes undermining in "throbbing accompaniment ... those earthly pleasures by which men are seduced", then representing "through jagged figures ... the tongues of flame which will soon reduce them to ashes, and finally in hurtling semiquaver scales of 6/4 chords ... surging waves which will tear all worldly things apart".^[7] Mincham sees a connection of the runs to those of movement 1, but points out how different their function is here:

now depicting thunder flames, stormy seas and the destruction of the world. The descending scales played in unison by the three oboes have great force. The vocalist has several prominent images, notably the long melisma on the word "zerschmettert" (shatter) and the weird, descending chromatic phrase towards the end, suggestive of a world of chaos and foolishness.^[8]

A recitative for soprano, "Die höchste Herrlichkeit und Pracht" (The highest glory and magnificence),^[1] expresses that even highest power will not escape death.^[8]

The closing chorale, "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig" (Ah, how fleeting, ah how insignificant),^[1] is a four-part setting.^[2]

Recordings

The listing is taken from the selection on the Bach Cantatas Website.^[10] Instrumental groups playing period instruments in historically informed performances are highlighted green under the header Instr..

Recordings of *Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig*
Title	Conductor / Choir / Orchestra	Soloists	Label	Year	Instr.
Les Grandes Cantates de J. S. Bach Vol. 10	Fritz Werner Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra	Friederike Sailer Claudia Hellmann Helmut Krebs Erich Wenk	Erato	1961 (1961)	Chamber
Bach Cantatas Vol. 5 – Sundays after Trinity II	Karl Richter Münchener Bach-Chor Münchener Bach-Orchester	Ursula Buckel Hertha Töpper Ernst Haefliger Theo Adam	Archiv Produktion	1966 (1966)
Bach Kantaten, Vol. 2: BWV 26, BWV 62, BWV 191	Diethard Hellmann Bachchor Mainz Bachorchester Mainz	Herrat Eicker Marie-Luise Gilles Alexander Young Siegmund Nimsgern	DdM-Records Mitterteich 1968	1968 (1968)
J. S. Bach: Das Kantatenwerk • Complete Cantatas • Les Cantates, Folge / Vol. 7	Nikolaus Harnoncourt Wiener Sängerknaben Chorus Viennensis Concentus Musicus Wien	soloist of the Wiener Sängerknaben Paul Esswood Kurt Equiluz Siegmund Nimsgern	Teldec	1973 (1973)	Period
Bach Made in Germany Vol. 4 – Cantatas V	Hans-Joachim Rotzsch Thomanerchor Gewandhausorchester	Regina Werner Rosemarie Lang Peter Schreier Hermann Christian Polster	Eterna	1977 (1977)
J. S. Bach: Kantaten/Cantatas BWV 80, BWV 26, BWV 116	Karl Richter Münchener Bach-Chor Münchener Bach-Orchester	Edith Mathis Trudeliese Schmidt Peter Schreier Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau	Archiv Produktion	1978 (1978)
Die Bach Kantate Vol. 59	Helmuth Rilling Gächinger Kantorei Bach-Collegium Stuttgart	Arleen Augér Doris Soffel Adalbert Kraus Philippe Huttenlocher	Hänssler	1980 (1980)
Bach Edition Vol. 11 – Cantatas Vol. 5	Pieter Jan Leusink Holland Boys Choir Netherlands Bach Collegium	Ruth Holton Sytse Buwalda Nico van der Meel Bas Ramselaar	Brilliant Classics	1999 (1999)	Period
Bach Cantatas Vol. 19: Greenwich/Romsey	John Eliot Gardiner Monteverdi Choir English Baroque Soloists	Joanne Lunn William Towers Paul Agnew Peter Harvey	Soli Deo Gloria	2000 (2000)	Period
J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 14	Ton Koopman Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir	Lisa Larsson Annette Markert Christoph Prégardien Klaus Mertens	Antoine Marchand	2000 (2000)	Period
J. S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 28 – Cantatas from Leipzig 1724	Masaaki Suzuki Bach Collegium Japan	Yukari Nonoshita Robin Blaze Makoto Sakurada Peter Kooy	BIS	2004 (2004)	Period

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 26 – Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dürr, Alfred (1981). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (in German). Vol. 1 (4 ed.). Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag. pp. 520–522. ISBN 3-423-04080-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Wolff, Christoph (2000). "Conclusion of the second yearly cycle (1724–25) of the Leipzig church cantatas" (PDF). Bach Cantatas Website. pp. 2, 3. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
^ "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig / Text and Translation of Chorale". Bach Cantatas Website. 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
^ "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". Bach Cantatas Website. 2006. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hofmann, Klaus (2004). "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig, BWV 26 / Ah how fleeting, ah how trivial" (PDF). Bach Cantatas Website. p. 8. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Gardiner, John Eliot (2006). Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) / Cantatas Nos 3, 13, 14, 26, 81 & 155 (Media notes). Soli Deo Gloria (at Hyperion Records website). Retrieved 19 January 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Mincham, Julian (2010). "Chapter 25 Bwv 26 – The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach". The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
^ ^a ^b Bischof, Walter F. "BWV 26 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". University of Alberta. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
^ Oron, Aryeh. "Cantata BWV 26 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". Bach-Cantatas. Retrieved 12 November 2015.

Sources

Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig, BWV 26: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig BWV 26; BC A 162 / Chorale cantata (24th Sunday after Trinity) Leipzig University
BWV 26 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig English translation, University of Vermont
Luke Dahn: BWV 26.6 bach-chorales.com

External links

Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig, BWV 26: performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information)

[Dellal-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 26 – Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 20 August 2022.

[Dürr-2] Dürr, Alfred (1981). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (in German). Vol. 1 (4 ed.). Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag. pp. 520–522. ISBN 3-423-04080-7.

[Wolff-3] Wolff, Christoph (2000). "Conclusion of the second yearly cycle (1724–25) of the Leipzig church cantatas" (PDF). Bach Cantatas Website. pp. 2, 3. Retrieved 14 November 2012.

[chorale_text-4] "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig / Text and Translation of Chorale". Bach Cantatas Website. 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2012.

[chorale_melody-5] "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". Bach Cantatas Website. 2006. Retrieved 14 November 2012.

[Hofmann-6] Hofmann, Klaus (2004). "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig, BWV 26 / Ah how fleeting, ah how trivial" (PDF). Bach Cantatas Website. p. 8. Retrieved 14 November 2012.

[Gardiner-7] Gardiner, John Eliot (2006). Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) / Cantatas Nos 3, 13, 14, 26, 81 & 155 (Media notes). Soli Deo Gloria (at Hyperion Records website). Retrieved 19 January 2019.

[Mincham-8] Mincham, Julian (2010). "Chapter 25 Bwv 26 – The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach". The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. Retrieved 18 August 2022.

[Bischof-9] Bischof, Walter F. "BWV 26 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". University of Alberta. Retrieved 12 November 2015.

[Oron-10] Oron, Aryeh. "Cantata BWV 26 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig". Bach-Cantatas. Retrieved 12 November 2015.

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v t e Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach
Before Leipzig	Early: BWV 4 131 71 1138.1 & .2 106 196 150 143 Weimar: BWV 61 70a 186a 132 147a 63 152 155 18 54 80a 182 31 12 172 165 21 185 199 161 162 163 Köthen: BWV Anh. 5
First cycle (1723–24)	Between Trinity and Advent: BWV 75 76 24 167 147 186 136 105 46 179 69a 77 25 138 95 148 48 109 89 60 90 70 From Advent to Trinity: BWV 40 64 190 153 65 154 73 81 83 144 181 22 23 66 134 67 104 166 86 37 44 59 184
Second cycle (and chorale cantatas)	Chorale cantatas between Trinity and Easter: BWV 20 2 7 135 10 93 107 178 94 101 113 33 78 99 8 130 114 96 5 180 38 115 139 26 116 62 91 121 133 122 41 123 124 3 111 92 125 126 127 1 Continuation of the second cycle: BWV 6 42 85 103 108 87 128 183 74 68 175 176 Later additions to the chorale cantata cycle: BWV 80 137 129 58 112 140 177 9 14 Other late chorale cantatas: BWV 117 192 100 97
Third cycle	After Trinity 1725: BWV 168 164 79 Liturgical year 1725–26: BWV 110 57 151 28 16 32 13 72 146 43 39 88 170 187 45 102 35 17 19 27 47 169 56 49 98 55 52 1727: BWV 82 84 34 173
Later and other	Picander cycle: BWV 149 188 197a 171 156 159 145 174 Late parodies: BWV 36 30 191 200 248 (I, II, III, IV, V, VI) 1083 Council election (Leipzig): BWV 119 193 29 120 69 (lost: 1139.1, 1140–1141) Wedding: BWV 34a 195 120a 197 Funeral: 157 244a Other: 194 190a 120b 51 158 50 Doubtful: 53 142 189 217 220 221 223 224
Bach cantata List of Bach cantatas Discography: Monteverdi Choir/Koopman/Teldec

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History and words

Music

Scoring and structure

Music

Recordings

References

Sources

External links

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