Luogo e data di registrazione		Evangelische Kirche Gönningen /Germany) - October 1989
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Recording supervisor		Wolf Erichson
	Recording engineer / editing		Andreas Neubronner, Peter Langer (Tritonus)
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Sony / Vivarte - SK 45 859 - (1 CD) - durata 61' 09" - (p) 1990 - DDD
	Cover Art		F.A. Maulbertsch, Der Sieg des Hl. Jacobus von Compostela über die Sarazenen bei Clavigo
	Note		-

To provide an adequate explanation of the term“motet” would require a discourse on music ranging from the Middle Ages right up to the present time. The changing nature of this musical form down the centuries means that a fresh description would be required for each epoch of the history of music. Regional distinctions played a role as well. Indeed, even with individual composers, one must differentiate between the various realizations of the term encountered within their own output of motets. The only characteristic common to all the different manifestations of the motet is that it should be a piece of (usually) sacred music composed for vocal parts. For the motets of Bach's day, one can have recourse to Johann Gottfried Waltherßs Musikalisches Lexikon of 1732: “[...] a composition largely ornamented with fugues and imitationibus, based on a Biblical text, and written to be sung without any instruments (apart from the thorough-bass); yet the vocal parts may actually be filled and supported by all manner of instruments.” This extract indicates that the text (from the Psalms, other Biblical texts or devotional writings) determines the shape of the composition. The etymology of the term “motet” (probably from the French “le mot” = the word) is a further indication of the importance of the interplay between words and music. With the sequence of the verse settings constituting the motet as a whole, the course of the music results from the structure of the text. The New Bach Edition recognizes altogether seven motets as genuine works by the Cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig. Along with the two single-movement motets regarded by musicologists as “outsiders” Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden (BWV 230) and O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (BWV 118) - the five motets BWV 225-229 performed here constitute the core of Bach's motet output: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (BWV 225), Der Geíst hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf (BWV 226), Jesu, meine Freude (BWV 227), Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir (BWV 228) and Komm, Jesu, komm (BWV 229). Given that Bach composed a large number of cantatas, the small number of motets he composed for the services requiring such pieces that took place every Sunday at the church of St. Thomas must initially come as a surprise. Composing motets, as opposed to cantatas, was not part of the St. Thomas Cantor's official duties, however. The motets prescribed by the liturgy for the commencement of the main service on Sunday mornings and the evening services on Sunday afternoons, and sung by the choir of St. Thomas' in Latin, were all taken from the extensive collection Florilegium Portense. Assembled by Erhard Bodenschatz between 1603 and 1621, this comprised around 270 motets by masters of the form in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Bach`s motets were new compositions which had been commissioned for specific occasions. They were mostly composed as music to be played at burial services for prominent figures in Leipzig during the 1720s (BWV 226, for instance, for the funeral of the Rector of the Thomas-School, Johann Heinrich Ernesti, on October 20, 1729). Konrad Ameln surmises that the birthday of the Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony (King August I “The Strong” of Poland) on May 12, 1727 was the occasion for BWV 225. The traditional textual basis for these motets was provided by texts from The Bible (Psalms and passages from the Epistle to the Romans, as well as from Isaiah) along with chorales or hymns, including those by Paul Thymich (in BWV 229), Paul Gerhard (BWV 228) and Martin Luther (BWV 226). Bach”s various motets differ too much in the number of parts (three to eight), in the number of movements (two to eleven) and in the nature of their structures to allow a general description. Bach drew on the motet traditions of the preceding centuries. He adopted the characteristic alternation of fugal and imitatory passages, but extended this and combined it with the Venetian double choir technique brought to Germany by Schütz and Hassler. This produced some very different combinations: the linking of the chorale as a cantus firmus with a fugue (BWV 228) for example, or the alternation of a strict chorale and an aria (BWV 225). Each motet has its own individual construction. The passages of text may determine the structure of the music, yet the overriding idea of the work as a whole remains discernible behind the simple sequence of separate sections. Turning to performing practice, the purist a cappella concept, which has been an aesthetic product of Romantic ideas, may be regarded as obsolete. The evidence that the vocal parts had been supported by instruments (in the surviving orchestral parts for BWV 226, for example, which were divided into sections for strings and winds) is too clear to justify the insistence on a purely vocal performance of the motets. Rooted in tradition, Bach's motets have themselves created a continuous tradition for performing practice. Unlike the oratorios and similar works, they never ceased being performed at St. Thomas”. In 1789, for example, Mozart was able to attend a performance of Singer dem Herrn during his visit to Leipzig. According to a report in the Allgemeine Musíkalische Zeitung, on that occasion he is said to have exclaimed: “That is really something from which one can learn a great deal!” Harry Oesterle (Translation: Peter Alexander)