Franz Tunder An Wasserflüssen Babylons, cantata for voice & 5 strings Tunder is among the lesser-known composers to be remembered from the early Baroque period. This is true for perhaps every German composer to precede J.S. Bach, and those who have an opportunity to hear An Wasserflüssen Babylons will likely acknowledge that this work seems indicative of an era that generated memorable enough material to be worthy of a broader contemporary base of listeners. The libretto is by Wolfgang Dachstein, in connection to Psalm 137. It is not as busy as Bachs seminal, writhing polyphonic arabesques, but its stillness and passion remains persuasive. This cantata is scored for soprano, a half dozen string players, and organ continuo. In its simplicity are its enduring strengths, including evocative harmonic coloration. In response to the vocal fragment da weinten wir (we wept--the text is based on the familiar by the rivers of Babylon passage in the Bible), the strings provide a chromatic fullness that matches the overwhelming conflict and grief embodied in the text. The rhythm is likewise less fluid in this part of the brief work, which is less than four minutes long. Though it is the opposite of intrusive, the music charges the poetry, illustrates its emotional direction, and the resulting clarity fills listeners with the essence of the message through focusing both it and the structure of the material. Getting closer to it would enrich those who are not acquainted with the early Baroque Germanic musical catalog. There are few junctures in musical history where simplicity and emotional power work together to lasting, evocative ends.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 07:09:28 +0000
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