| German: O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit | |
| Type: | Secular cantata |
| Composer: | J. S. Bach |
| Catalogue: |
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| Related: | based on BWV 210a |
| Occasion: | Wedding |
| Movements: | 10 |
| Vocal: | solo soprano |
German: O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit (O lovely day, o hoped-for time), BWV210.2, BWV210,[1] is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote the solo cantata for soprano in Leipzig for a wedding and first performed it between 1738 and 1746. Bach used material from a "Huldigungskantate" (homage cantata), O angenehme Melodei, first performed in January 1729.
Bach wrote the cantata for a wedding; scholars suggest different possible events. Werner Neumann mentions the wedding of Anna Regina Bose and Friedrich Heinrich Graf (3 April 1742), and of Christina Sibylla Bose and Johann Zacharias Richter (6 February 1744); Herrmann von Hase suggests the wedding of Johanna Catharina Amalie Schatz and Friedrich Gottlob Zoller (11 August 1746).[2] According to Michael Maul, the cantata celebrated the wedding of the Prussian Court Counsellor Georg E. Stahl (1741).[3] The cantata text of an unknown poet suggests an influential man who esteemed music. The parts for soprano and continuo are written in exquisite calligraphy, probably as a gift for the couple. The words center on the relationship between music and marital love, ending in praise of the bridegroom as a supporter of music.
The cantata may have been performed at least twice.
Bach titled the work Cantata a Voce sola. The cantata is scored for soprano, flauto traverso, oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, violone, and harpsichord continuo.[4]
Bach used material from a "Huldigungskantate" (homage cantata), O angenehme Melodei, BWV 210.1, for all the arias, the first recitative and part of the last recitative. Alexander Ferdinand Grychtolik edited a reconstruction of the lost homage cantata based on the wedding cantata, published by Edition Güntersberg.[5] Bach's music is demanding, especially for the soprano and the flutist. The movements show different instrumentation, to ensure variety in spite of only one singing voice. The arias show a "decrescendo" (Alfred Dürr), a diminishing of the number of instruments, towards the central Schweigt, ihr Flöten, schweigt, ihr Töne (Silence, you flutes, silence, you tones), in which the voice corresponds with the flute as in a duet. The following arias are scored "crescendo" until the final festive movement. While all other recitatives are secco, the last one is accompanied by figuration in the flute and the oboe d'amore, long chords in the strings.