Chorale setting "Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille" in E minor
Description
A quiet prayer song in E minor, written as nothing more than a melody and a bass, catalogued as BWV 512. It is the last of three pieces on Paul Gerhardt's poem Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille, and is thought to set down the same kind of melody as BWV 511 in a different key. All three survive in plain form in the 1725 notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, as songs to be sung at home.
It is in E minor and 4/4, about 44 seconds long with 135 notes, the most notes of the three. It is written in two lines, a right-hand melody over a left-hand bass, moving slowly through the calm darkness of E minor. The range runs from E2 to G5; with less reach into the upper register than BWV 511, the whole piece sits together in the middle of the keyboard.
It is rated beginner and is well suited to practising a singing melody. Its narrow range fits on a 61-key keyboard and needs almost no large hand shifts. The task is not to cut notes short at the ends of phrases, but to let them settle quietly together with the bass. Follow the two lines with the hand colours at a slower speed, and play it beside BWV 510 and 511 to hear how Gerhardt's poem is set in one major and two minor keys.
Chorale settings by Bach, weaving intricate counterpoint around hymn melodies into solemn, prayerful music.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
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