Blithe Bells

The Bach group

The one vocal item not discussed above, Ich steh’ an deiner Krippen hier, is included among four Bach pieces at the begining of the second half of the programme. The group opens with a version for soprano saxophone and piano of the Sinfonia to Cantata No.156 “Ich steh mit einem Fuss im Grabe.” Originally written, it is believed, for a now lost oboe concerto and used later as the Largo of the Harpsichord Concerto in F minor, it is scored in Cantata No.156 for solo oboe and strings. Whatever its instrumentation, it remains one of Bach’s most beautiful slow movements.

The title Blithe Bells that Percy Grainger atttached to his “free ramble on Sheep may safely graze” makes complete sense only in the orchestral version. Even so, his bell-like sonorities – which he felt Bach was hinting at in the original setting of Schäfe können sicher weiden in the “Hunt” Cantata – are clear enough in the piano arrangement. Myra Hess’s famous transcription of Jesu bleibet meine Freude (the closing chorale of Cantata No.147), familiar in this country Jesu, joy of man’s desiring, makes a natural if rather less fanciful companion. Between the two piano arrangements, Ich steh’ an deiner Krippen hier, Bach’s contribution to Christian Schemelli’s Musicalisches Gesangbuch, is a refreshingly straightforward treatment of a traditional German melody.