{"id":63,"date":"2012-10-22T07:30:50","date_gmt":"2012-10-21T20:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catesings.org\/?p=63"},"modified":"2012-10-22T07:30:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-21T20:30:50","slug":"monday-music-ei-wie-schmeckt-der-coffee-susse-oh-how-sweet-coffee-tastes-j-s-bach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/2012\/10\/22\/monday-music-ei-wie-schmeckt-der-coffee-susse-oh-how-sweet-coffee-tastes-j-s-bach\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Music: Ei, wie schmeckt der Coffee s\u00fcsse (Oh, how sweet coffee tastes) (J.S. Bach)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bach is not a composer known for his lively sense of humour (unless you like obscure mathematical jokes involving making codes out of people’s names and setting them to music, in which case you’ll probably find him an absolute scream).\u00a0 Indeed, the first allegedly humourous piece of his that I heard was an obscure cantata using Greek myth to express the fact that he was a much better musician than one of his rivals, who pretty much had donkey’s ears.\u00a0 This sort of thing is extremely amusing, when your name is Johann Sebastian…<\/p>\n

But he was, apparently, capable of more generally intelligible light moments, and he wrote, as it happens, an entire cantata about coffee.\u00a0 What could be more appropriate for a Monday morning?<\/p>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=keTwmdQakMc&w=420&h=315]<\/p>\n

The singer of this aria is Rosemarie Hoffmann, a soprano I have not previously heard of, but I will clearly have to amend this, as she has a lovely voice and I do like what she does with this (the only downside is that we can’t see the staging).\u00a0 Here is what she is singing about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee s\u00fc\u00dfe,
\nLieblicher als tausend K\u00fcsse,
\nMilder als Muskatenwein.
\nCoffee, Coffee mu\u00df ich haben,
\nUnd wenn jemand mich will laben,
\nAch, so schenkt mir Coffee ein!<\/td>\n		Oh! How sweet coffee tastes,
\nMore delicious than a thousand kisses
\nSweeter than Muscatel wine
\nCoffee, coffee I must have
\nAnd if someone wishes to give me a treat
\nAh, then give me some coffee!
\n<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cantata tells the story of a father whose daughter is so addicted to coffee that he resolves to stop her drinking it – he threatens to prevent her from going out (she prefers coffee), forbids her to buy new dresses (she can live with that), and eventually tells her that she must either give up coffee or the prospect of marriage.\u00a0 This turns out to be a sticking point for Lieschen – she wants a husband, today if possible, and will give up coffee to get one… and then she makes sure that her access to coffee is written into the marriage contract.\u00a0 In the version I saw last year, Lieschen manages to marry the owner of a coffee shop, with whom she has been flirting since the start of the cantata, as the father rolls his eyes in exasperation.<\/p>\n

A final trio<\/a> provides the moral of this story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Die Katze l\u00e4sst das Mausen nicht,
\nDie Jungfern bleiben Coffeeschwestern.
\nDie Mutter liebt den Coffeebrauch,
\nDie Gro\u00dfmama trank solchen auch,
\nWer will nun auf die T\u00f6chter l\u00e4stern!<\/td>\n		The<\/em> cat won’t stop catching mice,
\nand maidens remain faithful to their coffee.
\nThe mother holds her coffee dear,
\nThe grandmother drank it also,
\nWho can thus rebuke the daughters!<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The cantata goes for 25 minutes, which is perhaps a trifle long for a work morning, but if you would like to see a rather appealing semi-staged version of the production, I can recommend this one<\/a>, by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir.\u00a0 A translation of the lyrics can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

May your morning contain all the coffee you need to get through your day!
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bach is not a composer known for his lively sense of humour (unless you like obscure mathematical jokes involving making codes out of people’s names and setting them to music, in which case you’ll probably find him an absolute scream).\u00a0 Indeed, the first allegedly humourous piece of his that I heard was an obscure cantata […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,38,66,145,320,339,411,447,459,483,505,625,640,731],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amsterdam-baroque-orchestra","tag-anne-grimm","tag-baroque","tag-coffee-cantata","tag-holger-krause","tag-j-s-bach","tag-klaus-mertens","tag-lothar-odinius","tag-madeleine-vogt","tag-matthias-schubotz","tag-music","tag-rosemarie-hoffmann","tag-secular-cantata","tag-ton-koopman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}