Seele, deine Spezereien, from Easter Oratorio

The third of our Baroque pieces this evening comes from J. S. Bach, an aria “Seele, deine Spezereien” extracted from the Easter Oratorio. That oratorio bears a strong connection to Italian secular cantatas—its lack of biblical quotations or a narrator being noteworthy—and, indeed, Bach originally composed it for a birthday celebration for Duke Christian of Weissenfels. Its sacred performance tradition only came in the ensuing years.
As for the accompanied aria, “Seele, deine Spezereien,” its scoring for soprano, flute, and basso continuo echoes the Handel cantata heard earlier. Overall, this Adagio in B minor follows the familiar da capo aria design; the central section provides a contrast in text and tonality. Beginning in A minor, Bach moves largely in F-sharp before closing the section in E minor. The return to B minor takes place without transition. Bach puts his stamp on the piece from the opening measures with a decorated ascending motion over B–C#–D. The introduction for flute and continuo may call to mind Bach’s sonata in the same key, B, for those two instruments, and the vocal writing is as fluent and sensitive to text as any Bach wrote elsewhere.

(c) Jason Stell