Poland Is Well Worth a Mass, Too--One by Bach!

My brother and sister and I went to a free concert at Friends University Monday night (our late parents' wedding anniversary): the Flute Choir were performing works arranged or composed for the flute family: piccolo, c flute, alto and bass flute. Among the works performed was an aria from a secular cantata by J.S. Bach, BWV 206 Schleicht, spielende Wellen, und murmelt gelinde! (Glide, O sparkling waves and murmur softly!) Bach wrote it for the birthday of Augustus III, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. 

It's an allegorical representation of four rivers, the Vistula, Danube, Elbe, and Pleisse praising Augustus III for the peace and harmony his reign has brought. We heard an aria sung a soprano representing the Pleisse, with a very appropriate opening line for a flute choir concert:

Hört doch! der sanften Flöten Chor
Erfreut die Brust, ergötzt das Ohr.
    Der unzertrennten Eintracht Stärke
    Macht diese nette Harmonie
    Und tut noch größre Wunderwerke,
    Dies merkt und stimmt doch auch wie sie!

Hark now! The gentle flutes in choir
Make glad the breast and please the ear.
The undivided union's power
Creates this lovely harmony
And even greater works of wonder;
This mark and with their tune agree.

The soprano, who also played the piccolo and the c flute, sang the aria in German.

J.S. Bach hoped to be named a court composer to Frederick Augustus II of Saxony and in 1733 had sent the new Elector a Kyrie-Gloria Mass (which he would later incorporate into the Mass in B Minor)--and he had succeeded: Bach composed this secular cantata for performance on Augustus III's birthday in 1736. 

The Mad Monarchist blog gives some background on King Augustus III and his conversion from Lutheranism to Catholicism to succeed to the throne of Poland in 1534:

Augustus III was born on October 17, 1696 in Dresden in the Electorate of Saxony, a member of the House of Wettin which once reigned over many countries and still reigns today over Belgium, the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth Realms. His father was Augustus II, nicknamed “Augustus the Strong” who is today most remembered for his huge number of illegitimate children, some putting the number of his offspring in the hundreds. Augustus III, however, was his only legitimate son and would, like his father, one day become Prince-Elector of Saxony, Vicar of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. He was brought up for this purpose and, as his father had done earlier, this required his conversion to Catholicism in 1712. The Electors of Saxony had been Protestants all the way back to the days of Martin Luther and this caused considerable outrage among the Saxon aristocracy as well as an effort by Prussia and Hanover (whose Elector was also the British monarch [George I]) to deprive Saxony of its leadership of the Protestant caucus in the Reichstag (the princely upper house of the Imperial Diet or parliament of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) but the Prussians and Hanoverians were unsuccessful.

In 1733 King Augustus II died and Augustus III succeeded his father as Prince-Elector of Saxony (as Friedrich Augustus II). His election as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania was expected but not a forgone conclusion. For that, he would require foreign support. The Russians backed Augustus III as King of Poland, which was not too surprising but the Austrians did as well. Of course, the German Reich (HRE) as a whole did as well, which was also not surprising, favoring a German monarch on the Polish throne but the specific backing of the Austrians, which is to say the House of Habsburg, was a matter of political bargaining. The Habsburgs were anxious to secure their own position which was endangered by the fact that the last Emperor had only a daughter, Maria Theresa, to succeed him and tried everything from backroom deals to outright bribery to gain support for his “Pragmatic Sanction” by which the German princes pledged to support Maria Theresa.

The danger, of course, was that the German lands would fall into the same pattern of civil war and dynastic infighting which later befell Spain during the Carlist Wars in a similar situation. Augustus III agreed to support the Pragmatic Sanction and thus won the support of Emperor Charles VI for his election to the Polish throne. Likewise, his promise to support the Russian claim to Courland by the Empress Anna, ensured that he had Russian support for his election as well. It also helped that he had, in 1719, married Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, daughter of Emperor Joseph I which also helped win over the Habsburgs. On October 5, 1733 the Polish electors gathered and Augustus III was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. However, he was still faced with a problem as there was already a King of Poland to deal with and a Polish one at that in the person of Stanislaw Leszczynski (King Stanislaus I). He had widespread support in Poland and had fought Augustus II for control of the country. When Augustus II died, he returned with French support to reassert his rule. The Russians and Austrians feared an alliance between the French, Poles and Swedes and so backed Augustus III against him.

Please read the rest there.

A performance of Bach's BWV 206 is available here.

Image credit: King Augustus III by Pietro Rotari.

You just never know what attending a concert may inspire: an exploration of history, music, and conversion in this case!