Bach, the Universe and Everything

The first cantata of the new Bach, the Universe and Everything season sets us on the well-trodden trajectory from forgiveness to hope with ‘Wo soll ich fliehen hin’ (‘Where shall I flee’), plus guest speaker Rachael Hamp on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.

First performed in Leipzig on 15 October 1724 (the 19th Sunday after Trinity), ‘Wo soll ich fliehen hin’ displays Bach’s fondness for symmetrical structures and also features a rare appearance from the tromba di tirasi – the slide trumpet.

Mirroring the spiritual journey, Rachael Hamp from the Open University takes us to Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus – a place that at first glance seems hostile yet is one of the most likely places in the solar system we’ll find extraterrestrial life.

This season we also shine a light on the music of the Flemish composer Jacobus Clemens (c. 1510 – 1556), beginning with a Kyrie from one of his 15 surviving masses. Clemens was a prolific composer of sacred music and was greatly admired by many of his contemporaries including Orlando Lassus. Curiously, he came to be known as Clemens non Papa, that is Clemens-but-Not-the-Pope – thought to be a reference to Pope Clement VII – there is very little evidence this distinction was necessary leading to speculation it may have been an ‘in joke’!