BWV 54, Alto Aria, Reduction

This is my arrangement of the aria Wer Sünde thut, der ist vom Teufel from cantata BWV 54, Widerstehe doch der Sünde. The original piece is for alto solo and three instrumental parts. The counterpoint is very complex, with long passages of sixteenth notes that wind around implied simpler melodies. In this arrangement, I have “reverse engineered” the simpler melodies from the florid passages. The result is a piece that keeps the essence of Bach’s counterpoint while reducing the texture in such a way that the instrumental parts are playable with two hands on one keyboard. I have used the fugues from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier as a guide to doing the reduction.

I think the reduced version stands on its own as a piece of music. Compared to the original, it loses some rambunctious energy and complexity, but it gains some lyricism and contrapuntal clarity. I also found that doing this reduction was a useful exercise in composition. In particular, it helped me understand the function of all those sixteenth notes in the original version: on the surface they seem chaotic, but underneath there is structure.

Here is the German text, with my translation:

German	English
Wer Sünde thut, der ist vom Teufel, Denn dieser hat sie auf gebracht. Doch wenn man ihren schnöden Banden Mit rechter Andacht widerstanden, Hat sie sich gleich davon gemacht.	The one who sins is of the devil, Because he’s made sin come to be. But when one meets sin’s proud duress With piety and righteousness, He’ll find that he has made sin flee.

German

English

Wer Sünde thut, der ist vom Teufel,
Denn dieser hat sie auf gebracht.
Doch wenn man ihren schnöden Banden
Mit rechter Andacht widerstanden,
Hat sie sich gleich davon gemacht.

The one who sins is of the devil,
Because he’s made sin come to be.
But when one meets sin’s proud duress
With piety and righteousness,
He’ll find that he has made sin flee.

Here is the score of the reduced version.
Here is a recording of the reduced version, with me singing and the computer playing the keyboard part on the virtual organ.
For comparison, here is a recording of the full version, with me singing and the computer playing all the notes that Bach wrote for the instrumental parts.

Many good recordings of the original version for alto and orchestra are available. For example, Masaaki Suzuki’s version with the Bach Collegium Japan is very good. The score of the original version is available here.