NEWS & FEATURES
Choral Scholar Focus: Joseph Hancock
Tell us a bit about yourself, and your training to date? I began my training under Edward Higginbottom and Bronwen Mills at New College, where I was head chorister. Four years on, I continue to study with Bronwen and am a member of a number of choirs such as St...
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Bach’s Band: The Violin
OBS offers people like me the platform to work intensively on solo singing in a supportive environment, and I believe it will have a fundamental impact on how a whole generation of young Oxford singers will develop
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Choral Scholar Focus: Sam Mitchell
The last time we caught up with you, you were about to perform Bach's cantata BWV 54. How did you find it? Singing Cantata BWV 54 was a fantastically exciting experience. To be accompanied by such an expert collection of players who were so responsive and supportive...
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Bach Cantata: Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott (BWV 129)
The date of composition of this cantata is uncertain. It seems probable that Bach first performed it either during the 1726 Reformation Festival, which was always celebrated in Leipzig on 31st October, or on Trinity Sunday in the following year. Thereafter the piece took its place among the great chorale-based works of his 1724-25 cycle, where it replaced a non-chorale-based cantata, BWV 176.
Gelobet sei der Herr (Singing the Creed Joyfully)
Johann Olearius’ (1611-1684) hymn ‘Gelobet sei der Herr’ is a quintessential Lutheran chorale.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106 (Actus Tragicus)
The cantata “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit” (“God’s time is best”), dates from 1707 when Bach was, for a short while, organist of the Blasiuskirche at Mühlhausen.