Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211

Template:Short description Template:Infobox Bach composition (Be still, stop chattering), BWV 211,Template:Efn also known as the Coffee Cantata, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it probably between 1732 and 1735. Although classified as a cantata, it is essentially a miniature comic opera. In a satirical commentary, the cantata amusingly tells of an addiction to coffee.

History and text

Bach regularly directed a musical ensemble based at Zimmermann's coffee house called a collegium musicum, founded by Georg Philipp Telemann in 1702. The libretto suggests that some people in eighteenth-century Germany viewed coffee drinking as a bad habit. However, the work is likely to have been first performed at the coffee house in Leipzig.

The cantata's libretto (written by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as Picander), features lines like "If I couldn't, three times a day, be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee, in my anguish I will turn into a shriveled-up roast goat".

Bach wrote no operas: the cantata was written for concert performance, but is frequently performed today fully staged with costumes.

Scoring

The work is scored for three vocal soloists in the roles

• Narrator, tenor
• Schlendrian (Stick in the Mud), bass
• Lieschen, his daughter, soprano.

The orchestra consists of flauto traverso, two violins obbligato, viola, cembalo and basso continuo.

Movements

Movement	Title	Characters	Synopsis
1	Recitative:	Narrator	The narrator tells the audience to quiet down and pay attention, before introducing Schlendrian and Lieschen.
2	Aria:	Schlendrian	Schlendrian sings in disgust of how his daughter refuses to listen to him, even after telling her 100,000 times.
3	Recitative:	Schlendrian and Lieschen	Schlendrian asks his daughter again to stop drinking coffee, Lieschen defiantly tells her father to calm down.
4	Aria:	Lieschen	Lieschen sings a love song to her coffee.
5	Recitative:	Schlendrian and Lieschen	Schlendrian starts giving ultimatums to his daughter, threatening to take away her meals, clothes, and other pleasures. Lieschen doesn't seem to care.
6	Aria:	Schlendrian	In this sung monologue, Schlendrian tries to figure out what his daughter's weak spot is, so she absolutely couldn't want to drink coffee again.
7	Recitative:	Schlendrian and Lieschen	Schlendrian threatens to prevent his daughter from marrying if she fails to give up coffee, Lieschen has a sudden change of heart.
8	Aria:	Lieschen	Lieschen thanks her father for offering to find her a husband, and vows to give up coffee if she can have a lover instead.
9	Recitative:	Narrator	The narrator states that while Schlendrian goes out to find a husband for his daughter, Lieschen secretly tells potential suitors that they must let her drink her coffee if they care to marry her.
10	Trio:	Tutti	All three characters sing the moral of the story, "drinking coffee is natural".

Recordings

• Emma Kirkby, Rogers Covey-Crump, David Thomas, Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood. J.S. Bach: Coffee Cantata / Peasant Cantata. L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1987.
• Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ton Koopman. J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 4. Antoine Marchand, 1996.
• Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki, Makoto Sakurada, Carolyn Sampson, Stephan Schreckenberger. Bach Secular Cantatas BWV 210 and BWV 211. BIS, 2004.

External links

• Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211: performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information)
• Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht: history, scoring, Bach website Template:In lang
• BWV 211 Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht: English translation, University of Vermont
• Bach Cantata Translations: German libretto with parallel English translation by Pamela Dellal