Strong coffee, strong emotions
A freshly roasted Harrar is a serious matter...
Not all of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantatas were religious, one deals with another holy subject: Coffee.
J.S. Bach, an enthusiastic coffee drinker himself, wrote his "Coffee cantata" (BMV 211) somewhere in between 1732 and 1735 to the libretto written by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). It premiered, fittingly, in Zimmermann's coffee house in Leipzig, Germany.
One should remember that the coffee craze that swept across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries was not without controversy. In contrast to bars and beer halls where people drank themselves senseless, the coffee houses that opened in the cities all over Europe became places where people exchanged information, ideas and where political agendas and ideologies were born. I don't expect, however, the next revolution to be planned at Starbucks. ;)
The (not so) serious subject of Bach's "Coffee cantata" is about a father (Schlendrian) who, concerned for his daughter Liesgen's well-being, tries to get her give up her coffee drinking. She's not very willing though...
Be quiet, stop chattering,
and pay attention to what's taking place:
here comes Herr Schlendrian
with his daughter Liesgen;
he's growling like a honey bear.
Hear for yourselves, what she has done to him!
Schlendrian:
Don't one's children cause one
endless trials & tribulations!
What I say each day
to my daughter Liesgen
falls on stony ground.
Schlendrian:
You wicked child, you disobedient girl,
oh! when will I get my way;
give up coffee!
Liesgen:
Father, don't be so severe!
If I can't drink
my small cup of coffee three times daily,
then in my torment I will shrivel up
like a piece of roast goat.
Liesgen:
Mm! how sweet the coffee tastes,
more delicious than a thousand kisses,
mellower than muscatel wine.
Coffee, coffee I must have,
and if someone wishes to give me a treat,
ah, then pour me out some coffee!
Schlendrian:
If you don't give up drinking coffee
then you shan't go to any wedding feast,
nor go out walking.
oh! when will I get my way;
give up coffee!
Liesgen:
Oh well!
Just leave me my coffee!
Schlendrian:
Now I've got the little minx!
I won't get you a whalebone skirt
in the latest fashion.
Liesgen:
I can easily live with that.
Schlendrian:
You're not to stand at the window
and watch people pass by!
Liesgen:
That as well, only I beg of you,
leave me my coffee!
Schlendrian:
Furthermore, you shan't be getting
any silver or gold ribbon
for your bonnet from me!
Liesgen :
Yes, yes! only leave me to my pleasure!
Schlendrian:
You disobedient Liesgen you,
so you go along with it all!
Schlendrian:
Hard-hearted girls
are not so easily won over.
Yet if one finds their weak spot,
ah! then one comes away successful.
Schlendrian:
Now take heed what your father says!
Liesgen:
In everything but the coffee.
Schlendrian:
Well then, you'll have to resign yourself
to never taking a husband.
Liesgen:
Oh yes! Father, a husband!
Schlendrian:
I swear it won't happen.
Liesgen:
Until I can forgo coffee?
From now on, coffee, remain forever untouched!
Father, listen, I won't drink any
Schlendrian:
Then you shall have a husband at last!
Liesgen:
Today even
dear father, see to it!
Oh, a husband!
Really, that suits me splendidly!
If it could only happen soon
that at last, before I go to bed,
instead of coffee
I were to get a proper lover!
Old Schlendrian goes off
to see if he can find a husband forthwith
for his daughter Liesgen;
but Liesgen secretly lets it be known:
no suitor is to come to my house
unless he promises me,
and it is also written into the marriage contract,
that I will be permitted
to make myself coffee whenever I want.
A cat won't stop from catching mice,
and maidens remain faithful to their coffee.
The mother holds her coffee dear,
the grandmother drank it also,
who can thus rebuke the daughters!
/O.K.
Listening to while posting: Brooklyn Funk Essentials - The revolution was postponed because of rain
6 comments:
I had no idea about Back and coffee. Oh, all the things you learn on this blog!
I especially liked these two pieces:
"Don't one's children cause one
endless trials & tribulations!"
"If I can't drink
my small cup of coffee three times daily,
then in my torment I will shrivel up
like a piece of roast goat."
Roast goat?
As for the next revolution being planned at Starbucks, I am not so sure either. However, the new (and old) revolutionary generation here in the US that is making Barack Obama a political phenomenon lives on coffee and internet I bet. OK, he is making himself a phenomenon too, because he is bright, smart, funny, and better than all the other politicians that are running for president.
I think when people first drank coffee they never put sugar or milk in it, right?
I love the picture!
Can you tell us something about that interesting-looking knife?
"Roast goat?"
Didn't you notice last time you roasted a goat in the oven how dry and shriveled up it became? :D
"Can you tell us something about that interesting-looking knife?"
Well, it is a F.A. Porsche design and is, as you say, interesting-looking. It is nice to hold, but besides that it is nowhere near being as good as its price tag suggests. Global knives stay sharp about 2-3 times longer and its wide, flat and heavy handle gives it a tendency to flip over on its back so the edge is pointing upwards. Potentially dangerous, I think. Global is a better buy in that price range.
So just an example of why car designers shouldn't design knives?
By the way, no roast goat would ever fit in our oven. He must be talking about spitroasted goats in enormous fireplaces.
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