The idea is God’s. The leading role is Christ’s. The supporting cast is all of humanity. The text is Martin Luther’s. The music is Bach’s. The epistle is 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is […]
Individual Cantatas
J.S. Bach: Cantata 182, at Palm Sunday – Hope Returns to Rejoice
Cantata 182, composed in 1713, is for Palm Sunday, which is the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, and commemorates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As the day is associated in several ecclesiastical rites with the blessing and procession of palms, processional characteristics feature strongly in the music. The Gospel for […]
J.S. Bach, Christmas Oratorio BWV 248-I, at Christmas Day
The opening chorus is an ecstatic celebration of God having sent His Son to humankind. The scoring includes trumpets, timpani, flutes, oboes, strings, choir, and continuo. The first four bars are set in motion by a solo for the timpani; and then the rushing scales of the woodwinds and the strings and the fanfares in […]
J.S. Bach, Cantata BWV 132, at Advent IV – Aspects and Validity of the Concept of Salvation
Bach’s cantata 132, Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, (Prepare the way, prepare the road) was written in Weimar in 1715. The text is by Salomo Franck (1715, from his cantata libretti of Evangelisches Andachts-Opfer)), except the concluding sixth verse by Elisabeth Kreuziger (1524). The epistle is Philippians 4: 4-7, the gospel John 1: 19-28. […]
Caravaggio’s Dagger VI:VII:2
Cantata Text Booklet for the Holy Days 2 Hidden by Sight In paradise the late winter snows fallAs silences behind sacred chorales, theologyBreaking away, wanting self-containment,Wanting more than incomplete enclosure.It is the sound unheard that compels most constantly:Can be divined but not quite understood: can be sung but notQuite said. It dwells in the human […]
Caravaggio’s Dagger VI:VII:1
Cantata Text Booklet for the Holy Days 1 Parallel Chaconne sei jetzt doch, o Gott, mein Hort be now yet, O God, my sure retreat — Johann Rist, in J.S. Bach, Cantata 78 The hard bargain, its shrewd handshake In the marketplace; the passacaglia mysticism, Layers above and amongst: simultaneous Dichotomy and […]
J.S. Bach, Cantata 70, at Trinity XXVI – The Rewards of Good and Evil
The epistle (2 Peter 3:3-13) describes the second coming of Christ, who, after resurrection from crucifixion, creates the second coming of a new world, the first having been lost in the great flood; and the coming of the new world will be in the fire of the day of judgment in which the unrepentant and […]
J.S. Bach, Cantata 90, at Trinity XXV – Desolation of the Last Judgment
The gospel is Matthew 24:15-28. Destruction and tribulation will arrive at the end of time, and when they and it are at your doorstep, get out of town, especially Jerusalem, with what’s on your back, head for the mountains, and once you’re sure this isn’t the usual distress from war-mongering, and you’re certain the big […]
J.S. Bach Cantata 186, at Trinity VII – The Wages of Sin Is Death
From On the Cantatas of J.S. Bach: Trinity I-VII. In 2023, Trinity VII falls on July 16th. Sin and Death : Slavery and Righteousness The wages of sin is death is the ecclesiastical theme of Trinity VII. The epistle for the day is Romans 6:19-23. The passage, especially Verse 23, is famously proverbial. The choice […]
J.S. Bach, Cantata 170, at Trinity VI – Identity and Understanding of the Other
Trinity VI falls on July 9th in 2023. From On the Cantatas of J.S. Bach – Trinity I-VII: The theme of righteousness, embodied in the epistle from Paul (Romans 6:3-11), is specifically elaborated through the Gospel reading (Matthew 5:20-26), which is the Sermon on the Mount’s asseveration of the supremacy of justice over the law, […]