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, Cantata 194, at Trinity Sunday

This is an excerpt from the first of the six volumes of the Bach cantatas series. Trinity Sunday, which falls on June 4 in 2023, is the feast of the Trinitarian actuality: the three persons co-eternal, co-equal, and consubstantial, who are one, uncreated being. The triadic doctrine is intimated in the Scriptures but largely evolved and […]