Church cantatas of Bach's third to fifth year in Leipzig

Erdmann Neumeister

A booklet printed in 1725, with the cantata texts from Trinity III to Trinity VI, was recovered in 1971.[30] The period covered by the booklet included the feasts of St. John and Visitation:

• Trinity III, 17 June 1725: Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BDW 01669 – the text is Johannes Agricola's 16th-century hymn with the same name. In 1732 Bach composed a per omnes versus chorale cantata with exactly the same text, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 177, for Trinity IV, a cantata that was added to the chorale cantata cycle. Possibly BDW 1669 was an early version of that cantata.[27]
• St. John's Day, 24 June 1725 (coinciding with the fourth Sunday after Trinity): Gelobet sei der Herr, BDW 01673 – a text by Erdmann Neumeister, from a libretto cycle published in 1711.[31]
• Trinity V, 1 July 1725: Der Segen des Herrn machet reich ohne Mühe, BDW 11069 – also by Neumeister (1711 cycle).[31]
• Feast of Visitation, 2 July 1725: Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn, BDW 01672 – Magnificat paraphrase by Maria Aurora von Königsmarck.[27]
• Trinity VI, 8 July 1725: Wer sich rächet, an dem wird sich der Herr wieder rächen, BDW 01670 – text from Neumeister's 1711 cycle.[31]

The musical settings of these librettos as performed in Leipzig on these days have not been recovered. A Trinity VII cantata, only known by its title,[32] is presumed to have been the cantata for the next Sunday,

• Trinity VII, 15 July 1725: Gesegnet ist die Zuversicht, BWV Anh. 1 (?).

It is not certain Bach composed any of the cantatas from Trinity III to Trinity VII 1725. Georg Philipp Telemann has been suggested as their possible composer: he had set all cantata librettos of Neumeister's 1711 cycle, and for the Trinity VII cantata there are two known Telemann cantatas that have the same title (TWV 1:617 and 616).[4][25]

Frontispiece of Picander's Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte, Vol. 3, published in 1732, which on pp. 108–110 contains a reprint of the reworked version of the libretto of cantata BWV 84

The ninth Sunday after Trinity is the first occasion with an extant new cantata by J. S. Bach after Trinity 1725:

• Trinity IX, 29 July 1725: Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort, BWV 168 on a libretto by Salomon Franck.

The next extant cantata is for the 12th Sunday after Trinity:

• Trinity XII, 19 August 1725: Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, is a chorale cantata with a libretto consisting of five unmodified stanzas of a 17th-century hymn, known in English as "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty", by Joachim Neander. The cantata was added to the chorale cantata cycle (there is no other extant Trinity XII cantata in the chorale cantata format by Bach).

The next Sunday Bach sets again a text by Franck:

• Trinity XIII, 26 August 1725: Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet, BWV 164, from Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer (1715).[33]

The sacred cantata for the next occasion, Council Election (Ratswahl), does not belong to any cycle. Its libretto was published in 1725:

• Council Election, Monday 27 August 1725: Wünschet Jerusalem Glück, BWV Anh. 4, text by Picander, music lost.

In this period Bach relied on Picander for the librettos of several of his secular cantatas, but also for a few more church cantatas:

• Michaelmas, 29 September 1726: Es erhub sich ein Streit, BWV 19, text heavily reworked from Picander's 1724–25 cantata cycle.[34]
• Funeral in Pomßen, 6 February 1727: Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, BWV 157, libretto published by Picander in 1727.[35]
• Septuagesima (third Sunday before lent), 9 February 1727: Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke, BWV 84. A reworked version of the libretto of this cantata was published by Picander in his 1728–29 cantata cycle as Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande, for performance on Septuagesima 13 February 1729.[36] Bach did however not seem to have considered his 1727 Septuagesima cantata as a part of the later cycle.[4]

Other early versions of librettos that were adopted by Picander in his 1728–29 cycle may have been set by Bach in 1727. Recent recovery of a copy of Birkmann's 1728 libretto cycle seems to suggest Welt, behalte du das Deine and Ich kann mich besser nicht versorgen for the first and the second Sunday after Easter respectively.[27]

Georg Christian Lehms (1715)

A cantata with a libretto from a cycle by Georg Christian Lehms, published as Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opffer in 1711, may have been presented on the 15th Sunday after Trinity 1725:[37]

• Trinity XV, 9 September 1725: Liebster Gott, vergißt du mich, BWV Anh. 209? – Music lost. In Lehms' cycle the cantata text was assigned to Trinity VII. However, since Birkmann published the cantata libretto for Trinity XV, that Sunday of 1725 is the more likely date of the cantata's first performance. Later the cantata was combined with BWV 157 for a funeral cantata performed in Pomßen (6 February 1727, see above).[27]

From Christmas 1725 to the second Sunday after Trinity 1726 Bach drew most of his cantata librettos from Lehms' 1711 libretto cycle:[4]

• Christmas, 25 December 1725: Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110
• Second day of Christmas, 26 December 1725: Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57, dialogue cantata
• Third day of Christmas, 27 December 1725: Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt, BWV 151
• New Year, 1 January 1726: Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16
• First Sunday after Epiphany, 13 January 1726: Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen, BWV 32, dialogue cantata
• Second Sunday after Epiphany, 20 January 1726: Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen, BWV 13

In the Post Trinitatem season of 1726 there are two further cantatas from Lehms' 1711 cycle:[4]

• Sixth Sunday after Trinity, 28 July 1726: Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170
• Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 8 September 1726: Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35

Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, c.1710

Trinity XVII may have seen the performance of another cantata on a libretto by Franck:[27]

• Trinity XVII, 23 September 1725: Seht, so ist die falsche Welt

From Council Election to the Christmas season of 1725 there is only one further cantata extant:

• Reformation Day, 31 October 1725: Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79 – librettist unknown

The cantata for the Sunday between Christmas 1725 and New Year 1726 has a libretto drawn from Erdman Neumeister's fourth cycle:[4]

• Christmas I, 30 December 1725: Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende, BWV 28

The cantata for the third Sunday after Epiphany 1726 has a libretto from Salomon Franck's Evangelisches Andachts=Opffer:[33][4]

• Epiphany III, 27 January 1726: Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72

Johann Ludwig Bach

In 1704 a cycle of cantata texts was published anonymously in Meiningen, under the title Sonn- und Fest-Andachten. Its third edition appeared under the title Sonntags- Und Fest-Andachten in 1719. Bach scholars have suggested that Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, Johann Ludwig Bach's employer, might have been the author of these librettos. The librettos follow a strict format, in two variants. The short form applies to most of the cantatas:[4][28]

• Biblical text from the Old Testament (OT)
  • Recitative
    • Aria
      • Biblical text from the New Testament (NT)
    • Aria
  • Recitative
• Chorale: one or more stanzas from a Lutheran hymn

The build is symmetrical around the central New Testament section. The long form has a strophic poem instead of the Aria and Recitative after the New Testament section. When the cantata is split in two parts, as was customary in Leipzig, the split was usually after the third item, so that both parts started with a prose dictum (all other sections being versified). The 18 cantatas by Johann Ludwig Bach that were performed in Leipzig from Purification to Trinity XIII 1726 had a libretto from this cycle, as well as seven of the cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach which were presented for the first time from Ascension to Trinity XIV 1726. Six of the extant cantatas of the latter used the short form, only the first one, for Ascension, has a libretto in the long form.[4]

Further cantatas with a libretto from the Meiningen cycle may have been presented in Leipzig in 1726, for instance on the fourth and the ninth Sundays after Trinity.[27] In chronological order:

• Purification, 2 February 1726: Mache dich auf, werde licht, JLB 9[8]
• Epiphany IV, 3 February 1726: Gott ist unser Zuversicht, JLB 1[9]
• Epiphany V, 10 February 1726: Der Gottlosen Arbeit, JLB 2[10]
• Septuagesima, 17 February 1726: Darum will ich auch erwählen, JLB 3[11]
• Sexagesima, 24 February 1726: Darum säet euch Gerechtigkeit, JLB 4[12]
• Estomihi, 3 March 1726: Ja, mir hast du Arbeit gemacht, JLB 5 (OT: Isaiah 43:24–25; NT: Luke 18:31–33; Hymn text: "Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen" by Heermann, on a melody by Crüger)[13][38]
• Easter, 21 April 1726: Denn du wirst meine Seele nicht in der Hölle lassen, JLB 21 (a.k.a. BWV 15)
• Easter Monday, 22 April 1726: Er ist aus der Angst und Gericht genommen, JLB 10[14]
• Easter Tuesday, 23 April 1726: Er machet uns lebendig, JLB 11[15]
• Easter I, 28 April 1726: Wie lieblich sind auf den Bergen, JLB 6[16]
• Easter II, 5 May 1726: Und ich will ihnen einen einigen Hirten, JLB 12[17]
• Easter III, 12 May 1726: Die mit Tränen säen, JLB 8 (OT: Psalms 126:5–6; NT: Romans 8:18; Hymn: "Kommt her zu mir" by Georg Grünwald)[18]
• Easter IV, 19 May 1726: Die Weisheit kömmt nicht, JLB 14[19]
• Ascension, 30 May 1726: Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43
• Trinity I, 23 June 1726: Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, BWV 39
• St. John's Day, 24 June 1726: Siehe, ich will meinen Engel senden, JLB 17[20]
• Visitation, 2 July 1726: Der Herr wird ein Neues im Lande, JLB 13[21]
• Trinity IV, 14 July 1726: no cantata extant – possibly a setting of Ich tue Barmherzigkeit an vielen Tausenden was presented.[27]
• Trinity V, 21 July 1726: Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden, BWV 88
• Trinity VI, 28 July 1726: Ich will meinen Geist, JLB 7[22]
• Trinity VII, 4 August 1726: Es wartet alles auf dich, BWV 187
• Trinity VIII, 11 August 1726: Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist, BWV 45
• Trinity IX, 18 August 1726: no cantata extant – possibly a setting of Machet euch Freunde mit dem ungerechten Mammon was presented.[27]
• Trinity X, 25 August 1726: Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben, BWV 102
• Trinity XI, 1 September 1726: Durch sein Erkenntnis, JLB 15[23]
• Trinity XIII, 15 September 1726: Ich aber ging für dir über, JLB 16[24]
• Trinity XIV, 22 September 1726: Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich, BWV 17

For cantatas not belonging to the Meiningen libretto cycle, performed on the sixth and twelfth Sunday after Trinity 1726, see above in the section on Lehms' cycle of 1711. J. S. Bach's cantata for Trinity VI (with Lehms' libretto) was a short solo cantata. J. L. Bach's cantata for the same day, on a Meiningen libretto, required a chorus only for its last movement. Probably this cantata wasn't split: one of the two cantatas for this Sunday in 1726 was sung as part I, and the other as part II.

• Easter III, 12 May 1726 or 18 April 1728: Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal, BWV 146, librettist unknown

• St. Michael's Day: BWV 19 → Picander
• Trinity XVI: BWV 27 → Neumeister
• Trinity XVII: BWV 47 → Helbig

• Trinity XVIII: BWV 169
• Trinity XIX: BWV 56
• Trinity XX: BWV 49, dialogue cantata
• Trinity XXI: BWV 98
• Trinity XXII: BWV 55
• Trinity XXIII: BWV 52
• New Year I: BWV 58 (1727), dialogue cantata
• Purification: BWV 82 (1727)

• Septuagesima: BWV 84 (1727) → Picander
• Pentecost: BWV 34 (1727)
• Pentecost 2: BWV 173 (1727)