Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Ah, how fleeting,
ah how insignificant), BWV 26,[a] is a church cantata
by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale
cantata in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity
and first performed it on 19 November 1724.
The cantata is based upon Michael Franck's hymn
"Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele", with a melody by
Johann Crüger (1652). It is the only time that Bach
used this hymn. Its aspect of the transience of human
life is the only connection to ...(+)
Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Ah, how fleeting,
ah how insignificant), BWV 26,[a] is a church cantata
by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale
cantata in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity
and first performed it on 19 November 1724.
The cantata is based upon Michael Franck's hymn
"Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele", with a melody by
Johann Crüger (1652). It is the only time that Bach
used this hymn. Its aspect of the transience of human
life is the only connection to the prescribed gospel
reading. The first and last stanza are used unchanged
in both text and tune: the former is treated as a
chorale fantasia, the latter as a four-part closing
chorale. An unknown librettist paraphrased the inner
stanzas as arias and recitatives. Bach scored the
cantata for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and
a Baroque instrumental ensemble of horn, flute, three
oboes, strings and continuo.
Bach wrote the cantata in 1724 in his second year in
Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity. That year,
Bach composed a cycle of chorale cantatas, begun on the
first Sunday after Trinity of 1724. The prescribed
readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the
Colossians, a prayer for the Colossians (Colossians
1:9–14), and from the Gospel of Matthew, the story of
the Raising of Jairus' daughter (Matthew 9:18–26).
The cantata is based on the hymn in 13 stanzas by
Michael Franck (1652) on a melody by Johann Crüger
(1661), "a meditation on the transience of human life
and of all earthly goods". This aspect is the only
connection to the gospel. An unknown poet kept the
first and the last stanza as movements 1 and 6 of the
cantata. He derived the inner movements as a sequence
of alternating arias and recitatives from the inner
stanzas. John Eliot Gardiner points out that "several
of Bach's late Trinity season cantatas" concentrate on
"the brevity of human life and the futility of earthly
hopes".
Bach structured the cantata in six movements. The text
and tune of the hymn are kept in the outer choral
movements, a chorale fantasia and a four-part closing
chorale, which frame a sequence of alternating arias
and recitatives. Bach scored the work for four vocal
soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), a four-part
choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of a horn
(Co) doubling the soprano in the chorale, flauto
traverso (Ft), three oboes (Ob), two violins (Vl),
viola (Va), organ (Org) and basso continuo.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ach_wie_fl%C3%BCchtig,_a
ch_wie_nichtig,_BWV_26).
I created this arrangement of the first Aria: "So
schnell ein rauschend Wasser schießt" (As quickly as
rushing water) for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).
