Bach wrote the cantata in his first year in Leipzig for
the 15th Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings
for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Galatians,
Paul's admonition to "walk in the Spirit" (Galatians
5:25–6:10), and from the Gospel of Matthew, from the
Sermon on the Mount the demand not to worry about
material needs, but to seek God's kingdom first
(Matthew 6:23–34). Melody and words of the chorale,
published in Nuremberg in 1561, were once attributed to
Hans Sachs, but th...(+)
Bach wrote the cantata in his first year in Leipzig for
the 15th Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings
for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Galatians,
Paul's admonition to "walk in the Spirit" (Galatians
5:25–6:10), and from the Gospel of Matthew, from the
Sermon on the Mount the demand not to worry about
material needs, but to seek God's kingdom first
(Matthew 6:23–34). Melody and words of the chorale,
published in Nuremberg in 1561, were once attributed to
Hans Sachs, but this seems not likely according to
Albert Friedrich Wilhelm Fischer's Kirchenliederlexikon
(1878). Its theme is close to the reading from the
sermon on the mount. Different from later chorale
cantatas, the words are not based exclusively on the
complete chorale, but only on the first three of its
fourteen verses, used in three movements, expanded by
additional poetry. The unknown poet contrasted the
theme of the chorale, trust in God, with the anxious
questioning of single voices, stressed by contrast of
the metric poetry of the chorale opposed to the free
meter of many interspersed recitatives. A turning point
from distress to trust is reached close to the end in
the only aria of the cantata. Bach first performed the
cantata on 5 September 1723. Bach used the only aria as
a base for the Gratias of his Missa in G major.
Bach followed the idea of the unusual text in a complex
way in the two movements contrasting the chorale with
recitative: in both, in lines 1 to 3 the strings open,
the oboes enter, oboe I playing the chorale theme, oboe
II adding lamenting motifs, then the tenor enters
singing the chorale line as an arioso, finally the
choir sings the choral theme in a four-part setting;
this is followed by the recitative of the questioning
single voice, alto in the first movement, soprano in
the later one, both accompanied by the strings. After
the three lines and recitatives, lines 4 and 5 are sung
by the choir in the first movement. In the later one
lines 4 and 5 are first composed as an imitative choral
movement on the chorale theme of line 4 in a five-part
setting, the fifth part played by violin I. Then a
final secco recitative leads to a repeat of lines 4 and
5, this time similar to the first movement.
The only aria in dancing 6/8 time is dominated by
figuration of violin I. The third verse of the chorale
ends the cantata in a simple choral setting embedded in
orchestral music on an independent theme.
The cantata's unusual structure has been criticized by
his biographers Philipp Spitta and Albert Schweitzer.
John Eliot Gardiner, who conducted the Monteverdi Choir
and the English Baroque Soloists on their Bach Cantata
Pilgrimage in performance and recording at the
Liebfrauenkirche, Bremen (de), objects and summarises
the cantata:
There is no question that BWV 138 is a highly original,
experimental work, one that is simultaneously archaic,
especially in the motet-like writing ... and modern in
Bach's way of grappling with three successive stanzas
of a sixteenth-century chorale, in anticipation of the
chorale-based cantatas of his second Leipzig cycle. It
is a clever device which allows him to pile on the
tension between anxiety (the solo recitative
interjections) and belief (the choral delivery of the
hymn stanzas). The cantata's turning-point occurs
midway – a dawning realisation that God will come to
the believer’s rescue... with an outspoken
declaration of trust in His providential care. The
elaborate fantasia in 6/8 for the final chorale is a
perfect – and well-planned – counterbalance to the
gloom and distress of the opening movements.
Although the cantata was scored for soprano, alto,
tenor and bass soloists, a four-part choir singing the
chorale exclusively, two oboes d'amore, two violins,
viola, and basso continuo, I created this arrangement
for Flute & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
