Bleib' bei uns, denn es will Abend werden

Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden (Stay with us, for it is toward evening), part of Bach’s second cycle of church cantatas, was written for Easter Monday and first performed on April 2, 1725. Its text, fashioned by an unknown author, is based on the day’s gospel reading, St. Luke’s report of the two disciples who meet the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus. The story’s significance resonates in the work’s opening chorus, emphasized by the gravity of its initial and closing chordal sections and amplified by the solemn double fugue at the movement’s heart. “Hochgelobter Gottessohn” (“Most praiseworthy son of God”) projects its plea for Jesus’ abiding presence in the shape of a triple-time dance for solo alto, expressed in lively dialogue with oboe da caccia and continuo. Bach embroiders verses from Nikolaus Selnecker’s hymn “Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ” (“Ah, stay with us, Lord Jesus Christ”), sung by soprano, with an athletic solo for violoncello piccolo, while the subsequent tenor aria looks forward to a world illuminated by Christ’s light. About J.S. Bach’s Cantatas Although Bach seldom used the word, “cantata” has become the accepted term for the multimovement church pieces and celebratory secular works composed in large numbers by Bach and his contemporaries. Bach himself wrote more cantatas than anything else, mostly during two bursts of creativity between 1713 and 1716 in Weimar, and 1723 and 1729 in Leipzig. Around 200 works survive in a wide range of styles but usually including a chorus, solo arias, linking (speech-like) recitatives, and a hymn (chorale). Bach probably completed five annual cycles of church cantatas for regular Sunday worship, festivals, and celebrations. Because they were occasional pieces for court and public entertainment, fewer secular cantatas survive, though some were later revised for church use.