Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein

Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein belongs to Bach’s cycle of chorale cantatas, works based on the words and music of existing Protestant hymns. This short yet engrossing composition, first performed in Leipzig on 18 June 1724, the second Sunday after Trinity, is built on Martin Luther’s translation of Psalm 12. Its choral and solo numbers project the intensity of the psalmist’s lament that humankind has been fooled into rejecting God by listening to false teachings. The first and last movements state Luther word for word, while the intervening recitatives and arias offer their anonymous librettist’s interpretation of the hymn’s original verses. In the cantata’s opening movement, Bach sounds the ancient tune associated with Luther’s hymn, initially in a fugue for soprano, tenor and bass, and later in long notes in the alto part. The central solo movements amount to a stirring sermon in music, expressing the power of God’s grace and, in the resolute tenor aria, calling on faithful Christians to bear their “Kreuz und Not” (“cross and distress”) with patience. About J.S. Bach’s Cantatas Although Bach seldom used the word, “cantata” has become the accepted term for the multi-movement 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.