Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir

Today, the idea of marking the inauguration of a new town council with magnificent music might seem excessive. But in Bach’s time, the installation of a new council in Leipzig was bound up with an intense sense of civic pride and the aristocratic airs of the city’s ruling body. Bach contributed some of his most splendid cantatas to these occasions, including Wir danken dir, Gott (Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks) which ushered in the new Leipzig council in 1731. The magnificent scoring includes three trumpets, timpani, oboes and strings. The cantata opens with a dazzling orchestral Sinfonia arranged from Bach’s solo Violin Partita in E major (BWV1006)—with a solo organ taking over the original violin part. In contrast, the opening chorus is so intensely thoughtful that Bach later reused it for the “Gratias agimus tibi” and “Dona nobis pacem” of the Mass in B minor. The three arias also reuse material: the third (for alto) echoes the opening of the first tenor aria, and in between the soprano is given a vocal version of a lost, lilting slow movement. 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.