Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen

Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting, fretting, fearing) is concerned with all-too-human emotions. Bach’s cantata gradually turns from suffering towards the prospect of everlasting comfort and the inexhaustible rewards of faith, the latter expressed with captivating eloquence in the tenor’s aria with trumpet obbligato, “Sei getreu” (“Be faithful”). Composed for the third Sunday after Easter, it was first performed in Weimar on April 22, 1714 and revised 10 years later for Bach’s Leipzig congregation. The work contains an extraordinary variety of musical forms, styles, and textures within its seven-movement span, marshaled to create a potent reflection on the Christian’s journey from earthly suffering to the joy of eternal salvation. Bach sets the mood with the orchestral introduction’s sighing oboe solo, and underlines it with a choral lament and the solo alto’s subsequent recollection of words from the Acts of the Apostles: “Through much tribulation must we enter into the Kingdom of God.” The alto aria, “Kreuz und Kronen” (“Cross and crowns”), weaves a close dialogue for voice and oboe, their lines crossing to form a potent symbol of Christ’s crucifixion. 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.