Strong foundations, open questions
A few months after starting his new job in Leipzig in May 1723, Bach’s weekly rhythm of performing a cantata for each Sunday in the Leipzig churches was already well established. Cantata BWV 77 was one of the newly composed pieces that year, for the 13th Sunday after Trinity which fell on August 22. According […]
Of a soft and lively character
The “Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen” (“Aria with diverse variations”), most commonly known as the “Goldberg Variations”, BWV 988, constitutes the fourth and last part of Bach’s “Clavier-Übung”, one of the few works that were published during Bach’s lifetime. The Clavier-Übung, or “Keyboard Exercise”, is comprised of the following parts: Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach’s first biographer, […]
The balm of Gilead
Cantata 25 was composed for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity in 1723 (August 29th), as part of Bach’s first annual cycle of church cantatas in Leipzig. The Gospel reading for this Sunday (Luke 17:11-19) narrates the episode of Jesus healing ten lepers on his way to Jerusalem. We don’t know who Bach’s librettist was, but […]