Traditionally, this double choir funeral motet was believed to have been written in connection with a funeral service in Leipzig in 1726. The original score hasn’t survived, making its accurate dating impossible. However, recent research tends to date it much earlier, possibly from Bach’s years in Weimar. The occasion was still most certainly a funeral, as it was about the only type of event for which this “old fashioned” style of composition was expected. Its text comes from Isaiah 41:10 and 43:1, and stanzas 11 and 12 from the hymn “Warum sollt ich mich den grämen” (Paul Gerhardt, 1653).
The first part of the motet uses the two choirs antiphonally, alternating between them to illustrate the ideas of comfort and sustenance expressed in the text. After they come to a joint cadence in bar 28, Bach inserts an interesting 16th note motif, starting with the basses in Choir I and passing it around four times, to highlight the words “ich stärke dich” (“I strengthen you”).
After the second “Fürchte dich nicht” invocation, the two choirs join together. The sopranos take the chorale melody on the text from the Gerhardt stanzas, while the altos, tenors and basses engage in a double fugue, still on Isaiah’s verses. The double fugue’s subjects are a descending chromatic theme and a rising diatonic one.
The choirs separate again for a final antiphonal “Fürchte dich nicht” invocation to close the piece.
