1

John Eliot Gardiner, who conducted the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, in 2007

The first movement, "Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgend ein Schmerz sei" (Behold and see, if there be any sorrow),^[1] in two sections is a lamento of large proportions. The text of lament, part of the prescribed responsorios for Good Friday, has been set by many composers, including Tomás Luis de Victoria, Carlo Gesualdo and Handel who set it as a tenor arioso Messiah, the last movement before the scene of the death.^[3]

The movement is structured like a prelude and fugue,^[7] the prelude covering the beginning of the biblical verse, the fugue the anguish of the Lord's wrath. The "prelude" begins with 16 measures of instrumental music, with the strings "engaged in a persistent sobbing commentary", as John Eliot Gardiner puts it, who conducted the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000 and performed this cantata in the Brunswick Cathedral.^[3] In the second round of vocal entries, each part is intensified by a wind instrument.^[3] The musicologist Julian Mincham notes about Bach's different ways to convey the distress of the text: "There is frequent stressing of the word "Schmerz" (sorrow). Suspensions and dissonant seventh chords in the harmony add to the tension as do the uses of the highly expressive Neapolitan chord and false relations".^[3] The fugue, marked "Un poco allegro", covers the second part of the verse, translating to "For the Lord has made me full of anguish on the day of his wrathful anger."^[1] The fugue builds from two vocal parts and continuo to nine parts. Gardiner writes: "It is uncompromising in its contrapuntal wildness and grim, dissonant harmony."^[3]

The beginning of the first vocal entry in the cantata movement and the beginning of Qui tollis peccata mundi in the mass

In 1733 a period of mourning the death of August the Strong permitted the composition of complex music. When Bach wrote his Missa (Kyrie and Gloria) in B minor, he reworked the first part of the movement and incorporated it into the Qui tollis peccata mundi in the Gloria.^[3] The lamenting music depicts the Lamb of God carrying the sins of the world. Bach transposed the music from D minor to B minor, used transverse flutes instead of the recorders, dropped the instrumental opening and installed a repetitive bass, when he adapted the music to the new function. Towards the end of his life, Bach used the complete Gloria for his Mass in B minor.^[3]

2

A tenor recitative, "So klage du, zerstörte Gottesstadt" (Lament then, O destroyed city of God),^[1] is accompanied by the recorders and the strings.^[10] The recorders play "five-note mourning figures" which may depict the tears of Jesus mourning the fall of Jerusalem.^[3] Mincham notes that "Bach′s experiments with instrumentation in a way that lends colour and expressive depth", adding that "it is equally likely that these iridescent twinkles are symbolic; flickering feelings of uncertainty within a demolished world".^[4]

3

The first aria, sung by the bass, "Dein Wetter zog sich auf von weiten" (Your storm arose from far off),^[1] depicts dramatically the outbreak of a thunderstorm. It is the only part of the cantata where the trumpet appears in a solo function, as a symbol of divine majesty.^[5] The strings and continuo depict the "rouring thunder and lightning striking the earth".^[7] Mincham notes about the double image: "The bass aria is, indeed, a graphic musical portrait of a thundering storm as well as an allegorical portrayal of God′s anger and fury".^[4] Gardiner regards the aria as "more frightening, than any operatic 'rage' aria of the time by, say, Vivaldi or Handel".^[3]

4

The alto renders in a secco recitative: "'Doch bildet euch, o Sünder, ja nicht ein" (Yet do not imagine, o sinners).^[1] Mincham observes that "Bach is using the minimum of resource but even so, he still manages to create the maximum of effect",^[4] for example that in the last measures, in contrast to the calm beginning, "the harmony becomes more obscure, the bass less conjunct and the alto line more passionate".^[4]

5

The alto aria, "Doch Jesus will auch bei der Strafe" (Yet Jesus will, even in punishment),^[1] is scored as a quartet for the voice, the two recorders, and the oboes in unison, without basso continuo. Mincham notes that "the alto voice [is] surrounded and encompassed by instruments of contrasting but complementary timbres". A movement without continuo appeared in the same position within the cantata the previous week, a soprano aria about the "conscience of the sinner" in Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht, BWV 105. Here Jesus is seen as the caring good shepherd,^[4] whom the poet describes: "Er sammelt sie als seine Schafe, als seine Küchlein liebreich ein" (He gathers them as his sheep, Lovingly, as his little chicks).^[1]

6

Johann Matthäus Meyfart, the poet of the hymn

The closing chorale, "O großer Gott von Treu" (O great God of faithfulness),^[1] by Johann Matthäus Meyfart is a four-part setting,^[11] with the recorders playing "isolated little episodes between the lines of the chorales".^[3] They are reminiscent of the motifs of mourning heard in movement 2.^[7] The elaborate setting with instrumental interludes is similar as in Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht, BWV 105, composed a week earlier.^[5]