During the 18th century, the musical centerpiece of Lutheran worship services was the cantata, a multi-movement piece featuring chorus, orchestra, and vocal soloists. Johann Sebastian Bach composed over 200 cantatas during his long career as a Lutheran church musician. Listen to a complete Bach cantata every Sunday afternoon on Discover Classical.
This week begins the second half of the liturgical year, when the focus of each Sunday shifts from the life of Christ to his teachings. The proscribed readings for the First Sunday After Trinity in 1724 included the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus: after an unrepentant life, the rich man must suffer an eternity of torment, while Lazarus is freed from his suffering. Bach focuses on this topic of death and eternity by basing his cantata on the chorale, "O Eternity, You Word of Thunder," text by Johann Rist and music by Johann Schop.
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder), BWV 20
We're replaying Your Top 100 Classical Countdown during the last week of June, so we'll be taking a break this week from the music of J. S. Bach. At 12:03pm, hear number 14 on the countdown: a secular work by a 20th century English composer who, like Bach, incorporated hymn tunes into his music.
It was common during the liturgical season of Ordinary Time for Bach's cantatas to be related to the theme of the proscribed readings in only a tangential way. One such case is Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, BWV 135. First performed on the 25th of June, 1724, the proscribed readings for that Sunday included a portion of 1 Peter and the exhortation to "cast thy burden on the Lord." Bach seized on the idea of asking for God's intervention and set a chorale by Lutheran composer Cyriakus Schneegas, a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 6, a prayer for devine deliverance.
Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (Ah Lord, Poor Sinner That I Am), BWV 135