Bach Cantata Notes

BWV 187

The Cantata BWV 187 has never been very well known. The gritty and complex chorus at the beginning is one of his best and most energetic fugues, truly rousing and satisfying. The alto aria is a marvelous portrayal of the wavering believer with its halting and jerky continuity. It is the kind of piece that makes perfect sense with its text and would seem merely eccentric without it. The great striding bass aria with an obbligato of all of the violins is almost Handelian in its simplicity, but is purely Lutheran In its content. The gorgeous soprano aria with oboe is clearly the high point of the cantata. The falling octave in both the oboe and voice line is a perfect picture of God’s forgiveness. The quick middle section is interestingly followed by a repetition of the opening material but without the voice. The cantata ends with a harmonization of the rarely heard chorale, “Singen wir aus Herzensgrund.”