Bach composed the cantata for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity between 1732 and 1735. It filled a gap in his second annual cycle of chorale cantatas written for performance in Leipzig. In 1724, when he composed the cycle, he had an engagement in Köthen that Sunday, and therefore left the text for later completion. The cantata is based on a hymn "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her" by Paul Speratus, which was published in 1524 in the Achtliederbuch, the first Lutheran hymnal. The theme of the chorale is the Lutheran creed of salvation from sin by God's grace alone, summarized in the first stanza: "Deeds can never help,... faith beholds Jesus Christ,... He has become the Intercessor". The prescribed readings for the Sunday are from the Epistle to the Romans, "By Christ's death we are dead for sin", and from the Gospel of Matthew a passage from the Sermon on the Mount about better justice than the justice of merely observing laws and rules. The hymn in 14 stanzas matches the topic of the gospel. An unknown poet transformed the first 12 stanzas of the chorale to seven cantata movements. Dropping the last two stanzas, the librettist retains the first stanza as the first movement, and the 12th as the last movement. He rephrased stanzas 2–4 to a recitative, stanzas 5–7 to a recitative, stanzas 9–11 to a third recitative. Ideas from stanza 8 were made an aria, and movement 3 is not derived directly from the chorale, but intensifies the conclusion of the first recitative. The three recitatives can be considered a sermon, according to Julian Mincham, who comments: "All three speak of God's Laws; their bestowal, their fulfillment and our attitudes towards them", and who summarizes: "The three recitatives were clearly planned as a cognate group and encapsulate the fundamental Lutheran creed. The two intervening arias, and finally the chorale, reflect upon and extend their statements." The Bach scholar Christoph Wolff assumes that the text was already written for Bach's 1724 cycle of chorale cantatas by the same librettist. Bach had used selected stanzas of the hymn before, in 1716 stanza 12 to conclude Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange? BWV 155, in 1723 both stanza 12 and 11 to conclude the two parts of Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, BWV 186, and in 1724 stanza 11 to conclude Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch, BWV 86.
Music
Structure and scoring
Bach structured the cantata in seven movements, framing by a chorale fantasia and a closing chorale a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. He scored it for a chamber music ensemble of four vocal soloists, alto, tenor and bass ), a four-part choir SATB, flauto traverso, oboe d'amore, two violins, one of them solo, viola, and basso continuo. The autographtitle page reads: "Dominica 6. post Trinitatis / Es ist das Heil uns kommen her / a / 4 Voci / 1 Traversa / 1 Hautb: d'Amour / 2 Violini / Viola / e / Continuo / di / Joh:Sebast:Bach". In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. The keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time. The instruments are shown separately for winds and strings, while the continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.
Movements
1
The opening chorus, "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her", is a chorale fantasia, the vocal part embedded in a concerto of the instruments. The cantus firmus of the chorale melody is in the soprano in unadorned long notes, while the lower voices engage in imitation. The scoring with the obbligato instruments flute and oboe d'amore in contrast to the strings is unusual, sometimes the first violin takes also part in the concerto.
2
"Gott gab uns ein Gesetz", is the first of three recitatives which are sung by the bass as the vox Christi, almost like one sermon, which is only deepened by the two arias in between. The recitatives are secco with the only exception of the final line of movement 4, "... und fest um Jesu Arme schlingt", which is rendered arioso, in "an enlightening major key, a tender vocal phrase and the late semi-quaver continuo line".
3
The tenor aria depicts the "sinking" of "Wir waren schon zu tief gesunken" in downward motifs and an irregular rhythm of syncopes, observed by Dürr as an image of "a giddy descent into the abyss of sin".
4
The bass continues the "sermon", "Doch mußte das Gesetz erfüllet werden".
5
The duet "Herr, du siehst statt guter Werke" is set for five parts of equal weight, the soprano and alto voices, flute, oboe d'amore and continuo, in intricate canoniccounterpoint in da capo form.
6
The bass continues the "sermon" a third time, "Wenn wir die Sünd aus dem Gesetz erkennen".
7
The closing chorale, "Ob sichs anließ, als wollt er nicht", is set for four parts. While Bach's closing chorales are often in simple homophony, the lower voices are set here in unusual polyphony.
Recordings
The listing is taken from the selection on the Bach Cantatas Website. Recordings have traditionally been made by large symphonic groups, but increasingly in historically informed performances by boys' choirs, chorales, chamber choirs or groups with on voice per part, and matching instrumental ensembles playing on Baroque period instruments in historically informed performance. HIP and OVPPensembles are marked by green background.
