Trinitatis XXI

Trinitatis XXI or 21st Sunday after Trinitatis

29 October 2023 – Today is Trinitatis XXI or the 21st Sunday after Trinitatis, and we have no less than 4 Leipzig cantatas for you today. The first three (BWV 109, BWV 38, BWV98) are from the first three annual cantata cycles.

The second cantata, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38, is from the chorale cantata cycle, and is based on a penitential hymn by Martin Luther with the same name.

The fourth one, Ich habe meine Zuversicht, BWV 188, is from somewhat later and what we now have is a careful reconstruction because the original autographed score was cut up in pieces and sold to private individuals somewhere in the nineteenth century.

This cantata is also one of only ten cantatas we know of from a complete cycle of cantata libretti written by Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700-1764), writing under the pen name Picander. In the prologue of that bundle he writes that these texts will be put to music by the "incomparable Kapelmeister", meaning Bach. This means that there might have been a fourth complete cantata cycle, of which around 50 of 60 possible cantatas would be lost.

Music for today

• Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben, BWV 109
  (first performance 17 October 1723, Leipzig period)
• Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38
  (first performance 29 October 1724, Leipzig period)
• Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 98
  (first performance 10 November 1726, Leipzig period)
• Ich habe meine Zuversicht, BWV 188
  (first performance ?17 October 1728, Leipzig period)