Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit

Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's Time is the very best Time) BWV 106 also known as "Actus tragicus" is a sacred cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is primarily intended to be played at funerals.

History

The work is one of the earliest Bach cantatas. It was probably composed in 1708 in Mühlhausen, possibly as a cantata for the funeral of Mayor Strecker.

Theme

The text consists of different Bible verses of the Old and New Testament, as well as individual verses of old church songs by Martin Luther and Adam Reusner, which all together refer to finiteness and dying. There are two distinct parts to the cantata: the view of the Old Testament on death shown in the first part is confronted by the second part, representing the view of the New Testament; the separation of the old by the new determines the symmetrical structure of the cantata.

Voices and Instrumentation

*Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass
* 2 alto recorders, 2 viola da gambas and basso continuo

Characteristics

Bach was probably only 22 years old when he composed the opening sonatina, in which two obbligato alto recorders mournfully echo each other over a sonorous background of viola da gambas and continuo. The cantata ranks among his most important works. Inspired directly by its biblical text, it exhibits a great depth and intensity. Alfred Dürr [citation
first=Alfred|last =Dürr|title=The Cantatas of J.S. Bach|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|id=ISBN 0-19-929776-2] called the cantata "a work of genius such as even great masters seldom achieve ... The Actus Tragicus belongs to the great musical literature of the world".

Notes

Literature

*Alfred Dürr: "Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Kantaten." Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
*Werner Neumann: "Handbuch der Kantaten J.S.Bachs", 1947, 5.Auf. 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0054-4
* Hans-Joachim Schulze: "Die Bach-Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs". Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag 2006 (Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig) ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (Evang. Verl.-Anst.), ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus-Verl.)
*Christoph Wolff/Ton Koopman: "Die Welt der Bach-Kantaten" Verlag J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006 ISBN-13: 978-3-476-02127-4

External links

*
* http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV106.htm