Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (My heart swims in blood),
BWV 199, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.
He composed the solo cantata for soprano in Weimar for
the eleventh Sunday after Trinity and first performed
it on 12 August 1714.
On 2 March 1714 Bach was appointed concertmaster of the
Weimar court capelle of the co-reigning dukes Wilhelm
Ernst and Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar. As
concertmaster, he assumed the principal responsibility
for composing new works, specifically cant...(+)
Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (My heart swims in blood),
BWV 199, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.
He composed the solo cantata for soprano in Weimar for
the eleventh Sunday after Trinity and first performed
it on 12 August 1714.
On 2 March 1714 Bach was appointed concertmaster of the
Weimar court capelle of the co-reigning dukes Wilhelm
Ernst and Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar. As
concertmaster, he assumed the principal responsibility
for composing new works, specifically cantatas for the
Schloßkirche (palace church), on a monthly schedule.
He composed the cantata for the eleventh Sunday after
Trinity as the fifth cantata of the series, following
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12.
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the
First Epistle to the Corinthians, on the gospel of
Christ and his (Paul's) duty as an apostle (1
Corinthians 15:1--10), and from the Gospel of Luke, the
parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke
18:9--14). The text, which concerns a sinner finding
redemption, was written by Georg Christian Lehms and
published in Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opffer. The same
author had written the text for Widerstehe doch der
Sünde, BWV 54, composed the month before. Movement 6
is the third stanza of Johann Heermann's hymn "Wo soll
ich fliehen hin". The cantata text had been set to
music in 1712 by Johann Christoph Graupner in
Darmstadt. It is not known if Bach knew of Graupner's
composition.
Bach first performed the cantata on 12 August 1714. He
made revisions for later performances, and the Neue
Bach-Ausgabe recognises two distinct versions, the
Weimar version and the Leipzig version.
Although the second Aria "Tief gebückt und voller
Reue" (Deeply bowed and filled with regret) was
composed for Voice, Oboe, Violins, Viola, and Basso
Continuo, I created this arrangement for Bb Trumpet &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC