Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Ah, how fleeting,
ah how insignificant), BWV 26,[a] is a church cantata
by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale
cantata in Leipzig for the 24th
Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 19
November 1724.
The cantata is based upon Michael Franck's hymn
"Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele", with a melody by
Johann Crüger (1652). It is the only time that Bach
used this hymn. Its aspect of the
transience of human life is the o...(+)
Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Ah, how fleeting,
ah how insignificant), BWV 26,[a] is a church cantata
by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale
cantata in Leipzig for the 24th
Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 19
November 1724.
The cantata is based upon Michael Franck's hymn
"Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele", with a melody by
Johann Crüger (1652). It is the only time that Bach
used this hymn. Its aspect of the
transience of human life is the only connection to the
prescribed gospel reading. The first and last stanza
are used unchanged in both text and tune: the former is
treated as a chorale
fantasia, the latter as a four-part closing chorale. An
unknown librettist paraphrased the inner stanzas as
arias and recitatives. Bach scored the cantata for four
vocal soloists, a four-
part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of
horn, flute, three oboes, strings and continuo.
Bach wrote the cantata in 1724 in his second year in
Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity. That year,
Bach composed a cycle of chorale cantatas, begun on the
first Sunday after Trinity
of 1724. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were
from the Epistle to the Colossians, a prayer for the
Colossians (Colossians 1:9–14), and from the Gospel
of Matthew, the story of the
Raising of Jairus' daughter (Matthew 9:18–26). The
cantata is based on the hymn in 13 stanzas by Michael
Franck (1652) on a melody by Johann Crüger (1661), "a
meditation on the transience
of human life and of all earthly goods". This aspect is
the only connection to the gospel. An unknown poet kept
the first and the last stanza as movements 1 and 6 of
the cantata. He derived
the inner movements as a sequence of alternating arias
and recitatives from the inner stanzas. John Eliot
Gardiner points out that "several of Bach's late
Trinity season cantatas"
concentrate on "the brevity of human life and the
futility of earthly hopes".
Bach structured the cantata in six movements. The text
and tune of the hymn are kept in the outer choral
movements, a chorale fantasia and a four-part closing
chorale, which frame a
sequence of alternating arias and recitatives. Bach
scored the work for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto,
tenor, bass), a four-part choir and a Baroque
instrumental ensemble of a horn
(Co) doubling the soprano in the chorale, flauto
traverso (Ft), three oboes (Ob), two violins (Vl),
viola (Va), organ (Org) and basso continuo.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ach_wie_fl%C3%BCchtig,_a
ch_wie_nichtig,_BW...).
I created this arrangement of the last Aria: "An
irdische Schätze das Herze zu hängen" (To hang one's
heart on earthly treasures) for Bassoon & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC