Johann Sebastian Bach

Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing), BWV 12,[a] is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Weimar for Jubilate, the third Sunday after Easter, and led the first performance on 22 April 1714 in the Schlosskirche, the court chapel of the Schloss in Weimar.

Bach was appointed Konzertmeister in Weimar in the spring of 1714, a position that called for the performance of a church cantata each month. He composed Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen as the second cantata in the series, on a text probably written by court poet Salomon Franck. The work is structured in seven movements, an instrumental Sinfonia, a choral passacaglia, a recitative on a Bible quotation, three arias and, as the closing chorale, the last stanza from Samuel Rodigast's hymn "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" (1674). The cantata is scored for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir, trumpet, oboe, bassoon, two violins, two violas, and basso continuo.

Bach performed the cantata again in his first year as Thomaskantor – director of church music – in Leipzig, on 30 April 1724. He reworked the first section of the first chorus to form the Crucifixus movement of the Credo in his Mass in B minor. Franz Liszt based extended keyboard compositions on the same material.

The cantata in seven movements is scored for three vocal soloists (alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir SATB, trumpet (Tr), oboe (Ob), bassoon (Fg), two violins (Vl), two violas (Va) and basso continuo (Bc).

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weinen,_Klagen,_Sorgen,_Zagen,_BWV_12).

The first choral movement, "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" (Weeping, lamentation, worry, despair), is in da capo form. The first section is built on a basso ostinato as an old-style passacaglia in 3/2 time. The lamento, a chromatic fourth ostinato, is repeated twelve times. Musicologist Julian Mincham notes that Henry Purcell arrived at a similar motif in Dido's Lament in the opera Dido and Aeneas, which Bach probably did not know. The first four words are each sung by a different vocal part, each overlapping the next. Beginning with the highest voice, each part sings an extended sigh. The setting is intensified, until in the seventh repeat all voices continue the text simultaneously: "Angst und Not" ("dread and need" or "anguish and trouble"). The ninth repeat is similar to the first, but in more extreme harmonies. The twelfth repeat is instrumental. The middle section of the line about the Christians "die das Zeichen Jesu tragen" (that bear the marks of Jesus), first marked "un poco allegro", is in a contrasting mood. Its last section is marked andante, the voices enter one after the other, beginning with the lowest and rising. Throughout the middle section, the instruments play colla parte with the voices. John Eliot Gardiner describes the first section as a "tombeau, one of the most impressive and deeply affecting cantata movements Bach can have composed to that point".

I created this arrangement of the first Chorus: "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" (Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing) for Brass (2 Bb Trumpets & 2 French Horns) & Strings (2 Violins, 2 Violas & Cello).