WHICH BACH
CANTATA TODAY?

The statue of Bach outside the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.  

Recent cantata day posts

A contemporary etching of Christiana Mariana von Ziegler (1695-1760), the author of the libretto for Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103.

April 21, 2024
3rd Sunday after Easter or Jubilate
The good shepherd, mosaic in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy (from around 425).

April 14, 2024
2nd Sunday after Easter or Misericordia Domini
The incredulity of Saint Thomas by Italian painter Caravaggio from 1601-1602. Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam, Germany.

April 7, 2024
1st Sunday after Easter or Quasimodogeniti
Next to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on a sunny spring day.

April 2, 2024
Easter Tuesday
Christ with two disciples on the road to Emmaus and braking the bread at the evening meal, Carolingian ivory relief from around 900-950, Metz, France.

April 1, 2024
Easter Monday
The resurrection of Christ by Paolo Veronese, around 1570, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie.

March 31, 2024
Easter
The baptismal font in the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, over which Johann Sebastian Bach was baptised on April 2nd 1685, two days after his birth.

March 31, 2024
Bach's birthday Gregorian calendar
The Harrowing of Hell by Andrea Mantegna, around 1470. An important part of Mediaval Easter traditions, the Harrowing of Hell describes the descent by Christ into Hell between his death and resurrection to release the innocent victims of the devil.

March 30, 2024
Holy Saturday or Sabbatum Sanctum
Central panel of the altarpiece in the Herderkirche in Weimar. The remarkable triptych was begun by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1552/53, shortly before his death, and completed in 1555 by his son Lucas Cranach the Younger. It is regarded as a major work of art of the 16th century in Saxony and Thuringia. You can see Martin Luther on the right holding a bible.

March 29, 2024
Good Friday or Passionis Domini
The Annunciation (1434–1436) by Jan Van Eyck (c.1390-1441), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. It is thought that it was the left (inner) wing of a triptych; there has been no sighting of the other wings since before 1817.

March 25, 2024
Annunciation
The Entry into Jerusalem, 14th century painting by Giotto (c.1267-1337).

March 24, 2024
Palm Sunday or Palmarum
Schlossanlage Köthen, home of the princes of Köthen, around 1650 in a copper etching by Caspar Merians (Bach-Archiv Leipzig).

March 24, 2024
Funeral of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen
A wooden memorial plate above the entrance portal of the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, commemorating Bach's baptism according to the Julian calendar.

March 21, 2024
Bach's birthday Julian calendar
The statue of Paul Fleming (1609-1640) in front of the city hall of Hartenstein. Fleming wrote the hymn on which In allen meinen Taten, BWV 97, is based.

March 17, 2024
5th Sunday of Lent or Judica
Statue of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy next to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Mendelssohn's performance of the Matthaeus Passion in 1829, the first performance since Bach's lifetime, was a watershed moment in the rediscovery of Bach's work in the 19th century.

March 11, 2024
Mendelssohn's performance of the Matthaeus Passion
The interior of the Marienkirche in Mühlhausen, where the cantata Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131, was first performed in 1707.

March 10, 2024
4th Sunday of Lent or Laetare
Remembrance plaque marking the spot where Bach's house stood in Weimar. That location is now... a parking lot.

March 3, 2024
3rd Sunday of Lent or Oculi
Hommage to Bach, a painting by French Fauvist painter Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). Dufy has made several paintings honouring classical composers.

February 25, 2024
2nd Sunday of Lent or Reminiscere
Hotel Jaegerhof in Weissenfels originally was the hunting lodge of the Dukes of Saxe-Weissenfels, and the location for the first performance of Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!, BWV 208 in 1713.

February 23, 2024
Birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
Coronation mantle of Augustus III which he wore on January 17 1734. National Museum in Warsaw.

February 19, 2024
Coronation of August III as King of Poland
Woodcarving print based on an aquarel by Eduard Bendemann (1850) of the monument for Bach in Leipzig, erected by Felix Mendelssohn in 1843. It may very well be the only example of a monument erected by a composer to honour another.

February 18, 2024
1st Sunday of Lent or Invocabit
The statue of Johann Sebastian Bach next to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. When Bach came to Leipzig to audition for the position as Thomaskantor, he could not have imagined that many centuries later a statue would be erected for him outside the church.

February 11, 2024
Quinquagesima or Estomihi
The interior of the Wehrkirche in Pomßen, where Bach performed BWV 157. The organ by Gottfried Richter (1640–1717) is the oldest organ in Sachsen.

February 6, 2024
Funeral service for Johann Christoph von Ponickau
A view of the Herderplatz in Weimar from the southeast (etching by L. Oeder, 1840). The church of Saint-Paul and Saint-Peter, also known as the Herderkirche, saw the premieres of several Bach cantatas. John Eliot Gardiner suggests that Bach cantatas using a festive orchestra were first performed there, including his first cantata for Christmas, Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63 and Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31 for the Easter Sunday of 1715, scored for soloists, a five-part choir and three instrumental groups. Bach frequently played the organ, and two of his sons were baptized in the church.

February 4, 2024
Sexagesima
The Divi Blasii church in Mühlhausen, where Bach was appointed as organist from 1707 to 1708.

February 4, 2024
Inauguration of Mühlhausen town council
The Presentation in the Temple, painting by Jacques Daret from around 1434. The figure with the long grey beard is Simeon.

February 2, 2024
Candlemas
Memorial plaque in the Burgplatz in Leipzig for Christian Friedrich Henrici (January 14, 1700 – May 10, 1764), writing under his pen name Picander, author of the libretti of many Bach cantatas, including the Matthaeus Passion and the Coffee Cantata.

January 21, 2024
Epiphany III
The Wedding Feast at Cana (1563) by Paolo Veronese (1528–1588). This magnificent large painting hangs in the Louvre opposite the Mona Lisa, so it's a pity that very many visitors do not pay it the attention it deserves. The wedding at Cana is the inspiration for the libretto for Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange?, BWV 155, and Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen, BWV 13.

January 14, 2024
Epiphany II
A contemporary portrait of Christian von Sachsen-Weissenfels, attributed to Martin Bernigeroth (1670-1733)

January 12, 2024
Homage for Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
A picture of the Thomanerchor in the Thomas Kirche, with the previous Thomaskantor, Gotthold Schwarz, appointed in 2016. On September 11, 2021, the new Thomaskantor, Andreas Reize, was appointed.

January 7, 2024
Epiphany I
The journey of the Three Magi, carrying gold, frankincense and myrrh, following the star in the right hand corner. Mosaic in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy, from the 6th century.

January 7, 2024
First Sunday after New Year
The adoration of the Magi by Peter Paul Rubens, the most famous painter from my hometown Antwerp. Painted in 1609 to decorate the negotiations hall for the Twelve Year's truce. Given to the Spanish ambassador in 1612, it came into possession of the Spanish king Philips IV. Rubens himself reworked it slightly in Spain in 1628-1629. It survived a fire in 1734 by being cut from its frame and thrown out the window, and now resides in the Prado in Madrid.

January 6, 2024
Epiphany
An impressive fireworks display over Leipzig welcomes the New Year. You can spot the Thomaskirche left of the skyscraper in the center. Happy New Year!

January 1, 2024
New Year's Day
The Holy Family, a painting from around 1480/1490 by Martin Schongauer (around 1440/45 Colmar - 1491 Breisach), Kunsthistorischen Museum Wien (Vienna). Painting suggested to me by website subscriber Jennifer.

December 31, 2023
Sunday after Christmas
The adoration of the shepherds is the scene depicted in the thirth cantata of the Weihnachtsoratorium, so I am honoured to present to you the adoration by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), a painter of my hometown of Antwerp, a contemporary of Rubens and Van Dyck. This painting hangs in a museum in Grenoble since it was robbed in 1794 by the French who occupied my country at the time. It is one of at least 173 outstanding works of art they took.

December 27, 2023
Third day of Christmas
The annunciation to the shepherds by Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1681), from around 1630 - 1650. The annunciation is the subject of the second Weihnachtsoratorium cantata, Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegend, BWV 248-2.

December 26, 2023
Second day of Christmas
The nativity, a tempera on wood painting by Lorenzo Monaco (born Piero di Giovanni; c. 1370 – c. 1425), the leading painter in Florence in the early fifteenth century and active as a painter of illuminated manuscripts, frescoes and panel paintings.

December 25, 2023
Christmas Day
The title page of the original manuscript of Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV 132, from 1715.

December 24, 2023
Advent IV or Rorate
A reconstruction of the Bach familiy house in Weimar as it may have looked in his lifetime (view from the east). Don't try to look for the house on a visit to the city, because it is now... a parking lot. Visualisation done by the Hummel architecture office in 2011.

December 17, 2023
Advent III or Gaudete
The Paulinum in Leipzig, completed in 2007. It stands at the site of the former Pauliner Kirche, the Leipzig University church, which was destroyed in 1968 during the communist regime of East Germany. Bach performed many cantatas in the Pauliner Kirche.

December 11, 2023
Appointment of Gottlieb Kortte as professor to the University of Leipzig
Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen (1694-1728) in a contemporary painting by an unknown artist.

December 10, 2023
Birthday of Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen
View of the Weimar Stadtschloss. Several Bach cantatas were premiered in the church of the schloss.

December 10, 2023
Advent II or Populus Sion
Maria Josepha, the dedicatee, in a 1720 painting by the Venetian rococo painter Rosalba Carriera.

December 8, 2023
Birthday of Maria Josepha, Queen of Poland and Electress of Saxony
The house where the Bach family stayed in Köthen from 1719 to 1723, in the Wallstraße. Initially Bach lived there with first wife, Maria Barbara Bach. She died in 1720, survived by four children. Bach married Anna Magdalena Bach on the 3rd of December 1721. The marriage took place in this house, "by command of the Prince", perhaps because Advent did not allow marriages in church. In 1723 the Bach family moved to Leipzig.

December 3, 2023
Marriage to Anna Magdalena Bach
Watercolour painting by Felix Mendelssohn of the Thomaskantorei in Leipzig, 1838. I was thrilled to find this painting, because of course it is thanks to Mendelssohn among others that Bach was rediscovered in the 19th century, beginning with Mendelssohn conducting the Mattheaus Passion in 1829.

December 3, 2023
Advent I or Levavi
Portrait of Charlotte Friederike of Nassau-Siegen (1702-1785), wife of Leopold of Anhalt-Kothen, painted around 1751, probably by Christoph Gottfried Ringe.

November 30, 2023
Birthday of Princess Charlotte Friederike of Nassau-Siegen
The Last Judgment, subject of the prescribed readings of Trinitatis XXV, as depicted so magnificently around 1445-1450 by Rogier Van der Weyden (1399 or 1400-1464). Commissioned by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy, for the Hospices de Beaune (which he founded), and where it still hangs today.

November 26, 2023
Trinitatis XXV or 25th Sunday after Trinitatis
The Thomaskirche in Leipzig, water colour painting by Christian Gödert, a German artist born 1961.

November 19, 2023
Trinitatis XXIV or 24th Sunday after Trinitatis
View of the Schlosskirche in Weimar, where Nur jedem das Seine, BWV 163 was first performed on 24 November 1715. This Schlosskirche, as it appeared in Bach's time, was built between 1619 and 1630, but destroyed by fire in 1774.

November 12, 2023
Trinitatis XXIII or 23rd Sunday after Trinitatis
A view of the Bosehaus in Leipzig, residence of the Neue Bach Gesellschaft and the Bach Archiv Leipzig. The building itself was known to Bach. The Bosehaus was restored from 2008 to 2010 to comply with the latest safety requirements for archives, and was opened again on 20 March 2010.

November 5, 2023
Trinitatis XXII or 22nd Sunday after Trinitatis
The organ in Störmthal, built in 1723 by Zacharias Hildebrandt, pupil of the famous organ builder Gottfried Silbermann.

November 2, 2023
Consecration of Störmthal church and organ
The inscription on the portal of the Georgenkirche in Eisenach: "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott", the title of BWV 80.

October 31, 2023
Reformation day
A musical performance at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig during the Bachfest, held annually in the month of July. Each year there are approximately 100 individual events during the Bach Festival, beginning with an opening concert conducted by the serving Thomaskantor. The final concert is traditionally a performance of Bach's Mass in B minor (BWV 232) in the St. Thomas Church (source: Wikipedia).

October 29, 2023
Trinitatis XXI or 21st Sunday after Trinitatis
A view of Schloss Weimar around 1730.

October 22, 2023
Trinitatis XX or 20th Sunday after Trinitatis
An ivory carving of Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1671-1727) by Jean Cavalier, a French artist who worked at many European courts.

October 17, 2023
Funeral Queen Christiane Eberhardine
The cover page of Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5, from Bach's own manuscript, part of the Stefan Zweig collection at the British Library.

October 15, 2023
Trinitatis XIX or 19th Sunday after Trinitatis
Young members of the Thomanerchor performing. The Thomanerchor was founded in 1212, and the Thomaskantor is its director, as was Bach from 1723 until his death in 1750.

October 8, 2023
Trinitatis XVIII or 18th Sunday after Trinitatis
A portrait of Augustus III of Poland, aged 19, done in 1715 by the French painter Nicolas de Largillière. 

October 7, 2023
Birthday of August III of Poland, Elector of Saxony
Portrait of Augustus III of Poland, Elector of Saxony -- workshop of Louis de Silvestre. He wears Polish garb and the Orders of the Golden Fleece and of the Holy Spirit. On the left hand side, on a chair upholstered with his crowned monogram, lies the mantle that the Saxon Government offered him for his coronation. To the right of the composition are, on a console, the insignias of regal power: crown, sceptre, and orb (Wikipedia).

October 5, 2023
Election anniversary of August III as King of Poland
A 16th century woodcarving of Johannes Gigas (1514-1581), a German Protestant theologian, hymn writer, educator and reformer. The libretto of Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost, BWV 114, is based on a hymn text by Gigas with the same name.

October 1, 2023
Trinitatis XVII or 17th Sunday after Trinitatis
Painting by Francesco di Giovanni Botticini (1446-1498) of the three archangels (from left to right Michael, Raphael, Gabriel) with young Tobias (1470 - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy).

September 29, 2023
Michaelmas (Feast of Saint Michael and the Archangels)
Schloss Wiederau, where Angenehmes Wiederau, BWV 30a, was first performed on September 28th 1737.

September 28, 2023
Celebration Johann Christian von Hennicke
Probable portrait of Antonio Vivaldi, around 1723. Bach rendered hommage to this great Italian composer in the opening bars of the tenor aria in the cantate, Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?, BWV 27: it echoes the opening lines of Antonio Vivaldi's "Spring" of the Four Seasons, which was published the year before in 1725.

September 24, 2023
Trinitatis XVI or 16th Sunday after Trinitatis
On Saturday September 11, 2021, the Swiss Andreas Reize took office as the new Thomaskantor, in succession of Gotthold Schwarz, who retired in June of 2021. For his inauguration concerto with the Thomaner, he performed (among others) Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 99, the cantata for Trinitatis XV, which fell on the following Sunday September 12th. Andreas Reize is the first non-German and non-Protestant to hold the post (he is a Catholic), which apparently led to some discussion.

September 17, 2023
Trinitatis XV or 15th Sunday after Trinitatis
Jesus healing ten lepers, the evangelical reading for Trinitatis XIV. 14th century fresco from the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani, located south of the city of Peć, Kosovo.

September 10, 2023
Trinitatis XIV or 14th Sunday after Trinitatis
Portrait of crown prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony by Rosalba Carriera around 1739-1740 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden). Rosalba Carriera was a female rococo painter from Venice, Italy, who was admired by the crown prince's father Frederick Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.

September 5, 2023
Birthday crown prince Friedrich Christian von Saksen
The Good Samaritan, painted around 1616 by Jacob Jordaens, a painter from my hometown Antwerp (Louvre Abu Dhabi).

September 3, 2023
Trinitatis XIII or 13th Sunday after Trinitatis
The Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) today, which houses the Museum of City History of Leipzig.

August 30, 2023
Ratswechsel 1723
Schloss Kleinzschocher, southwest of Leipzig in Bach's time, but now engulfed by the city, was the residence of Carl Heinrich von Dieskau.

August 30, 2023
Birthday of Carl Heinrich von Dieskau
View of the city of Leipzig centered on the main square and the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) from 1712.

August 29, 2023
Ratswechsel 1742
Painting of Leipzig by Christian Schildbach (1765).

August 27, 2023
Trinitatis XII or 12th Sunday after Trinitatis
The main hall inside the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) of Leipzig today.

August 27, 2023
Ratswechsel 1731
Etching of the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) in Leipzig from 1672.

August 26, 2023
Ratswechsel 1748
The oldest known depiction of Leipzig's Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) from 1547, before the modifications begun by Hieronymus Lotter around 1556, which have given the building its current dimensions and aspect, and which was also the building Bach was familiar with.

August 25, 2023
Ratswechsel 1727
A statue of Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar.

August 20, 2023
Trinitatis XI or 11th Sunday after Trinitatis
Wood engraving of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, 1592. The Nikolaikirche was also under the supervision of Bach as Thomaskantor, and he performed many cantatas there too.

August 13, 2023
Trinitatis X or 10th Sunday after Trinitatis
On display in the Bachhaus in Eisenach is the Bach Goblet, one of very few undoubtedly authentic household items left from Bach's possessions. It is a Bohemian-Saxon work from around 1735. In the front, there is a VIVAT with a double (mirrored) monogram of the letters JSB underneath. The ends of the letters terminate in points. In total, there are 14 of these points – the Bach number, since B+A+C+H = 2+1+3+8 = 14 according to baroque numerology. In the back, there is a dedication poem that includes the name of Bach both in letters and in (German) musical notation. It is still an unsolved riddle who may have been the donor of the goblet, and on what occasion Bach received it.

August 11, 2023
Marriage
Autograph of a soprano aria in the cantata Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht, BWV 105 (source: Wikipedia)

August 6, 2023
Trinitatis IX or 9th Sunday after Trinitatis
For this celebration of the nameday of August, it is appropriate to use a painting by German expressionist August Macke, called "Coloured composition hommage to Johann Sebastian Bach" (1912). Macke, born in 1887, died on the front in World War 1, in the Champagne region in 1914.

August 3, 2023
Nameday August III and Dr August Friedrich Müller
The Bach glass window in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

July 30, 2023
Trinitatis VIII or 8th Sunday after Trinitatis
The grave of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

July 28, 2023
Anniversary of Bach's death