Jubilate

3rd Sunday after Easter or Jubilate

21 April 2024 – Today is the third Sunday after Easter, or Jubilate. Bach composed at least three cantatas for this day.

The first one, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, is an earlier work from the Weimar period, in fact the second cantata he composed after being promoted to Konzertmeister, which came with an obligation of a new cantata every month. The text (for all these three cantatas) is inspired by the prescribed readings of the day, the Gospel of St. John where Christ announces the second coming, with the line "your sorrow shall be turned into joy". The libretto is by Salomon Franck, the Weimar court poet who wrote most texts for Bach cantatas of the Weimar period. Bach performed this cantata as well in his first year as Thomascantor in Leipzig.

Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103, dates from his second year in Leipzig. It is the first of nine cantatas on texts by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, which Bach composed at the end of his second annual cycle of cantatas in Leipzig.

Many uncertainties surround the last cantata, Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal, BWV 146. The exact creation year is not known, 1726 or 1728. Although several names have been proposed, the author of the libretto remains a mystery too.

Music for today

• Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12
  (first performance 22 April 1714, Weimar period)
• Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103
  (first performance 22 April 1725, Leipzig period)
• Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal, BWV 146
  (first performance ? 12 May 1726 or 18 April 1728, Leipzig period)

Extra information