Trinitatis XXII

Trinitatis XXII or 22nd Sunday after Trinitatis

5 November 2023 – Today is Trinitatis XXII or the 22nd Sunday after Trinitas. Three Leipzig cantatas for you today, from the first three annual cantata cycles Bach wrote in that city.

First up, from the fall of 1723, Bach's first Leipzig year, is Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim, BWV 89. As a theme it uses the parable of the Ungrateful Servant. It is a solo cantata, where the four soloists also cover the choral parts.

We are getting close to the end of the liturgical year, and in the scriptures the theme of the pending Last Judgment begin to play a part. Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit, BWV 115, a chorale cantata from 1724 based on a hymn by Johann Burchard from 1697 encourages the faithful to be prepared at any moment in a religious sense.

The third cantata, Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, BWV 55 (1726), is Bach's only extant cantata for tenor.

Music for today

• Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim, BWV 89
  (first performance 24 October 1723, Leipzig period)
• Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit, BWV 115
  (first performance 5 November 1724, Leipzig period)
• Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, BWV 55
  (first performance 17 November 1726, Leipzig period)

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