Cantata for the 25th Sunday after Trinity

Complete score
Oboe d’amore
Continuo

The cantata „Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ“ was performed on the last sunday of the liturgical year 1723/24, on 26th of november 1724. Like the other chorale cantatas of Bachs 2nd cantata cycle it is based on a chorale, the song with the same name “Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ” (1601) from Jakob Ebert (1549-1615).

The song is about the calamity of war, designated with „Zur Zeit des Krieges um Frieden zu bitten“ („To ask for peace during war“).

The score has the 2nd movement, an delicate aria for alto and oboe d’amore obligato:

Ach, unaussprechlich ist die Not
Und des erzürnten Richters Dräuen!
Kaum, dass wir noch in dieser Angst,
Wie du, o Jesu, selbst verlangst,
Zu Gott in deinem Namen schreien.

The score is based on Bachs full score and the facsimile parts.

Epistle:  1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18 
Gospel:  Matthew 24, 15-28

Bach cantatas website
Cantata text
Facsimile full score, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris
Facsimile parts bach-digital.de