Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (BWV/ 91) was written for Christmas Day of 1724 and is marked by the festive character of the occasion. Of the seven verses of the Lutheran hymn, the first and last are unchanged, the second is expanded by means of interpretative insertions, the third and fourth are freely transcribed into an aria, the fifth into a recitative, and the sixth again is an aria. The first verse is a spectacular chorale movement in which the melody is developed line by line in the soprano voice while three instrumental choirs (horns and timpani, oboes, strings) accompany with joyful signal motifs and runs in a concertante manner. The recitative of the soprano is free poetry (in a declamatory style), alternating with the lines of the chorale which at times are lightly ornarnented. Similarly, the chorale lines are accompanied by a sostenuto in the continuo, formed by the first line in shortened note values (symbolic of the text statement of the lines: “Des ewgen Vaters einigs kind” - The Son of Mighty God). The tenor aria underlines by its dancing rhythm and unusual instrumentation (oboes without strings) the pastoral sphere ofthe crib scene. The second recitative, accompanied by strings, leads into an extraordinarily chromatic arioso on ”Jammertal” (vale of tears) which, however; since Christ intends of course to lead us through the Jammertal, takes on a C major cadence. The duet transforms the opposing terms of the text into opposing musical figures (poverty and human nature: suspensions and chromatics; eternal salvation, abundance of heavenly treasures and angelic glory: parallel thirds and sixths and coloraturas). The songlike setting above the final verse emphasises the "Kyrie eleis” by a splendid cadence embellishment of the horns, which at the same time refer back to the wind motifs of the opening chorus.
Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn (BWV 92) for Septuagesima Sunday of 1725 January 28) paraphrases a hymn which has only a very general connection with the Sunday Gospel (parable of the workers in the vineyard, signifying that the Christian should patiently endure God’s will for better or for worse). Bach draws from a frequently loquacious and abstract text the utmost in musical illustration and tonal work. The opening chorus does not go into text detail; the melody in 6/8 time and the oboes d’amore rather appear to represent the basic mood of chherful, calm surrender. An overfondness for detail emerges from the recitatiie of the bass (second hymn verse with recitative insertions), with drastic tone painting and the wildly agitated, extremely difficult tenor aria (free paraphrasing of the fourth verse). The fifth hymn verse is again adopted unchanged, rendered line by line by the alto (i.e. analogously to the opening chorus) and encircled by a tightly-knit trio movement which (again as in the first movement) hardly goes into text detail, except for the “sad” chromatics after the last text line ("ob's noch so traurig schiene” - tho' it may seem so bitter). The two movements which follow (paraphrases of 6 - 9) correspond precisely with the first recitative and the first aria with regard to pleasure in detail and drastic tone-painting, except that the tasks of the soloists are now exchanged (recitative for tenor, aria for bass). The chorale movement once more forms the conclusion, but now in a richly detailed, thoroughly worked out, songlike setting and with recitatiye inserts by the four soloists. At the end, the soprano part, calling on Jesus, leads from the B minor of the chorale to D major, the key of the last aria - magical "pastoral music” shaped as a dialogue between soprano and oboe d’amore, to the pizzicato accompaniment of the strings (without thoroughbass). The conclusion takes the form of a simple singing movement, like the opening chorus leading B minor to B major.
Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten (BWV 93) was composed for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (July 9) l724; the version which has come down to us originates from a periormance given about 1732/33. The text adopts unchanged the first, fourth and seventh verses of the chorale, expands the second and fifth by interpretative recitative inserts, and transcribes the third and sixth into arias. Bach followed this symmetrical arrangement but enriched it by treating the hymn melody in all movements differently. The opening chorus is of especially rich design. On the pattern of the favorit chorus, each line is set out in imitative style (in the first Stollen sections by alternately high and low duets, by all lour voices in the closing Abgesang section), then reinforced in the cantus firmus setting. The whole is surrounded by a thematically independent, concertante orchestra movement. In the succeeding chorale recitative not only the recitative lines are declaimed with highly effective emotion, but also the chorale lines are taken in smaller segments and embellished. The tenor aria changes the first chorale line to major (E flat major), and moulds from it a minuet-like melody which reflects serene trust in God, as indicated ln the text. The focal point of the work is again an ingenious chorale movement: soprano and alto paraphrase the melody in lines, violins and viola “singing” it into this duet. (Bach later rearranged the movement as an organ chorale BWV/ 647). The second chorale recitative intensifies the emotion and technique of the first; the second aria begins in free style, but in the second text section reverts to the two melodic lines of the Abgesang, integrating them without a break and with apparent ease into the emphatic declamatory style of the aria. The final verse is a simple songlike movement.
Was frag ich nach der Welt (BWV 94), for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (August 6) 1724, is in form somewhat less demanding, more intimate and simpler in expression than Cantata No. 93. The preparation of the text for both is similar: the first, seventh and eighth verses form, unchanged, the opening and concluding chorus, the third and fifth verses are expanded to recitative, the second and fourth verses are each turned into an aria, while the sixth verse is even, rewritten as two arias. The opening chorus combines the line rendered, a relatively simple cantus firmus movement of the chorus, with a free orchestral movement, the character of which is marked by the concertante flute (evidently Bach, for the first time during his years in Leipzig, now had a good flautist at his disposal). The bass aria paints in suggestive musical pictures the transitoriness oft he world; the choral recitative changes the melody by the use of a dancing 3/8 movement and concertante oboe accompaniment, into a seductive "secular" entity, which only takes on the intended spiritual sense from the moralising recitative lines. The alto aria sets up the opposite picture: the deceit and false appearances of the world in a non-sensual, brittle E minor movement full of harmonic and melodic hardness. The second chorale recilative, with the strongest possible effect, reverts to the technique practised in Cantata No. 93 of emotionally paraphrasing the chorale melody. At first glance the last two arias are all too ”secular,” inasmuch as instead of disgust with the world they seem more inclined to depict dancelike, relaxed worldly pleasure. In actual fact, however, they reproduce the basic theme of the work in a most subtle manner: the vanity ot the vyorid and its pointless drifting in the markedly voluptuous, massive string tone (compared with the rest of the cantata), and in the restlessly roving rhythm and melody of the A major aria; rejection of the world in the contrasting and simultaneously complementary F sharp minor of the last aria, with the turning to Jesus in the C sharp minor and A major (through the context of a ”new” A major) of the middle section. The conclusion is again formed by an uncomplicated songlike movement.