Christus, der ist mein Leben (BWV 95) was written for the l6th Sunday after Trinity (September 12) 1723, that is to say in Bach’s first Leipzig year and, not unlike a good number of the cantatas of this annual cycle, is experimental in character. The text transposes the content of the Sunday Gospel (raising up of the youth in Nain) at two levels, so to speak. On the one hand he arranges verses from four different funeral songs, which were more or less firmly allotted to this Sunday. On the other he establishes an explicit relationship to the Gospel text, admittedly not until in the last recitative. The emphasis of the work is therefore on the yearning for death and negation of the world. Bach accepted this interpretation of the Sunday Gospel with unwonted intensity. The opening chorus (G major/G minor) connects the first verses of the hymns ”Christus, der ist mein Leben” and "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” (text and melody in each case). The link between the two is a tenor solo which develops from the arioso to the recitative, and is punctuated with quotations from the ritornello melody of the first chorus section. In style the two hymn verses are set off against each other. The newer, more sensitive hyrnn is incorporated in a major key into a soft, distantly saraband-like modern ritornello movement with oboes d'amore, the word "to die” being composed in at broad cadence. The Lutheran hymn appears in a minor key in a slightly archaic setting, in which each line is pre-imitated by a canzona-like wind movement. In the final bars the cornett sounds out once more as, so to speak, the guiding maxim “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin.” Just as un usual as this chorus are the two solo movements, each of which is introduced by a recitative. The soprano sings the first verse of "Valet will ich dir gehen” (D major), accompanied by the oboes d'amore, whose figures illustrate the ”Gelassnern Mut" (calmer courage) which had been referred to in the recitative. It is thus a chorale movement but has the character of an aria. The tenor aria (also in D major) - together with the recitatives the only non-chorale text in the work - intensifies the note of worldly negation to the point of an utterly ecstatic wish for death. The oboes d'amore accompany with a lullabystyle melody, while the death knell is sounded in the pizzicato strings. The bass recitative and a final chorale provide the summing up. In both, the concept of resurrection, now moving into the foreground, also takes on musical shape: in the recitative with the melodic ascent (A-d’), which signifies the ”sichern Zugang zu dem \/ater” and in the chorale by way of the melody of the first violin, rising up above the chorale setting as though part of a vision.
Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn (BWV 96) for the 18th Sunday after Trinity 1724 (Octoher 8) is one of the Chorale cantatas of the second Leipzig annual cycle. The opening and closing verses of the hymn are unchanged, the second and third are rewritten as recitative and aria, and the fourth verse, broadly paraphrased, is divided up into a second recitative and a second aria. The opening chorus (in F major) is performed at three levels: the chorale is heard in broad note values in the alto, surrounded by a free vocalinstrurnental setting, whose rocking 9/8 melody evokes associations vvlth the pastoral music of Christ’s birth; over this the discant recorder produces sparkling figurations (”Er ist der Morgensterne” - he is the Star of Morning). The melody oft he tenor aria (in C major), with the singing voice and concertante flute, is developed entirely from the basic principles of the text. At the same time the chromatic suspensions of the flute (”Ach, ziehe die Seele ...”) are also superimposed on the text pictures of the middle section, thus engendering wide-ranging musical and conceptual unity. The bass aria (in D rninor) is less ingenious, but more direct in its imagery and richer in tone. Since the da capo form is abbreviated here, the second hall of the middle section is composed as a synthesis of musical figures from both parts. A very simple, songlike movement provides the conclusion.
In allen meinen Taten (BWV 97) is dated l734 in the autograph version and is thus a very late cantata; nothing is known about its liturgical background. Bach composed the hymn per omnes versus, but, while retaining all verses, used the song melody only in the opening chorus and the final chorale. The conspicuously small number of recitatives (two compared to tour arias and a duet) is probably due to the inappropriateness of recitative for depiction of the hymn verses. The brittle intellectuality and pictorial povertry of the text confronted Bach with singular problems. They were solved with extraordinary compositional extravagance and above all in concealed symbolism which only a careful study of the score reveals. The opening chorus is, most unusually, a French overture (dotted rhythms - fugal vivace). Its form and its vocal, instrumental and contrajiuntal brilliance are perhaps intended to symbolise the majesty of the "highest," "der alles kann und hat" (who can do everything and has everything). The arias are in ascending voice ranges (bass-tenor-alto-soprano and bass-soprano). Moreover the first four are designed as contrasting key pairs (G minor - B flat major, C rninor - E flat major, the soprano leading with F major back to the basic key of B flat major). The instrumentation, compositional technique and accents are just as carefully and closely related to the text in varying ways (albeit also in intricately encoded form): bass aria with Thoroughbass (worries, effort); tenor aria with concertante violin (superabundance of Godly grace); alto aria with string tutti (cadence of the slumbering aria, as well as antithetic images - sleeping and awakening, lying and moving awaz, weakness and consolation); duet only with thoroughbass (singing voice largely canonic: God’s decree as the law of human action); soprano aria with concertante oboes (cadence and movement structure, apart from tonesymbolism and image-like details, of surprisingly fashionable sensitivity- ”lhm hab' ich mich ergeben” to be understood as a love poem to Jesus?) The final chorale movement departs from the norm in the sense that the independently led strings expand the four-voice songlike setting into a tonally magnificent seven-part texture; the symbolism of the figure 7 (perfection) undoubtedly also played a part.
Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (BWV 98) was composed for the 21st Sunday after Trinity 1726 (November 10), and thus chronologically is the second of the three Bach cantatas on this text (Cantata No. 99 was written in 1724, and Cantata No. 100 around 1732/35). The anonymous text links up the opening hymn verse with two freely written recitatives and arias which paraphrase the basic concept of the Sunday Gospel (God helps those in distress who believe in Him). A final chorale is lacking, so that an approach is made in form to the normal layout of the secular chamber cantata. The chamber musical intimacy suggested by this also marks the compositional detail. The opening chorus (in B flat major) encompasses the simple choral movement, emphatically extended only in the concluding line, with an equally simple string movement entirely dominated by the concertante first violin, The soprano aria (in C minor) sings in elegiac tones of patience in suffering, graphically transforming the antithesis of weeping and living. The bass aria (in B flat rnajor) is enriched by the fact that the thoroughbass also participates in the rnotivic work. Furthermore it hints at the absence ofa final chorale by rendering in slightly ornamented form in the first line the text belonging to the chorale melody ("Meinen Jesum lass ich  nicht") - the voice of the individual and voice of the congregation in unison.