Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (BWV 99) was written for the 15th Sunday after Trinity (September 17) 1724 and is therefore part of the second Leipzig cycle of Chorale Cantatas. The Gospel for the day consists of the exhortations from the Sermon on the Mount to seek the kingdom ot God and His righteousness. The hymn by Samuel Rodigast on which the text of the cantata is based suits this well. The first and last stanzas are unchanged, and Nos. 2 to 5 are paraphrased. Bach adhered precisely to this arrangement by writing both the first and the sixth stanza as chorales with the tune in the soprano, the other stanzas being set as arias and recitatives. Beyond that, the overall design is even more strongly reinforced by corresponding features and heightened effects: each of the two recitatives leads to an affecting, highly descriptive arioso, and the tenor aria, with concertante flute, is followed by a duet for soprano and alto with flute and oboe d’amore. The flute also plays a solo part in the opening chorus; evidently Bach had a particularly gifted flutist at his disposal in the winter of 1724. Finally, the way in which the keys of the various movements are arranged mirrors the symrnetry and the graded contrasts of the text: the outer movements are in G major, the second and fifth movement (recitative and duet) in B minor, and the central pieces, the tenor aria and the recitative, are in E minor and B minor/D major.
The long opening chorus is set using a comparatively simple chorale in the style of a motet. On the one hand, the original hymn tune is emphasised to quite a remarkable degree (symbolic of the strength of faith in the text?); on the other, it is embedded in concertante instrumental writing which derives its joyful character primarily from anapaestic motifs which Bach loved so well. Thereafter the solo numbers mainly describe, in terms typical of baroque paradox and with highly descriptive music, alarm and despair in the aria and the duet's bitterness of the Cross, tribulations which cantnot prevail in the face of the certainty that "What God does is well done". A simple fourpart chorale concludes the work.
Cantatas No. 98 and No. 99 were followed by a third work on Samuel Rodigast's hymn Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (BWV 100), written some time between 1732 and 1735 and thus one ot the last of Bach’s surviving cantatas. It was not designated for a specific Sunday; since the text is retained unaltered throughout the six stanzas, the work can be used on all manner of occasions throughout the ecclesiastical year. The text is much more unified than in Cantata No. 99 and the musical form is correspondingly simpler and even more obviously symmetrical: the first and sixth stanzas are large-scale chorale settings with concertante orchestra; stanzas 2 to 5 are a duet for alto and tenor and three arias, for soprano, bass and alto; the key structure is G major - D major e B minor - G major- E minor e G major. As though to compensate for this simplicity, there is a wealth of diversity in detail, particularly in the solo movements. The first and last chorus are borrowed from older cantatas. The opening stanza is the same as that of Cantata No. 99, the sixth is the final chorus of Cantata No. 75, though both movements heard in this cantata are even more joyful and resplendent than the original versions, owing to the addition of two horns and tirnpani. As in Cantata No. 99, the duet vividly calls to mind the ltalian chamber duet (Steffani, Handel) on account of the motet-style arrangement of the text and the imitatory interweaving of the vocal parts; however, a quasi-ostinato of eight bars played by the continuo not only strengthens the strict adherence to this tradition, but also emphasises the deliberate symbolism formally by matching the conventions in the music to that found in the words. On the other hand, the three arias, with their sensitive writing and suggestion of the siciliano, display Bach at his most modern: the soprano aria has an exceedingly difficult flute part, the oboe d’amore plays in cantabile and emotive style in the alto aria, and ingratiating parallel thirds and sixths played by the violins introduce an element of the galant into the bass aria. These pieces provide evidence as beautiful as it is eloquent of the fact, all too often overlooked, that Bach was by no means a conservative composer.
Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott (BWV 101) was written for the 10th Sunday after Trinity 1724, and is thus part of the same cycle of chorale cantatas as Cantata No. 99. The text, taken partly verbatim and partly in paraphrase from a Sunday hymn by Martin Moller written in 1584, which describes the horrors of the plague, turns the Gospel tor the day dealing with the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the casting out of the money lenders, into a contrite prayer in perilous times for mercy and compassion in the face of human sinfulness. As was often the case, the very sombreness of the text fired Bach's imagination and resulted in a work extraordinarily rich in emotions and imagery. By the same token its form is remarkably free and daring, not so much in the overall design, which is similar to that of Cantata No. 99, but in its details. The introductory chorus is a large-scale choralc arrangement in the style of a motet, almost archaic in the strictness and complexity of its writing, to which the orchestra, with both melodic and harmonic chromaticism and an almost excessive use of sughing motifs, provides an emotionally charged commentary. By comparison the following tenor aria, the only movement in the whole cantata that does not make use ot the chorale tune, is quite conventional. All the more astonishing are the four sections that follow, each of which is at the same time an emotive paraphrase and a melodic development of the chorale. In the soprano arioso the highly ornamented chorale alternates with sections of recitative. In the apocalyptic bass aria the lines of the chorale are sometimes given to the singer and sometimes to the orchestra. The tenor arioso once again alternates between chorale and recitative while the melody of the duet for soprano and alto - a siciliano replete with sighs - combines the development of the chorale and the concertante writing of the woodwind parts in an incomparable manner. A simple four-part setting of the last stanza rounds off the work.
Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben (BWV 102), composed in 1726 tor the 10th Sunday after Trinity (August 25), is one of a series (Nos. 39, 43 88, 187, 45 and 17) written in the same period whose texts are based on the form of Johann Ludwig Bach’s cantatas: a passage from the Old Testament - recitative and aria - a New Testament passage - aria and recitative - and final chorale. The text, a reminder of the perils oi impenitence and an exhortation to repentance and contrition, is only loosely connected with the Gospel for the day. lts accents are rather those of the severe, menacing words of the two Scripture quotations (Jeremiah 5: 3 and Romans 2: 4-5). The music is characterised by a similar tone which far exceeds all else and in its abundance of musical figures, the introductory chorus is one of the greatest of all cantata choruses in the motet style; the finesse and individuality of the choral parts are exceptional even in Bach's output. The alto aria is no less intense with its grinding suspensions descriptive of suffering, the recurring leaps of a seventh in the darkly declamatory bass aria and the convulsive figures in the tenor aria, representing the soul plagued by terror. Even the exceptionally rich harmonies and the concluding four-part chorale cannot calm the agitation of the preceding movements - no light of consolation is allowed to prevail.