About this work
Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind was first performed early in 1724, only days after the intense Christmas season of Bach’s first Leipzig year. It begins directly with a four-part chorale: the congregation voices the threat before recitatives and arias move towards hard-won confidence.
Three chorales, placed as movements 1, 5 and 9, provide the pillars of this nine-movement cantata. Between them, the bass arioso quotes Isaiah, the tenor aria sets a storm in the strings, and the alto aria stretches life’s journey over a continuous instrumental line.
Give the three chorales distinct functions: statement, support and conclusion. In the tenor aria, string figuration must remain articulated beneath the words. The alto aria requires a longer breath; rehearse its bass in broad directions rather than one bar at a time.
What the document containsDocument: The document contains 18 pages in PDF format. No MIDI file is currently attached to this historical record. The 18-page PDF contains all nine movements, including the three chorales that open, articulate and close the work.The historical record marks the work and file as public domain but does not document the editor or exact provenance of this copy. The file preserved by LesPartitions.info can be compared with the reference catalogue. Following that check, LesPartitions.info separates established facts from information that remains incomplete.