BWV 158

Der Friede sei mit dir (Peace be with you), BWV 158, is the shortest of the cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and features a bass soloist. It survives as a cantata for the third day of Easter but might be a fragment of a work originally written for Purification. Given this background, and the fact that it was copied by Christian Friedrich Penzel, one of Bach's last students, there is a confusing variety of proposed composition dates. It may date back to Bach's Weimar period, although a date as late as 1735 has been suggested.

The surviving source is a copy by Penzel, identified on the title page as being for the Purification (the Lutheran feast Mariae Reinigung), which was celebrated on 2 February, but with an alternate designation for Easter Tuesday in the parts.

Bach composed several cantatas for the Purification and the texts are related to Simeon's canticle Nunc dimittis, part of the prescribed readings. Because of the references to the "Nunc dimittis" in Der Friede sei mit dir and because of the alternate title page designation, it is widely assumed that at least the two central movements were originally part of a longer cantata for the Purification, with a different introductory recitative not evoking Christ's Easter reappearance to the disciples. The obbligato writing in the aria, which appears better suited to flute than the "violino" specified in Penzel's copy, is cited in support of the hypothesis that it was originally written for a different occasion.

Joshua Rifkin has proposed the dates 15 April 1727 or 30 March 1728 for the premiere of the surviving Easter version. The prescribed readings for this day were from the Acts of the Apostles, the sermon of Paul in Antiochia (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the appearance of Jesus to the Apostles in Jerusalem (). The librettist is unknown but may have been Salomon Franck, quoting hymn stanzas by Johann Georg Albinus and Martin Luther.

...
Wikipedia