Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75
| Die Elenden sollen essen | |
|---|---|
| BWV 75 | |
| Church cantata by J. S. Bach | |
Nikolaikirche, c. 1850
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| Occasion | First Sunday after Trinity |
| Composed | 1723: Köthen |
| Performed | 30 May 1723: Leipzig |
| Movements | 14 in two parts (7, 7) |
| Cantata text | anonymous |
| Bible text | |
| Chorale | "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" |
| Comment | First cantata in cantata cycle I |
| Vocal | SATB choir and solo |
| Instrumental |
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Die Elenden sollen essen (The miserable shall eat),BWV 75, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it for the first Sunday after Trinity and first performed it in Leipzig on 30 May 1723. The complex work in two parts of seven movements each marks the beginning of his first annual cycle of cantatas.
Bach composed the cantata at a decisive turning point in his career. After various positions in churches and courts, he assumed his post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig on the first Sunday after Trinity, performing this cantata. He began the ambitious project of composing a new cantata for every occasion of the liturgical year.
The work is structured in an unusual layout of 14 movements in two symmetrical parts, to be performed before and after the sermon. The unknown poet begins his text with a quotation from Psalm 22 and departs from its ideas on wealth and poverty, rich and poor, and illustrates the contrasts. The focus of the second part is on being poor or rich in spirit. Both parts are concluded by a stanza of Samuel Rodigast's hymn "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan".
Johann Sebastian Bach had served in several churches as Kantor and organist, and at the courts of Weimar and Köthen, when he applied for the post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig. He was 38 years old and had a reputation as an organist and organ expert. He had composed church cantatas, notably the funeral cantata Actus tragicus around 1708. In Weimar, he had begun a project to cover all occasions of the liturgical year by providing one cantata a month for four years, including works such as Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, and Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172.
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