Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80
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Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott BWV 80 |
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| Chorale cantata by J. S. Bach | |
| Occasion | Reformation Day |
| Movements | 8 |
| Cantata text | Salomon Franck |
| Chorale | "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" by Martin Luther |
| Vocal | SATB choir and solo |
| Instrumental |
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Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (Our God is a secure fortress),BWV 80, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for Reformation Day, 31 October; an early version (BWV 80b) of the work may have been written as early as 1723, and a later version with an extended chorale fantasia as the opening movement was possibly written in 1735. The cantata is based on Martin Luther's hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott".
Bach reused for Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott a cantata in six movements on a text by Salomon Franck which he had composed in Weimar for Oculi, the third Sunday in Lent: he could not use this cantata for the same occasion in Leipzig because no cantatas were performed there during Lent, but it matched the celebration of the Reformation well as two movements already contained Luther's hymn. In Leipzig, with an additional opening movement and another inserted chorale setting, he presented the text of all four stanzas of the hymn unchanged.
Bach scored the cantata for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque chamber ensemble of up to three oboes of different kinds, strings and continuo. His son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach arranged the first and fifth movements after his father's death, adopting a new text and adding trumpets and timpani.
Bach wrote the cantata in Leipzig for Reformation Day. The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, "be steadfast against adversaries" (), and from the Book of Revelation, instructing believers to fear God and honour him ().
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