The Lord your God you shall now be loving Cantata for the 13th Sunday after Trinity by Johann Sebastian Bach 4-Part - Sheet Music

SKU: CA.3107707

ISBN 9790007045036. DIN A5 inches. Key: C major / d minor. Language: German/English. Text: Johann Oswald Knauer.

Bach composed the cantata Du sollst Gott, deinen Herrn lieben (The Lord your God you shall now be loving), BWV 77, for the 13th Sunday after Trinity in 1723. Together with BWV 64 and 69.1, it belongs to a small group of cantatas on texts by Johann Oswald Knauer which were written for Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. The work commences with one of Bach’s most artful cantata movements. The opening chorus with accompanying string ensemble is embedded, as it were, in the instrumental chorale "Dies sind die heiligen zehn Gebot" (These are the Holy Ten Commandments), performed canonically (according to God’s law!) by trumpet (from above) and basso continuo (from below, where it is augmented), with a total of ten entries; thus all the Ten Commandments are contained within the command to love God and one’s neighbor. We can only speculate about the use of the trumpet in the second aria, "Ach, es bleibt in meiner Liebe lauter Unvollkommenheit" (Yes, my love is never perfect), for trumpet, alto and basso continuo. Does the frequent occurrence of the C-sharp, which is difficult to play on the baroque instrument, really indicate the use of slide trumpet? Or may it not instead be intended as a representation of imperfection?