Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten, BWV 74

Bach composed this cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the first day of Pentecost (Whit Sunday). The librettist for this work was Christiana Mariana von Ziegler. She collaborated with Bach on nine cantatas after Easter 1724, beginning with , this being the sixth of them. In most of these works, she began with a quotation of Jesus from the Gospel. For this cantata, she quoted the Bible three times, taking a quotation from the Gospel as a starting point in movement 1 (verse 23), another one in movement 4 (verse 28), and a quotation from an epistle by Paul in movement 6 (). She concluded the text with the second stanza from Paul Gerhardt's hymn "". She based much of her text on the "metaphysical" readings of the Gospel of John. Bach led the Thomanerchor in the first performance on 20 May 1725. == Scoring and structure ==

This piece is scored for four solo voices (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), a four-part choir, three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, an oboe da caccia, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. The cantata has eight movements: • Chorus: • Aria (soprano): • Recitative (alto): • Aria (bass): • Aria (tenor): • Recitative (bass): • Aria (alto): • Chorale: == Music ==

The opening chorus of this cantata is shorter than average and is a substantial reworking of the opening chorus from , composed two years earlier and performed again the previous year. It employs a ritornello theme followed by a fanfare-like choral entry. The original movement was a two-part vocal entry; the expansion relies on imitative pairings, reflecting the earlier texture. Craig Smith suggests that this is one of Bach's most successful arrangements of his own work because it remakes the "patchy" and "hollow" duet into "something richly varied and exquisitely delicate". The second movement is a soprano aria with oboe da caccia, a transposition of the bass and violin pairing of BWV 59. It is in a minor key, creating a sombre mood. == Recordings ==

• Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Bogna Bartosz, Christoph Prégardien, Klaus Mertens, J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 14, Antoine Marchand 2001 • Gächinger Kantorei / Bach-Collegium Stuttgart. Die Bach Kantate. Hänssler, 1972. • Monteverdi Choir / English Baroque Soloists. J. S. Bach: Whitsun Cantatas. Archiv Produktion, 1999. • Nederlands Vocaal Ensemble / Deutsche Bachsolisten. Bach: 13 Sacred Cantatas & 13 Sinfonias. Philips, 1972. == Notes ==