Trinitatis XII
Sunday 7 September 2025

Trinitatis XII is the 12th Sunday after Trinitatis. Three Leipziger cantatas for this day.

The first cantata, Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69a, dates from his first year in Leipzig (1723). He revisited the cantata in 1727 and made some changes here and there, and then adapted and reused the cantata for the 1748 Ratswechsel. A nice example of how Bach very often reused material as a basis for a new creation, from a theme over a specific aria to a complete cantata. No wonder, considering the amount of work he continously created.

For some unknown reason Bach didn''t write a choral cantata for this day in 1724, when he was progressing in his choral cantata cycle. So in 1725 he plugged that hole and created Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, a choral cantata based on a hymn by Joachim Neander (1650-1680), which he wrote in the year he succumbed from the plague.

Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35, dates from one year later and is exceptional in many ways: it is the only cantata with two purely instrumental sinfonia''s as openers for both parts of the cantata, and is one of the ten existing solo cantatas, so without any choir piece whatsoever.

Music for today

• Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69a
  (first performance 15 August 1723, Leipzig period)
• Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137
  (first performance 19 August 1725, Leipzig period)
• Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35
  (first performance 8 September 1726, Leipzig period)