Trinitatis XIX
Sunday 26 October 2025

Trinitatis XIX is the 19th Sunday after Trinitatis. Three Leipziger cantatas for you from the first three annual cantata cycles.

Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen, BWV 48, is from the first cantata cycle and quotes from St. Paul''s letter to the Christians of Rome, stressing the need of the sinner for redemption.

Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5, is from his second cantata cycle, and so uses a Lutheran choral as inspiration. This choral was written in 1630, during the Thirty Years war (1618-1648), by Johann Heermann. This cantata was not written specifically for Trinitatis XIX, but was more of a cantata for both penitence and solace.

On October 17th you can listen to the cantata for the funeral of Queen Christiane Eberhardine (Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198). You may then recognise parts of the first movement of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, as Bach used that theme to enter a religious reference in the otherwise secular funeral cantata that he wrote a year later.

Music for today

• Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen, BWV 48
  (first performance 3 October 1723, Leipzig period)
• Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5
  (first performance 15 October 1724, Leipzig period)
• Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56
  (first performance 27 October 1726, Leipzig period)