As I explained on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, after his Passion according to St. John, Bach had no time or energy left to write anything new for the three Easter days in 1724. On Easter Sunday he repeated two Easter cantatas from earlier years. On Easter Monday he used existing music from a Birthday cantata from Köthen, didn’t seem to care too much about the music not illustrating the text, perhaps didn’t even write a new score, we don’t know, because the only manuscript that survived is from 1735, not from 1724.
On Easter Tuesday, he used Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht (BWV 134a), a “serenata” for New Year’s Day, also from Köthen. For the Leipzig church cantata, cantata 134 Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend Weiß he didn’t change any music at all, gave the instrumentalists the parts from Köthen, and also used the score from Köthen, writing the new sacred text under the original secular text.
Listening to this cantata is like listening to one of Bach’s instrumental works, because the text and the meaning of the text don’t really matter in this case. Listen to Gustav Leonhardt’s recording of this cantata, with René Jacobs, countertenor, and Marius van Altena, tenor.
Thanks to Eduard van Hengel, it is easy to see side-by-side how the new text compares to the original:
| Serenata for New Year’s Day in Köthen 1719 |
Cantata 134 for Easter Tuesday in Leipzig 1724 |
| 1. Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht, Hat Anhalt manche Segensstunden Und itzo gleich ein neues Heil gebracht. 2. Auf, Sterbliche, lasset ein Jauchzen ertönen. |
1. Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß, Empfindet Jesu neue Güte Und dichtet nur auf seines Heilands Preis. 2. Auf, Gläubige, singet die lieblichen Lieder. |
Weekly Cantata 