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The cantata librettist, Knauer, possibly identifiable as Johann Oswald Knauer of Schleiz. He wrote the texts of liturgical cantatas performed in Gotha in 1720-1721. These are divided into two parts, each consisting of a chorus on a biblical text, normally two recitative-aria pairs, and a concluding hymn strophe. Three cantatas composed by Bach in 1723 - BWV 64, BWV 69a, and BWV 77 - are based on texts from the Knauer cycle. In all of them the division into two parts is abandoned: in BWV 64 and BWV 69a the second movement with a biblical text is removed (as well as other movements in the centre of the cantatas); for BWV 77 only the second part of Knauer's text is used.
It is not known how Bach came into contact with Knauer's texts. Andreas Glockner has pointed out that J.S. Bach composed a Passion cantata for Gotha in 1717, and it seems probable that he had lively contacts with the court there later on as well. |
