Perhaps the most important compositions and tracings of Bach's musical development can be found within the great body of work of the cantatas. It was Bach's responsibility as Kapellmeister to create weekly cantatas of music to accompany the scriptural and topical ideas of the Lutheran Liturgical Year.
The Cantata No. 150 was written for an unspecified occasion and its authorship has often been questioned. Many of Bach's works are found not in his own hand but copied in the hands of his students or his wife or sons. The work was perhaps composed as early as 1708 - 1709 placing it as one of the earlier cantatas and not part of that great collection of work that came out of Bach's later appointment at the St. Thomas School in Leipzig. There are, however, certain salient features which suggest that Cantata No. 150 was indeed the work of Bach.
There is a brief Sinfonia introduction that sets the mood. The choral movements (2 & 4) are structured in short passages in the style of a motet; No. 4 contains some of Bach's most remarkable word painting. The choral movement "meine Augen sehen stets" is in two sections, the first acting as a prelude to the fugue that follows. The final movement is a ciacona, a form derived from purely instrumental music, which so impressed Brahms when the complete edition of Bach's works was published in 1844 that he used the bass line, with slight modifications, for the last movement of his 4th symphony, also a chaconne.
-- Kendall Durelle Briggs
