eristics of his
work are profound knowledge, the clearest statements of form, strength of
logical sequences, imposing breadth, and deep religious sentiment. The
latter quality was the outcome of his intense religious nature. Upon
everyone of his principal compositions he inscribed "S. D. G.," "to the
glory of God alone." He died July 28, 1750, and was buried at Leipsic;
but no cross or stone marks the spot where he lies. His last composition
was the beautiful chorale, "Wenn wir in hoechsten Noethen sein," freely
translated, "When my last hour is close at hand," as it was written in
his last illness. The only record of his death is contained in the
official register: "A man, aged sixty-seven, M. Johann Sebastian Bach,
musical director and singing-master at the St. Thomas School, was carried
to his grave in the hearse, July 30, 1750."

Ich hatte viel Bekuemmerniss.

The cantata with the above title, best known in English as "My Heart was
full of Heaviness," was the first sacred piece in this form which Bach
wrote. Its date is 1714, in which year he was living at Weimar, and its
composition grew out of a difficulty which he had with the elders of the
Liebfrauenkirche at Halle, touching his application for the position of
organist. It occasioned him great sorrow, and it was while in this sad
plight that he wrote the cantata. It was composed for the third Sunday
after Trinity, June 17, and consists of eleven numbers,--an instrumental
prelude, four choruses, three arias, a duet, and two recitatives.

The prelude, which is brief and quiet in character, introduces the
opening chorus ("Deep within my Heart was Sorrowing and great
Affliction"), which in turn leads to the first aria ("Sighing, Mourning,
Sorrow, Tears waste away my troubled Heart"), a tender and beautiful
number for soprano, with oboe and string accompaniment. It is followed by
the tenor recitative and aria, "Why hast Thou, O my God, in my sore Need
so turned Thy Face from me?" in which the feeling of sorrow is
intensified in utterance. The chorus, "Why, my Soul, art thou vexed?" a
very pathetic number, closes the mournful but beautiful first part of the
cantata.

The second part is more tranquil and hopeful. It opens with a duet for
soprano and bass, the two parts representing the soul and Christ, and
sustaining a most expressive dialogue, leading up to a richly harmonized
chorus ("O my Soul, be content and be thou peaceful") in which a