chorale
is introduced with consummate skill. A graceful tenor aria with a
delightful and smoothly flowing accompaniment ("Rejoice, O my Soul,
change Weeping to Smiling") follows and leads to the final number, which
is based on the same subject as that of the "Hallelujah" in Handel's
"Messiah." All the voices give out the words, "The Lamb that for us is
slain, to Him will we render Power and Glory," with majestic effect;
after which the solo bass utters the theme, "Power and Glory and Praise
be unto Him forevermore," introducing the "Hallelujah," which closes the
work in a burst of tremendous power, by voices and instruments.

Gottes Zeit.

During the first half of the period in which Bach resided at Weimar,
occupying the position of court and chamber musician to Duke Wilhelm
Ernst, he wrote three cantatas in the old church form which are notable
as being the last he composed before adopting the newer style, and as the
most perfect of that kind extant. The first of these, "Nach dir, Herr,
verlanget mich," is based upon the first two verses of the Twenty-fifth
Psalm. The second, "Aus der Tiefe rufe ich," includes the whole of the
One hundred and thirtieth Psalm and two verses of the hymn "Herr Jesu
Christ, du hoechstes Gut." The third and most famous of the trio, "Gottes
Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" ("God's time is the best of all"), is
generally known as the "Actus Tragicus," and sometimes as the "Mourning
Cantata." Of its origin Spitta says:--

"Judging by its contents it was designed for the mourning for some man,
probably of advanced age, to whom the song of Simeon could be suitably
applied. No such death took place in the ducal house at this time, for
Prince Johann Ernst died when a youth, and also when Bach's style of
composition had reached a different stage. Possibly the cantata has
reference to Magister Philipp Grossgebauer, the rector of the Weimar
school before its reorganization, who died in 1711; at least, I can
find no other suitable occasion. The contrast between the spirit of the
Old and New Testaments,--between the wrath of an avenging God and the
atoning love of Christ,--which had already appeared in the One hundred
and thirtieth Psalm, is the germ and root of this cantata to such a
degree that it is evident that Bach had fully realized by this time how
fertile a subject for treatment it was. It contains no chorus of such
depth and force as t