standing listener its worldless sounds
convey the whole import of the hymn which speaks so sweetly of comfort
in the hour of death, sounds which must recall to every pious heart all
the feelings they had stirred when, among the chances and changes of
life, this hymn had been heard,--feelings of sympathy with another's
grief or of balm to the heart's own anxiety."

The alto voice follows with the words spoken on the cross ("Into Thy
Hands my Spirit I commend"), to which the bass replies in an arioso
("Thou shalt be with Me to-day in Paradise"). The next number is a
chorale ("In Joy and Peace I pass away whenever God willeth") sung by the
alto, the bass continuing its solo at the same time through a portion of
the chorale. The final chorus is the so-called fifth Gloria:--

"All glory, praise, and majesty
To Father, Son, and Spirit be,
The holy, blessed Trinity;
Whose power to us
Gives victory
Through Jesus Christ. Amen."

The "Actus Tragicus" was one of the youthful compositions of Bach, but it
has always attracted the notice of the best musical critics. It was a
great favorite with Mendelssohn. Spitta says:--

"It is a work of art well rounded off and firm in its formation, and
warmed by the deepest intensity of feeling even in the smallest
details."

Hauptmann writes to Jahn:--

"Yesterday, at the Euterpe concert, Bach's 'Gottes Zeit' was given.
What a marvellous intensity pervades it, without a bar of
conventionality! Of the cantatas known to me, I know none in which such
design and regard are had to the musical import and its expression."

Festa Ascensionis Christi.

The cantata beginning with the words, "Wer da glaubet und getauft wird"
("Whoso believeth and is baptized"), commonly known as the Ascension
cantata, was written for four voices, with accompaniment of two oboes,
two violins, viola, and "continuo,"--the latter word implying a bass
part, the harmonies indicated by figures from which the organist built up
his own accompaniment. The original score has been lost; but it has been
reconstructed from the parts, which are preserved in the Royal Library at
Berlin.

The cantata is in five numbers. A short prelude of a quiet and cheerful
character introduces the stately opening chorus ("Who believeth and
obeyeth will be blest forever"). Another brief prelude prepares the way
for the brilliant tenor aria ("Of Love, Faith is the Pl