Cantata no. 77: Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben, BWV.77
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben (You shall love God, your Lord), BWV 77 in Leipzig for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 22 August 1723.
Bach composed the cantata in his first year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, where he had begun a first cantata cycle for the occasions of the liturgical year on the first Sunday after Trinity with Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75. The cantata text, written by Johann Oswald Knauer, is focused on the prescribed reading for the Sunday, the parable of the Good Samaritan containing the Great Commandment, which is used as the text of the first movement. A pair of recitative and aria deals with the love of God, while a symmetrical pair deals with the love of the neighbour. Bach did not write the text of the closing chorale in the score, but probably his son Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach.
Movements
- Coro con Choral "Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben"
- Recitativo (Bass) "So muß es sein!"
- Aria (Sopran) "Mein Gott, ich liebe dich von Herzen"
- Recitativo (Tenor) "Gib mir dabei, mein Gott! ein Samariterherz"
- Aria (Alt) "Ach, es bleibt in meiner Liebe"
- Choral "Herr, durch den Glauben wohn in mir"
Most recent recordings
- J.S. Bach: Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben, BWV 77 (Live) — Johann Sebastian Bach, Chor der J. S. Bach-Stiftung, Orchester der J. S. Bach-Siftung, Rudolf Lutz (2024) Spotify
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