The Long LineThe Long Line

Johann Sebastian Bach

Kantate, BWV 60 "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort"

BWV 60

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder), BWV 60, is a church cantata for the 24th Sunday after Trinity composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first performed in Leipzig on 7 November 1723, and is part of Bach's first cantata cycle. It is one of Bach's dialogue cantatas: its topic, fear of death and hope of salvation, plays out mainly through a conversation between two allegorical figures, Fear (sung by an alto voice) and Hope (sung by a tenor).

There are five movements. The orchestral accompaniment is assigned to a Baroque instrumental ensemble of horn, two oboes d'amore, strings and continuo. The first four movements are duets. The opening movement is a chorale fantasia containing a stanza from Johann Rist's "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort" and a biblical quotation from the Book of Genesis. The second and third movements are respectively a recitative and an aria.

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Movements

  1. Aria (Coro Alto, Tenore) "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort"
  2. Recitativo (Alto, Tenore) "O schwerer Gang"
  3. Aria (Alto, Tenore) "Mein letztes Lager will mich schrecken"
  4. Recitativo (Alto, Basso) "Der Tod bleibt doch der menschlichen Natur verhaßt"
  5. Choral "Es ist genug; Herr, wenn es dir gefällt"

Elsewhere

← All of the composer’s works