Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 98

Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan
BWV 98
Church cantata by J. S. Bach
Autograph manuscript of the first movement of the cantata
Occasion	21st Sunday after Trinity
Cantata text	Christoph Birkmann
Chorale	"Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan"
Performed	10 November 1726 (1726-11-10): Leipzig
Movements	5
Vocal	SATB choir and solo
Instrumental	2 oboes taille 2 violins viola continuo

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (What God does is well done), BWV 98, in Leipzig for the 21st Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 10 November 1726.

Bach composed the cantata in his fourth year as Thomaskantor (director of church music) in Leipzig. It is structured in five movements, beginning with a choral movement, unusually followed by two pairs of recitative and aria, without a closing chorale. The cantata is scored for soprano, alto, tenor and bass vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a small Baroque instrumental ensemble of three oboes, strings and basso continuo. The oboes only reinforce the voices. The opening chorus sets the first stanza of Samuel Rodigast's hymn "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan", published in 1674. The text for the other movements is by Christoph Birkmann, who focused on trust in God, alluding to the Bible in several ways. The final movement begins like the usual chorale, quoting a line from Christian Keymann's "Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht", but it continues in independent poetry and music.

History and words

In his fourth year in Leipzig, Bach wrote the cantata for the 21st Sunday after Trinity.^: 606 The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, "take unto you the whole armour of God" (Ephesians 6:10–17), and from the Gospel of John: the healing of the nobleman's son (John 4:46–54).^: 597 The cantata opens with the first stanza of the chorale "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" (1674) by Samuel Rodigast, but it is not a chorale cantata in the strict sense of Bach's second cantata cycle, cantatas on the stanzas of one chorale. He had then treated the same chorale completely in Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 99 (1724), and would do it later once more in Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 100 (1734).^: 606

The text of the chorale concentrates on trust in God, whereas the two cantatas previously composed for the occasion, Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben, BWV 109, and Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38, both started from doubt and distress. The poet Christoph Birkmann, a student in Leipzig from 1724 to 1727 who collaborated with Bach, referred to general ideas from the gospel. In the fourth movement he stressed that a prayer for salvation will be granted according to Matthew 7:7, "knock, and it shall be opened unto you"; in the fifth movement, he paraphrased Jacob in Genesis 32:26, "I will not let you go, except you bless me". This final movement is not a chorale, although its text begins like one, Christian Keymann's "Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht" (1658).^: 606 Birkmann's text was published in 1728 in the cantata collection Gottgeheiligtes Sabbaths-Zehnden.

Bach first performed the cantata on 10 November 1726.^: 606 It is regarded as part of his third cantata cycle.

Music

Structure and scoring

Bach structured the cantata in five movements, a chorale movement and two pairs of recitative and aria. He scored it intimately for four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T), and bass (B)), a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes (Ob), taille (Ta, a tenor oboe), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), and basso continuo.^{: 604―605}

In the following table, the scoring is based on the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. The keys and time signatures are taken from Dürr,^{: 604―605} using the symbols for common time (⁴
₄) and alla breve (²
₂). The continuo, played throughout, is not listed.

Movements of Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan

No.	Title	Text	Type	Vocal	Winds	Strings	Key	Time
1	Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan	Rodigast	Chorus	SATB	2Ob Ot	2Vl Va	B-flat major	3 4
2	Ach Gott! wenn wirst du mich einmal	Birkmann	Recitative	T
3	Hört, ihr Augen, auf zu weinen	Birkmann	Aria	S	Ob		C minor	3 8
4	Gott hat ein Herz, das des Erbarmens Überfluß	Birkmann	Recitative	A
5	Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht	Birkmann	Aria	B		2Vl Va	B-flat major

Manuscripts and publication

The manuscripts of both the score and a set of 15 parts are extant.

The first critical edition of the cantata, edited by Wilhelm Rust, was published by the Bach Gesellschaft in 1868 as part of its complete edition of Bach's works. In the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of Bach's works, the cantata was published in 1997, edited by Ulrich Bartels.

Carus published a critical edition in German and English as part of its Stuttgarter Bach-Ausgaben in 2017, edited by Wollschläger. In the 21st century, Bach Digital published high-resolution facsimile images of the manuscript parts from the first quarter of the 18th century.

Recordings

The selection is taken from the listing provided by the Bach Cantatas Website. In the following table, ensembles playing on period instruments in historically informed performance are marked by a green background under the header Instr..

References

External links

• Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 98: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• BWV 98 Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan English translation, University of Vermont
• BWV 98 Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan text, scoring, University of Alberta