J.S. Bach: Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem unglauben!, BWV 109 - The Church Cantatas, Vol. 84

Cantata 109 ‘Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben’ portrays the inner stride of the human soul between faith and doubt. In the recitative No.2 mortal man wonders whether God’s arm is long enough to reach him, the disbeliever. Doubt and despair are unrelenting until relief is offered in the recitative No.4: ‘O fasse dich, du zweifelhafter Mut’. This cantata comes from the cycle composed during Bach’s first year as cantor of the Thomaskirche; it was written for the 21st Sunday after Trinity, 17 October 1723. In the first movement it seems almost as though Bach has interwoven a concerto movement for oboe and violin with a choral work. He added a ‘cor du chasse’ to the scoring at a later date, reinforcing the first violin in this opening movement. In the succeeding recitative no. 2 the continuous alternation of loud and soft passages illustrates the soul swept back and forth between doubt and belief. This recitative leads into a slow arioso to the text ‘Ach Herr, wie lange?’ In the tenor aria No.3 the t