The duet from BWV 78, better known as Cantata 78, is one of
the rarely heard gems from the great mass of Bach works. I
present it here so that more music lovers may become
acquainted with this delightful piece. 

The original orchestration consisted of soprano and alto
voices, and organ and cello. The voices are here
represented by the MIDI flute and piccolo. 

The lyrics, originally in German, translate to:

"We hasten with faint, but eager steps,
Jesus, O master, to come to thine aid.
Thou faithfully seekest the ailing and errant.
Ah, hear us as we raise our voices to beg for help.
May thy gracious countenance shine upon us."

I mention the lyrics only to make two quick musical points
concerning the master's technique: 

1) The "eager steps" are represented by the plodding eighth notes in the
   vocal lines, which account for much of the charm of the movement.

2) The dissonance in measures 54 - 61 coincides with the occurrence of
   the words "ailing and errant," lending a bit of imagery to to work.

Bach was also a student of numerology, a "science" common
during his lifetime, and a very devout Lutheran as well. I
would thus speculate that the choice of two voices for this
piece is representative of the dual nature of Christ, the
central figure. Moreover, the length of the piece (99
measures as written, though you may count more due to the
da capo repeat) makes for two occurrences of 3^2, or 3x3,
three representing the Holy Trinity. Ninety-nine itself is,
of course, 3x33. And 33 is also 3x11 - 3 for the Holy
Trinity, and the sum of 1+1 is two (dual nature of Christ).
And so on. 

The interested reader may find many such curious
numerological "coincidences" in Bach's works. 

BWV 78 was written for the occasion 14th Sunday after
Trinity. 

Throughout the many hours of notating and sequencing the
duet, I never tired of listening to Bach's music, something
which I can say for few composers.  I hope the listener has
as much fun listening to this piece as I did in recreating
it for MIDI. 

- Ray Izumi, 18 Aug. 1996
  74353.1735@compuserve.com