One of the best known of Bach's earlier cantatas, No. 106 ("God's time is the best of all times") was almost certainly composed as a funeral work, possibly for the obsequies of Bach's uncle Tobias Lämmerwirt, who died in August 1707. Frequently referred to as the "Actus tragicus," it was probably written in Mühlhausen, the Thuringian town in which Bach served as organist in 1707-08. The text consists of a group of Bible verses and chorale strophes, brought together by an unknown compiler; they form a continuous sequence of eight sections in performance. The vocal scoring is for the usual four-part chorus, with solo ariosos for tenor (No. 3), bass (No. 4) alto (No. 6), and bass and alto (No. 7). The unusual instrumental scoring of two recorders (an instrument associated with death), two violas da gamba, and continuo underlines the serious nature of the work; the prevailing dark-hued texture is established from the outset in the somber but peaceful beauty of the opening instrumental sonatina, a format also adopted in the roughly contemporaneous Cantata No. 4. The sonatina leads into a chorus propounding the theme that life and death come to all in God's own good time. The chorus develops into a lively fugal section as man's days on earth are considered, but again takes on a darker resonance as the text refers to his mortality. To a halting arioso the tenor soloist laments the brevity of man's life on earth, only to be emphatically reminded by the bass that it is God's law that all men must die. The superb chorus that stands at the center of the cantata at first elaborates on this theme, but then tranquilly welcomes the thought of death with the words "Yes, come Lord Jesus." The idea of the repose of death is then picked up in the sole aria for alto with an obbligato part for viola da gamba. The bass then follows with the words of Christ to the sinner on the cross, before the chorale hymn "In dich hab ich gehoffet, Herr" (composed by Adam Reusner in 1533) and a fugue on the word "Amen" bring this short, but intensely moving cantata to an unexpectedly exuberant conclusion.

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