Composed for the Sunday after Christmas, which fell on December 30, 1714, Bach's Cantata No. 152, "Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn" (Tread on the Path of Faith) (BWV 152) is one of his earliest cantatas. Written while he was employed in Weimar, the cantata sets a text by Salomon Franck based on the Gospel According to Luke 2:33-40. The cantata is scored for soprano and bass soloists, strings, and basso continuo, with flute, oboe, viola d'amore, and viola da gamba as instrumental soloists. "Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn" is in bleak E minor with its first, second, and sixth movements in the tonic and its third movement starting in E minor but modulating to the relative major of G major, the key of the fourth and fifth movements. The first movement, marked concerto, starts with a four-bar Adagio flourish in common time before becoming a fully worked-out Allegro ma non presto triple-time fugue for oboe, flute, viola d'amore, and viola da gamba plus continuo. The second movement is an aria in the form of a trio sonata for bass soloist, oboe, and continuo. The third is a highly embellished recitative for bass soloist and continuo. The fourth is an Adagio aria in the form of a trio sonata for soprano soloist, flute, viola d'amore, and continuo. The fifth is a secco recitative for bass soloist and continuo. The cantata concludes with a duet with the soprano taking the part of the soul and the bass taking the part of Jesus, with all four solo instruments taking a third line above them and the continuo below them.

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