Bach joined the ducal court at Weimar as organist in 1708, being promoted to concertmaster at the end of 1713. Prior to this appointment, there were no demands on him to compose church cantatas. Recent research has shown that Cantata No. 199, "Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (My Heart Swims in Blood) provides one of the few exceptions, having been first given at Weimar on August 27, 1713, the 11th Sunday after Trinity. It was also performed in the ducal chapel on the equivalent Sunday the following year, by which time Bach's new duties as concertmaster called for the preparation and performance of one church cantata every month. The cantata is the earliest extant cantata by Bach for solo voice, in this instance, soprano. The vocal parts are technically demanding, containing challenges that Weimar's accomplished professional singers could meet. In fact, the work may have been composed for one such singer, falsettist Johann Friedrich Weldig. The composer later revived the work in Cöthen (where it may have been sung by his second wife, Anna Magdalena, a highly accomplished singer) and in Leipzig. The text by Darmstadt court poet Georg Christian Lehms draws on the Gospel for the day (Luke 18:9-14), which relates the parable of the proud Pharisee and the humble tax collector. The theme is that of humility and repentance. Bach casts the cantata in eight sections alternating between recitative and aria, the only deviation being the interpolation of a stanza from the hymn Wo soll ich fliehen hin by Caspar Stieler (1679), the singers' intonation of the chorale supported by obbligato viola. With the exception of this typically Lutheran gesture, the scheme thus closely conforms to that of the Italian cantata, a form Bach is known to have studied with considerable interest. Unusually for Bach, the cantata opens with a deeply felt accompanied (strings alone) recitative, establishing from the outset the penitential mood of the work. The first aria is a grief-stricken supplication of great beauty accompanied by solo oboe, while the second is a broadly conceived plea to God to retain patience with the sinner. The final aria is cast in the form of a gigue, the dance-like rhythms underpinning the singers' joyful acceptance of God's forgiveness.

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