Bach's Cantata Compositional Genesis

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 24, 2023):
The three full cycles of church cantatas that Bach composed constitute his most significant creative endeavor. It began with the affirmation of his Lutheran calling in 1708 for a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God," as the beginnings of the modern cantata form began with Erdmann Neumeister. The genesis of Bach's cantata composition is found in three distinct phases: Mühlhausen (1707-08) with special, occasional sacred concerto commissions; Weimar (1708-17) modern sacred cantatas; Cöthen dramatic occasional vocal serenades (BCW), "a preparatory time for his years of blossoming in Leipzig," says Marcus Rathey.¹ As Bach began to master the art of composition as organist and chamber player at the Weimar Court in 1708, he intentionally studied various genres of instrumental and vocal music following his earlier concerto-style proto-cantatas BWV 4, 106, 131, 150, 196, 71 and the text-only Ratswahl cantatas for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 in 1709 and 1138.2 in 1710.² These early works relied on biblical quotations and chorale verses as texts for these vocal concertos. As occasional church pieces of joy and sorrow,³ they were not part of Bach three full church-year cycles but part of his cycle of joy (town council, wedding) and sorrow (memorial, funeral), as well as sacred Leipzig special services of allegiance and thanksgiving to the governing Catholic Saxon Court, particularly as special observances of the bicentennial of the Reformation, most notably the Augsburg Confession in 1730, and Leipzig’s acceptance of the Reformation in 1739. Various lyricists were involved in compiling texts for these occasional works (except for Easter Sunday BWV 4), usually connected to the special church service of joy (town council, wedding) or sorrow (memorial service, funeral). Bach also began to develop a wide range of types of church music beyond cantatas and oratorios to include serenades, motets with keyboard accompaniment, Latin church music, chorale collections, and the composition of instrumental keyboard music for service chorales and categories of hymns related to Lutheran teachings. He would perfect certain musical genres such as the chorale cantata, the Passion oratorio, concerted cantatas with special instruments such as the obbligato organ, keyboard concertos and the deployment of instrumental movements transformed as cantata sinfonias, choruses and arias.

Bach's Modern Cantatas, BWV 208.1, 18, 199.1, 21.1, 63.1

The first major modern cantata watershed event was the profane commission for Hunting Cantata 208.1, "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!" (My only joy is in the merry hunt!; trans. Z. Philipp Ambrose, UVM), for the Birthday of Prince Christian von Saxe-Weißenfels (23 February 2013, Salomo Franck 1716 text).⁴ Bach had access to the Weißenfels court library where he probably found early sacred cantata texts of Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756) at Weissenfels, (BCW) and Georg Christian Lehms (1684-1717) at Hesse-Darmstadt (BCW). Bach in Weimar (1708-1717) began creating four modern sacred cantatas originally as "anytime" musical sermons (BWV 18, 199.1, 21.1, 63.1),⁵ dating before 1714: 1. SATB solo Cantata 18, "Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt" (Just as the rain and snow fall from heaven, Isaiah 55:10), to a Neumeister III 1711 text for Pre-Lenten Sexagesimae Sunday (Bach Digital, "Date of origin around 1713-1714, first performance February 24, 1715 at the latest"); 2. soprano solo Cantata 199.1, "Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut" (My heart swims in blood) to a text of Lehms for the 11th Sunday after Trinity (Bach Digital, "Date of origin 1712-1713. Revival (cannot be dated) with recasting and rev. of the obligatory part in movement 6 (Vc instead of Va; Klaus Hofmann BJ 2013, Anmerkungen [Remarks] zu Bachs Kantate "Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut" (BWV 199), Bach-Jahrbuch), possibly 12 August 1714; and 3. undesignated two-part Cantata 21.1, "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis" (I had much affliction), for any time and the 3rd Sunday after Trinity [origin before December 1713 ?Bach Halle probe piece]; June 17, 1714), with arias and recitatives probably of Weimar court poet Salomo Franck (Bach Digital, Bach Digital), discussion BCW).⁶ A fourth possibly early work is BWV 63.1, "Christen, ätzet diesen Tag" (Christians, etch ye now this day) for Christmas Day 1714 or before (Bach Digital), to a text of Johann Michael Heineccius (BCW, pastor at the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle, which may have been Bach's probe piece in December 1713. Another early cantata is New Year's Cantata 143, "Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele" [II] (Praise thou the Lord, O my spirit, trans. Z Philip Ambrose, UVM; discussion, BCW; text modeled after Neumeister I 1700) before 1713, probably around 1709-1717,⁷ originally possibly Mühlhausen Ratswahl Cantata BWV 1138.2 (Bach Digital). Two sacred cantatas of Lehms (Wikipedia) may have originated for the 7th Sunday after Trinity in 1714: Cantata 54, "Widerstehe doch der Sünde" (Stand steadfast against transgression, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose, UVM); see dating explanation,⁸ and Cantata 1136=Anh. 209, "Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich" (Dearest God, forget'st thou me!, trans. Z.Philip Ambrose, BCW, Bach Digital.

Weimar Monthly Service Cantatas

The second major modern cantata watershed event was on March 4, 1714, when Bach was appointed Weimar court concertmaster to produce a new scared cantata for Sunday service every four weeks. It is assumed that the court Kapellmeister Samuel Drese and his son, Johann Wilhelm Drese, assistant Kapellmeister, composed the other cantatas in sequence with Bach, using texts of court poet Salomo Franck (BCW) <<As court concertmaster, J. S. Bach had taken on the obligation to perform new pieces every month in the Weimar Castle Church. By the end of 1716, a good 20 church cantatas had been composed, the chronology of which has posed a challenge to research since Philipp Spitta's Bach biography. On the basis of new documents, the problems of chronology are reconsidered>> (abstract google translate), says Klaus Hofmann.⁹ Three other Bach scholars have offered different datings, Alfred Dürr, Christoph Wolff, and Konrad Kuster, according to the Bach Cantatas Website article, "Bach's Weimar Cantatas."¹⁰ Some 22 sacred cantatas are dated from 1713 to 1716: 21, 199, 182, 12, 172, 61, 152, 18, 54, 31, 165, 185, 163, 132, 63, 155, 80a/80.1, 161, 162, 70a, 186a, 147a. Four early sacred cantatas described above (paragraph beginning "The first major modern cantata watershed event") may be dated or have begun before 1714 (* librettist probably Franck, unpublished librettos before 1714): BWV 18.1 (Neumeister III), 199.1 (Lehms), 21.1 (*Franck), 63.1 (*Heineccius), ifor general use (per ogni tempo) then for a specific Sunday, with two undergoing major transformations (BWV 21.1 and 63.1). Some of these Sundays also had other texts available. Franck (1659-1725, Wikipedia) as Weimar court poet actively collaborated with Bach in 1715 in his first modern cantata cycle, Evagelisches Andachts-Opffer.¹¹ Together, Franck and Bach crafted three types of poetic, interpretive cantata text formats in Weimar, says Alfred Dürr:¹² 1. Franck's "transitional type (without recitative verse): BWV 182, 21, 172, 70a, 1865a, 147a"; and the first four Neumeister cantata types:¹³ 2. Neumeister types I and II (recitatives and arias without biblical words or chorale": 3. Neumeister types III and IV (recitatives and arias with biblical words or chorale or both: BWV 18, 21, 61, 80a, 31, 165, 1856, 163, 132, 155, 161, 162." The movement form developments Alfred Dürr outlines (Ibid.: 17ff) that involve the simple (voice and continuo) recitative with narration, instrumental accompanied recitative, transitional-intermediate arioso, arias becoming da-capo (ABA) in 1714 then free-da-capo or complex, and choruses (and arias) of increasing diversity with vocal insertions and chorale tropes. "By the time Bach's Weimar output of cantatas was complete, the forms of the Bach cantata — both those of the individual movement and of the overall work — were, in all essentials established," says Dürr. "What was new in Cöthen and Leipzig was, above all, an expansion of existing forms and variation of the available possibilities."

Other Weimar Vocal Music

While Bach concentrated his Weimar vocal music composition on sacred cantatas, he also began experimenting with other vocal music forms involving occasional music of sorrow. The record of Bach performances of music of sorrow in Weimar is quite sketchy, possibly involving presentations of two funeral motets, a Passion oratorio, court funeral music, and an oratorio Passion. About 1712/13, he composed motet “Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, Mein Jesu" (I will not leave you before you bless me [after Genesis 32:26b], my Jesus), BWV 1164= Anh. 159, with the 1560 hymn, “Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz” (YouTube). About 1715 he composed Motet "Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir" (Do not fear, I am with you, Isaiah 41:10), BWV 228, with Paul Gerhardt's 1653, "Warum sollt ich mich den grämen?" (YouTube). Both motets dated earlier in recent years are eight-voice, double chorus settings (SSAATTBB) with appropriate chorales. Bach also may have composed materials found later in Motets BWV 227 and 226 ("Weimar-Leipzig Occasional Music of Sorrow," BCW). About 1710/1711 Bach presented the so-called "Kaiser" St. Mark Passion oratorio, BWV 1166.1 on Good Friday (BCW) in Weimar or possibly Weissenfels. In Leipzig, Bach performed the work twice on Good Friday, BWV 1166.2 in 1726, and the "Kaiser" /Handel, Pasticcio, BWV 1166.3 in 1747. On Thursday, April 2, 1716, a funeral cantata for Weimar Prince Johann Ernst was presented, BWV 1142 (Bach Digital; see BCW: "Weimar Funeral Cantata BC 19" and Wikipedia). The so-called Bach Weimar-Gotha Oratorio Passion, Bach Compendium BC D-1 (not accepted in the BWV canon) was presented on Good Friday, 26 March 1717, at Gotha, with as many as nine movements attributed to Bach (Wikipedia), with three aria texts in the St. John Passion, 2nd version, BWV 245.2, Nos. 11+, 13^II and 19^II (Bach Digital), attributed to Bach student Christoph Birkmann (Wikipedia).

Bach's Weimar Cantata Calendar, 1714-17

The actual Weimar services and performances are first found in the Lutheran Church Year calendar 1714 (BCW): Palm/Annunciation Sunday, BWV 182 (*Franck); Jubilate, BWV 12 (*Franck); Pentecost, BWV 172 (*Franck); 3rd Sunday after Trinity, BWV 21 (*Franck); 7th Sunday after Trinity, ?BWV 54 (Lehms) or ?BWV 1136 (Lehms); 11^th Sunday after Trinity, BWV 199.1 (Lehms); no performances (closed period) 15th, 19th, and 23^rd Sundays after Trinity; 1st Sunday in Advent, BWV 61 (Neumeister IV chorale); Sunday after Christmas, BWV 152 (Franck 1715 SB solo). Cantata 21.1 is in two parts while the Lehms-texted BWV 199.1, 54, and 1136 (text only) are solo works. The 1715 calendar (BCW) focuses on Franck's first published cantata cycle, Evangelisches Andachtsopfer, which Bach set for 12 cantatas (BWV 31, 72, 80, 132, 152, 161-165, 168, 185).

Cantatas actually presented in 1715 are: 3rd Sunday after Epiphany, BWV 72 (Franck 1715 chorus) planned but delayed to 1726; Sexagesimae, BWV 18 (Franck 1715 chorus); 4^th Sunday in Lent (Oculi), BWV 54 (Lehms), and BWV 80.1 (Franck 1715 chorale); Easter Sunday, BWV 31 (Franck 1715 chorus); 4^th Sunday after Easter (Kantate), BWV Anh. 191 (text only, music lost, Franck 1715, Bach Digital); Trinity Sunday, BWV 165 (SATB solo, Franck 1715); 4^th SundaySunday after Trinity, BWV 185 (SATB solo, Franck 1715); 8^th, 12^th, 16^th, 20^th Sundays after Trinity, closed period, mourning for Prince Johann Ernst; 23^rd Sunday after Trinity, BWV 163 (SATB solo, Franck 1715); and 4^th Sunday in Advent, BWV 132 (SATB solo, Franck 1715). Franck's 1715 published cycle involves four solo texts for 1715 services "presumably set to music by Bach," suggests Hofmann (Ibid,: 22): "Mein Jesu laß Mein Herze sein" for Sexagesmae Sunday (Bach instead performed the Neumeister text for STB solo Cantata 18; for the 8^th Sunday after Trinity, Bach planned to set "Laß, Seele, Dich Irrlicher nicht verführen"; for the 12th Sunday after Trinity, Bach planned to set "Ach, die Not ist übergroß"; for the 16^th Sunday after Trinity, Bach sketched chorale chorus Cantata 161, "Komm, du süße Todesstunde" (Come, O death, thou sweetest hour, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose), which Bach performed on the same Sunday the next year, September 27, 1716; on the 24^th Sunday after Trinity Bach planned to present "Süßes Sterben, sanftes Schafen" but switched to presenting Cantata 163 on the 23^rd Sunday after Trinity on November 24, 1715 (Bach Digital).

In 1716, Franck set no new church cycle but published a collection of mixed Geist- und Weltlicher Poesien Zweyter Theil (Jena, 1716), which includes worldly Cantata 208.1, Bach proceeded to present solo SATB Cantata 155 on the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany (Franck 1715 text). At this point, it appears that Bach ceased to present new cantatas every four weeks and became more selective, sometimes possibly reperforming cantatas from 1715, which also were repeated in Leipzig in 17234-24. Materials from four new works may have been used: pastiche Cantata 158 with two movements possibly from unpublished Franck text, may have been performed on the Feast of the Purification, February 2, 1716, which fell on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: 1. bass aria with soprano chorale, "Welt ade! Ich bin dein müde" (World, farewell, I am weary of thee, same dictum); 2. bass recitative and arioso, "Nun, Herr, regiere meinen Sinn" (Now, Lord, govern my thoughts); and 3. probably an appropriate closing plain chorale such as BWV 382, "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin" (Wpeace and joy I journey therein). For Sexagesimae Sunday 1716, Bach may have planned Cantata 181, "Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister" (Insincere and fickle spirits, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose), poet unknown ?Franck, with a closing chorus, presented on Sexagesimae 1724 and paired with a reperformance of Cantata 18 (BCW). Instead, Bach may have presented "Mein Jesu laß Mein Herze sein" on Sexagesimae 1716.

Scholar Klaus Hofmann suggests that Bach repeated cantatas from Franck's 1715 full cycle (Ibid.: 29): BWV 80.1 for Oculi (which Bach expanded to BWV80.3 as a Reformation chorale cantata for 1738) ; Cantata 31 for Easter Sunday (reperformed Easter Sunday 1724); lost cantata BWV Anh. 191, "Leb Ich oder eb ich nicht," Cantate (3rd Sunday after Easter); Cantata 165 for the Trinity Festival (reperformed for Trinity Festival 1724); Cantata 185 for the 4th Sunday after Trinity (reperformed on 4th Sunday after Trinity 1724); lost cantata "Laß, Seele, Dich Irrlicher nicht verführen," for the 8th Sunday after Trinity; lost cantata "Ach, die Not ist übergroß," for the 12th Sunday After Trinity; Cantata 161 on 16th Sunday after Trinity (reperformed on 16th Sunday after Trinity 1725) , Cantata 162 for the 20th Sunday after Trinity (reperformed on 20th Sunday after Trinity 1723); and lost cantata "Süßes Sterben, sanftes Schafen," on the 24th Sunday after Trinity 1716. In the 1717 calendar (BCW), Bach presented no cantatas until Advent when he turned to the new Franck cycle text, Evangelische Sonn-und Fest-Tages Andachten (Weimar, Jena, 1717), "transitional type (without recitative verse) involving Cantatas for the first, second and third Sundays in Advent, respectively BWV 70a, 147a, and 186a, but ceased when he was not appointed Capellmeister and provided no performances in Weimar in 1718 (BCW).

Weimar Cantata Texts, 1725

Bach judiciously utilized his two dozen Weimar cantatas in Leipzig in 1723-24, adapting Advent and Lent works not allowed there to be used for other services and in 1725 presented two Franck-texted Cantatas 168 and 164,¹⁴ as well as finally reperformung Cantata 152 for the Sunday after Christmas in 1726. There is no accounting of Cantatas BWV 54 and 1136, "Liebster Gott, vergißt du mich" (Dearest God, forget me, repeated on the 7th Sunday after Trinity in Leipzig, although July 15, 1725 was available (BCW), while BWV 132, "Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn!" (Make ready the pathways, make ready the road!, trans. Z.Philip Ambrose) could have been reperformed on the 1st Sunday in Advent to begin chronologically the third cantata cycle, December 2, 1725. In 1725-26 Bach used the Lehms texts in his third cycle for the Christmas festival, BWV 110, 57, and 151; BWV 28, Sunday after Christmas; BWV 16, 32, and 13 for New Year's and the first two Sundays after Epiphany respectively; and BWV 35 for the 6th Sunday after Trinity and BWV 170 for the 12th Sunday after Trinity, with eight of the nine as solo cantatas, the exception being BWV 100 for Christmas.

Bach may have chosen these libretti as a tribute to his Weimar friend, who died on June 14 (or July 11), 1725. In addition, this recent scholarship of Blanken (Ibid.) also has found that Bach in Leipzig probably revived dialogue Cantata 152, “Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn” (Step forward on the way of faith), for the Sunday after Christmas, December 29, 1726. This first Bach-Weimar collaboration to the 1715 text, premiered on December 30, 1714, is the last of some 24 Bach cantatas composed in Weimar to be confirmed as having been utilized in Leipzig church services, except for the 4th Sunday in Advent, Cantata 132, "Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn!" (Make ready the pathways, make ready the road!, trans. Z, Philip PhilipAmbrose, text Franck 1715; BCW), which could have opened his Leipzig third cycle, 1st Sunday in Advent, December 2 1725, or in subsequent years (BCW). Two other cantatas to texts of Neumeister III (Geistliches Singen und Spielen, 1714) have possible origins in Weimar: Pentecost Sunday Cantata 59, Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten (He who loves me will keep my commandments [Jn. 14:23], trans. Z. Philip Ambrose, UVM), and Cantata 24, "Ein ungefärbt Gemüte" (An undisguised intention, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose. UVM), for the 4th Sunday after Trinity. Pentecost was an important service for Bach, who set Franck's 1715 text as Cantata 31 but had the Neumeister text in reserve and may have composed the first version of Cantata 59 for Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 1716. Subsequently, according to scholarly sources, Bach may have presented another version in Carlsbad in 5 June 1718 (Bach Digital), and still another version on Pentecost Sunday, May 16, 1723 (Bach Digital), in the Leipzig University Paulinerkirche. Intimate solo Cantatas 24 and 185 were presented in Leipzig on the 4th Sunday after Trinity, as Bach switched from two-part Cantatas 75, 76, and 21 for the first three Sundays after Trinity.

Postscript: In retrospect, Bach's cantata compositions in Weimar show his compositional maturity while developing thematic and contextual perspectives which would be explored further in Leipzig in his heterogeneous first and third cycles of 1723-24 and 1725-27 with various mini-cycles and a flowering of other forms of sacred vocal music. A profound understanding of Bach's tonal allegory and cantata analysis in his 1714 Weimar Cantatas is found in Eric Chafe's Tears into Wine: J. S. Bach's Cantata 21 in its Musical and Theological Contexts (New York: Oxford University Press, 14 May 2015, 632 pages), Oxford University Press (with Table of Contents).

By the time Bach began his first full sacred cycle in Leipzig, he was able to incorporate two dozen Weimar cantatas and at least five from Cöthen to help shape his Lutheran calling of a "well-regulated church music to of God," beginning exactly three centuries ago.

ENDNOTES

¹ Marcus Rathey, "Printing, politics and 'a well-regulated church music': a new perspective on J. S. Bach's Mühlhausen cantatas," in Early Music 44, no. 3 (Oxford University Press, August 2016: 449-460), Jstor.
² Some Bach Early Pre-Weimar Cantatas are researched in the new Bärenreiter, Neue Bach Ausgabe Revised Edition in two volumes: 1. Andreas Glöckner, Weimar Cantatas BWV 31, 132, 143 (BA 5936-01, 2012, Bärenreiter); 2. Peter Wollny, Pre Weimar Cantatas BWV 21, 106, 131, 150 (BA 5940-01, in preparation, Bäreinreiter); two are found in the NBA 3rd edition, Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis BWV³ (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2022), (Breitkopf; see critique, BCW: BWV 1138.1 and 1138.2; these works also can be accessed through Bach Digital, Bach Digital.
³ Occasional music of joy and sorrow: BCW, BCW; also, Music of Praise, Thanksgiving: Special Services BCW; festive music for Leipzig University celebrations, Oxford University Press; cantata texts as mini-cycles, BCW; Bach's Broad Spectrum of Different Compositional Settings, BCW.
⁴ Hunting Cantata 208.1: Bach Digital; discussion, BCW; recording, YouTube; music, BCW, Bach Digital.
⁵ Four modern sacred cantatas as musical sermons (BWV 18, 199.1, 21.1, 63.1): dating studied in Klaus Hofmann, "Anmerkungen zur Datierung einiger Kantaten aus Bachs Weimarer Zeit" (Notes on the dating of some cantatas from Bach's Weimar period), in Bach Jahrbuch 108 (2022: 45-68), Google Books.
⁶ Cantata 21: four fugal biblical choruses in Cantata 21/2, 6, 9, 11 may have been composed originally for the Mühlhausen town council, 1709, BWV 1138.1=Anh. 192 (with the opening sinfonia, three arias, and two recitative added later to a two-part cantata, possibly for Bach's Halle probe in December 2013.
⁷ Three recent studies affirm the authenticity of Bach's Cantata BWV 143: 1. Andreas Glöckner's 2012 NBA Rev. Ed., Vol.2, critical report with Eng. trans. (Bärenreiter), based on a new, posthumous source (Bach Digital), with the presumed original version in C Major as an appendix (119-150), Bach Weimarer Kantaten (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2012; BA 5936). 2. Don Smithers, Trumpets, Horns, and Bach «Abschriften» at the time of Christian Friedrich Penzel: Probing the Pedigree of «BWV» 143 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Academic Research, 2015), Amazon.com: "Look inside"); Smithers bibliography, Bach-Bibliographie). 3. Marcus Rathey, "Printing, politics and ‘a well-regulated church music’: a new perspective on J. S. Bach’s Mühlhausen cantatas," in Early Music 44: 449-60), Oxford Academic: Early Music (source, BCW).
⁸ Cantata 54 dating explanation (source BCW): Composed: Weimar, 1714; 1^st performance: March 24, 1715 (?) - Weimar
<<There are some considerable problems here that make a definite assignment impossible. We are left with the possibilities indicated in the revised (English) Dürr. Klaus Hofmann (1993) in one of the Bach journals is primarily responsible for the 1715 date. The problem with the March 4, 1714 date is that it would have occurred two days after Bach’s appointment as Concertmaster at the Weimar court to compose scared cantatas every four weeks. The only reason that Oculi has been assigned is because printed text book has this Sunday assigned (Bach Digital). This is a good reason, but because the references to the Epistle and Gospel readings on Oculi Sunday are rather vague and because Bach composed a similar early cantata as “in ogni tempo”, Hans-Joachim Schulze considers the 7^th Sunday after Trinity 1714 as a possibility because some possible references to the readings for that Sunday. Dürr (English + update) states: ‘most likely in summer or autumn’ of 1714. Küster dates this cantata before 1714. The NBA KB I/18 states that it could have been composed as early as 1713 possibly for Oculi or another suitable point in the year (in ogni tempo, any time). Schulze also explains that the 1st mvt. was used by Bach with a different text as part of the St. Mark Passion.>>
⁹ Klaus Hofmann, "Neue Überlegungen zu Bachs Weimarer Kantaten-Kalender" (New thoughts on Bach's Weimar cantata calendar), in Bach-Jahrbuch BD 79 (1993: 9-30), Bach-Jahrbuch: see Abstract in German. The most recent study of Weimar cantatas is Hofmann's "Anmerkungen zur Datierung einiger Kantaten aus Bachs Weimarer Zeit" (Notes on the dating of some cantatas from Bach's Weimar period), in Bach Jahrbuch 2022 (108: 45-68), Nomos Library.
¹⁰ Bach Cantatas Website, "Bach's Weimar Cantatas" (BCW) provides an accounting of Bach's cantatas composed or planned in Weimar.
¹¹ Salomo Franck, Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer, ed. Johann Felix Bielcken (Weimar, 1715), in Geistliche Sänger der christlichen Kirche deutscher Nation: Salomo Franck's Geistliche Lieder, Dr. J. K. Schauer, ed. Wilhelm Schircks (Halle: Julius Fricke Verlag, 1755), Google Books Reader: abstract: iii (google trans.): <<Salomo Franck's sacred songs in a contemporary selection faithfully reproduced from the original text, and with notes, as if accompanied by a biography and characterization of the poet.>>
¹²Alfred Dürr, "Development of the Bach Cantata: 2.2 Weimar Cantatas of the Newer Type," in The Cantatas of J. S. Bach, rev. and trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1905: 16), Amazon.com.
¹³ Neumeister church year cantata cycles: I. Geistlichen Cantaten, solo arias, recitatives (Weißenfels, 1700), texts in BWV 27, 56, 160=TVWV 1:877; II. Rudolstadt Cycle, arias, recits. w/short tuttis (1708); III, Geistliches Singen und Spielen, recits-arias, biblical choruses, chorales in BWV 18, 24, 28, 59, 61 (Gotha: 1711); IV, Fünffache Kirchen-Andachten (Leipzig 1716), reprint of 1714 BWV 24, 28, 61.
¹⁴ 1725 Franck-Texted Cantatas (BCW): The Cantata 161 repeat in 1725 came during the omnes tempore Trinity Time period when Bach selectively premiered two other cantatas, BWV 168, “Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort” (Give an account of yourself! [Luke 16:2] Word of thunder, BCML BCW), for the 9^th Sunday after Trinity, and BWV 164, “Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet” (You, who take your name from Christ, BCML BCW), for the 13th Sunday aftTrinity These two cantatas were an addendum to a fruitful collaboration with Weimar Court poet Salomo Franck that produced two years of service cantatas, 1715-16, totaling 13 mostly intimate solo works presented monthly and published in the 1715 annual cycle text, Evangelisches Andachts-Opfer (Evangelical Devotional Offerings).

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To Come: Bach's Leipzig calling preparation.

Miguel Prohaska wrote (May 25, 2023):
[To William L. Hoffman] Thank you very much for this contribution. Christoph Wolff wrote about the Weimar Cantatas, from a different perspective, in his book The Learned Musician , chapter 6, section "Mostly Music for The Heaven's Castle" pages 155 to 167, 2013 edition.

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 26, 2023):
One additional footnote: 15 Salomo Franck, Evangelische Sonn-und Fest-Tages Andachten (Weimar, Jena, 1717), Google Books Reader

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 26, 2023):
[To Miguel Prohaska] Thank you for pointing out Christoph Wolff's impressive biography, Bach: The Learned Musician, the section on the Weimar cantatas, which reveals the learned breadth and depth of Bach and what his music teaches us in this watershed period (1713-16). Among Wolff's learned insights are the "Two major factors stimulated Bach's interest in the cantata genre" (page 165f): "the collaboration with Salomo Franck" and the "professional competence and versatility of the Weimar Court capelle, as well as the congenial and intimate space available at the palace church" ("The Heaven's Castle"). The result was this "repertoire exhibits a great diversity" of form, instrumentation, and vocal dimension with a "spectrum of choruses" and "Italianate melodic declamation and phrasing with emphatic expression," yielding "a systematic exploration of nearly all compositional possibilities." Most recently, Wolff complements these insights with Bach vocal: Ein Handbuch (Carus-Verlag).