Occasional, Non-Liturgical Music of Sorrow
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Occasional, Non-Liturgical Music of Sorrow

William L. Hoffman wrote (June 18, 2018):
Bach's occasional music of sorrow spans most of his composing career from Mühlhausen in 1707, with a handful of mostly occasional sacred works, as well as in Weimar, to Leipzig with the bulk of his works. Finally, in the later 1740s he presented a wide range of music from memorial motets of the Bach Family, most notably Johann Christoph and Johann Michael, to a setting of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, in a German contrafaction of penitential Psalm 51, "Tilge, Höchester, meine Sünden" (Blot out, Highest, My Sins), BWV 1083, to a Good Friday Passion Pasticcio of Graun that includes a 1735 contrafaction setting of the motet "Der Gerechte kömmt um" (The righteous perisheth). The performance dates of many of these works are still indeterminate. During this four-decade period, Bach composed works for special memorial services, notably early Cantatas 131 and 106 in Mühlhausen, as well as elaborate works with Passion materials in the 1727 Funeral Ode, Cantata 198, and the extended 1729 Cantata BWV 244a=1143, “Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt” (Cry, children, cry to all the world), for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen. These last two were Bach's most significant works, albeit involving considerable parody (new text underlay) from existing materials, often in multiple applications.

Funerals and weddings were a substantial portion of Bach's income in Leipzig as church cantor and town music director, while funerals varied greatly from year to year. "My present post amounts to about 700 thaler year and when there are more funerals than usual, the fees rise in proportion; but when a healthy wind blows, they fall accordingly," says Bach in a letter to his school friend Georg Erdmann in 1730 (BD 1: 23, NBR: 152). In perspective, Bach's base salary was 100 thallers annually while wedding and funerals generated 400-500 thallers, reports Noelle Herber.1 For the Cantata 198 Leipzig University church commission, Bach may have received 12 thalers (NBR:136) and for the Köthen event, including travel and board expenses, he was paid 230 thallers (BD II:259, NBR: 139). The cantatas and motets usually were presented during the memorial service just before the sermon, often based on a psalm, and in the case of the Köthen funeral music Bach set Psalm 68 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryU_l6Ixsc&t=3819s: 37:12), a possible contrafaction of the "Kyrie II" of the B-Minor Mass.

While Bach in his main duties as cantor created three extant annual church-year cantata cycles, he remained faithful to presenting annual Passions at Good Friday vespers, as well as the annual installation service of the town council with cantatas, often involving parody, as part of his civic duties to his employer, the council. By 1730, Bach had ceased annual creation and presentation of service cantatas and increasingly his vocal music creations involved drammi per musica and music for considerable other profane events of homage. Consequently, his estate division in 1750 focused on the distribution of his cantatas and oratorios to his two oldest sons, Wilhelm Friedemann, who received manuscripts from all three cycles, Carl Philipp Emmanuel sharing the first and third cycles while also receiving the miscellaneous category of occasional music of joy and sorrow, both with sacred and profane texts and appropriately catalogued in 1850 by Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt. 2

Most of the occasional music of joy and sorrow was distributed to various Leipzig sources: Bach's family and relatives, the Thomas school which kept virtually all the motets and some undesignated cantatas, and other Leipzig sources such as colleagues and students, many works eventually listed in the Leipzig publisher Breitkopf's 1761 catalogue, available for copying, including works Friedemann had inherited but were not account for and later were lost, like the 1731 St. Mark Passion.

Mühlhausen Music of Sorrow

Bach's first vocal works share several common characteristics which set them apart from his mature pieces composed in Weimar and perfected in Leipzig. They are in the old-fashion German motet-concerto style, prior to the Italianate poetic cantatas that were composed beginning about 1710 in sacred church year cycles. Previously, the texts usually quoted verbatim Martin Luther's German Bible and Lutheran hymns. The contrast between joy and sorrow was part of Luther's perspective on the harsh law in the Old Testament and the affirmative teachings in the Gospels. Bach's handful of old-style vocal pieces were created in Mühlhausen for special occasions involving non-liturgical services that were not part of the church year of Sundays and Feast Days. Consequently, none of these works was part of the 1750 estate division between his two oldest sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. They came to posterity through other avenues. Meanwhile, these early pieces technically revealed Bach's mastery of current musical forms and styles in motivic unity and use of reprise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach%27s_early_cantatas).

The Mühlhausen church service special occasions dictated Bach's emphasis on music of sorrow or joy, usually emphasizing the former. Best known are the memorial works, BWV 131, “Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir” (Out of the depths I cry, Lord, to you), a setting of penitential Psalm 130, de profundis, for an indeterminate penitential service (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUofsCL03l0), and Cantata 106, “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit” (God's time is the very best time, Acts 17:08, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc1Ve0TOF4c), for the funeral of Burgomeister Adolph Steckers, 16 September 1708, says Marcus Rathey.3 Of particular distinction is the “common musical language” of Cantatas 106 and 131, observes Richard D. P. Jones.4 During his early years Bach emphasized “short phrases and frequent cadencing , it reliance on stock figures and on certain mannerisms” such as the “anticipatory note figure, the echo effects, and diminuendo endings.” Using psalms and chorales as texts, both BWV 106 and 131 “are symmetrical in overall structure, alternating choruses and solos (or duets), and grouping them around a central axis."

These two cantatas in continuous madrigalian style contrast biblical-texted music of penitence: the setting of funeral Psalm 130 in Cantata 131 and a miniature Lukan Passion setting, BWV 106, subtitled “Actus tragicus” (Tragic Action), with the third movement, a narrative scena from Luke 23:46 and 23:43. These are an alto aria, “In deine Hände befehl’ ich meinen Geist" (Into thy hands I commit my spirit; quoted from Psalm 31:6), and a bass aria, “Heute wirst du mit mir im Paradies sein” (Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise), the latter accompanied by Luther’s Nunc dimittis chorale, “Mit Fried und Freud” (With Peace and Joy).5

Also of special note as music of sorrow is the Kyrie “Christe du Lamm Gottes” in F Major, BWV 233a, motet dated to 6 April 1708, Good Friday Service of Confession and General Absolution. It is a special dual-language setting of the Mass "Kyrie eleison" (Lord have mercy) and Luther's setting of the cantus firmus, “Christe, du Lamm Gottes” (Christ Thou Lamb of God, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BwPSI6P_zs). Like Bach's chorale settings in both Cantatas 106 ad 131, this is an example of a chorale trope which Bach used extensively in his Leipzig Passions of Matthew and John as well as in his chorale cantatas.

Two other Mühlhausen-dated 17078-08 works could have had liturgical uses in joyous settings with music that is decidedly sorrowful: Cantata 150, “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (For you, Lord, is my longing, Psalm 25:1b) in b minor suggesting a penitential service (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaIQm0ToQJw, may have been presented on Jubilate Sunday (3rd after Easter) with its sorrow-to-joy Gospel theme (John 3:20), or for the 3rd Sunday after Trinity with its theme of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV150-D6.htm; and chorale Cantata 4, "Christ lag in Todesbanden" (Christ lay in death's bonds, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ffg4mU7FNE), Easter Sunday, 4 April 1707, as Bach's test piece for the renewed organ at St. Blasius Church (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_lag_in_Todes_Banden,_BWV_4). The extant joyous works are Town Council Cantata BWV 71 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV71-D4.htm), wedding Cantata 196 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV196-D4.htm), and the wedding Quodlibet, BWV 524 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV524-Gen2.htm).

Weimar Music of Sorrow

The record of Bach performances of music of sorrow in Weimar is quite sketchy, possibly involving presentations of a Passion, court funeral music, and funeral motets. 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 Anh. 159 (Bach Compendium BC C-9), with the 1560 hymn, “Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1MF9R_yoXI). 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?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AtB1iWLVuQ) 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," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Weimar-Leipzig-Sorrow.htm).

Early in his Weimar tenure, about 1710-12, Bach copied the parts of the c1705 so-called "Keiser St. Mark Passion," Bach Compendium BC D 5, titled "Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet" (Jesus Christ was wounded for our transgressions, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00018426). There is no record of a Good Friday performance in Weimar and it is possible that Bach presented it elsewhere, perhaps at the Gotha Court which he visited in 1711 and where on 26 March 1717 (Good Friday) at the Kirche zu Scholß Friedrichstein he presented his Weimar/Gotha Passion, BC D 16 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001533?lang=en, or at the Weißenfels Court chapel where Erdmann Neumeister was the deacon and service music was provided. The importance of the Hamburg oratorio Passions of Keiser and Postel (St. John) in German is that they constituted the first oratorio form in the madrigalian Italian operatic tradition, as well as having German chorales (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark_Passion_(attributed_to_Keiser). Bach in Leipzig presented the Good Friday Passions and Town Council cantatas annually — the only musical forms recorded, the former based on his church duties as cantor and the latter as town music director and employee of the town council. Bach presented the "Keiser" St. Mark Passion in 1726 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgG5i55aR0hDUucsZYjgwjlL0ZYwpVCJe), and an expanded version with seven arias from Handel's "Brockes Passion," BNB I/K/2, c1747 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6nccVxX8oE).

While the various versions of the "Keiser St. Mark Passion" are documented, Bach's possible first funeral cantata for a dignitary is speculative. The extended, two-part sacred funeral cantata for Weimar Prince Johann Ernst was presented on Thursday, 2 April 1716, titled “Was ist, das wir Leben nennen?” (What is this that we call life?), BC B-19 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001531), with a surviving text possibly by Weimar court poet Salomo Franck with naturalistic and pietist images. No music is extant but the work contains 22 movements. No parodies have been found in Bach's music, it has not been accepted into the Bach Werke Verzeichnis (BWV) canon, and may have been the work of Weimar court composers Johann Samuel Drese or his son, Johann Wilhelm. The work is constructed like a Passion (without narrative), with three da-capo choruses (Nos. 1, 9, 22), four chorales, six recitatives, two ariosi, and seven arias (text, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001531?XSL.Style=detail). The chorales (with Bach's harmonization) are (No. 3) Michael Franck's "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig" (Ah, how fleeting, ah how transitory), cf. plain chorale (A minor), BWV 26/2 (Trinity 24, 1724); Knoll's Passion chorale (No. 6) "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" (Heartily doth await me), cf. plain chorale in D Major, BWV 271=247/58 (Mark Passion, 1731); and (Nos. 18, 21) Stanzas 1 and 3 of Vulpius' "Christus, der ist mein Leben" (Christ, You are my life), cf. plain chorales BWV 281-2 (F, G Major). The Prince's influence on Bach's music is discussed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Johann_Ernst_of_Saxe-Weimar.

Two other works of Bach were composed in Leipzig for royalty, Funeral Ode BWV 228, “Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl" (Let, Princess, let still one more glance), for Saxon Queen Christiane Eberhardine, 17 October 1727 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV198-D6.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOEbPrjuKXA), and Köthen funeral music, BWV 244a, “Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt” (Cry, children, cry to all the world), for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, 23 March 1729 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Weimar-Leipzig-Sorrow.htm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klagt,_Kinder,_klagt_es_aller_Welt,_BWV_244a, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryU_l6Ixsc\. Both works involve parody while Cantata 198 also was adapted through parody as a work for All-Souls/Saints Day, November 2, by Wilhelm Rust.

The last work of sorrow Bach composed at Weimar is the most enigmatic yet influential, according to Bach scholarship dating to 1850 when Higenfeldt (Ibid.: 113) suggested a Weimar Passion composed in 1717 was Bach's fifth Passion setting, probably the missing Matthew Passion (single chorus) in Emanuel Bach's 1790 estate catalogue, but which is considered today as the allusive "Weimar Passion" in the New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd. ed. 2001). No text has been found while as many as nine Bach movements have been suggested as sources in a poetic Passion oratorio setting favored in Gotha (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimarer_Passion) and later used in the St. John Passion. Recent scholarship suggests that the three aria insertions, BWV 245a, b, and c, in the 1725 second version were newly composed to texts of Bach student and later theologian Christoph Birkmann (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Birkmann-Christoph.htm). The others are the chorale choruses BWV 245.29 and BWV 23.4, the last three movements (Nos. 3-5: aria, recitative and chorale) of solo 1726 Cantata 55, although the chorale choruses' origins also are disputed (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV245-Gen7.htm).

A work long attributed to Bach and still treasured is Cantata 53, "Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde" (Strike then, longed for hour) of Georg Melchior Hofmann (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV53-D3.htm). It was originally thought to be for a child's funeral while having connections to Leipzig before 1715 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000068?lang=en).

Leipzig Music of Sorrow

Bach composed three or four motets appropriate for memorial services in Leipzig but only one has been given an actual performance and occasion: Motet BWV 226, Der Geist hilf unser Schwachheit auf” (The Spirit helpeth our infirmities), an eight-voice double chorus setting of Romans 8:26-7, “The Promise the Holy Spirit,” with a closing plain setting of the Lutheran Reformation chorale, “Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott” (Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkenv061aP0). Popular motet BWV 227, “Jesu, meine Freude” (Jesus, my joy), is a setting of six stanzas of Johann Franck’s Jesus Song alternating with five motet chorus settings of verses of Apostle Paul’s warning to the Romans 8:1, 2, 9-11 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8KBprMFq0s). Bach scholars now agree that most of the work was composed in the late 1720s, using varied motet chorale techniques, possibly for a funeral. Motet BWV 229, Komm, Jesu, komm, Mein Leib ist müde” (Come, Jesus, come, My body is weary, based on the Paul Thymich 1684 funeral motet, survives in a Bach student copy c1731-32 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWV229-Eng3.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2b8_eZtjvo). Chorus Motet BWV 230, “Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden” (Praise the Lord, all ye nations, Psalm 117), ?c.1720-39, is based on a lost score copy of Johann Christoph Altnikol, copy Breitkopf 1812 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncl4dXZ2PM, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWV230-Eng3.htm). The only joyous motet is BWV 225, “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” (Sing to the Lord a new song, Psalm 149), details, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/VD/BWV225.htm, October 6, 2016), music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNnar5MhSE.

As he completed his St. Matthew Passion and third cantata cycle in early 1727, Bach apparently composed and presented a double bill for a memorial service at the nearby Pomßen church. An intimate tenor-bass solo Cantata 157 “Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn!” (I am not letting you go, unless you bless me first!, Genesis 32:26), BC B-20.7 It is based on a Picander text also appropriate for the feast of the feast of the Purification. Cantata 157 closes with the Christian Keymann 1658 “Death & Dying” chorale, “Meinen Jesum lass ich nicht” (I do no leave my Jesus), which also closed the Passion first part on April 11, to a Picander libretto.

After the sermon for Christoph von Ponickau, Leipzig Chamberlain and Privy Councillor, the lost Cantata BWV Anh. 209, “Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich” (“Dearest God, will you forget me?), was performed. It is based on a 1711 text by the Darmstadt court poet Georg Christian Lehms (1684-1717), may have originated for an unknown memorial service in Weimar which emphasized Martin Luther’s Theology of the Cross, and is appropriate for the 7th Sunday after Trinity. The Cantata BWV Anh. 209 central chorale (no. 4) is the Erasmus Alberus 1561 hymn "Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz" (Why are you afflicted, my heart?), which also is the chorale that closes Motet BWV Anh. 159. This is a version of the free-standing chorale, BWV 421 in F Minor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX7ATXpYyaw, while BWV 420 in A minor may be the setting in Cantata BWV Anh. 209 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDHyYiFQ25o. Possibly originating in Weimar, these two cantatas would serve dual purposes as musical sermons for the church year services, BWV 157 for the Feast of the Purification, and BWV Anh. 209 for the 7th or 15th Sunday after Trinity. Details of both Cantatas 157 and Anh. 209 are found at http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV157-D4.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkefhmWadTc, and http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh209-D.htm, text http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWVAnh209-Eng3P.htm, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001520?lang=en.

Two works of Bach were composed in Leipzig for royalty, Funeral Ode BWV 228, “Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl" (Let, Princess, let still one more glance), for Saxon Queen Christiane Eberhardine, 17 October 1727 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV198-D6.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOEbPrjuKXA), and Köthen funeral music, BWV 244a, “Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt” (Cry, children, cry to all the world), for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, 23 March 1729 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Weimar-Leipzig-Sorrow.htm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klagt,_Kinder,_klagt_es_aller_Welt,_BWV_244a, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryU_l6Ixsc). Both works involve parody and their texts are decidedly profane for the occasions, the 1727 libretto by noted poet Johann Christoph Gottsched with learned and historical allusions (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWV198-Eng3.htm), as well as the latter text by Picander (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Pichon.htm#C1, "Liner Notes": 11f).

There are two funeral cantatas with texts only and questionable attribution, neither cited in the Bach Compendium or Zwang. One is secular Cantata BWV Anh. 17, Cantata "Schließt die Gruft, ihr Trauerglocken" (Close the tomb! Ye bells of sadness; Z. Philip Ambrose, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001324?XSL.Style=detail, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh16.htm), mourning of Duchess of Merseberg, Hedwig-Eleonora ), 9 November 1735, text by Balthasar Hoffmann (1697-1789), Persona: Virtue, Sadness, C, Posthumous Fame (http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/XXVII.html), source Breitkopf secular cantata printed texts, Hermann von Hase, Bach Jahrbuch 1913: 69-127. The closing chorus incipit, "Ruht, ihr heiligen Gebeine," resembles the incipit, "Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine" (Rest in peace, you sacred limbs), of the St. John Passion, BWV 245/39. The other is sacred Cantata "Mein Gott, nimm die gerechte Seele" (My God, accept the righteous spirit; by Z. Philip Ambrose), for funeral, 5 June 1732 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh17.htm, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001325?lang=en) listed in Breitkopf Catalogue 1761: 22, Sacred Occasional Cantatas, with BWV 106, and BWV 53; other source references: BGA XX.2 (Secular cantatas, Wilhelm Rust, 1873), and NBA KB I/34 (church service cantatas, Ryuichi Higuchi, 1990).

A very recent addition to the Bach corpus is a plain-chorale setting, BWV 1122, "Denket doch, ihr Menschenkinder" (Think,O children of men) of Johann Hübner,8 before 1735, possibly "for the funeral of a high-ranking citizen of Leipzig," says Peter Smaill (June 3, 2013, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV53-D3.htm). It is catalogued BWV on the basis of recent fundings of Peter Wollny and added to the BWV 1999 Schmieder Catalogue (ref. NBA KB III/2.1: 31), and previously listed in the Bach Compendium, BC F 41, 1700 (Penzel 1780:213; Wiemer 1985:1, https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/490920).

About 1735, Bach underlaid Luther's German text, "Der Gerechte kömmt um" (The righteous perisheth),9 to the Jacob Händle Gallus (1550-91) SATB motet, "Ecce quando moritur justus" (Behold how the righteous man dies, Isaiah 57:1-2), from the Florilegium portense to an SSATB Passion motet setting of "Tristis est anima mea" (My soul is exceeding sorrowful; Matthew 26:37-38,51,56). It was attributed to Bach's Leipzig predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, and now possibly to Italian musical models of Francesco Durante or Antonio Lotti, the latter who worked in the Dresden Court, 1717-20 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV1088-Gen.htm, "Discussions in the Week of March 31, 2013").

Motet BWV 118, "O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht” (O Jesus Christ, my life’s light), is based on Martin Behm's 1610 funeral hymn set to Seth Calvisius' 1594 adaptation of the melody Rex Christe factor omnium in two versions of the first stanza, composed 10 years apart, about 1736 for brass outdoors, and c.1746 for strings with winds indoors at church services (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV118-D3.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5i3OqXY_So).

Documentary evidence finds that in the 1740s Bach performed two funeral motets of Johann Christoph Bach from the Altbachisches Archiv: "Lieber Herr Gott, wecke uns auf" (Dear Lord God, awaken us, 1672, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O729CrcE5cE, http://emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/translations_motets/t_swv381_schutz.htm), Aug. 1748 - Oct 1749, and "Der Gerechte, ob er gleich zu zeitlich stirbt" (Though the righteous man die too soon, 1676), c1743-1746 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkaGSFWuqbU, http://old.sfbach.org/text-der-gerechte-ob-er-gleich-zu-zeitlich-stirbt.

About 1746-47, Bach provided a contrafaction adaptation of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, penitential Psalm 51, "Tilge, Höchester, meine Sünden" (Blot out, Highest, My Sins), BWV 1083 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV1083-Gen2.htm, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001269?lang=en, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHCoKWZLXKA). Its purpose is unknown although it could have been appropriate as a funeral work, for the Holy Thursday Communion service, or for the Good Friday vesper service. It has a distinguished provenance: J. S. Bach - E. J. F. Altnikol (born Bach daughter)/J. C. Altnikol (1750) - C. P. E. Bach (after 1759) - C. S. Gähler (1789) - G. Poelchau (before 1826?) - BB (now Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung) (1841).

Other memorial music possibly performed in the mid 1740s includes: the Sebastian Knüpfer (1633-76) "Erforsche Mich, Gott," BWV deest; three movements from Johann Ernst Bach's funeral cantata, "Mein Odem ist schwacht," BWV 222; and three "motets" of Johann Christoph Bach (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Weimar-Leipzig-Sorrow.htm). In addition, Daniel Melamed in his J. S. Bach and the German Motet (37), also identifies four works of Johann Michael Bach, including "Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe" (which uses the BWV 118 chorale), in Table 3-2 (p.37), "Motets from J. S. Bach's library and their texts." Sebastian Knüpfer's "Erforsche Mich, Gott," BWV deest, survives as a 1746/47 copy of the Thomas Cantor (1632-76) https://www.muziekweb.nl/Link/DBX9989/Die-Motetten, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Knüpfer). Movements of Funeral Cantata BWV 222, "Mein Odem is schwach" (My breath is weak, Isaiah 17:1) are attributed to Johann Ernst Bach (1722-1777) c. 1740 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV222-D.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjOwrT2O2x8). The three funeral cantatas of Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Christoph.htm) that Sebastian copied in the mid 1740s are: “Der Gerechte, ob er gleich zu zeitlich stirb” (Though the righteous man die too soon, Provewrbs 4:7, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biNMVFKpZM4); “Unsers Herzens Freude hat ein Ende” (The joy of our hearts is ceased, Lamentations 5:15, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89FAQkxpZVo); and “Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener” (Lord, let thy servant depart in peace, Luke 2:29-32, Simeon’s canticle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YiGUUQtHAc); also http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/AltBachische-CantusColln.htm. Christoph’s setting of "Fürchte dich nicht" is found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZTktGJgEGU. Johann Michael Bach’s "Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe” is found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzSWeesuPSE. Other Michael Bach (1648-94, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Michael_Bach) memorial motets that Bach did not copy from his Altbachisches Archiv (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altbachisches_Archiv) but may have performed, are: “Halt, was du hast” using “Jesu, meine Freude” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-zV214l2gw), “Ich weiss, dass mein Erlöser lebt” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRstkU5_NAI), “Herr, wenn ich dich nur habe Herr” (Herr, wenn ich dich), “Herr ich warte auf dein Heil” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15e2-yiCOyc), and “Unser Leben währet siebenzig Jahre” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fZVHFJ6V08).

FOOTNOTES

1 Noelle Herber, "Bach and Money: Sources of Salary and Supplemental Income in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750," Understanding Bach 12 (2017), Bach Network UK, https://www.bachnetwork.org/ub12/ub12-heber.pdf: 117.
2 Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt, Johann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Wirken, and Werke: ein Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte des achzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig: Hofmeister, 1850; reprint, Hilversum: Knuf, 1965: 107f).
3 Marcus Rathey, “Zur Datierung einger Vokalwerke Bachs in den Jahren 1707 and 1708,” in Bach Jahrbuch 2006: 65ff).
4 Jones, The Creative Development of JSB, Vol. 1, 1695-1717, “Music to Delight the Spirit “ (Oxford University Press: New York, 2007: 103); details, Cantata 106, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV106-D8.htm; and Cantata 131, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV131-D7.htm.
5 See William L. Hoffman, Chapter 3, "The German Passion Narrative Tradition and Bach's Passions," Narrative Parody in Bach's St. Mark Passion, BCW Article; May 2000, Mar 2012, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/BWV247-Hoffman.pdf: 20f.
6 Sources: dating, Robin A. Leaver, Part 6, Chronology, Chapter 20, "Life and Works 1685-1750," The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (London, New York: Routledge, 2017); locations, Robert L. and Traute M. Marshall, Exploring the Worlds of J. S. Bach: A Traveler's Guide, (Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2016; with American Bach Society.
7 Cantata 157, details http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV157-D4.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV157.htm; https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?sort=worksort01+asc&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&q=%2BobjectType%3A%22work%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000005%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bwork01%3A%22BWV+157%22+%2Bwork02%3A%22Ich+lasse+dich+nicht%22&mask=search_form_work.xed&version=4.5&start=0&fl=id&rows=1&XSL.Style=browse&origrows=25
8 Johann Hübner (1668-1731), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hübner, German text, http://www.monarchieliga.de/index.php?title=Denket_doch,_ihr_Menschenkinder; English (on-line) translation, https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.monarchieliga.de/index.php%3Ftitle%3DDenket_doch,_ihr_Menschenkinder&prev=search; BWV 1122, http://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV1122.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJI423nKHC4; https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001720?lang=en.
9 "Der Gerechte kömmt um" details: (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/Kuhnau-Motet-Gerechte.htm, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001532?lang=en