(On the evening, however, of the same Sabbath), 42, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the first Sunday after Easter and first performed it on 8 April 1725. The cantata is part of Bach's second cantata cycle during his tenure as that began in 1723. It is the only cantata of that cycle to begin with a sinfonia.
An unknown librettist began the text with a verse from the Gospel reading, from the Resurrection appearances of Jesus in Jerusalem, and included three hymn stanzas: one from "" by Jakob Fabricius and two from Luther's "". Bach structured the cantata in seven movements and scored it for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir only in the closing chorale, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes, bassoon, strings and basso continuo.
Bach was appointed (director of church music) in Leipzig in 1723, responsible for the music at four churches of the city, and for the training and education of the boys singing in the boys' choir. He took office on 30 May 1723. In the new position, Bach decided to compose church cantatas for almost all liturgical events for the first twelve months; they became his first cantata cycle. The following year, Bach went on to write a second cantata cycle, now basing each on a Lutheran hymn. He kept the format until Palm Sunday 1725, when he performed Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1. He then returned to the former style of church cantatas for Easter and the following occasions, possibly because he lost his librettist.
Bach composed in Leipzig for the First Sunday after Easter, called Quasimodogeniti.
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle of John, "our faith is the victory" (), and from the Gospel of John, the appearance of Jesus to the Disciples in Jerusalem, first without Thomas, and later with him (). The unknown librettist included for the beginning of the cantata verse 19 from the Gospel and used three stanzas from two chorales. The text of the fourth movement is a stanza from "", publishe in 1632 by , which had also been attributed to Johann Michael Altenburg. The cantata is closed by two stanzas which had appeared added to Luther's "": "", Luther's German version of (Give peace, Lord, 1531), and "" (Give our rulers and all lawgivers), a stanza by Johann Walter paraphrasing (1566), which is concluded with a final amen. Werner Neumann suggested that Bach himself may have been the anonymous poet, while Charles Sanford Terry proposed Christian Weiss, a pastor in Leipzig. Bach scholar Alfred Dürr supposed that it was the same author who wrote , first performed six days earlier on Easter Monday of 1725.
After the quote from the Gospel of John, the poet paraphrased, in movement 3, words of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew, : "" (For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them).
Bach led the Thomanerchor in the first performance of the cantata on 8 April 1725. He performed it again at least twice, on 1 April 1731, as a printed textbook shows, and 1742, per watermarks in an instrumental part.
Bach structured the cantata in seven movements, beginning with a Sinfonia. He may have intended to ease work for the choir after the busy holiday week. He scored the work for four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir only in the closing chorale, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes (Ob), bassoon (Fg), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), cello (Vc) and basso continuo (Bc). The duration of the cantata is given as 33 minutes.
In the following table of the movements, the scoring, keys and time signatures are taken from Dürr's standard work Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach. The continuo, which plays throughout, is not shown.
Bach possibly took the opening sinfonia from earlier music. According to John Eliot Gardiner, this movement and the first aria are both taken from Bach's lost congratulatory cantata , celebrating the 24th birthday of Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, on 10 December 1718. Dürr believed that it is a movement from a concerto. It does not highlight a particular solo instrument, although Julian Mincham saw a close resemblance to concerti which do, such as the opening movements of Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042, and the Harpsichord Concerto, BWV 1053. Rather, it is a type of concerto grosso (or "concerto a due cori", concerto for two choirs), the strings interacting with a concertino of the woodwinds, oboes and bassoon. The two groups first introduce their own lively themes, which are distinct but related to each other. They then exchange their themes and play together. The middle section begins with a surprising new motif for oboe and bassoon, which Bach marked . is the only cantata in the second cycle to begin with a sinfonia.
The Bible quote "" (On the evening, however, of the same Sabbath, when the disciples had gathered) is sung in recitative by the tenor as the Evangelist, accompanied by the continuo in repeated fast notes, possibly illustrating the anxious heart beat of the disciples when Jesus appears: "On the evening, however, of the same Sabbath, when the disciples had gathered and the door was locked out of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and walked among them".
In the third movement, "" (Where two or three are gathered together in Jesus's dear name), an aria marked adagio, the repetition is kept in the bassoon, but the strings hold long chords and the oboes play extended melodic lines. According to Dürr, it may have been another movement from the same concerto that the first movement relies on.
Bach composed the chorale text of the fourth movement, "" (Do not despair, o little flock), as a duet, accompanied only by the continuo, including bassoon. Fragments of the usual chorale theme, "", can be detected occasionally. Terry interprets that the bassoon obbligato was intended to accompany a chorale melody which "never actually sounded", conveying the "hiddenness" of the church in the world.
The bass sings a recitative, "" (One can find a perfect message in what happened in Jerusalem). It ends in an arioso, to prepare for the last aria.
In "" (Jesus is the shield of his own, when persecution follows them), the bass is accompanied by the divided violins and the continuo. Felix Loy, the editor of a critical edition of the cantata for Carus noted that the theme illustrates again a contrast, between the "restlessness of the world" and the "peace of those who believe in Jesus". While the instruments play in wild motion, the bass sings a calm expressive melody, only accenting the word "" (persecution) by faster motion in long melismas.
The chorale theme of Luther's chorale, "" (Grant us peace graciously), was published by Martin Luther in the (edited by Johann Walter, published in Nürnberg in 1531), and then in the by Joseph Klug (Wittenberg, 1535). The melody of the additional stanza, "" (Give our rulers and all lawgivers peace and good government), was first published in in Wittenberg, 1566. Bach set it for four parts.
Bach's autograph score of the cantata and a set of parts that Bach had revised are extant. The cantata was first published in 1860 in the first complete edition of Bach's work, the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe. The volume in question was edited by Wilhelm Rust. In the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, it was published in 1988, edited by Reinmar Emans, with a critical report the following year.
A list of recordings is provided on the Bach Cantatas Website. Ensembles playing period instruments in historically informed performances are shown with a green background.