Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost in G minor, BWV 114

Bach created the work as part of his second annual cantata cycle when he was Thomaskantor (director of music) in Leipzig. That cycle was planned as a cycle of chorale cantatas for all occasions of the liturgical year. Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost is based on a hymn of penitence by Johannes Gigas (1561). An unknown poet kept three stanzas in their original form, which Bach set as an opening chorale fantasia, a central fourth movement with the soprano accompanied only by the continuo, and a four-part closing chorale as movement 7. The poet reworded the other stanzas as arias and recitatives, including references to the prescribed gospel about the healing of a man with dropsy. Bach scored the cantata for four vocal parts, a horn to reinforce the chorale tune, a transverse flute, 2 oboes, strings and continuo.