Cantata No. 4: Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV4

The piece unfolds as a set of variations on one melody, the hymn "Christ lag in Todesbanden," heard in a different guise in each of seven verses. A brief instrumental sinfonia sets a somber tone before the choir enters. Verse 1 (chorus) presents the tune plainly over slow, grinding harmonies, ending on a long "Hallelujah." Verse 2, for soprano and alto, moves in pairs of voices shadowing each other, still tied to death's "bonds." Verse 3, for tenor, grows more agitated as it describes the fight between death and life. Verse 4 is the center of the whole cantata, a full chorus in the old style where the melody sits in one voice while the others weave a tense, chromatic web around it, the image of "one death devouring the other." Verse 5, for bass, turns martial, with strong repeated notes evoking a battle won. Verse 6, a duet for soprano and tenor, is lighter and dance-like, marking the turn toward joy. The final verse returns the full choir to a plain, hymn-like setting of the tune, closing, as it began, with "Hallelujah."

Bach wrote this cantata as a young man, likely for an audition or an early post, and it is thought to have been performed at Easter in Mühlhausen in 1707, when he was about 22. It sets, verse by verse, Martin Luther's 1524 Easter hymn "Christ lag in Todesbanden," itself based on an older Latin Easter chant. Unlike Bach's later Leipzig cantatas, which mix new poetry with a closing chorale, this early work stays close to the hymn throughout, giving it an austere, almost archaic character. It remained unpublished in Bach's lifetime and only entered wide circulation in the nineteenth century, when it became one of the first Bach cantatas to be printed and performed as choral repertoire. It is now among his most frequently performed sacred works, prized for its concentrated economy and its unusually consistent use of a single melody across every movement.