J.S. Bach: Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir, BWV 130 - The Church Cantatas, Vol. 90

Cantata 130 ‘Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir’ is a chorale cantata written for Michaelmas, 29 September 1724. This feast commemorates the archangel Michael’s fight with the dragon, the spectacular story recorded in the book of Revelation 12: 7-12. Several decades before, around 1680, Bach’s favourite uncle, the ‘profound composer’ Johann Christoph of Eisenach, had already written a gripping work on this subject, ‘Es erhub sich ein Streit’; Bach was familiar with this piece and performed it later in Leipzig. The two works display certain similarities, including the large-scale instrumentation with trumpets, oboes and timpani, the so-called military instruments, and their typical fanfare-like signals with fifth and fourth intervals and triad motifs. In the opening chorus the trumpets and drums make their presence felt. Here the militant angels are heard: they have triumphed over the devil and offer protection to God. But Bach reserved the greatest musical effect for the depiction of the actual fight in the bass