Ah, how fleeting, ah, how futile BWV 26

Scoring: Soli SATB, Coro SATB, Fl, 3 Ob, Cor, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

Bach’s cantata BWV 26 belongs to the Leipzig cycle of chorale cantatas, 1724/25, and it was first performed on 19 November 1724. The underlying 13-vers hymn by Michael Franck provided Bach and his unidentified librettist with an abundance of metaphors and comparisons which, from verse to verse and movement to movement, illustrate the fleeting and transitory nature of earthly life: an impressive musical-poetic exposition of potent baroque pictures of ”vanity.”