Bach: Cantata "Aus der Tiefe rufe ich" BWV 131, No. 3 "Meine Seele harret"

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Composed in 1707 in Muhlhausen, “Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir” (‘From the depths I call, Lord, to you’) is one of Bach’s earliest cantatas, in fact perhaps the earliest. The third movement contains a pleading, heart-wrenching four-voice fugue on the words “Ich harre des Herrn. Meine Seele harret. Und ich hoffe auf sein Wort.” (‘I await the Lord. My soul waits. And I hope in his word.’) The slow, down-stepping syncopes on the word “harre” (‘await’) reinforce the image of a long, painful time of waiting before humans can see the face of God.