Shownotes
BWV 22, Jesus nahm sich die Zwölfe is a five-movement cantata for SATB written as Bach’s audition piece for the job as cantor and music director in Leipzig.
The first and second movements feature a solo oboe. The first movement features a choral fugue in the role of an “audience” who has an omniscient perspective.
The third movement is a recitative which allows Bach to change key centers away from the “flat heavy” keys of G minor, C minor, and E-flat major to B major.
The last movement features a chorale above a moving, rhythmically repetitive foundation, in the style of Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor at St. Thomas’s.