Rest thy faith on God the Lord BWV 197

Scoring: Soli SAB, Coro SATB, 2 Ob/Obda, Fg, 3 Tr, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

"Gott ist unsre Zuversicht" BWV 197 was probably written in the second half of the 1730s for a wedding, no further details of which are known. In the opening chorus in particular, it features quite a sizeable orchestra. The text of the cantata has one major theme – trust in God! In a magnificent lullaby (movement 3) all cares are sung to sleep. The other arias, with their exceptionally exquisite combinations of scorings, make the cantata into a quite special work, albeit one which is associated with a particular occasion.

The wedding cantata BWV 197 draws on older material for some of its movements. Two movements are parodies on arias from the incomplete surviving Christmas cantata "Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe", BWV 197a, including the lullaby "O du angenehmes Paar", of which only the last quarter survives from the Christmas cantata – it is "O du angenehmer Schatz" there. By using the later version, Diethard Hellmann has been able to reconstruct the original version of this dreamlike beautiful movement; however, the complete Christmas cantata cannot be reconstructed from the sources.