(In peace and joy do I depart) for alto, tenor and bass, vocal ensemble, horn, flute, oboe d’amore, strings and continuo.

Throughout his chorale cantata project for the 1724/25 church year, Bach was not only required to compose compositions for the regular Sunday services, but also a hymn-based cantata for the Marian Feasts and other special occasions. One such event was the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin on 2 February, at the end of the Epiphany season, for which Bach composed cantata BWV 125. The celebratory character of the feast is drawn from the gospel story of Simeon the Elder, who received the prophesy that he would not see blessed death until he embraced the new-born saviour. Indeed, the associated Canticle of Simeon (“Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace”) was a frequently selected text for funeral music, as it presents a distinctive relationship between acceptance of death and the assurance of salvation. And the canticle not only forms the basis of Luther’s paraphrase of the hymn “In peace and joy do I depart” but also the freely versified movements of the cantata; the libretto thus represents a new adaptation of two key Lutheran texts.