(Of my sighing, of my crying) for soprano, alto, tenor and bas, flauto dolce I+II, oboe da caccia, bassoon, strings and basso continuo

Cantata BWV 13 “Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen” (Of my sighing, of my crying), marked in hand on the score as a “Concerto da Chiesa”, is a work revealing and eliciting a deep personal involvement. Were the text not derived from the devotional works of Georg Christian Lehms – and clearly written for general purposes – the cantata could be mistaken for a ­votive composition undertaken for personal reasons or for a commissioned funeral composition (in the style of cantata 157). Perhaps, then, we may regard it as a cantata of consolation with an unusually personal character – and one from which not only the Leipzig congregation of 1726 benefited. Whatever the exact circumstances of its origin, however, the soloistic tendencies and distinctive oration typical of Bach’s third cantata cycle certainly find moving expression in this work.