Ach! ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe (Ah! I see, now, when I go to the wedding), BWV 162, is a church cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar for the 20th Sunday after Trinity.
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Bach wrote the cantata in Weimar, as the court organist of Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, for the 20th Sunday after Trinity, first performed in the Schlosskirche (court chapel) on 3 November 1715 (according to the musicologist Alfred Dürr) or on 25 October 1716.[1]
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Ephesians, Ephesians 5:15–21, "walk circumspectly, ... filled with the Spirit", and from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 22:1–14, the parable of the great banquet. The cantata text is based on the chorale Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (de) (1649) by Johann Franck,[2] thus connecting the "great banquet" from the Gospel to the Abendmahl (Eucharist). The cantata text was provided by the court poet Salomon Franck, published in Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer (1715). He refers to the gospel and reflects how essential it is to follow the loving invitation of the Lord. Franck's language is rich in contrasts, such as Seelengift und Himmelsbrot (poison for the soul and bread of heaven), and of images derived from the Bible, such as Der Himmel ist sein Thron (Heaven is his throne) after Isaiah 66:1. The closing chorale is verse 7 of Alle Menschen müssen sterben of Johann Rosenmüller (1652).
Bach performed the cantata again on 10 October 1723 in his first year in Leipzig in a revised version, including a corno da tirarsi, a baroque wind instrument mentioned only in Bach's music and thought to have been similar to the slide trumpet or tromba da tirarsi. Bach's score is lost, and some parts seem to be missing as well.[3]
Like other cantatas written during this period in Weimar, the cantata is scored for a small ensemble, four soloists, corno da tirarsi (likely added in Leipzig), two violins, viola, and basso continuo, including bassoon in movement 1. Only the chorale is set for four voices.[3]
The cantata opens with a bass aria, accompanied by three instruments in a polyphonic setting, the two violins and the viola (with the corno). The motif for the first words is present most of the time. The soprano aria seems to lack a part for an obbligato instrument.[3] For the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of the Monteverdi Choir, Robert Levin reconstructed a version for flute and oboe d'amore.[4] The duet is also accompanied only by the continuo, but seems complete. The melody of the closing chorale is rare elsewhere, but appeared in Weimar not only in this work, but also in a chorale prelude of Johann Gottfried Walther.[3]
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