Du Hirte Israel, höre (You Shepherd of Israel, hear), BWV 104, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach composed the cantata for the second Sunday after Easter in Leipzig and first performed it on 23 April 1724.
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Bach composed the cantata in his first annual cycle in Leipzig for the second Sunday after Easter, called Misericordias Domini, and first performed it on 23 April 1724.
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were 1 Peter 2:21–25 and John 10:12–16, the Good Shepherd.[1] The unknown poet begins with Psalm 80:2 and ends with the chorale Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt, a paraphrase of Psalm 23 by Cornelius Becker (1598). The poet refers in his work to more Bible context, such as Lamentations 3:23 and Corinthians 10:13 for the first recitative, reflecting that God as the Good Shepherd will take care. In the second recitative, he concludes: "Only gather, o good Shepherd, us poor and erring ones; ah, let our journey soon reach an end and lead us into your sheepfold!" The last aria hopes "for faith's reward after a gentle sleep of death" ("des Glaubens Lohn nach einem sanften Todesschlafe"), combining the Baroque ideas of pastoral peace and longing for death.[1]
The cantata is scored for tenor and bass soloists, a four-part choir, two oboe d'amore, taille (tenor oboe), two violins, viola and basso continuo.[1]
Bach referred to the Pastorale aspect of the text in his music. In the opening chorus three oboes on the firm ground of extended pedal point create pastoral sounds, in triplets which are frequently associated with shepherds,[2] such as in the Sinfonia opening Part II of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. The choir sings alternating homophonic calls, "höre!" (listen!) and "erscheine!" (appear!), and two fugues on the image of Joseph leading his flocks. The fugue subject is the same in both fugues, but the second time the voices enter from the lowest voice to the highest, culminating in an ultimate third section of the calls. Different from the normal setting, the instrumental introduction is not repeated after this climax.[3]
The first recitative leads to an arioso part on the final Bible quote "Gott ist getreu" ("God is faithful). The tenor aria is accompanied by two oboe d'amore. In the bass aria, instrumentation, triplets and extended pedal points are reminiscent of the opening chorus. The closing choral is a four-part setting on the tune of Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr.[1]
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