Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgend ein Schmerz sei (Behold and see, if there be any sorrow), BWV 46, is a church cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach, written for the 10th Sunday after Trinity, first performed on 1 August 1723 in Bach's first year in Leipzig.
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The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 12:1–11, different gifts, but one spirit, and from the Gospel of Luke, Luke 19:41–48, Jesus announcing the destruction of Jerusalem and cleansing of the Temple.
The cantata is written for alto, tenor and bass soloists, choir, 2 recorders, 2 oboe da caccia, "Zugtrompete" (a trumpet mostly unison with the choir soprano), 2 violins, viola and basso continuo. This is an unusually rich instrumentation for an ordinary Sunday. The words for the first movement are taken from the Book of Lamentations, Lamentations 1:12, movements 2 to 5 of an unknown poet, and the final chorale is the ninth stanza of "O großer Gott von Macht" by Johann Matthäus Meyfart.[1]
The first movement in two sections is a lamento of large proportions, full of symbolism. Bach reworked its first part as the Qui tollis peccata mundi of the Gloria of his Missa of 1733, to become the Gloria of his Mass in B minor. The bass aria pictures dramatically the outbreak of a thunderstorm, the only part of the cantata where the trumpet appears in a solo function as a symbol of divine majesty.[1] The alto aria is scored as a quartet for the voice, the two recorders, and the oboes in unison, without basso continuo.[2]
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