Was frag ich nach der Welt (What need I of this world ), BWV 94, is a church cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it Leipzig for the ninth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 6 August 1724.
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The cantata is a chorale cantata of Bach's second annual cycle in Leipzig. It is based on the chorale in eight verses of the poet Balthasar Kindermann (1664). An unknown poet transformed the chorale to a cantata text, keeping the verses 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8, expanding 3 and 5 by inserted recitatives, and rewriting 2, 4 and 6 to arias.[1]
The prescribed readings for the Sunday are from the Epistle to the Romans, 1 Corinthians 10:6–13, a warning of false gods and consolation in temptation, and from the Gospel of Luke, Luke 16:1–9, the parable of the Unjust Steward. The words of the cantata are only generally connected to the readings, referring to the statement in the Gospel "for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light". The poet expresses turning away from the transient world to Jesus.[1]
The cantata is scored for four soloists and a four-part choir, flauto traverso, two oboes, two violins, viola, organ and basso continuo.
The opening chorus is dominated by the concertante flauto traverso in figurations reminiscent of a flute concerto. Bach wrote virtuoso music for flute here for the first time in a cantata for Leipzig. Probably an excellent flute player was available.[2][3] Bach seems to have written again for him in Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn, BWV 96. Two themes of the opening ritornello of twelve measures, one for flute, the other for the strings and oboes, are derived from the melody of the chorale, O Gott, du frommer Gott (1648). The chorale is sung by the soprano. The lively music in D major seems to represent the "world" rather than its negation.
In the bass aria with continuo, comparing the world to "haze and shadow", tumbling motives illustrate vanishing, falling and breaking, whereas long held notes speak of stabilitity ("besteht").
In the third movement the tenor sings the chorale in rich ornamentation, the accompaniment of two oboes and continuo is similar to the (later) Er ist auf Erden kommen arm in the Christmas Oratorio, #7 of Part I.
The following alto aria, calling the world a "snare and false pretense", is dominated again by the flute. The arias for tenor and soprano are set in dance rhythms, Pastorale and Bourrée, describing the "world" rather than disgust of it. The cantata is concluded by the last two verses of the chorale in a four-part setting.[1]
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