Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750. Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit (Make yourself ready, my spirit), BWV 115, in Leipzig for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 5 November 1724. It is based on the 1695 hymn of the same name by Johann Burchard Freystein. Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit belongs to Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the second cycle during his tenure as Thomaskantor that began in 1723. The text of the hymn is retained for the first and last stanzas unchanged, while the text of inner stanzas was paraphrased by an unknown librettist into a sequence of alternating arias and recitatives. The first movement is a chorale fantasia, and the work is closed by a four-part chorale setting. The cantata is scored for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of horn to double the soprano in the chorale, flauto traverso, oboe d'amore, strings including violoncello piccolo and basso continuo.