An obbligato cello features in the first recitative and an obbligato oboe in the second aria, resulting in different timbres in the four movements for the same voice part. He scored the work for a Baroque instrumental ensemble of three woodwind instruments, three string instrument parts and continuo. This yearning is reinforced by the closing chorale: the stanza ' Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder' ('Come, o death, you brother of sleep') from Johann Franck's 1653 hymn ' Du, o schönes Weltgebäude', which uses the imagery of a sea voyage.īach structured it in five movements, alternating arias and recitatives for a bass soloist, and closing with a four-part chorale. The person, at the end, yearns for death as the ultimate destination, to be united with Jesus. The poet compares life to a voyage towards a harbour, referring indirectly to the prescribed Gospel reading which says that Jesus travelled by boat. He describes in the first person a Christian willing to 'carry the cross' as a follower of Jesus.

The text was written by Christoph Birkmann, a student of mathematics and theology in Leipzig who collaborated with Bach. Bach composed the cantata in his fourth year as Thomaskantor it is regarded as part of his third cantata cycle. In English, the work is commonly referred to as the Kreuzstab cantata. The autograph score is one of a few cases where Bach referred to one of his compositions as a cantata.

The composition is a solo cantata ( German: Solokantate) because, apart from the closing chorale, it requires only a single vocal soloist (in this case a bass). It was first performed in Leipzig on 27 October 1726.

'I will gladly carry the cross-staff'), BWV 56, is a church cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach for the 19th Sunday after Trinity. Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen ( lit.

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