Trinity Sunday is called “Trinitatis” in the Evangelical Church – Bach created very different cantatas for this occasion. The cantata “Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott” is a so-called chorale cantata, which means that the stanzas of the song of the same name were used unchanged as the cantata text. The first performance was probably in 1726.
Bach provided the work with timpani and trumpets in a very festive manner, especially at the beginning and end of the cantata. Overall, the Thomaskantor envisages a choir, orchestra and three vocal soloists.
One being – three people!
One week after Pentecost, Christians celebrate Trinity Sunday today. Unlike Easter or Christmas, this holiday has no connection to an event in the life of Jesus. Instead, the subject is the doctrine of the divine Trinity. So God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It was only introduced in the 14th century as a festival of ideas for the veneration of the Trinity, and there are no special customs for this Sunday.
The festival goes back to disputes that the church had with Arianism as early as the 3rd century. At that time Arius preached a strict monotheism that did not equate Christ, the Son of God, with God. In the disputes, Arianism finally lost. The Church sees God the Father, Christ the Son of God and the Holy Spirit as three persons in one being. A dress serves as an image for better understanding. Just as a dress can have three folds, there are three persons in a being – hence the term Trinity.
On Sunday evening, starting at 8 p.m., the Domradio will feature Trinity Sunday music, including music by JS Bach.
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