Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (We thank you, God, we thank you) is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. In Wolfgang Schmieder's catalogue of Bach's works, it is BWV 29.

The piece was written for the occasion of the election of a new town council (Ratswahl) in Leipzig in 1731 (the cantatas Preise Jerusalem, den Herrn, BVW 119 and Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille, BWV 120 were written for a similar occasion). It was first performed on August 27 of that year.

The instrumentation reflects the festive occasion for which it was written: soprano, alto, tenor and basso soloists, four-part choir, solo organ and an orchestra consisting of two oboes, three trumpets, timpani, violins, violas and basso continuo.

The piece is in eight movements:

1. Sinfonia - an arrangement of the prelude from Bach's E major Partita for solo violin. A solo organ plays the original violin part, while the orchestra adds an accompaniment.
2. "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir" - a chorus sung and played by the whole ensemble. This was later adapted as the Gratias and Dona nobis pacem of Bach's Mass in B minor. The text is from the 75th psalm.
3. "Halleluja, Stärk und Macht" ("Halleluja, strength and might") - a tenor da capo aria, accompanied by a solo violin and continuo.
4. "Gottlob! es geht uns wohl!" ("Praise God! It is well for us!") - a recitative sung by the solo bass.
5. "Gedenk an uns mit deiner Liebe" ("Consider us with your love") - an aria for the soprano in the rhythm of a siciliana, accompanied by oboe, strings and continuo.
6. "Vergiß es ferner nicht, mit deiner Hand" ("Do not forget later, with your hand") - a recitative sung by the alto with a final "Amen" from the chorus.
7. "Halleluja, Stärk und Macht" ("Halleluja, power and might") - a reprise of the first part of the tenor aria, but now with solo organ rather than violin, and sung by the alto.
8. "Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren" ("Glory and praise with honor be") - the fifth verse of Johann Gramann's chorale, "Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren" played and sung by the whole ensemble.

Recordings

• Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, dir. Ton Koopman, Soloists: Sandrine Piau, Bogna Bartosz, James Gilchrist, Klaus Mertens - J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 20, Antoine Marchand

Music Files
Sinfonia

20th Century adaptation
The Sinfonia movement experienced a period of crossover popularity in 1968 when Walter Carlos (now Wendy Carlos) created an exuberant rendition of it for electronic synthesizer (at the time a novelty) for the album Switched-On Bach.

The above text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29" ( en.wikipedia.org/ ... ott,_wir_danken_dir,_BWV_29 ).