Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 183

Bach wrote the cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the Sunday Exaudi, the Sunday after Ascension. The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the First Epistle of Peter, "serve each other" (1 Peter 4:8–11), and from the second Farewell discourse in the Gospel of John, the promise of the Paraclete, the "Spirit of Truth", and the announcement of prosecution (John 15:26–16:4).[2]

Some of the cantatas composed by Bach in his second year were chorale cantatas, a format he chose for services between the first Sunday after Trinity and Palm Sunday. For Easter he had returned to cantatas on more varied texts. Nine of the cantatas for the period between Easter and Pentecost are based on texts of Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, including this cantata. Bach later assigned it to his third annual cycle. Ziegler begins the cantata with the same quotation from the gospel as an unknown poet one year earlier in Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44, the prediction of persecution of Christians. "They will put you under banishment, but the time will come, when, whoever kills you will think that he does God a service by it" (John 16:2). She continues stressing the lack of fear possible for a follower who relies on "Jesu Schutzarm" (the protective arm of Jesus).[1] In movements 3 and 4 she refers to the beginning of the gospel, the spirit who will assist. The closing chorale is the fifth stanza of Paul Gerhardt's "Zeuch ein zu deinen Toren".

Bach first performed the cantata on 13 May 1725.[2][3][4]

Bach structured the cantata in five movements, beginning with what John Eliot Gardiner describes as a "curtain raiser",[8] a line from the gospel set as a recitative. This is followed by a sequence aria–recitative–aria, and the cantata is concluded by a four-part chorale. Bach scored the work for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir only in the closing chorale, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble in an unusual combination of instruments, two oboes d'amore (Oa), two oboes da caccia (Oc), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), a violoncello piccolo (Vp) and basso continuo.[2][3]

In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows the Neue Bach-Ausgabe.[3] The continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.

Movements of Sie werden euch in den Bann tun

No.	Title	Text	Type	Vocal	Winds	Strings	Key	Time
1	Sie werden euch in den Bann tun	Ziegler	Recitative	B	2Oa 2Oc			3/4
2	Ich fürchte nicht des Todes Schrecken	Ziegler	Aria	T			E minor
3	Ich bin bereit, mein Blut und armes Leben	Ziegler	Recitative	A	2Oa 2Oc	2Vl Va
4	Höchster Tröster, Heilger Geist	Ziegler	Aria	S	2Oc	2Vl Va	C major	3/8
5	Du bist ein Geist, der lehret	Gerhardt	Chorale	SATB	2Oa 2Oc	2Vl Va

In the first movement the words of Jesus are given to the bass, the voice type which by convention was the vox Christi (voice of Christ). A year earlier (in Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44), Bach rendered the announcement of Jesus in a two-part movement, a duet for bass and tenor followed by an agitated chorus. In this cantata, he sets it as a recitative of only five measures.[2] The instrumentation is novel, having long chords of the four oboes, two oboes da caccia and two oboes d'amore, accompany the voice above a pedal point held by the continuo. This creates a "sepulchral" sound.[9] The Bach scholar Christoph Wolff notes that this "opulent oboe scoring" with all four oboes playing together is used only in the two recitatives (1 and 3).[10]

The second movement, the first aria, is the longest of the work. It is sung by the tenor with an obbligato part for violoncello piccolo, an instrument with a tenor-bass range.[11] The "dark and shaded" timbre of the movement has been seen as representing the protection provided by Christ.[9] Denying the fear of the threatening death, the violoncello piccolo plays continuous runs.[1]

Movement 3 is again a recitativo accompagnato, even more complex than the first one; the strings play long chords, whereas all the oboes repeat the same four-note motif throughout the movement, sung by the alto on the words "Ich bin bereit" (I am ready).[1]

The second aria is accompanied by the strings and the two oboes da caccia in unison as obbligato instruments, thus both arias are dominated by instruments with a relatively low range (oboes de caccia having a pitch below that of a normal oboe).[2]

The cantata is closed by a four-part chorale on the tune of "Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen".[12]

The selection is taken from the listing on the Bach Cantatas Website.[13] Choirs with one voice per part (OVPP) and orchestras playing period instruments in historically informed performances are marked green.

• Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 183: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Sie werden euch in den Bann tun BWV 183; BC A 79 / Sacred cantata (7th Sunday of Easter) Bach Digital
• BWV 183 Sie werden euch in den Bann tun English translation, University of Vermont
• Gardiner, John Eliot (2008). Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) / Cantatas Nos 44, 86, 87, 97, 150 & 183 (Media notes). Soli Deo Gloria (at Hyperion Records website). Retrieved 23 May 2019.
• Luke Dahn: BWV 183.5 bach-chorales.com