TO SAVE THE WOUNDED – Bach: Cantata 77, at Trinity XIII

Commentary No. 55 of The Bach Cantatas

The Mosaic Law is tripartite: (1) the Commandments, (2) the ancillary directives, and (3) the structure of formal worship inclusive of clergy, tabernacle, oblations, and feast days. There are 613 commandments in the Pentateuch, but Bach concerns himself in this cantata largely with the Ten Commandments, specifically the first of them, the commandment to…