Barnett & Company Cantata Series

Join the Chattanooga Bach Choir and our chamber orchestra as we enlarge our season with four short

chamber concerts, The Barnett and Company Cantata Series, featuring a cantata by J.S. Bach and an Organ or instrumental work by Bach and others.

Third in the cantata series is Cantata 114 “Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit” (Were God not with us at

this time) a paraphrase of Psalm 124 and the Latin motet “Deus noster refugium et virtus” (God is our Refuge and Strength). Soloists, Lucia Sanchez, Soprano, Robert Sauser, Tenor and Zach Cavan, Bass join the Bach Choir in the performance of the cantata, under the baton of David Long. Organist Karla Fowkes will play a chorale prelude by Buxtehude featuring the same chorale used in cantata 14.

Three of the movements from cantata 14 are inspired by Psalm 124. The first movement resembles a

chorale-motet and does not conform with the writing style of any of Bach’s cantatas except BWV 80. The

opening movement set for all of the performing forces features a fugue by one voice which is immediately answered by another voice in counter-fugue, but inverted. Meaning that if the notes in the first fugue go up or down, they do the exactly opposite in the counter-fugue and with the same rhythm.

The cantata is one of the last surviving cantatas by J.S. Bach. First performed for the fourth Sunday of

Epiphany on January 30, 1735. This is the first performance of this cantata by the Chattanooga Bach Choir.