Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750. Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (Cantata), BWV 99

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (What God does is well done), BWV 99, in Leipzig for the 15th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 17 September 1724. The chorale cantata is based on the hymn "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" by Samuel Rodigast (1674). Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan belongs to Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the second cycle during his tenure as Thomaskantor that began in 1723. The text retains the first and last stanza of the hymn unchanged, while the text of the inner stanzas was paraphrased by an unknown librettist into a sequence of four movements of alternating recitatives and arias, retaining some lines from the original chorale. The first movement is a chorale fantasia, and the work is closed by a four-part chorale setting. The cantata is scored for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of flauto traverso, oboe d'amore, strings and basso continuo, with a horn doubling the soprano in the outer movements.