(There arose a war), 19, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig in 1726 for the Feast of Saint Michael and first performed it on 29 September that year. It is the second of his three extant cantatas for this feast, which also marked the start of an annual trade fair in Leipzig.
Bach composed the cantata in his fourth year as (director of church music) in Leipzig. The text was originally written by Picander and published in Leipzig in 1725. The expanded text that Bach actually used appeared in a 1728 cantata collection by Christoph Birkmann in Nuremberg.
The cantata is structured in seven movements, with two choral movements framing a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. The closing chorale is taken from a hymn by Christoph Demantius to the melody of "". The cantata is scored for soprano, tenor and bass vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets and timpani, three kinds of oboes, strings and basso continuo. The opening chorus begins with immediacy without an instrumental introduction and depicts in its opening and closing section an agitated battle. The cantata's longest movement is a tenor aria as a pensive response, to which a trumpet plays the complete melody of Martin Schalling's hymn "Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr". A chorale is in a dance-like triple meter closes the work.
Bach's sons Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach later performed parts of the cantata.
History and words
Bach took up his position in Leipzig in 1723. His first two years in the city were particularly productive in terms of cantatas for the church calendar. As well as being a Christian festival, St. Michael's Day was important in the commercial life of Leipzig as it marked the start of one of the city's two annual trade fairs.
The prescribed readings for the day were from the Book of Revelation, Michael fighting the dragon (), and from the Gospel of Matthew, heaven belongs to the children, the angels see the face of God (). The text of the cantata was originally written by Christian Friedrich Henrici, better known as Picander, who published it in Leipzig in 1725 in his collection Sammlung Erbaulicher Gedancken über und auf die gewöhnlichen Sonn- und Fest-Tage Leipzig. Picander had become by then a regular collaborator of the composer, who had also provided the libretto for a previous St. Michael's Day cantata. The text that Bach actually used for the cantata, expands this model and appears in a cantata collection by Christoph Birkmann in Nuremberg 1728, GOtt-geheiligte Sabbaths-Zehnden; Birkmann may have been the poet who made the changes.
The closing chorale is the ninth stanza from a hymn by Christoph Demantius; the chorale theme is "", which was codified by Louis Bourgeois when setting the Geneva Psalm 42 in his collection (Geneva, 1551). Bourgeois seems to have been influenced by the secular song "" contained in the published around 1510.
Bach led the Thomanerchor in the first performances on 29 September 1726, a morning service at the Nikolaikirche, with a sermon given by Friedrich Wilhelm Schütz, and a vespers service at the Thomaskirche where held the sermon. Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach conducted a performance in Halle around 1752, with a revised third movement. His son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach used parts of it for a pastiche that he performed in Hamburg first in 1770.
The cantata is regarded as part of Bach's third cantata cycle.
Scoring and structure The cantata is scored for three vocal soloists (soprano (S), tenor (T), and bass (B)), a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets (Tr), timpani, two oboes (Ob), two oboes d'amore (Oa), taille (Ta), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), and basso continuo. During Bach's time in Leipzig, he always used the largest orchestra available for the celebrations of the Feast of St Michael. All complete Bach cantatas for this occasion include trumpet and timpani. The Bach scholar Alfred Dürr gave the duration as .
Bach structured the cantata in seven movements. In the following table, the scoring is based on the . The keys and time signatures are taken from Dürr, using the symbol for common time (). The continuo, playing throughout, and the timpani, playing always with the trumpets, are not listed.
Music As with other Bach cantatas written for the Feast of St. Michael, this work opens with an "imposing" chorus. The opening and closing section of this da capo movement focuses on a single line of text describing the battle against the forces of evil. The middle section sets the remaining five lines of the text. The movement includes no instrumental introduction, creating an "immediate dramatic effect". Craig Smith suggests that the "vaulting high-energy fugue theme is the perfect illustration of the heroic struggle".
The bass recitative in E minor describes the importance of the victory over Satan, but exudes a sombre mood, suggesting the continued difficulties of mankind.
The third movement is a soprano aria with obbligato oboes, "an oasis of protective tranquillity" in the major mode. However, elements of the music disturb the peace conveyed by the text: the extended ritornello begins with an "odd three-bar phrasing", leading into a passage of constant momentum between the two oboes.
The tenor recitative is again in the minor mode, this time to describe the fragility of man. This movement leads into a striking tenor aria, describing a personal response to the text. The aria is the longest movement of the cantata, representing a third of the total length of the work. The trumpet plays the full chorale melody of "Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr", probably with the third stanza mentioning angels in mind, over a Siciliano rhythm in the strings and continuo.
The penultimate movement is a brief secco soprano recitative that returns to the major mode to prepare the closing chorale. The chorale has the feel of a minuet, although there is some tension because of the changing phrase lengths employed by the melody.
Manuscripts and publication Both the autograph manuscript of the score and a complete set of 19 parts are extant. Unusually for Bach's third cantata cycle, Bach carefully revised the parts.
As with almost all Bach cantatas, the music did not appear in print until the 19th century. It was first published in 1852 in the (BGA), edited by Moritz Hauptmann. In the (NBA), it was published in 1973, edited by Marianne Helms.
Recordings The following table is a selection from the Bach Cantatas website, where 36 recordings are listed as of 2026. Instrumental groups playing period instruments in historically informed performances are marked by green background under the header "".
References
External links
Luke Dahn: BWV 19.7 bach-chorales.com BWV 19 Es erhub sich ein Streit: text, scoring, University of Alberta Es erhub sich ein Streit, BWV 19: performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information)