You shall be weeping and crying

Scoring: Soli AT, Coro SATB, Pic (Fl o Vl), 2 Obda, Tr, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

The cantata "Ihr werdet weinen und heulen" [You will weep and wail] BWV 103 for Jubilate Sunday is one of the cantatas composed on texts by the Leipzig poetess Christiane Mariane von Ziegler with which Bach concluded his second annual cycle of cantatas after he had abandoned the annual cycle of chorale cantatas at Easter 1725. A large-scale choral movement on Jesus’s words quoted from the Sunday gospel reading opens the cantata; the choir is interrupted by a bass arioso – the vox Christi.

Both arias are introduced by a recitative with arioso conclusion; in each, exquisite solo instruments are deployed: flauto piccolo in the contralto aria and trumpet in the tenor aria.