Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 23, 2022
Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (lit. 'I will gladly carry the cross-staff'), BWV 56, is a solo cantata for a bass singer by Johann Sebastian Bach. First performed in Leipzig on 27 October 1726, the 19th Sunday after Trinity, it was scored for woodwinds, strings and continuo, and features an obbligato oboe. The autograph score (pictured) is one of a few cases where Bach described one of his compositions as a cantata. In 2015 it was discovered that Bach collaborated with mathematics and theology student Christoph Birkmann, who wrote the text about a Christian willing to "carry the cross" as a follower of Jesus, in a life compared to a voyage towards a harbour. The work's five movements include arias, recitatives and the chorale "Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder" ('Come, o death, you brother of sleep'). In his Bach biography, Albert Schweitzer said it placed "unparalleled demands on the dramatic imagination of the singer". It has been recorded more than 100 times since a 1939 live broadcast. (Full article...)