This motet can hardly, from the character of its texts, be funeral work, though nothing is known for sure about the occasions for which it was written. Indeed, doubt has been cast on the authenticity of the four part
Lobet den Herrn, a setting of the short Psalm 117, for the earliest source is a Breitkopf edition of 1821. But it is difficult to see who else could have written such a vigorous, compact yet expansive work, cast in true motet style as a series of contrapuntal points within one long movement, to which is appended a contrasted triple time Alleluia.
from notes by Peter Holman © 1990
