This setting is given a similar texture to BWV618, with the chorale heard in canon at the fifteenth between right hand and pedal. In between, as in BWV618, two imitative inner parts also sound canonic, though are not. The soprano voice starts the canon; the pedal follows, meaning that the soprano voice finishes first, three bars from the end, before joining the motivic working of the inner parts to finish. The text is another Easter chorale for Good Friday, speaking of the humiliation of Christ, ideas perhaps behind the chromatic and turbulent writing characteristic of the setting.

from notes by George Parsons © 2019