ZIEGLER CANTATAS

In March 1725, Johann Sebastian Bach abruptly discontinued his successful series of chorale cantatas. Presumably the unknown librettist had died and Bach had to fall back on another source. Unusual for that time were the texts by a female writer: Christiana Mariana von Ziegler (1695-1760). She founded one of the first literary-musical salons in Leipzig. Bach used Ziegler's texts for nine more cantatas in 1725, but these were not based on a chorale, but on a Bible verse, which was then developed poetically with many elaborate references. Christoph Spering presents three of these Ziegler cantatas.