Johann Sebastian Bach Just as the rain and snow fall from heaven

Just as the rain and snow fall from heaven
and do not return again
but go forth into the earth
and make it fruitful and fertile,
that ist bears seed for the sower
and bread for eating:
so too shall the Word
that goes forth from my mouth surely;
it will not return to me without fruit,
but shall do what I intended
and fulfill the purpose
for which I spoke it.

My God, here will my heart abide:
I open it to you in Jesus’ name;
then scatter there the seeds
as if it were a fertile field.
My God, here shall my heart abide:

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2 Recitativo (Basso)
Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee
vom Himmel fällt
und nicht wieder dahin kommet,
sondern feuchtet die Erde
und macht sie fruchtbar und wachsend,
dass sie gibt Samen zu säen und Brot zu essen:
also soll das Wort,
so aus meinem Munde gehet,
auch sein;
es soll nicht wieder zu mir leer kommen,
sondern tun,
das mir gefället,
und soll ihm gelingen,
dazu ich’s sende.

Mein Gott, hier wird mein Herze sein:
Ich öffne dir’s in meines Jesu Namen;
so streue deinen Samen

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Frieder Rempp
Translation: David Kosviner

The cantata Gleich wie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt BWV 18 for Sexagesima Sunday is one of Bach’s earliest works. It was composed between 1713 and 1715 in Weimar and performed again – presumably on Sexagesima Sunday, 13 February 1724 – in Leipzig. The cantata is extant only as several sets of parts and in two different keys. In Weimar, the work was notated in G minor/B major and consisted of four vocal parts, a viola and three continuo parts. In Leipzig, the work was expanded by two recorder parts and another continuo part, and is notated in A minor/ E flat major. The different keys can be explained by the fact that the musicians in Weimar performed at choir pitch, i.e., roughly a whole­tone higher than the chamber pitch used in Leipzig. Both performances will therefore have sounded at approximately the same pitch. Transposing from G minor to A minor would not have been a problem for the singers or for the organist; in Leipzig, the organ was tuned at chamber pitch, and the strings took their tuning from the organ; only the bassoon had to transpose. The present edition follows the Leipzig version of the cantata in A minor with the

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