Trauermusik

Trauermusik is the most ambitious composition left by Johann Ludwig Bach, known as the Meiningen Bach, who belonged to a branch of the family separated from Johann Sebastian s since the 16th century. Its genesis was rather unusual. Johann Ludwig had composed his cantatas to texts by his patron, Duke Ernst Ludwig, and was therefore commissioned to set the poem that the duke had written for his own funeral, in November 1724. Written five years before the St. Matthew Passion, this score already requires two choirs and a large array of instruments and must have utilized every musician in the court.