Cantatevesper in de Zuiderkerk Enkhuizen

• 31 May 2026
  • 17:00

Cantata Vespers in the Zuiderkerk Enkhuizen

On Sunday, May 31 at 5:00 PM, you can once again enjoy music by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by the Enkhuizer Bach Ensemble conducted by Jerry Korsmit.

This time not a cantata, but a motet.

Motets, from the French word mot (word), were ‘out’ in Bach’s time. They were considered old-fashioned, and people preferred listening to cantatas, which, with their instrumental accompaniment, resembled operas more closely—a genre that was very popular. Although no longer in fashion, they were still heard every Sunday during services, but composers no longer wrote new motets as often.

Bach therefore wrote his motet BWV 226 ‘Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf’ for a special occasion. In 1729, the rector of the Thomasschule, the school attached to the church where Bach worked, passed away. Professor Johann Heinrich Ernesti had been rector of the school for 45 years and was also a lecturer in poetry at the University of Leipzig. His death had likely been imminent for some time, as Ernesti, with whom Bach had been on good terms, most likely personally chose the text of the motet that was played during his funeral in the university church of Leipzig. The text, Romans 8:26-27, is not so much a mourning text, but rather a somewhat didactic, yet also comforting and encouraging text: When we humans fall short in hope and expectation of what God has promised, the Holy Spirit comes to our aid.

Bach goes about it on a grand scale. Just as in the St Matthew Passion, he uses the ‘cori spezzati technique’, in which the composer divides the music between two separate choirs singing to one another. The music Bach composed for his friend sounds cheerful and upbeat—not at all what you would expect at a funeral. The Cantata Vespers begins with a work by the American composer Morten Lauridsen (1943): Veni, Sancte Spiritus.

Admission is free. You can make a voluntary contribution at the end.