   (for thee, o lord, i long), bwv 150, is an early lutheran church cantata by johann sebastian bach composed for an unknown occasion. it is unique among bach's cantatas in its sparse orchestration and in the independence and prominence of the chorus, which is featured in four out of seven movements. == history and text== although the exact date is not known, this is one of bach's earliest surviving cantatas. some sources say it dates from bach's early years in weimar (from 1708).jonathan green dates the work c. 1708&ndash;1710; w. g. whittaker dates it c. 1712. however, it may well be earlier. the zwang catalogue (which lists the cantatas chronologically) dates it as the sixth of the surviving cantatas by bach (composed 1708&ndash;1709), and places aus der tiefen rufe ich, herr, zu dir, bwv 131, composed in 1707, as the earliest. the scholar hans-joachim schulze identified a remarkable acrostic in the concluding four movements (which he described in the 2010 bach-jahrbuch, the journal of the neue bachgesellschaft). adjusting for transposition errors by the copyist, the initial letters should spell doktor conrad meckbach and plausibly therefore the work was composed to mark this mÃ¼hlhausen councillor's 70th birthday which occurred in april 1707. on this basis the cantata may date from bach's time in arnstadt, where he was organist of st boniface's church until his move to mÃ¼hlhausen in the summer of 1707. possibly the cantata was heard a few weeks later after the end of lent, and thus it may have formed a test-piece for the mÃ¼hlhausen appointment, composed in arnstadt with bach's supporter meckbach in mind.bwv 150 bachdiskographie  the libretto alternates between biblical verses and free poetry (a rarity among bach's early cantatas). the text of movements 2, 4, and 6 is from psalm 25 (vv. 1, 2, 5, 15). the author of the poetry is unknown. the work was written for an unspecified penitential service.bwv 150 bach-cantatas bach's original score is lost. the music survives in a copy made by c h penzel, one of bach's last pupils, after the
Cantatas_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach Psalm-related_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach