Hypocrisy, spiritual weakness, and helping the distressed are among the manifestations of the human condition this book, on the 28 cantatas for Trinity VIII-XVI, the second book of the series on all the cantatas, considers. In addition, there are chapters on the Actus Tragicus and the five cantatas for the annual installation of the Leipzig city council. Bach practices adherence, but a pragmatic one, to his employers, the Lutheran church and the municipal and aristocratic authorities. In liberating actuality from the confines of theology, Bach’s cantatas give an extensive presentation and interpretation of this freedom of thought.

Considered by many the greatest composer of Western music, Bach, like many of us, contends with fundamental human concerns such as self-worth, the courage of trust, satisfaction with life, the hope found in joy, suffering amidst the essential beauty of the world, the misery of loss, and the majesty of redemption.