04/04/2026
Enjoy this service--prayers, preaching, and music--as it was livestreamed! The Chancel Choir partnered with clergy for a unique worship service to deepen our Good Friday reflections. The J. S. Bach Cantata 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God’s Time is the Very Best Time), also called Actus Tragicus, is an early Bach work intended for a funeral. This funeral music focuses on the mortality of humankind and, in his crucifixion, Jesus shared this most human experience.
The liturgy intersperses Biblical readings, prayers, and hymns appropriate for Good Friday with the Cantata movements, much as church services would have been conducted in Bach’s time. The text for the final segment to be sung in this Good Friday service is “Death has become my sleep,” reflecting that, in death, the body “sleeps” until transformed at its resurrection.
Written around 1708, Bach’s writing is a juxtaposition of biblical texts from the Old Testament and New Testament, combined with funeral hymns. Seven of the eight movements will be performed, omitting the eighth due to its celebratory tone antithetical to Good Friday’s somber reverence.
The service includes flute, chorus, vocal solos with viola and cello and continuo with cello and the portative organ on loan from the University of Denver--differing slightly from the original score that included two recorders and two viols da gamba–stringed instruments much like the modern cello but smaller and held between the legs without touching the floor.
We are grateful to University of Denver Lamont School of Music for the loan of their portative organ which will lend an historical sound and context to this music.
Good Friday - 04/02/26 - Augustana Lutheran Church DenverThank you for joining us!
