Here is the opening chorus, Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, from cantata 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach. A translation of the text appears below. The Vienna Boys’ Choir, Chorus Viennensis and Concentus Musicus of Vienna are all led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Ah God, how much heartache
Bedevils me now!
Disturbing is the narrow path
That I follow to Heaven.
When I was a kid I used to sing the song that started with “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” under my breath when the traditional carol “Joy to the World” was done, but I quit doing that. I do like both those versions of “Joy to the World” though.
Here is the air Birth and fortune I despise!, from the oratorio Saul by Händel. When Saul presents David with the hand of his younger daughter Michal as reward for the boy’s victory in battle, the king’s elder daughter Merab cannot contain her contempt for the low-born slayer of Goliath. Her brother Jonathan rounds on her angrily, defending David as a model of virtue.
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