He places Nikolaus Herman's Easter hymn "Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag" in the centre of the cantata, repeats the line "Friede sei mit euch" (Peace be with you) several times, and ends with the first stanza from Jakob Ebert's hymn "Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ" (Thou Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ).
Bach structured the work in seven movements, arranged in symmetry around the central chorale, and scored it for three solo voices, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of a slide horn for hymn tunes, flauto traverso, two oboes d'amore, strings and basso continuo.
Bach composed the cantata in his first year as Thomaskantorr in Leipzig, shortly after he first performed his St John Passion, for the First Sunday after Easter, called Quasimodogeniti.
The closing chorale is the first stanza of "Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christo" (Thou Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ)[1] by Jakob Ebert (1601).
In the third section, the sopranos repeat the melody in a fugue, while the altos simultaneously sing a countersubject that rises in fast movement for more than an octave, illustrating the resurrection.
Musicologist Julian Mincham describes the music as serene, a "gentle, rocking, almost cradle-like rhythm creating a perfect atmosphere of peaceful contemplation".
The upper voices of the choir (without basses) answer to the music of the introduction, seeing Jesus as help in the battle ("hilft uns kämpfen und die Wut der Feinde dämpfen").
The greeting and answering is repeated two more times in two stanzas of the poem, reflecting the strengthening of the weary in spirit and body ("erquicket in uns Müden Geist und Leib zugleich"), and finally overcoming death ("durch den Tod hindurch zu dringen").
[3][9] Klaus Hofmann describes the movement as an "operatic scene" and continues "Bach resorts to unconventional means; he shows himself as a musical dramatist and, in the process, stresses the element of contrast: he comments upon the words of the faithful with agitated, tumultuous string figures, whilst Jesus' peace greeting sounds calmly and majestically, embedded in pastoral wind sonorities.