Harpsichord Concerto in E major, BWV 1053

The cantatas, part of a series where Bach developed the obbligato organ as a chamber or orchestral instrument, were first performed in October and November 1726 in the Thomaskirche, within two weeks of each other.

In the aria, the lines of the alto soloist and organ weave around each in what Alfred Dürr has described as "undoubtedly one of the most inspired vocal pieces that Bach ever wrote ... a passionate submersion in heavenly love."

In this case the superposition of the additional vocal line over the keyboard part "aims at the exploration, enrichment and perfection of the original compositional material."

The musical structure of the first movement of BWV 1053—concisely written but complex in its many intricate and ingenious details—has been analysed in Berger (1997) and Rampe (2013).

The movement combines the strict da capo A–B–A form of an aria with the ritornello structure of a concerto.

Bach devised the harpsichord's rhythmic thematic material as a contrasting counter-theme to the semiquaver motifs at the head of the ritornello.

The episode culminates in a semiquaver passage over an extended G♯ pedal point and an Adagio cadence and fermata in C♯ minor.

In da capo form, the sustained string ritornello is accompanied by the harpsichord with an explicit realisation of the figured bass by gentle broken chord semiquavers.

Like the first movement, its concise and ingenious compositional form combines the da capo structure of an aria with the ritornello structure of a concerto; it also has similarly light scoring in the orchestral parts to create a proper balance between harpsichord and strings.

Although the overall structure is similar to that of the first movement, the alternations between concertato soloist and ripieno are more frequent and complex.

The opening eighteen-bar ritornello has an introductory section or Vordersatz of four bars: the strings play the "head" motif—three quavers, four semiquavers and a quaver—in canon commencing in the first violin, then the second and then the viola.

Below the strings and the only instrument starting the movement, the harpsichord plays an introductory flourish of arpeggiated semiquaver triplets filling in the harmonies and spanning almost the entire keyboard.

In the remainder of the ritornello the harpsichord doubles the first violin part in the right hand and the continuo in the left.