An introductory, solemnly carried Andante mesto with muted timpani and trumpets is followed by a rhythmically profiled Larghetto, like a shriek dance, with melodically ariose qualities.
The third movement is simply titled Choral and consists of a simple four-part setting over the first verse of the Protestant hymn Now let us bury the body by Michael Weiße (1531).
The finale begins in Adagio, in which the chorale is processed as a cantus firmus movement as well as a fugue (with a rhythmically altered thematic head).
The instrumentation, with two oboes each, clarinets and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings, mainly serves the low registers.
[2] Genetically and musically there is a close relationship to the funeral cantata (VB 42) performed on 14 May 1792, which is modelled both in text (Carl Gustav Leopold) and formally on conventions of the Passion Oratorio.