November Carillon Tune

Goddard Chapel’s carillon currently features an excerpt from Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata on the Thanksgiving hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.” After arriving at his career-defining post as Cantor in the German city of Leipzig, in 1723, Bach composed and performed a large-scale, multi-movement church cantata almost every week for several years. Many of these cantatas were based on familiar hymn tunes, and this cantata, No. 79, composed in 1725, is no exception. Using Martin Rinkart’s 1636 hymn, “Nun danket alle Gott” as thematic and textual basis for the cantatas third movement, this work was written for the Lutheran Feast of the Reformation.

For a performance of this work, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBcD-7u17Y0 (the third movement, featured in our carillon, begins at 8:15)