A Bach Cantata for Each Day of Holy Week

Agony in the Garden, Andrea Mantegna, 1457

Holy Week is upon us, and Christians the world over mark these eight days in many different ways. This year, I’ve added a pertinent Bach cantata to my daily devotions.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote almost 300 cantatas, over 200 of which survive today. He wrote them for specific Sundays of the liturgical year, so my assigning them to the other days of the week is entirely my own invention — but…