In cantata BWV 19, the archangel Michael powerfully and lustfully throws the ‘raging serpent, the infernal dragon’ out of heaven into the darkness. Darkness - does this mean the world? The opening chorus is a ‘Dies Irae’ in a major key. In an apotheotic maelstrom, good triumphs over evil - end times. The remaining large part of the cantata is then about the fact that we are not quite there yet and that the ‘roar (of the dragon) terrifies us’, which is why angels must stand by our side so that ‘body and soul remain covered’. The counterpart to the opening chorus is the unspeakably beautiful tenor aria no. 5 ‘Bleibt, ihr Engel, bleibt bei mir’, into which Johann Sebastian Bach weaves the death chorale ‘Ach Herr, lass dein lieb Engelein’ (known as the final chorale of the St John Passion) and has it played by a delicate trumpet. A musical and theological event in itself! The cantata concludes with the chorale melody of Psalm 41 from the Genevan Psalter, which Bach greatly valued.