Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm

Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm (God, as Your name is, so is also Your praise), BWV 171, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for New Year's Day and probably first performed it on 1 January 1729. Bach composed the cantata years after the complete cantata cycles from the beginning of his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723. The text by Picander appeared in a 1728 collection of texts for all occasions of the liturgical year. The feast day also celebrated the circumcision and naming of Jesus. Picander focused on the naming, beginning with a psalm verse mentioning God's name. He used for the conclusion the second stanza from Johannes Hermann's hymn "Jesu, nun sei gepreiset". Bach structured the cantata in six movements, an opening choral fugue, alternating arias and recitatives and closing chorale. He scored the work for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a festive Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets and timpani, two oboes, strings and continuo. The oboes and strings play with the voices in motet style in the choral sections, while the trumpets add the style of a new time. The cantata is part of Bach's Picander cycle.