Cantata BWV 4, "Christ lag in Todes Banden"
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Each verse of the chorale text ends with the word "Hallelujah." When Bach reaches this final word for the first verse, he breaks off the complicated chorale fantasy texture for a 4-voice fugue (the strings and continuo double the choral parts).

The second verse is a duet for soprano and alto, with a walking bass accompaniment. Notice how the continuo part is essentially an ornamental descending scale passage (note the blue markings). The soprano clearly sings the chorale melody (marked in red) while the alto sings a related, though not exact, echo. The two melody parts together with the continuo make this duet a trio sonata in texture, though it is a relatively uncomplicated texture at that.

My favorite passage comes at the "Hallelujah." Here, Bach writes what is a very simple line of suspensions, but this is a classic example (for students of music theory) of the use of the "Corelli clash"–a series of 2-3 suspensions–in real music.

In the third movement, the solo tenor sings a rather straightforward version of the chorale tune. All the ornamentation falls upon the violins (I and II, together). The resulting texture is another trio sonata, though here the parts are not entirely equal, as was the case in the preceding movement.

In movement 4, the tenor again introduces the chorale tune, in an imitative passage. Eventually, the alto voice takes over the chorale tune in a much more simple, clearer, more obvious fashion. The continuo doubles the choral tenor or bass line, never acting independently. This highly contrapuntal, complicated texture carries through the entire work.

Movement 5 presents in some ways the most variety. It is the only movement NOT in quadruple meter. Bach begins the movement deceptively, with a short passage in the continuo of descending chromatic steps–reminiscent of the opening of the Crucifixus movement of the B Minor Mass. By the fifth pitch, however, the solo bass comes in with the chorale tune, and the continuo changes its tune, so to speak, moving to a dance-like passage of continuous eighth notes. At the end of measure 6, the bass joins the continuo line temporarily and the strings of the orchestra enter with the chorale tune instead.

Movement 6 contains a rhythmic ostinato, with almost constant dotted eighth-sixteenth notes throughout. The chorale tune is presented in long notes (quarters), sometimes in the solo soprano, sometimes in the solo tenor. Initially, Bach introduces the tune in E minor, but then the tenor shifts to B minor for his statement. The two keys alternate throughout the movement.