Although beloved by performers and audiences alike, music scholars have generally viewed J.S. Bach's Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis in meinem Herzen (Cantata 21) as one of the composer's weaker compositions. In Tears into Wine, renowned Bach scholar Eric Chafe challenges the scholarly consensus, arguing that Cantata 21 is an exceptionally carefully designed work, and that it displays a convergence of musical structure and theological purpose that is paradigmatic of Bach's sacred work as a whole.