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J S BACH
JESU, JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING
RFMS ARCHIVES


 

Music used: Sheet

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

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Lyrics

 

Programme Notes

Of J S Bach's sacred cantatas, only three fifths survive; of his secular cantatas, less than half do. Nevertheless, the surviving repertoire represents a huge amount of music.

Bach's duties as cantor at St Thomas's school, Leipzig required the performance of a cantata on Sundays and feast days. As St. Thomas's church had no repertoire of cantatas when the composer arrived in 1723, Bach had to compose a new work each week. He maintained this staggering rate of composition for five years, and continued writing cantatas after this.

Cantata No. 147 was first performed on 2 July 1723 and is known to be based on an earlier lost work from 1716. It includes the famous chorale Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude, also known as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, that has been arranged for countless combinations of instruments over the years.