Chorale Jesus bleibet meine Freude BWV 147

from the Cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben BWV 147 in 1723 during his first year as Thomaskantor, the director of church music in Leipzig. His cantata is part of his first cantata cycle there and was written for the Marian feast of the Visitation on 2 July, which commemorates Mary s visit to Elizabeth as narrated in the Gospel of Luke in the prescribed reading for the feast day. Bach began the cantata with a chorus for the full orchestra, followed by alternating recitatives and arias with often obbligato instrument. He scored it for four vocal soloists, a fourpart choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of trumpet, two oboes, strings, and continuo.