Johan Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms. In his lifetime he was primarily known as an organist. This is so due to his work for the 23 last years of his life as Thomaskantor (director of church music) in Leipzig.
He was responsible for directing at the St. Thomas School and for providing four churches with music. In fact, he had to produce a cantata for each Sunday as well as a lot of additional music.
Before coming to Leipzig he had composed many secular works, including orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and six Brandenburg Concertos.
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is the popular English title of the chorale from the 1723 Advent cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life). Bach based the chorale on a psalm melody by Johann Schop. The melody occurs twice in the cantata, with different texts each time.
The German title means ‘Jesus Remains My Joy’ (Jesus bleibet meine Freude). The English title derives from a famous piano transcription made by Myra Hess and published by Oxford University Press in 1926 for piano solo and in 1934 for piano duet.
Bach scored the chorale for choir, trumpet, violin, and basso continuo, with optional parts for oboe and viola. Whether played instrumentally or sung in German or English, it is often heard in various arrangements for an assortment of instruments at weddings and during Advent, Christmas and Easter.
The sound clip is computer generated using sampled sounds (AI). Transcriptions and descriptions are not AI-generated.
Set contains one score and one copy of each part, as download or on paper. Copying allowed by acquiring band for their performances only. Additional copies may be obtained from the J. W. Pepper webshop.
Johan Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms. In his lifetime he was primarily known as an organist. This is so due to his work for the 23 last years of his life as Thomaskantor (director of church music) in Leipzig.
