Cantate BWV 147 - Jesu, joy of man’s desiring

About this work

“Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring” has become a favourite at ceremonies, sometimes detached from everything around it. In Bach's work, it is the closing chorale of Cantata BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, first performed in Leipzig in 1723. The chorale melody moves in long note values while the orchestra unfolds an almost dancing stream around it.

This contrast gives the chorale its beauty. The voices sing a firm line together, like an anchor; the instruments surround it with a supple motif that returns between phrases. Highly constructed music can thus seem entirely natural. The same device appears halfway through the cantata with another stanza, before its final return under the German title “Jesus bleibet meine Freude”.

For the choir, the difficulty lies not in multiplying effects, but in keeping the text alive through long notes. Prepare the consonants together and decide where the phrase is heading before discussing volume. The accompaniment must preserve its momentum without hurrying the chorale. If the quavers become mechanical and the voices a block, Bach remains correct on paper but far less moving in the room.


What the document contains

One 2-page choral score.
One 8-page full score and one 13-page document containing the instrumental parts.
Three PDFs in the archive, accompanied by one MIDI file.

The catalogue presents these documents as public domain, without precise metadata for the edition. Check the title pages before redistributing them.