Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (BWV 147)

Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, was performed in Leipzig on 2 July 1723, in Bach's first months there, for the feast of the Visitation; he had begun it at Weimar in 1716 as an Advent cantata and expanded it with new recitatives and a second part. Each of the two halves closes with the same chorale setting, a walking triplet line in the orchestra wrapped around the hymn tune Werde munter, mein Gemüthe. That movement reached a much wider public through Myra Hess's piano transcription of 1926, published as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.