All of Bach's six authenticated motets were written between 1723 and 1727 for the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, of which Bach was appointed musical director in 1723. During this time Bach composed most of his cantatas, and it seems that he used existing motottes from the 17th-century tradition for ordinary Sunday masses to save his own motets compositions for special occasions. Four of his six motets were written for funeral ceremonies of well-known members of the St. Thomas parish.

Jesu, Meine Freude (BWV 227), the longest, most musically complex, and earliest of his six motets, was written in 1723 for the funeral of Johanna Maria Käsin, the wife of the Leipzig postmaster.

Jesu, Meine Freude is a beautifully crafted motet for five-part mixed choir by Johann Sebastian Bach. This Urtext edition brings you the composer's original intentions in a clear and accurate realization, and includes thorough editorial markings and suggestions as intended by text editor Konrad Ameln.