Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133

Ich freue mich in dir
BWV 133
Chorale cantata by J. S. Bach
Thomaskirche, Leipzig 1885
Occasion	Third Day of Christmas
Performed	27 December 1724 (1724-12-27): Leipzig
Movements	6
Cantata text	anonymous
Chorale	"Ich freue mich in dir by Caspar Ziegler
Vocal	SATB choir and solo
Instrumental	cornett 2 oboes d'amore 2 violins viola continuo

Ich freue mich in dir (I rejoice in You),BWV 133, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the Christmas cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for the Third Day of Christmas and first performed it on 27 December 1724. The chorale cantata is based on the 1697 hymn by Caspar Ziegler.

Bach wrote the chorale cantata in his second year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, as part of his second cantata cycle, for the Third Day of Christmas. The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ is higher than the angels, () and the prologue of the Gospel of John, also called Hymn to the Word (). The cantata is based on the chorale in four stanzas Ich freue mich in dir (1697) by Caspar Ziegler. It is one of the newest of the chorales which served as a base for the second annual cycle, whereas Bach otherwise preferred the beloved hymns of poets such as Martin Luther and Paul Gerhardt. The unknown poet of the cantata text kept the first and the last stanza, and paraphrased the inner stanzas closely to a sequence of recitative and aria. The text has no reference to the readings nor to the feast of John the Evangelist. It expresses the intimate joy of the individual believer about the presence of God in the Jesus child.