Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern BWV 1
Chorale cantata by J. S. Bach
First page of the manuscript of a solo violin part
Key	F major
Occasion	Annunciation Palm Sunday
Performed	25 March 1725 (1725-03-25): Leipzig
Movements	6
Chorale	"Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" by Philipp Nicolai
Vocal	SATB choir S T B soloists
Instrumental	2 horns 2 oboes da caccia 2 violins viola continuo

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How beautifully the morning star shines),BWV 1, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in 1725 in Leipzig for the feast of the Annunciation and led the first performance on 25 March 1725, which that year fell on Palm Sunday. It is a chorale cantata, based on Philipp Nicolai's hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" (1599).

Bach was in his second year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, where the feast was the only occasion during Lent when festive music was permitted. The theme of the hymn suits both the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, in a spirit of longing expectation of an arrival. An unknown poet retained, as in the other chorale cantatas of Bach's second cantata cycle, the hymn's first and last stanza unchanged, but paraphrased the themes of the inner stanzas to a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. Bach scored the cantata for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two horns, two oboes da caccia, two solo violins, strings and continuo. All instruments play in the opening festive chorale fantasia, while the soprano carries the hymn tune and the lower voices answer in counterpoint of instrumental motifs. An oboe da caccia accents the first aria, the solo violins and strings return in the second aria, and an independent horn part crowns the closing chorale.

The cantata was the last chorale cantata of the cycle, possibly because Bach lost a librettist who had inspired him. The work was chosen to open the first attempt to publish Bach's complete works, a century after his death.