주 예수 그리스도, 참된 인간이며 하나님 (Herr Jesu Christ, wah'r Mensch und Gott)

Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott (Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God), BWV 127, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach for use in a Lutheran service. He composed the chorale cantata in 1725 in Leipzig for the Sunday Estomihi, the Sunday before Lent, and first performed it on 11 February 1725. It is based on Paul Eber's 1582 hymn in eight stanzas "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr Mensch und Gott". In the format of the chorale cantata cycle, an unknown librettist retained the outer stanzas unchanged, but paraphrased the inner stanzas for vocal soloists. Bach structured the cantata in five movements and scored it for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of trumpet, two recorders, two oboes, strings and continuo. The outer choral movements use the hymn tune, the first movement in a chorale fantasia, the last one in a four-part setting. In the first movement, Bach quoted two other chorales, "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" as an instrumental cantus firmus and "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" repeatedly in the continuo. The third movement features unusual scoring for an obbligato oboe and pizzicato strings, illustrating deathbells. The fourth movement is an unusual form of arioso recitave alternating with aria; a trumpet sounds, representing the Last Judgement. The music of the cantata has been seen as close to Bach's Passion, the St John Passion, to be performed in a second version on Good Friday 1725, and even as a precursor of elements of the St Matthew Passion.