Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht

Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht (I will not let go of my Jesus), BWV 124, is a church cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the first Sunday after the Epiphany and first performed it on 7 January 1725. It is based on the hymn "Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht" by Christian Keymann. The cantata is part of Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the second cycle during his tenure as Thomaskantor that began in 1723. In the style of the cycle, an unknown poet retained the outer stanzas for framing choral movements and paraphrased the inner stanzas into four movements for soloists, alternating recitatives and arias. Bach scored the work for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of a horn to play the cantus firmus with the soprano, oboe d'amore, strings and basso continuo.