Ich bin ein guter Hirt, BWV 85

Bach composed Ich bin ein guter Hirt for the second Sunday after Easter called Misericordias Domini which fell on 15 May in 1724.^[2] He was then in his second year as Thomaskantor, the church music director of Leipzig. In his first twelve months in office, Bach had decided to compose new cantatas for almost all liturgical occasions. These works became known as his first cantata cycle.^[3] In his second year in office, Bach composed his chorale cantata cycle, with each cantata for the liturgical occasions based on one Lutheran hymn.^[4] Possibly due to the loss of his librettist for the project, Bach ended this series with Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, for Annunciation, performed on 25 March that year, and turned to other cantata types for the following Easter season.^[5][6] He later assigned Ich bin ein guter Hirt to his third cantata cycle.^[2]

The prescribed readings for the second Sunday after Easter were from the First Epistle of Peter, Christ as a model (1 Peter 2:21–25), and from the Gospel of John, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11–16).^[7][8]

According to John Eliot Gardiner, the librettist is likely the same as for two preceding cantatas, Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6, and Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats, BWV 42,^[9] before Christiana Mariana von Ziegler became the poet for the following cantatas of the period.^[10] The three cantata texts were probably written for Bach's first year in Leipzig but postponed due to the workload of the first performance of the St John Passion that year. The three cantatas form a sequence on themes from the Gospel of John.^[9]

The librettist opened the cantata with the beginning of the Gospel, verse 11: Jesus describing himself as the Good Shepherd.^[11] The second movement explains that being a Good Shepherd was realised in the Passion. The thought is commented by the first stanza of Cornelius Becker's 1598 hymn "Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt", a paraphrase of Psalm 23.^[6][2][9] The poet refers in movement 4 to verse 12 of the Gospel, the contrast of the shepherd who is awake to watch over the sheep, whereas the hired servants sleep and neglect them. Movement 5 names love as the shepherd's motivation to care for the sheep and points at the death of Jesus.^[2] The cantata ends with the fourth stanza, "Ist Gott mein Schutz und treuer Hirt", of the 1658 hymn "Ist Gott mein Schild und Helfersmann" for which Ernst Christoph Homberg supplied text and melody.^[2][12] All movements are closely connected to the Gospel theme. The sequence of movements is found also in the two cantatas preceding it and in other Bach cantatas, which may also have been written by the same unknown librettist.^[6][2]

Bach led the Thomanerchor in the first performance on 15 April 1725.^[7][13]

Bach's autograph score of the cantata and a set of parts that Bach had partly revised himself are extant.^[2] The cantata was first published in 1872 in the first complete edition of Bach's work, the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe. The volume in question was edited by Wilhelm Rust.^[2][19] In the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, it was published in 1989, edited by Reinmar Emans.^[2][19]

The selection is taken from the listing on the Bach Cantatas Website.^[20] Instrumental groups playing period instruments in historically informed performances are marked green.