Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, in Leipzig for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity and led the first performance on 19 August 17
Joachim Neander, the author of the hymn text
The hymn text in a 1686 print
Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, is a cantata for Easter by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, one of his earliest church cantatas. It is agreed to be an early work partly for stylistic reasons
Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137
…and from the Gospel of Mark, the healing of a deaf mute man (Mark 7:31–37). Unlike most chorale cantatas of the second cycle, but similar to the early Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, Bach retained the chorale text unchanged, thus without a reference to the readings. John Eliot Gardiner assumes, looking at the festive instrumentation…
The restored Wender organ which Bach played in Arnstadt at the New Church (now the Bach Church)
Portrait of the young Bach (disputed)
Portrait of Martin Luther, c. 1529. Luther wrote the text of the hymn and derived the melody from a traditional older tune.
Organ of Divi Blasii in Mühlhausen, where the cantata was possibly first performed