(He calleth his own sheep by name) for alto, tenor and bass, vocal ensemble, flauto dolce I-III, tromba I+II, violoncello piccolo, strings and basso continuo

Composed for the Third Day of Pentecost in 1725, the cantata “Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen” (He calleth his own sheep by name) belongs to a cycle of works set to nine texts by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler, the daughter of a patrician family from Leipzig. Bach worked on the cycle between Easter and Trinity Sunday of 1725, a period during which his choral cantata project had been temporarily abandoned. The cantata is distinctive not only for its colourful instrumentation, but also for the fact that the libretto draws heavily on readings from the Gospel of John – so much so that the American musicologist Eric Chafe suggests the work should be viewed in connection with Bach’s St John Passion.