Now Thank We All Our God

Now Thank We All Our God was a hymn first written by the German priest Martin Rinkart in the 1630s. It has been adapted many times over the years, most famously by Mendelssohn as a hymn tune. Theversion here was created as the third movement of Bach's Cantata BWV 79 (The Lord is a Sun and Shield), written for Reformation Day in 1725. It has been arranged for SATB choir with keyboard accompaniment, presented here with thepopular English text.

J. S. Bach (1685-1750) was a German Baroque composer who is revered for the originality and skill of his contrapuntal and harmonic techniques. He spent most of his life working as anorganistand choirmaster, and wrote many ecclesiastical works.