Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), probably the best-known German composer of the Baroque period, was born in Eisenach (in the small Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach) to a family of composers. Orphaned at the age of ten, he spent the rest of his childhood living with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, a composer from whom he received his initial musical education. At the age of 18 he began working as a musician for Protestant churches first in Arnstadt and then Mühlhausen. Appointments to courts in Weimar and Köthen followed, and Bach wrote most of his secular compositions during this period. From 1723 until the end of his life, he held the position of cantor at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, composing music for the city’s major Lutheran churches and the university’s Collegium Musicum. In 1736, he was awarded the title of court composer by Augustus III of Poland, who also held the title of Elector of Saxony. 

This is Bach’s cantata ”Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt“ [God So Loved the World], composed during his tenure at Leipzig in 1725. The libretto was written by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, who contributed the libretti to nine of Bach’s cantatas. One of the few women authors of her time, Ziegler entertained a salon in Leipzig and wrote poetry as well as prose. She was the only female member of Gottsched’s “Deutsche Gesellschaft.”