The exact dating of Bach's Chorale prelude for organ "Jesus Christus, unser Heiland," BWV 666 (Jesus Christ, Our Savior) is difficult because the work was written down by Bach's son-in-law. But that fact leads scholars to believe that it was one of Bach's last works because it is likely that Bach would only have called upon his son-in-law to copy his music if he were himself incapable of doing so, a condition that existed in the last months of Bach's life when he was blind. Be that as it may, the work is an organ setting of a favorite Lutheran chorale. Being a Lutheran chorale, the tune is typically in dark and brooding E minor and, being by Bach, it is typically treated with both intellectual brilliance and spiritual profundity. The four lines of the hymn are set to a 12/8 gigue rhythm against first a rapid eighth-note, three-voice accompaniment and then an even more rapid sixteenth-note, three-voice accompaniment. After the fourth and final line of the hymn, the accompaniment rises up through the keyboard like a cadenza over a tonic pedal then sinks down to the bass to end on a hopeful Piccardy third.

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