This is the earliest of the three settings that Bach made of this chorale theme, but the last to become known. True, the composer undoubtedly performed the work during church services sometime in the early eighteenth century. And when Johann Gottfried Neumeister collected its manuscript, along with numerous others by Bach and several other composers in the 1790s, it may have gotten additional limited exposure at the time. But the work and all the others in the Neumeister Collection disappeared thereafter for almost two centuries, finally to be rescued in 1985 by organist and musicologist Christoph Wolff. "Wir Christenleut" comprises three sections, the first two using a cantus firmus and the last giving a fugal treatment to the theme. The joyous, busy music in the opening section resembles that in the BWV 612 version of this chorale Bach made for his Orgelbüchlein (1713—1715). Gigue-like rhythmic features appear in the brief middle section, the theme remaining in the upper register. The fugal final episode takes on a somewhat jaunty manner, exhibiting less sense of flow than in the previous sections. This two-minute chorale setting offers a deft, lively combination of contrapuntal activity with perky rhythms.

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