This chorale prelude was not known to exist until 1985, the year when musicologist Christoph Wolff unearthed it as part of the so-named Neumeister Collection that had been filed away at the Yale Library in 1873, apparently with no one aware of its contents. Assembled in the latter years of the eighteenth century by Johann Gottfried Neumeister, the collection included 82 chorales by three Bach family members, Pachelbel, and other composers. Of the works, 38 are attributed to Bach, including this chorale prelude, "Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" (Alone to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ). Bach gives the chorale tune a somewhat vigorous treatment with lively but mellow running accompaniment that is rife with deftly imagined contrapuntal activity. He does not slight the glorious and serene character of the chorale theme here, though he, by design, goes on to provide little significant development of it. In the end, this approximately two-minute piece can be assessed as quite successful in fulfilling the composer's aim at providing a prelude-like work to serve as an introduction for the congregation or choir just before they sing the chorale itself during church services.

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