Es ist da Heil uns kommen her

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (It is our salvation come here to us), BWV 9 in Leipzig for the sixth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 1 August 1734. It is a chorale cantata, based on the hymn "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her" by Paul Speratus. Bach composed the cantata to fill a gap in his chorale cantata cycle written for performances in Leipzig from 1724.

The cantata is structured in seven movements, framed as the earlier chorale cantatas by a chorale fantasia and a chorale four-part setting, of the first and the twelfth stanza in the original words by the reformer Speratus, published in the First Lutheran hymnal. The theme is salvation from sin by God's grace alone. An anonymous librettist paraphrased the content of ten inner stanzas to alternating recitatives and arias. Bach scored the cantata for a chamber ensemble of four vocal parts, flauto traverso, oboe d'amore, strings and continuo. He gave all three recitatives to the bass, like a sermon interrupted in reflection by a tenor aria with solo violin and a duet of soprano and alto with the wind instruments.