Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata (Ah Lord, poor sinner that I am), 135 in Leipzig for the third Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 25 June 1724. It is the fourth chorale cantata from his second annual cycle, and is based on the hymn by Cyriakus Schneegass. In the format of Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the words of the hymn are retained unchanged only in the outer movements, while an unknown contemporary librettist paraphrased the inner stanzas for recitatives and arias. Bach structured the cantata in six movements, setting the chorale tune in a chorale fantasia in the opening movement, and in a four-part setting in the closing movement. The two choral movements frame alternating recitatives and arias of three vocal soloists. Bach also used a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of cornett, trombone, two oboes, strings and continuo. He set the first movement as a polyphonic chorale fantasia, the bass sings the cantus firmus. History and words Bach took office as Thomaskantor, music director in Leipzig, end of May 1723. It was part of his duties to supply music for the Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year at four churches of the town, and he decided to compose new cantatas for these occasions. He began with a cantata for the first Sunday after Trinity in 1723, performed on 30 May, and wrote a series of church cantatas until Trinity of the next year, which became known as his first cantata cycle. The following year, he composed new cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year, each based on one Lutheran chorale, an effort which became known later as his chorale cantata cycle. He wrote as the fourth cantata of this cycle, which he began two weeks earlier with . Bach composed the cantata for the Third Sunday after Trinity as the fourth cantata of his second annual cycle, and first performed it on 25 June 1724, one day after , on St. John's Day. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle of Peter, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord" (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost Coin (). The cantata is based entirely on the chorale "" (1597) by Cyriakus Schneegass, a paraphrase on Psalm 6 in six stanzas. The connection to the readings is