Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy regarded Bach's sacred works not only as historically vital music worthy of rediscovery and performance, but also as important models for his own compositions.

This can be seen in a letter in which Mendelssohn compares his chorale cantata "Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten" with Bach's cantata on the same text, commenting: " ... I still find various passages in my work very good, sometimes almost better (but other times less so, of course) and that I even come c...