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Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How beautifully the morning star shines), BWV1, is a church cantata, designated for Annunciation and composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Based on Philipp Nicolai's hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" (1599), as usual for Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the hymn was paraphrased by a contemporary poet who retained the hymn's first and last stanzas unchanged, but transformed the themes of the inner stanzas into a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. Bach composed it in his second year as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas) in Leipzig; is the last chorale cantata of Bach's second cantata cycle. The Bach-Gesellschaft published the cantata in 1851 as the first work in their complete edition of Bach's works, dubbing it Bach's Cantata No. 1. It retained that number in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, and it was recorded in 1971 as the first work of the first album of Teldec's complete Bach cantata recordings by Harnoncourt and Leonhardt.

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Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How beautifully the morning star shines), BWV1, is a church cantata for Annunciation by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata, based on Nicolai's "1599 hymn" for the feast celebrated on 25 March, which coincided with Palm Sunday that year. The theme of the hymn suits both occasions, in a spirit of longing expectation of an arrival. The hymn was paraphrased by a contemporary poet who retained its first and last stanzas unchanged, set as a chorale fantasia and the closing chorale, but transformed the inner stanzas into a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. Bach scored the work for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two horns, two oboes da caccia, two solo violins, strings and continuo. It became the last chorale cantata of his second cantata cycle. When Bach's works were published by the Bach-Gesellschaft, the cantata was chosen to begin the complete edition in 1851. It was assigned No. 1 in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis of 1950.