Tristis est anima mea (Sad is my soul) is a sacred motet for five voices attributed to Johann Kuhnau, Thomaskantor in Leipzig.

Kuhnau's successor at the Thomaskirche, Johann Sebastian Bach, adapted the music to a German text, Der Gerechte kömmt um, and added an instrumental accompaniment.

Philipp Spitta's 19th century biography of the latter contains the following:[1][Kuhnau] was better versed in the technicalities of vocal writing than most other German composers of the time.

[2][3] By then it proved impossible to ascertain authorship on source-critical grounds (among other reasons while the Leipzig parts mentioned by Spitta could no longer be traced).

[4] The first words of the text, told in the first person, are translated as "My soul is exceeding sorrowful" in the King James Version (KJV).

[5] While the first two lines are quoted from the Bible, the next two are anonymous poetry,[4] Jesus predicting that the disciples will see a crowd ("Iam videbitis turbam"), they will take flight ("Vos fugam capietis"), and he will go to be sacrificed for them ("et ego vadam immolari pro vobis").

[4] Both works open in a similar way, with "closely overlapping vocal entries, and both shift to homophonic declamation at the words "Iam videbitis turbam" (You will see the crowd).

[8] The first eight measures are devoted exclusively to the word "tristis" (sad, sorrowful),[9] with the voices entering one after the other, each beginning with a long note, from the lowest to the highest which sings only a short sighing motif.

After a short rest, the second line of the text is presented in similar building, this time in the sequence from inside out: alto, soprano II and tenor together, soprano I and bass almost together, all arriving in measure 50 in homophony on the last word "mecum", which marks the end of the biblical text and is followed by a long rest with a fermata.

[11] Its basis was the then popular passion cantata Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld (A lambkin goes and bears our guilt) by Carl Heinrich Graun (GraunWV B:VII:4),[12] which was expanded with compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann and others.

39 of the pasticcio, an orchestrated version of the Tristis est anima mea motet on a parody text, as an arrangement by Bach.

[19] The Kammerchor Joaquin des Préz, conducted by Ludwig Böhme, sang it in 2012 as part of a collection of music by Bach and his predecessors as Thomaskantor.