Although Johann Peter Kellner received only relatively brief training in music, he attained a quite considerable compositional level, not least because of his contacts with members of Bach’s circle of friends. Along with the members of the Bach family, this circle included Johann Sebastian Bach’s pupils and musician friends of his such as Jacob Adlung in Erfurt. Until 1762 Johann Peter composed a number of cantatas along with his son Johann Christoph that have been brought together in the Schuler-Jahrgang (Pupil’s Annual Cycle). The organ in a concertizing function occupied a central place in Johann Peter’s cantata oeuvre around 1755 and lends this genre an individual character. This role does not merely involve short inserts of motifs, as was later the case in his son’s cantatas, but an independently concertizing organ heard in alternation with the vocalists and violins and illustrating the text with what in part is a treatment of considerable virtuosity. Influences from Johann Sebastian Bach, Gottfried Hein