Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (1657-1714) was a court composer and music director in the central German town of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. During his day, Erlebach mastered nearly every genre of his era and turned the court of Rudolstadt into a sophisticated musical center. Unfortunately, a fire which consumed the Rudolstadt court in 1735 destroyed many of his sacred and secular manuscripts. Erlebach had a marked influence on the development of the sacred cantata. He was one of the first composers to write a cycle of texts by Erdmann Neumeister, the earliest cycle of Neumeister cantatas that survives. This study provides background and analysis of two cantatas, Ich will Wasser giessen and Christus ist mein Leben, and examines how this music can be performed today in a historically informed, logistically viable fashion.