Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43

Background Bach was appointed (director of church music) in Leipzig in 1723, responsible for the music at four Lutheran churches and for the training and education of the boys singing in the boys' choir. He took office on 30 May 1723, performing his church cantata , for the first Sunday after Trinity. Leipzig had a liturgy of the same prescribed readings from the Bible every year for Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year, including feasts of saints, of Mary, and three days of celebrating the high holidays of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost; cantata music was expected to match the readings for all occasions except during the "silent times" of Advent (before Christmas) and Lent (before Easter). In the new position, Bach decided, instead of using existing music, to compose new church cantatas for almost all liturgical events for the first twelve months; they became his first cantata cycle. The following year, Bach went on to write a second cantata cycle, now basing each on a Lutheran hymn. In his book Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, Christoph Wolff described the endeavour as "a most promising project of great homogeneity, whose scope he was able to define himself". In 1725, his third year in the post, Bach slowed down his composing and began to perform cantatas by others, especially by his cousin Johann Ludwig Bach, who was court musician in Saxe-Meiningen. The texts for these cantatas were published during the 1704/05 church year in Rudolstadt in 1725, without naming an author; they could have been written by Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. The texts followed a specific format: Old Testament quotation, recitative, aria, New Testament quotation, poem, chorale, differing from Bach's earlier cantata texts by the inclusion of a poem. Bach composed few cantatas during his third year in Leipzig. For the Christmas season, he wrote several cantatas to older librettos, especially by Georg Christian Lehms. Bach composed the Ascension cantata after three months of performing his cousin's works. He used his cousin's text format for this cantata and six others to follow. It is unclear if he possessed his cousin's cycle only partly and had to fill in for missing ones, or if he regarded some as unfit for the Leipzig audience. Readings and text The prescribed readings for the Ascension feast day were from the Acts of the Apostles, the prologue and Ascension narrative (), and from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus telling his disciples to preach and baptise, and his Ascension (). The text of the cantata is unusual as it consists mostly of a poem in six stanzas, which is used for six consecutive movements (5 to 10) of the work in eleven movements. The first quotation is taken from Psalm 47 (), a text traditionally understood as a reference to the Ascension. The other quotation is verse 19 from the Gospel. For recitative and aria between the quotations, an unknown librettist paraphrased both an idea from Psalm 68 () and its quotation in the Epistle to the Ephesians (), "when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive". The poem may have existed separately, quoted by the librettist. It praises salvation through Jesus, defeating Satan, and the hope for an eternal dwelling with Jesus. It is full of Biblical references, including the theme of Christ in the winepress, following Isaiah 63:3, and alludes to the vision of Saint Stephen of an open heaven, according to Acts 7:56. The cantata is closed by the first and thirteenth stanza of Johann Rist's hymn "", published in 1641. Bach would later use the fourth stanza of the chorale for his Ascension Oratorio. The cantata consists of two parts, to be performed before and after the sermon. This division was not indicated in the Rudolstadt print. Performance Bach led the Thomanerchor in the first performance on 30 May 1726, in a morning service at the Nikolaikirche, with a sermon delivered by Salomon Deyling; it was performed again the same day in a vespers service at the Thomaskirche, probably with a sermon by . The cantata belongs to Bach's third cantata cycle. Another performance by Bach is documented by a violin part, but it cannot be dated. Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who inherited a set of parts, performed the cantata's first part at least twice in Halle. == Music ==

Structure and scoring Bach structured the cantata in eleven movements, in two parts. The outer movements—the opening chorus and the closing chorale—are sung by the choir, and frame a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. The work is scored for four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T), bass (B)), a four-part choir and a festive Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets (Tr) and timpani (Ti), two oboes (Ob), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), and basso continuo. Alfred Dürr noted in his book that this scoring is almost as opulent as for the later Ascension Oratorio. The title page of the original parts reads: "Festo Ascens. Xsti. / Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen / a / 4 Voci / & Trombe / Tamburi / & Hautb. / & Viol. / Viola / e / Cont. / di / J. S. Bach", which means "Feast of the Ascension of Christ / Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen / for 4 voices, & trumpets, timpani, & oboes, violins, viola, & continuo, by J. S. Bach". Dürr gave the duration as 25 minutes. In the following table, the scoring follows the . The keys and time signatures are taken from Dürr, using the symbols for common time (4/4) and (2/2). The continuo, playing throughout, is not shown. Movements The cantata begins with an imposing opening chorus, which, as in Bach's Orchestral suites, nothing that follows can balance. Due to the long text, the work unusually features short arias and five recitatives, most of them secco, with the exception of the one beginning Part II. Dürr believes that Bach may have taken not only his cousin's text format but also his music-making as a model. 1 The opening chorus, "" (God goes up with jubilation and the Lord with bright trumpets) with the full orchestra, is the "centre of gravity" of the cantata. It opens with an introduction marked "adagio", played by the strings doubled by the oboes. Then a fugue begins, two instrumental entries are followed by choral entries, and a climax is reached in an entry of the first trumpet. A second fugue includes remote and minor keys. The second part of the text, "" (sing praises to God, sing praises unto our King) is first sung in homophony, but then presented in a third fugue on the theme of the first, followed by a homophonic coda. 2 A secco recitative for the tenor, "" (The Highest prepares for himself a triumphal procession), expresses that God makes the prisons captives, in syllabic declamation. 3 In the first aria, "" (Indeed thousand upon thousands accompany the chariots), the tenor is accompanied by the violins in unison. The complete text is sung three times in different sections. Hans-Joachim Schulze notes that the "energetic repeated pitches, spacious broken chords, and sweeping passages" give the aria a heroic character, although the triple meter might indicate a dance type. 4 The New Testament quotation about the Ascension, "" (And the Lord, after he had spoken with them, was taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.), is sung not by the tenor as the Evangelist, but instead the soprano narrates it in a secco recitative. 5 The fifth movement concludes Part I and is based on the first stanza of the poem, "" (My Jesus has now completed the work of salvation). The soprano is accompanied by the strings which are doubled by the oboes. In the middle section, the words "" (He finishes His course on earth, literally: "He finishes the course of the earth") are expressed by an upward melisma and one downward on the repeat of the words. Schulze characterises the aria as introverted and sympathetic. 6 The recitative, "" (The hero of heroes comes, the terror and bane of Satan,), is sung by the bass. In the strings, triadic fanfares alternate with soft tremolo, illustrating the drama of the text with contrasting aspects of power and anxiousness. 7 The bass continues in an aria, "" (It is he, who completely alone has trod upon the winepress). It is highlighted by an obbligato trumpet part, which Schulze saw as a symbol of the "solitariness of the victor". The trumpet part is so difficult that Bach gave it to a violin in a later performance. Repeated figures in the continuo may illustrate the treading in the winepress. The words "" (full of sorrow, torment and pain) are illustrated by a slower tempo and harmonic tension. 8 In this recitative for the alto, "" (The Father has indeed ordained for him an eternal Kingdom), the vocal line concludes with a reference to the view towards heaven, expressed by an upward coloratura motion. 9 The alto aria, "" (I see already in spirit, how he, at God's right hand, smites his enemies). is accompanied by the oboes. It expresses the joy of victory over the enemies, in a dance-like vision of peace rather than a description of a battle, but stresses the words "" (out of suffering, distress and ignominy) by "harmonic darkening". Schulze notes that in the second Part, like in the first, a tranquil aria follows one full of tension, here ignoring aspects of the text. 10 A soprano recitative, "" (He will prepare next to him a dwelling-place for me), expresses a vision of a heavenly dwelling. 11 The closing chorale in two stanzas, "" (O Prince of Life, Lord Jesus Christ), is a four-part setting of the melody of "", composed by Johann Schop in 1641. The chorale setting was not composed by Bach, but he took it from the 1682 '''' hymnal by Gottfried Vopelius, with only slight alterations. The oldest source for the hymn, the 1655 collection (Devotional cymbals) by , cantor in Guben, was not at Bach's disposal. The instruments play with the voices, according to the parts two trumpets, the oboes and two violins with the soprano, and one trumpet and viola with the alto. Michael Märker, the editor of a critical edition for Carus-Verlag, notes that the soprano and alto lines were too low for trumpets to play along, and that Dürr suggested that trumpeters played violins for that movement. == Manuscripts and publication ==

The manuscripts of both the score and parts have survived and are held by the Berlin State Library. The first critical edition of the cantata, edited by Wilhelm Rust, was published by the Bach Gesellschaft in 1860 as part of its complete edition of Bach's works. In the , the second edition of Bach's works, the cantata was published in 1960, edited by Dürr. Carus published a critical edition in German and English as part of its in 1999, edited by Michael Märker. In the 21st century, Bach Digital published high-resolution facsimile images of the manuscript parts from the first quarter of the 18th century. == Recordings ==

The following table is a selection from Bach Cantatas website, where 22 recordings are listed as of 2026. Instrumental groups playing period instruments in historically informed performances are marked by the word "Period" and the colour green in the column. }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} == Notes ==