J.S. Bach: Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43 - The Church Cantatas, Vol. 112

BWV43 was composed in Bach’s third year in Leipzig for the feast of Ascension. The text of the cantata is unusual as it consists mostly of a poem in six stanzas, which forms movements 5 to 10 of the work in 11 movements. The structure is similar to that of cantatas by Bach’s cousin Johann Ludwig Bach, court conductor in Meiningen, that Bach performed during 1726: Old Testament quotation, recitative, aria, New Testament quotation, poem, chorale. The first quotation is taken from Psalm 47 (Psalms 47:5–7) and is traditionally understood as a reference to the Ascension. The other quotation in movement 4 is verse 19 from the gospel. An unknown poet paraphrased in recitative and aria an idea from Psalm 68 (Psalms 68:18) as well as its quotation in the Epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:8), “when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive“. In movement 7 he used the motif of Christ in the winepress. The cantata is closed by the first and thirteenth stanza of Johann Rist’s hymn “Du Leb