Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750. Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen

Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen ("God goes up with jubilation" or "God has gone up with a shout"), BWV 43, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the Feast of the Ascension, and led the first performance on 30 May 1726. The work is part of Bach's third cantata cycle. Bach wrote the music during his third year as Thomaskantor, the church music director of Leipzig. After two years of composing new cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year, he began his third year by performing music by others, especially his cousin Johann Ludwig Bach. In Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, Bach used his cousin's cantata format, which featured a poem as text, in addition to quotations from the Old and New Testaments and closing chorale music. The Biblical quotations were taken from Psalm 47, traditionally understood as a reference to the Ascension, and from the prescribed Gospel for the occasion, Mark 16. The closing chorale consists of two stanzas from "Du Lebensfürst, Herr Jesu Christ" with text by Johann Rist. Bach structured the cantata in eleven movements, split into two parts: one to be performed before the sermon, and one to be performed after. The opening chorus and the closing chorale are sung by the choir, framing a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. Bach scored the cantata festively for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, strings and basso continuo. Due to the long text, the work features short arias and five recitatives, most of them secco. The opening chorus has a complex structure with a slow introduction and several fugal developments.