One of six extant works Bach composed for Ascensiontide, BWV 43, God is gone up with a merry noise, was first performed on May 30, 1726, which falls within the period of Bach's third annual cantata cycle or Jahrgang. It was a time during which he had largely broken off from composing and performing cantatas of his own in favor of those of his cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach of Meiningen. The text is in fact taken from the same source as those employed in the cantatas of Johann Lugwig that Bach had been performing in Leipzig since February 1726. Often attributed to the Rudolstadt cantor and pastor Christoph Helm, later research suggests they are more likely to be the work of Duke Ernst Ludwig of Saxe-Meiningen, an important innovator of the new style of freely constructed cantatas that emerged in the early years of the eighteenth century. The cantata has 11 numbers and is divided into two parts, one of which would have prefaced the sermon, with the second part succeeding it. In keeping with most of Bach's cantatas for celebratory feasts, the scoring includes trumpets and tympani in addition to the customary two oboes, strings, and continuo bass. The full panoply is heard in the opening and closing choruses that frame the work, the first of which, a complex contrapuntal structure, is based on Psalm 47:5-6. The final chorale, "Du Lebensfürst, Herr Jesu Christ," is an unaltered four-part setting dating from the seventeenth century by Christoph Peter. Between these two choral movements, Bach introduces a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias divided between the four soloists. Because of the large number of movements, the arias are all short, in particular those in Part 1 for tenor (the third) and soprano (the fifth), both of which are cast in two-part (binary) form rather than the da capo arias of the Leipzig period. The texts of the recitatives and arias are concerned more with Christ's triumph over death than the events of the ascension, the bass aria in particular being a triumphant celebration accompanied by a brilliant trumpet obbligato. The final aria for alto, "In spirit yet I see him," is more devotional, with the oboes providing blissfully intertwining support. Bach's score is in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.