Schwingt Freudig Euch Empor, BWV 36

Schwingt Freudig Euch Empor, BWV 36

Schwingt freudig euch empor ("Soar joyfully aloft"), BWV 36, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig in 1731 for the first Sunday in Advent, drawing on material from previous congratulatory cantatas, beginning with Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36c (1725). The Gospel for the Sunday was the Entry into Jerusalem, thus the mood of the secular work matched "the people's jubilant shouts of Hosanna". In a unique structure in Bach's cantatas, he interpolated four movements derived from the former works with four stanzas from two important hymns for Advent, to add liturgical focus, three from Luther's "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" and one from Nicolai's "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". He first performed the cantata in its final form of two parts, eight movements, on 2 December 1731.