Who's behind the notes? Discover Johann Sebastian Bach: Master of Baroque Music
Johann Sebastian Bach's "Erwählte Pleissenstadt, BWV 216a" is a secular cantata composed by him. It was written for the inauguration of the new town council in Leipzig on August 5, 1728. Here are some interesting facts about this composition:
Occasion: The cantata was specifically composed for the inauguration ceremony of the Leipzig Town Council, which took place at the Pleissenburg, a historic building in Leipzig.
Librettist: The text for BWV 216a was written by Bach's frequent collaborator, Christian Friedrich Henrici, who was also known as Picander. Picander wrote librettos for several of Bach's works.
Lost Composition: Unfortunately, the music for BWV 216a is largely lost. Only a few fragments and a couple of movements have survived, making it one of the incomplete works in Bach's catalog.
Recomposition as BWV 216: Some parts of the music from BWV 216a were later reworked and used in another cantata, "Erwählte Pleissenstadt, BWV 216," which Bach composed for the same occasion in 1729. This later composition is a revised version of the original BWV 216a.
Typical Baroque Structure: As with many of Bach's cantatas, the structure of BWV 216a would have likely included recitatives, arias, and possibly choruses. These elements were characteristic of the Baroque style of composition.
While the full musical content of BWV 216a is mostly lost, the surviving fragments and the later recomposed version (BWV 216) provide some insight into Bach's creative process and his contributions to the musical culture of his time.