Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36c
History and text. Bach wrote several works for celebrations of the Leipzig University, "Festmusiken zu Leipziger Universitätsfeiern". This cantata was originally probably composed as a homage to one of the composer's academic colleagues, but it is not known which. and Johann Heinrich Ernesti (the septuagenarian rector of the Thomasschule) have been suggested as possible recipients. The unmodified cantata was likely re-staged for Johann Matthias Gesner's 40th birthday (9 April 1731). Gesner had become rector at the Thomasschule in Leipzig in 1730 and had been acquainted with the composer since the 1710s  when both worked in Weimar. Bach reworked this cantata in both secular and sacred versions: The libretto is likely by Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander), who published the version of the text in 1727, as a cantata for the birthday of the duchess of Anhalt-Köthen, which fell on 30 November. The duchess's birthday cantata was set by Bach (in 1726 or earlier), but the music is lost. Scoring and structure. The cantata is scored for three soloists—soprano, tenor and bass—a four-part choir, two oboes d'amore, two violins, viola, viola d'amore and basso continuo. Music. The opening  chorus is a "jolly" gavotte form, highlighting the oboe d'amore (which is also important in introducing the third movement). The recitatives are all secco and fairly short, with the tenor recitative being only six measures long.