GENERAL NOTE. This cantata was assembled and performed in great haste on the occasion of a surprise visit to Leipzig in 1734 by the Saxon Elector Friedrich August II (ruled 1733–63), to whom the words of the cantata are addressed. The visit coincided with the first anniversary of his election as King of Poland, where he reigned as August III. The “election” was made possible by a military victory, part of the War of Polish Succession.

¹ Kissing the sovereign’s hand was a sign of fealty; the description of the event at which this cantata was performed says that four Leipzig counts were permitted to kiss Friedrich August’s hand.

² Friedrich August II’s father Friedrich August I (ruled 1694–1733), who was King of Poland as August II. “Des grossen Vaters Bild” (literally, “the great father’s image”) does not mean “our great [God the] Father’s image”; see also line 4 of movement 4.

³ “Die Macht der Sterblichkeit” (literally, “the power of mortality”) refers not to “the power of the condition of being mortal or subject to death,” but to “the power of mortals collectively, humankind”; i.e., here, “der Sterblichkeit,” employed for its rhyme with “Zeit,” is a synonym for “der Sterblichen.”

⁴ Reference to “the golden age” is presumably meant to link August of Saxony with Augustus, the first Roman emporer.

⁵ Sarmatia was a Roman name for a region of eastern Europe, here applied poetically to Poland.

⁶ The house of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland (from the tenth to fourteenth centuries).

⁷ See n. 2.

⁸ The convoluted sentiment of this and the next line, apparently, is that others are more envious of Augusts’s might than of his prosperity, thus causing them, unfortunately, to go to war.

⁹ “Gold der Kronen” is here apparently employed in place of the standard technical term “Kronengold,” to accommodate a rhyme with “schonen.” There were many different kinds of gold in the Germany of Bach’s day, and two main ones were “Kronengold,” which was gold of the required purity—namely, 18 carat gold, alloyed with 6 carats of silver or copper, or both—for minting coins called “Kronen” (“crowns”); the other kind was “Ducatengold.”

¹⁰ The printed libretto booklet made available to Bach’s original audience here reads “Dich, und nicht Augustum trifft” (“Strikes you, and not August”). The reading in the poet’s manuscript that Bach worked from is likewise “Dich und nicht Augustum trifft” (i.e., without the comma), but at this point there is notated, apparently in Bach’s handwriting, a change in wording to “Dich mehr als Augustum trifft” (“Strikes you more than August”). Bach’s own score and performing part give only this latter reading.

¹¹ “Eingeweide” is usually used in connection with animals, to refer to their “entrails”; but the word’s use in connection with people usually refers to the “gut” as the seat not of appetite but of emotion (as in the expression “gut feeling” in English), or to the “innermost parts,” or “innermost being.”

¹² Probably an ironic echo of Psalm 26:6, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Ich wasche meine Hände mit Unschuld” (“I will wash my hands in [a state of] innocence”). Compare also the English expression “to wash one’s spears [in blood].”

¹³ The language here is ambiguous. The antecedent of “seine” (“his”/“its”) is most probably “August,” but grammatically at least, it could otherwise be either “Gott” (yielding the sense: “by God’s choice of king”) or “Norden” (yielding: “by its choice of king”). It is also not entirely clear whether this line means that the North is contented with the choice/election of August as king, or that the North can be contented in general on account of August’s having been chosen/elected as king.

¹⁴ The mouth of the Vistula river, which runs through Poland, is at the Baltic Sea at Gdańsk. “That city” (then called Danzig) was the site of Friedrich August’s decisive military victory in 1734 that gave him the Polish crown.

¹⁵ See fn. 14, above.

¹⁶ “Eigentum” (“property”) is being used here in its senses of “Eigenschaft” (a characteristic quality/trait of a person) or “Eigenheit” (a peculiarity of a person).

¹⁷ The printed libretto made available to Bach’s original audience gives this same reading. The poet’s handwritten libretto gave “Die doch in Welschland schon gedämpfet worden” (“Which, however, was already subdued in Italy,” where campaigns were fought), and this is changed, apparently in Bach’s handwriting, to “Die doch so vielmal schon gedämpfet worden” (“Which, however, has already been subdued so many times”).

¹⁸ The “Musenschar” is used as a metaphor for Bach’s own ensemble, which is apparently able to perform in a peaceful, innocent, protected atmosphere in Leipzig (see fn. 19, below).

¹⁹ It is not totally clear whether the line “In ihrer unschuldvollen Ruh” refers to the “Musenschar” or to “Sarmatien.” Also unclear is whether “Sarmatien” is plural or singular. Other translators have taken the sense of lines 1–7 to be, “Please allow, O esteemed sovereign, that our band of Muses might be allowed to honor and sing about the day that was so fortunate for you, on which, in the foregoing year, [the] Sarmatians, in their fully guileless/innocent peace [of mind], selected you as king.” If this is about the “band of Muses” (i.e., symbolizing Bach’s performing ensemble), however, the “fully innocent peace [of mind]” would apparently point to the safe atmosphere of Leipzig that has been provided them by virtue of having August as their ruler.

²⁰ In context, the perhaps seemingly present-tense plural “Sarmatien dich erlesen” (“[the] Sarmatians select you”) should most likely be understood as past-tense singular “Sarmatien dich erlesen [hat]” (“Sarmatia [has] selected you”); see also fn. 19, above.

²¹ The War of Polish Succession drew in all of Europe; this line refers to France’s attacks on the Hapsburg Empire, of which Saxony was a part.

²² Linden trees were the symbol of Leipzig, whose name originates in a word meaning “place where lindens grow.”

²³ Electress Maria Josepha, the daughter of Hapsburg Emperor Joseph I.

²⁴ This line apparently implies the stock phrase “Schoss des Glückes” (“bosom of good fortune”).

²⁵ One of three mountains where the Muses lived. Here “Pindus” (like the “lindens” several lines earlier) symbolizes Leipzig.

²⁶ The printed libretto booklet made available to Bach’s original audience gives this same reading. The poet’s handwritten libretto gave “Beschützer der Kronen” (“protector of crowns”), and this is changed, apparently in Bach’s handwriting, to “Beherrscher der Kronen” (“Lord and Master of crowns”).

²⁷ Alluding to Psalm 89:5, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Ich will . . . deinen Stuhl bauen für und für” (“I [God] will, ever and ever, build up your throne”).

²⁸ Alluding to Psalm 101:1, “Von Gnade und Recht will ich singen und dir, HERR, lobsagen” (“Of mercy and justice will I [King David] sing, and to you, LORD, speak praise”). August is thus being likened to King David of ancient Israel; see also fn. 4, above, where he is likened to Emperor Augustus of ancient Rome.