Cantata No. 132 Bereitet Die Wege : Cantata for the 4th Sunday of Advent
The cantata Bereitet die Wege is one of the few works by Johann Sebastian Bach of which we know fairly well how it came into being. The autograph full score bears the date 1715; Bach therefore composed the piece for the churchservice given by the Weimar court orchestra (of which he was the concert master) on 22 December, the fourth Sunday in Advent, in the year 1715. We even know the author of the words: it was the High Ecclesiastical Secretary inWeimar, Salomon Franck, who wrote the poem especially for that occasion and had it printed in his annual cycle of cantata texts entitled Evangelisches Andachtsopfer.
