382 WETTIN
Leipzig, Salomon Reimer, recorded the first performance on 5 October 1734,
beneath the Elector-King's open window on the city square:
Towards nine o'clock in the evening, their Majesties were presented by their subjects
with an Abend-Muzik with trumpets and drums. It was composed by Music-Master, Mr
Joh. Sebastian Bach, cantor at St. Thomas's. Whereat, six hundred students carried wax
torches whilst four Counts acted as marshals. The procession emerged and... passed
along the Ritter, Bruhl, and Catherine Streets to the King's lodging. As the orchestra
arrived at the "Wage, the trumpets and drums opened up, whilst a choir broke into song
from the City Hall. After handing over the libretto, the four Counts were left behind to
kiss the sovereign's hand.
Then His Majesty, with his royal consort, and the royal princes, stayed by the window
as long as the music lasted, listening most graciously and heartily enjoying it.^14
Two days later, on the Elector-King's birthday, another Cantata was produced
on the text 'Schleicht spielende Wellen und murmelt gelinde! Nein rauschet
geschwinde!' (Glide along, ye waves in play and murmur gently. No, rush along
swiftly!) It formed a symbolic play on the rivers of Poland-Saxony, where the
Elbe was sung by the tenor, and the Vistula, der begluckter Weichselstrom, by
the bass. Over the next two centuries, the occasions which prompted these
Cantatas have passed into oblivion. But the music is immortal. The bass aria,
No. 7 from Bach's gratulatory Cantata BMV 215 can more usually be found as
No. 47 in the 'Christmas Oratorio'; the opening chorus, Preise dein Glucke, now
forms the 'Hosannah' of the B Minor Mass:
For the next thirty years, the reign of Augustus III passed almost without inci-
dent. The outlook of the second Elector-King has been likened to that of a pud-
ding - soft, sweet, and inert. He had no real power, and no intention of finding
out whether he had or not. He owed his position in the Republic to the Russian
Army, which he made no effort thereafter to dismiss. The Russians came and