The Leipzig of Bach’s day offered various opportunities for musical celebration; official events in the University, “gratulations” or “ovations” of favourite professors by their students, as well as patriotic occasions in which town and gown participated. The recognised fee for piecès d’occasion of a public character was fifty thalers. Bach’s conductorship of the University Society enabled him to perform festival works with the resources they required, and to augment the band and chorus needed for their adequate performance.
Even before he undertook the direction of the University Society, Bach more than once provided the music for University celebrations. On August 3, 1725, his secular Cantata, _Der zufried-engestellte Aeolus,_ was performed at the students’ celebration of Doctor August Friedrich Müller’s name-day. In 1726 he revived an old Cantata(115) to celebrate the birthday of another of the Leipzig teachers. In the same year the appointment of Dr. Gottlieb Kortte as Professor of Roman Law was celebrated by Bach’s Cantata _Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten._ In 1733 the birthday of another Professor was marked by the performance of the Cöthen Cantata to yet another text (_Die Freude reget sich_). On November 21, 1734, the lost Cantata _Thomana sass annoch betrübt_ was sung at the induction of Gesner’s successor, Johann August Ernesti, as Rector of St. Thomas’ School.
But Bach’s activity as a secular composer at Leipzig was chiefly expended on patriotic celebrations. His compositions of this character are particularly numerous during the years 1733-36, while he was seeking from the Dresden Court the post of Hof-Componist. The first of these celebrations took place on May 12, 1727, the birthday of Augustus II. of Poland-Saxony, when Bach’s Cantata, _Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne,_ was performed in the Market Place by the University Society. The King was present and listened to the performance from a convenient window. The music is lost. Six years elapsed before Bach was invited to collaborate in another celebration of the royal House. On September 5, 1733, less than two months after his application for the post of Hof-Componist, the University Society celebrated the eleventh birthday of the Electoral Prince by performing Bach’s dramma per musica, _Die Wahl des Herkules,_ or _Herkules auf dem Scheidewege._ Barely three months later, on December 8, 1733, Bach produced another Cantata in honour of the royal family, _Tönet, ihr Pauken, erschallet Trompeten,_ of which he was both author and composer. On no less than three occasions in 1734 Bach did homage to his unheeding sovereign. In January the University Society, under Bach’s direction, performed his Cantata _Blast Larmen, ihr Feinde_ to celebrate the coronation of Augustus III. The music had already done duty in Dr. Müller’s honour in 1725. On the following October 5, 1734, when the King visited Leipzig, Bach’s hurriedly written Cantata, _Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen,_ whose first chorus became the Osanna of the B minor Mass, was performed in the Market Place. Two days later, on October 7, 1734, the King’s birthday was celebrated by another Bach Cantata, _Schleicht spielende Wellen,_ performed by the Collegium Musicum. In 1738, having received the coveted title of Hof-Componist in the interval (1736), Bach performed a work—_Willkommen, ihr herrschenden Götter der Erden_—now lost, in honour of the marriage of the Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony to Charles of Sicily, afterwards Charles III. of Spain.