Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden (Happy day, long hoped-for hours), BWV Anh. 18,[a] is a
cantata by
J.S. Bach. He composed the work for the inauguration of a renovation of the
Thomasschule, Leipzig. It was first performed on 5 June 1732. The music is lost but the words have survived. They are by
Johann Heinrich Winckler, a teacher at the school.[1][2]
In 1731 work began on the reconstruction of the school building, giving it two more storeys. The Bach family, along with other residents, had to move out for a year. On the Bachs' return they benefited from an enlarged apartment. The building is no longer extant.
Libretto and structure
Winckler was a colleague of Bach at the Thomasschule. He was a versatile scholar whose interests included experimental physics, and he was later elected
Fellow of the Royal Society.
The cantata has 10 movements. In the middle of the work there was a pause for speeches, rather as some church cantatas were performed before and after the sermon. The movements are as follows: