Composed: 1726
Premiered: 1726, Leipzig
Duration: 7 minutes

Bach wrote three cantatas in the summer and fall of 1726 while he was in Leipzig, including this one. Vergnügte Ruh is the first movement of Cantata 170, and it was the composer himself who premiered the work. A few years later, Bach’s son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, would perform Vergnügte Ruh in Halle, Germany. The orchestration we hear today was arranged by the late Jeanne Lamon & Tafelmusik’s John Abberger.