Cantata no. 132: Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV.132

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn (Prepare the paths, prepare the road), BWV 132, in Weimar in 1715 for the fourth Sunday of Advent and led the first performance on 22 December 1715.

Bach had taken up regular cantata composition a year before when he was promoted to concertmaster at the Weimar court, writing one cantata per month to be performed in the Schlosskirche, the court chapel in the ducal Schloss. Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn was his first cantata for the fourth Sunday in Advent. The libretto by the court poet Salomo Franck is related to the day's prescribed gospel reading, the testimony of John the Baptist. Franck derives from it thoughts about baptism as a preparation of the individual Christian who is addressed as a limb of Christ.