Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten! BWV 214

Cantata by J. S. Bach

Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten! (Resound, ye drums! Ring out, ye trumpets! ), it is based on a libretto by an unknown author. The piece has the dedicatee addressed by allegorical figures representing Roman and Greek goddesses of war and peace. It is structured as nine movements, and scored for four vocal parts and a festive Baroque orchestra with trumpets, timpani, flutes, oboes and strings. Choral movements frame a series of alternating recitatives and arias. Bach led the first performance with the Collegium Musicum at the Zimmermannsches Caffeehaus on 8 December 1733. Tönet, ihr Pauken! was first published by the Bach Gesellschaft in 1887, as part of the first complete edition of Bach's works. It appeared in the Neue Bach Ausgabe in 1962. It was first recorded by the Kantorei Barmen Gemarke in 1961, and subsequently, as part of their complete sets of the secular cantatas, by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir and the Bach Collegium Japan. Bach reused the music of the two choral movements and two arias a year later in his Christmas Oratorio, notably for the movements opening Part I, Jauchzet, frohlocket!, and Part III, Herrscher des Himmels.

Bach composed Tönet, ihr Pauken! in 1733, ten years after he became Thomaskantor in Leipzig, director of music in major churches in the town in the Electorate of Saxony. That year, Augustus succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony. Bach had hopes of being appointed composer to his court which was based in Dresden. He dedicated his Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor to the elector, a work which was to become the Kyrie and Gloria of his Mass in B minor. Bach also composed cantatas in honour of the elector's family, [[Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns wachen, BWV 213, performed on 5 September 1733, the eleventh birthday of the son of the elector, and another for his wife, Maria Josepha. Bach composed Tönet, ihr Pauken! to honour the 34th birthday of Maria Josepha on 8 December. It is also known by the description Glückwunschkantate zum Geburtstage der Königin (Congratulation cantata for the Queen's birthday), although Maria Josepha was not crowned Queen of Poland until January 1734. The librettist of the text is unknown. The action in the cantata is between four allegorical figures for goddesses from Roman and Greek mythology: Bellona, a Roman goddess of war, Pallas, a Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare, Irene, a Greek goddess of peace, and Fama, a Roman goddess of fame and rumor.