Bach composed the secular cantata, or serenata,[1] in 1718 in Köthen to celebrate the twenty-fourth birthday of his employer Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen on 10 December.
Bach's duties included directing a small orchestra, and his stay at Köthen tends to be associated with instrumental compositions, but he had the opportunity to compose some vocal music as the court also employed singers, although usually on a temporary basis.
[1][2] Bach and Hunold collaborated on other cantatas, including one for the same birthday, Lobet den Herrn, alle seine Heerscharen, BWV Anh.
Hunold's text was included in a collection, Auserlesene und theils noch nie gedruckte Gedichte (Selected and partly never printed poems), which he published the following year, and has thus survived.
[5] The work has eight movements:[6] Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück was published in the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, edited by Alfred Dürr, with a critical report 1964.