Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22 Weimar did not dismiss him and arrested him for disobedience. He was released on 2 December 1717. In Köthen, Bach found an employer who was an enthusiastic musician himself. The court was Calvinist, therefore Bach's work from this period was mostly secular, including the orchestral suites, the cello suites, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the "Brandenburg Concertos". He composed secular cantatas for the court for occasions such as New Year's Day and the prince's birthday, including . He later parodied some of them as church cantatas without major changes, for example . Bach composed his cantata as
Organ concertos, Op. 4 (Handel) of his oratorios Esther and Athalia. During this period Handel prepared the 16 movements of the four organ concertos HWV 290-293, of which 10 are reworkings of previous compositions with the remaining 6 largely newly composed. HWV 292, completed in March 1735, contains the most new material, although even there the ritornello of the first movement is a borrowing from Act 1 of Alcina. It featured in the April performances of Athalia at Covent Garden. The other concertos were first heard in March, HWV 290 and 291 in Esther and HWV 293 in Deborah. Handel completed Alexander's Feast in January