Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd (The lively hunt is all my heart's desire), BWV 208, also known as the Hunting Cantata, is a secular cantata composed in 1713 by Johann Sebastian Bach for the 31st birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels on 23 February 1713. The aria "Schafe können sicher weiden" ("Sheep May Safely Graze"), is the most familiar part of this cantata.

It is Bach's earliest surviving secular cantata, composed while he was employed as court organist in Weimar. The work may have been intended as a gift from Bach's employer, William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, for his neighbouring ruler, Duke Christian, who was a keen hunter.

Bach is known to have stayed in Weißenfels in 1713 for the birthday celebrations. He went on to earn more commissions from Saxe-Weissenfels, and in 1729, Bach was appointed Royal Kapellmeister, but this position as court composer did not require residence at court. The text is by Salomon Franck, the Weimar court poet, who published it in Geist- und Weltlicher Poesien Zweyter Theil (Jena, 1716). As was common at the time, Franck's flattering text draws on mythological references. Franck also followed convention in associating good government with the hunt: the text praises Duke Christian as a wise ruler as well as a keen hunter. In reality, the Duke was to prove a spendthrift whose habits resulted in the financial collapse of his duchy.

Bach appears to have revived the work a few years after its original performance, this time in honour of Duke Ernst-August, the co-ruler of Saxe-Weimar, who was also a hunter. Bach often re-used music written for "one-off" occasions, but this cantata is unusual for the extent to which he recycled it. While he was living in Leipzig he arranged music from two arias for the church cantata Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, BWV 68, composed in 1725. Also Bach appears to have re-arranged the music in 1740 for cantata BWV 208a. The score for this piece is now lost, but the text is an adaptation of the original cantata to honour the name day of Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.

here has been speculation that the cantata opened with a sinfonia (BWV 1046a), which has similar scoring to the cantata and is an early version of Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major (BWV 1046). The sinfonia seems to be intended for more able horn players than required for the cantata, and may have been composed later, but it appears in some recorded versions of the cantata, for example those of Goodman and Suzuki.

Although originally scored for Horns, recorders, oboes, taille, bassoon, violins, viola, cello, violone, and continuo, I created this arrangement of the Aria: "Schafe können sicher weiden" (Sheep may safely graze) from the hunting cantata "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd" for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).