The Christmas Oratorio (), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance in a church service on a feast day of the Christmas period. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 and incorporates music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a largely lost church cantata, BWV 248a. The date is confirmed in Bach's autograph manuscript. The next complete public performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The Christmas Oratorio is a particularly sophisticated example of parody music. The author of the text is unknown, although a likely collaborator was Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander).
The work belongs to a group of three oratorios written in 1734 and 1735 for major feasts, the other two works being the Ascension Oratorio (BWV 11) and the Easter Oratorio (BWV 249). All three of these oratorios to some degree parody earlier compositions. The Christmas Oratorio is by far the longest and most complex work of the three.
The first part (for Christmas Day) describes the birth of Jesus; the second (for 26 December) the annunciation to the shepherds; the third (for 27 December) the adoration of the shepherds; the fourth (for New Year's Day) the circumcision and naming of Jesus; the fifth (for the first Sunday after New Year) the journey of the Magi; and the sixth (for Epiphany) the adoration of the Magi.
The running time for the entire oratorio is around three hours. In concert performance, it is often presented split into two parts.
History
In the liturgical calendar of the German reformation era in Saxony, the Christmas season started on 25 December (Christmas Day) and ended on 6 January (Epiphany). It was preceded by Advent, and followed by the period of the Sundays after Epiphany. It included at least three feast days that called for festive music during religious services: apart from Christmas (Nativity of Christ) and Epiphany (Visit of the Magi) the period also included New Year's Day (1 January), in Bach's time still often referred to as the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ. Also 26 and 27 December (second and third day of Christmas) were commonly considered feast days, with festive music in church. If a Sunday fell between 27 December and 1 January, also on this first Sunday after Christmas a church service with music was held, and similar for a Sunday between 1 and 6 January (second Sunday after Christmas, or: first Sunday after New Year).
1714–1729 Before Bach composed his Christmas Oratorio for the 1734–35 Christmas season in Leipzig, he had already composed Christmas cantatas and other church music for all seven occasions of the Christmas season: Before his Leipzig period he composed, as part of his Weimar cantata cycle: Christmas, : Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63.Bach Digital Work First Sunday after Christmas, : Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn, BWV 152.Bach Digital Work For the 1723–24 Christmas season, during his first year as musical director of Leipzig's principal churches: Christmas Day: repeat performance of BWV 63, which thus became part of his first cantata cycle, and, as part of the Latin Church music he composed for Leipzig, his Magnificat, BWV 243a (version with Christmas interpolations) and Sanctus in D major, BWV 238.Bach Digital Works and Second Day of Christmas: Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40.Bach Digital Work Third Day of Christmas: Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget, BWV 64.Bach Digital Work New Year's Day: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190.Bach Digital Work Second Sunday after Christmas (): Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind, BWV 153.Bach Digital Work Epiphany: Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65.Bach Digital Work For the 1724–25 Christmas season, as part of his chorale cantata cycle (except for the Latin Sanctus): Christmas Day: Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91 (early version),Bach Digital Work and Sanctus for six vocal parts, BWV 232/III (early version).Bach Digital Work Second Day of Christmas: Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 121.Bach Digital Work Third Day of Christmas: Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133.Bach Digital Work First Sunday after Christmas (31 December): Das neugeborne Kindelein, BWV 122.Bach Digital Work New Year's Day: Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41.Bach Digital Work Epiphany: Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123.Bach Digital Work Cantatas of Bach's third cantata cycle, for the Christmas seasons of 1725–26 and 1726–27: Christmas Day (1725): Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110.Bach Digital Work Second Day of Christmas (1725): Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57.Bach Digital Work Third Day of Christmas (1725): Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt, BWV 151.Bach Digital Work First Sunday after Christmas (30 December 1725): Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende, BWV 28.Bach Digital Work New Year's Day (1726): Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16.Bach Digital Work Second Sunday after Christmas (): Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, BWV 58 (early version).Bach Digital Work
Four of these third cycle cantatas for the Christmas season, BWV 110, 57, 151 and 16, were on a text from Georg Christian Lehms's Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opffer cantata libretto cycle, which had been published in 1711.Georg Christian Lehms. Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opffer in einem gantzen Jahr-Gange Andächtiger Betrachtungen/ über die gewöhnlichen Sonn- und Festtags-Texte GOtt zu Ehren und der Darmstättischen Schloß-Capelle zu seiner Früh- und Mittags-Erbauung. Darmstadt: 1711. In the second half of the 1720s Bach often collaborated with Picander as a librettist for his cantatas. The Shepherd Cantata, BWV 249a, first performed on 23 February 1725, one of Bach's secular cantatas, is an early example of such cantata.Bach Digital Work Bach reused the music of this cantata in the 1725 first version of his Easter Oratorio.Bach Digital Work Ihr Häuser des Himmels, ihr scheinenden Lichter, BWV 193a, composed in 1727, is another secular cantata on a text by Picander which was, shortly after its first performance, reworked into a sacred cantata (Ihr Tore zu Zion, BWV 193).Bach Digital Works and In 1728–29 Picander published a cantata libretto cycle, leading to at least two further Christmas season cantatas by Bach: Christmas Day 1728, or possibly 1729: Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe, BWV 197a.Bach Digital Work New Year's Day 1729: Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm, BWV 171, with music in part adapted from the secular cantata, likewise on a text by Picander, Zerreißet, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft, BWV 205.Bach Digital Works and
A Christmas oratorio presented as a cycle of six cantatas, to be performed on several days during the Christmas period, was not uncommon in Bach's day: Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, whose church music was not unknown to Bach and Leipzig churchgoers, had composed such Christmas oratorios in 1719 and 1728. Irmgard Scheitler. Deutschsprachige Oratorienlibretti: von den Anfängen bis 1730. Schöningh, 2005. , pp. 338–345Samantha Owens, Barbara M. Reul, Janice B. Stockigt Music at German Courts, 1715–1760: Changing Artistic Priorities. Boydell & Brewer, 2011 (reprint 2015). , p. 204Texte zu einem Weihnachts-Oratorium 1728 – at
1730s
Models from earlier compositions In the early 1730s, Bach composed a number of secular cantatas, including: So kämpfet nur, ihr muntern Töne, BWV 1160, on a libretto by Picander, first performed on (music lost, apart from later versions of the opening chorus).Bach Digital Work Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns wachen, BWV 213 (Hercules at the Crossroads), on a libretto by Picander, performed on .Bach Digital Work Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!, BWV 214, performed on .Bach Digital Work Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen, BWV 215, performed on .Bach Digital Work
Movements from the BWV 213, 214 and 215 cantatas form the basis of several movements of the Christmas Oratorio. In addition to these sources, the sixth cantata is based on a largely lost church cantata, BWV 248a, of which at least the opening chorus is based on the lost secular cantata BWV 1160.Bach Digital Work The trio aria in Part V "Ach, wenn wird die Zeit erscheinen?" is believed to be from a similarly lost source, and the chorus from the same section "Wo ist der neugeborne König" is from the 1731 St Mark Passion, BWV 247.Werner Breig, sleeve notes to John Eliot Gardiner's recording of the Christmas Oratorio (Deutsche Grammophon Archiv, 4232322, 1987)
+ Cantata movements reused in Christmas Oratorio Cantata Movement Type BWV 248 Movement BWV 213/1 Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen Chorus (SATB) 36 (IV/1) Fallt mit Danken, fallt mit Loben BWV 213/3 Schlafe, mein Liebster, und pflege der Ruh Aria (s→a) 19 (II/10) Schlafe, mein Liebster, genieße der Ruh BWV 213/5 Treues Echo dieser Orten Aria (a→s) 39 (IV/4) Flößt, mein Heiland, flößt dein Namen BWV 213/7 Auf meinen Flügeln sollst du schweben Aria (t) 41 (IV/6) Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben BWV 213/9 Ich will dich nicht hören Aria (a) 4 (I/4) Bereite, dich, Zion BWV 213/11 Ich bin deine, du bist meine Duet (at→sb) 29 (III/6) Herr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen BWV 214/1 Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten Chorus (SATB) 1 (I/1) Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage BWV 214/5 Fromme Musen! meine Glieder Aria (a→t) 15 (II/6) Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet BWV 214/7 Kron und Preis gekrönter Damen Aria (b) 8 (I/8) Großer Herr, o starker König BWV 214/9 Blühet, ihr Linden in Sachsen, wie Zedern Chorus (SATB) 24 (III/1&13) Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen BWV 215/7 Durch die von Eifer entflammten Waffen Aria (s→b) 47 (V/5) Erleucht auch meine finstre Sinnen BWV 247/43 Pfui dich, wie fein zerbrichst du den Tempel Chorus (SATB) 45 (V/3) Wo ist der neugeborne König der Juden BWV 248a/1 — Chorus (SATB) 54 (VI/1) Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben BWV 248a/2 — Recitative (→s) 56 (VI/3) Du Falscher, suche nur den Herrn zu fällen BWV 248a/3 — Aria (→s) 57 (VI/4) Nur ein Wink von seinen Händen BWV 248a/4 — Recitative (→t) 61 (VI/8) So geht! Genug, mein Schatz geht nicht von hier BWV 248a/5 — Aria (→t) 62 (VI/9) Nun mögt ihr stolzen Feinde schrecken BWV 248a/6 — Recitative (→satb) 63 (VI/10) Was will der Höllen Schrecken nun BWV 248a/7 — Chorus (SATB) 64 (VI/11) Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen ? — Trio (→sat) 51 (V/9) Ach! wann wird die Zeit erscheinen?
Chorales
Like for most of his German-language church music, Bach used Lutheran hymns, and their Lutheran chorale tunes, in his Christmas Oratorio.Sortable Index of the Chorales by J.S. Bach at Bach Digital Work The first chorale tune appears in the 5th movement of Part I: it is the tune known as Herzlich tut mich verlangen, that is, the same hymn tune which Bach used in his St Matthew Passion for setting several stanzas of Paul Gerhardt's "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" ("O Sacred Head, Now Wounded"). The same melody reappears in the last movement of the oratorio (No. 64, closing chorale of Part VI). In the oratorio there is, however, no association with the pain and suffering evoked in the Passion.
Martin Luther's 1539 "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" melody appears in three chorales: twice on a text by Paul Gerhardt in Part II of the oratorio, and the first time, in the closing chorale of Part I, with the 13th stanza of Luther's hymn as text. A well-known English version of that stanza is "Oh, my dear heart, young Jesus sweet", the first stanza of "Balulalow", as, for instance, sung in 2009 by English musician Sting:Robert Chambers. Popular rhymes of Scotland, pp. 12–13 (1870)Sting (2009). If on a Winter's Night..., track 11.
The Christmas Oratorio is exceptional in that it contains a few hymn settings, or versions of hymn tunes, for which there is no known earlier source than Bach's composition: