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Christmas Oratorio Program Notes

By the Reverend Louis G. Nuechterlein

The twelve days of Christmas are likely to be regarded by most people today (perhaps even by many Christians) as beginning on December 13 th and ending on December 25 th. But in the mind of the church, in Johann Sebastian Bach’s time as well as in our own, the twelve days of Christmas begin on December 25 th and continue through to January 6 th, the Feast of the Epiphany. And it is these latter twelve days of Christmas that Bach had in mind when he laid out the master plan for each of the six musically and textually interrelated, yet also individually complete and self-contained, cantatas to which he himself gave the title Weinachts-Oratorium. Although we today customarily think of this oratorio as a single six-part entity (and rightly so, in keeping with Bach’s intention), we need to know that Bach himself never conducted the entire oratorio (nor even half of it) as a single entity. On the contrary, he presented it one part, i.e., one cantata, at a time.

In 1734, the year in which Bach prepared this masterwork, he was 49 years old and at the height of his creative power. As cantor (chief musician) for the churches of St Thomas and St Nicholas in the German city of Leipzig, he was responsible for “the principal music” for their Services of Worship; and his procedure with this six-part work was to designate part one for performance on Christmas Day; part two on the Second Day of Christmas; part three on the Third Day of Christmas; part four on New Year’s Day; part five on the Sunday after New Year; and part six on the Feast of Epiphany. And it is worth noting here that it was customary already in Bach’s time for the worshipers in the Leipzig congregations to be provided with the librettos (texts) of the choral music offered in their midst each Sunday and Feast Day – to enable them to follow along and prayerfully ponder the words they were hearing sung.

It is also interesting to note that in the year 1734 Christmas Day fell on a Saturday. Consequently, in that year the Leipzig congregations first heard part one of the Christmas Oratorio on a Saturday; part two on the following day, Sunday; and part three on Monday (worshipers in 1734 were accustomed to coming to church on all three consecutive days). Part four was then performed on the following Saturday, January 1, 1735; part five the next day, Sunday, January 2 nd; and part six on the following Thursday, January 6 th, the Feast of Epiphany.

If one wonders how the worshipers in Leipzig (assuming they were present for all six Services of Worship) could possibly remain aware of the interrelatedness of these six cantatas, hearing them as the did over a twelve day period, it can be answered that, unlike most Christians today (for whom Christmas ends as soon as all the presents have been opened and Christmas Day dinner has been eaten), the Christians in Bach’s time were accustomed to thinking of the twelve days of Christmas as a single, integrated festival. Nor would Bach have regarded the spreading of his oratorio over six Services of Worship on six separate days as awkward. More likely, he would have regarded this procedure as a helpful way to allow the details of the Christmas Gospel to unfold.

The Biblical source material for the Christmas Oratorio is from the Christmas stories (“sacred history”) according to St Luke (chapter 2, verses 1 to 21) and St Matthew (chapter 2, verses 1 to 12). Part one, which we are hearing this afternoon, tells of the birth of the Christ Child. Parts two and three, the angels’ announcement of his birth to the shepherds; and the shepherds’ visit to Bethlehem. Parts four, five, and six then go on to tell of the circumcision and naming of Jesus, as well as of the adoration of the child by wise men from the east.

In the Weinachts-Oratorium Bach follows a pattern similar to the one he employed in his prior Passion histories, according to St Matthew (1727) and St John (1724). That is, he assigns most of the Biblical narratives to a tenor evangelist, who sings the text in recitative (simple unadorned chant-like form). Then, as a response to the Biblical narratives he inserts chorale (hymn) stanzas which he appropriated from the vast treasure of 16 th- and 17 th-century Lutheran hymns that were still familiar in this time (mid-18 th-century) to the people in the pews of the Leipzig churches. Although these chorale stanzas are sung by the choir (in Bach’s own exquisite, masterful harmonizations), they are intended to represent the congregation’s response of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving to the Christmas message they are hearing. Some are sung in a straightforward four-part manner, with the instruments doubling the voice parts; others are provided with extended orchestral accompaniments.

In addition to the hymnic responses, each of the oratorio’s six parts includes two musically elaborate (and often extremely difficult to perform) arias for one or more solo singers. These arias provide additional opportunities for the listeners to pause and reflect upon the Christmas Gospel being proclaimed by the evangelist. Texts for these freely-composed sections are most likely the result of a collaboration between Bach himself and Christian Friedrich Henrici (pen name Picander), a poet who also provided Bach with many of his earlier librettos (including the one for the St Matthew Passion).

The threefold purpose of the chorus in this oratorio, as in all of Bach’s church cantatas, is either to proclaim the particular Gospel message for the occasion, or to offer prayer and praise to God on the listener’s behalf, or to invite and encourage the listeners to respond (with body, mind and spirit) to the Gospel message they are hearing. Each of the oratorio’s six parts, i.e. six cantatas, (with the exception of part two, which opens with a hauntingly beautiful orchestral pastoral symphony) begins and ends with the chorus and orchestra in a mood of jubilation. However, even in the midst of the oratorio’s pervasive high and holy joy, Bach the theologian cannot help reminding his listeners that the newborn child of Bethlehem would one day be offering his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He does this by twice utilizing the melody for the well-known Lenten hymn “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” (“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”) – in part one as the tune for a simple four-part chorale; and again, in part six, as the tune for the song of victory in the closing chorale fantasia.