Like the St. John and St. Matthew passions and the Mass in B Minor, the Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachtsoratorium), BWV 248, of Johann Sebastian Bach encapsulates and elevates multiple traditions in Baroque choral music. Performed without cuts, the entire work spans three hours of some of Bach’s most incredible music. The “assembled” nature of the Christmas Oratorio has long attracted attention. The piece’s six constituent cantatas, originally intended to be performed on six specific days of the 13-day Christmas season (December 25 to January 6), were all adapted from existing compositions by Bach, though many of the original sources are now lost. This “assemblage,” however, boasts a remarkable unity from its opening chorus to its finale chorale, held together by the firm and sterling line of Bach’s musical thought and language. This continuity imparts a dramatic momentum to the music, enriching an already stellar choral achievement.
Vital to understanding the structure of the Christmas Oratorio is the tradition of the sacred cantata, a genre in which Bach thrived. The essential musical unit of Protestant worship at that time, the typical cantata featured an instrumental ensemble and vocalists, usually a combination of soloists and chorus. Bach’s cantatas typically begin and end with choral movements, often with extended introductory sections for the orchestra alone. The internal units comprise recitatives (passages with a more declamatory-style delivery) followed by arias. Many Bach cantatas also end with chorales, settings of Lutheran hymns harmonized to distinct hymn tunes. These movements frequently offer meditations on the subjects and themes of the cantata in question. The familiarity of these texts and melodies to Bach’s listeners indicates some level of participation by the general congregation. Chorales are frequent in the Christmas Oratorio, often with wide-reaching allusions. In Part I, for example, the chorale “Wie soll ich dich empfangen” uses the hymn tune “Herzlich tut mich verlangen,” which Bach used with great effect in his earlier St. Matthew Passion.
Most Bach cantatas do not have a strict “dramatic” focus. The Christmas Oratorio, however, depicts the Nativity as described in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, and the individual parts are concerned with discrete episodes. To provide narration, Bach included an Evangelist role for a tenor singer. As an extension of the biblical Evangelists Luke and Matthew, Bach’s Evangelist provides recitations from the Gospels to link movements together. Such a figure is also part of the musical forces for the St. John and St. Matthew passions (composed in the 1720s), along with the so-called Ascension Oratorio from 1738.
Bach wrote the Christmas Oratorio in 1734–1735 during his tenure in Leipzig at St. Thomas Church. Before this, the composer had already authored multiple cantatas for the various feast days of the Christmas season. Some of these works date back to 1714, during his earlier tenure in Weimar. Bach did not rely on these, however, for material for the Christmas Oratorio. His principal musical sources were secular cantatas he wrote for political occasions in the Electorate of Saxony in 1733 and 1734, BWV 213–215. Musicologists have also found traces of several “lost” cantatas in the score of the Christmas Oratorio as well, particularly in Part VI of the oratorio.
Assembling an oratorio for the Christmas season from existing cantatas was not unique in Bach’s time. Nor, for that matter, was Bach’s process in assembling the work a simple case of “cutting and pasting,” to borrow a modern phrase, and then making superficial alterations. The composer copied out a full autograph manuscript (now in the collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), which hints at Bach’s intention for a self-contained work. In writing out the new score, new texts were added, and, in one instance, Bach wrote a new movement altogether. The question of who wrote the text of the Christmas Oratorio has yet to receive an irrefutable answer since the published libretto has no credited author. Most clues indicate that it was the poet Picander (the nom de plume of writer Christian Friedrich Henrici). Picander regularly collaborated with Bach on cantata texts, including those Bach reworked for the Christmas Oratorio.
The vocal forces required for the full oratorio include soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists, along with mixed chorus. Instruments required include flutes, oboes, oboes d’amore, oboes de caccia, trumpets, horns, timpani, violins, viola, and a continuo section (for this performance) of harpsichord, organ, and lute. The modular nature of the work means that certain instruments only appear in specific parts, creating terrific sonic and dramatic contrast. Similarly, the soloists variously embody both specific characters in the Nativity story and more abstract perspectives on faith.
The first four parts of the Christmas Oratorio take their narrative from the Gospel of Luke. Part I is intended for the First Day of Christmas and covers the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, Mary’s pregnancy, and the birth of Jesus. The nine movements of Part I consist of an opening chorus and two Biblical “sequences” of four parts each. Each sequence begins with a narration from the Evangelist, followed by a recitative movement and aria, and then a concluding chorale. The arias in Part I are based on Bach’s secular cantatas, BWV 213 and 214, and the opening chorus, which prominently features trumpets, comes from BWV 213 as well.
Part II, assigned to the Second Day of Christmas, is far larger in scope. Its 14 movements concern the annunciation of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. Bach opens this section with a substantial sinfonia for the orchestra that conjures up a tranquil pastoral night with oboes signifying the pipes of the shepherds. An intricate series of chorales, recitatives, arias, and choruses follows, expressing the fears and eventual joys of the shepherds, the proclamations of the angels, and ruminations on the lowliness of Christ’s birth in the manger.
In Part III, Bach depicts the journey of the shepherds to Bethlehem and their adoration of Christ. A triumphant chorus of praise opens this section, its material taken from the secular cantata BWV 214. Choral movements predominate in this part, but Bach provides exceptional variety with a central duet for soprano and bass, “Herr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen,” accompanied by oboes d’amore obbligato. Equally noteworthy is the aria for alto, “Schließe, mein Herze, dies selige Wunder,” expressive of Mary’s wonder at the miracles around her. This movement is the only aria that Bach composed expressly for the Christmas Oratorio. The composer also indicates that the opening chorus of Part III should be reprised after the finale chorale, a gesture that closes the first half of the work.
The Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus on New Year’s Day is the occasion for Part IV, cast in seven movements. A regal opening chorus (replete with horns) segues into the Evangelist’s account of Jesus’s naming and circumcision. Bach follows this with a series of recitatives (combined with arioso passages in the soprano part with chorale texts) and arias about Jesus’s name and the devotion of the believer. At the core of Part IV is the unique aria “Flößt, mein Heiland, flößt dein Namen” for oboe, soprano, and an “echo” soprano.
For Parts V and VI, Bach draws on the Gospel of Matthew to depict the journey of the Magi to see Christ and adore him. Part V is assigned to the Sunday after New Year’s Day. As the news of Christ’s birth becomes known, the faithful express their adoration in a sequence of recitatives, arias, and chorales. Bach also includes a trio aria, “Ach, wenn wird die Zeit erscheinen?” on the anticipation of Christ’s arrival.
The final part of the Christmas Oratorio depicts the treachery of King Herod, the Magi’s arrival at Jesus’s cradle, and their gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh. The soloists and chorus comment on Christ’s power as salvation and friend. The jubilant final chorale, “Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen,” harkens back to the joyous exaltation of the Christmas Oratorio’s opening movement, bringing the whole to a satisfactory close.
Bach himself conducted the first performances of each cantata during the Leipzig Christmas season of 1734 and 1735. The entirety seemingly lapsed into obscurity for the next century, and it was not until 1857 that a complete performance of the Christmas Oratorio took place in Berlin. Its performance history picked up momentum in the 20th century, thanks in no small part to multiple commercial recordings. While Bach’s passions may attract listeners with epic drama and stormy pathos, the Christmas Oratorio presents commensurate joy in its sanguinity and delicacy.
—Ryan M. Prendergast