Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (Christians, engrave this
day), BWV 63, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian
Bach. He composed the Christmas cantata for the First
Day of Christmas, possibly in 1713 for the
Liebfrauenkirche in Halle. He performed it again for
his first Christmas as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, on 25
December 1723.
The cantata is Bach's earliest extant cantata for
Christmas, possibly composed in Weimar as early as
1713. The text of the cantata, which echoes theologians
in Hall...(+)
Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (Christians, engrave this
day), BWV 63, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian
Bach. He composed the Christmas cantata for the First
Day of Christmas, possibly in 1713 for the
Liebfrauenkirche in Halle. He performed it again for
his first Christmas as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, on 25
December 1723.
The cantata is Bach's earliest extant cantata for
Christmas, possibly composed in Weimar as early as
1713. The text of the cantata, which echoes theologians
in Halle, suggests that it was composed with Halle's
Liebfrauenkirche in mind, in 1713, when Bach applied to
be organist of this church, or in 1716, when he was
involved in rebuilding its organ. The text is possibly
by that church's 'Pastor primarius' Johann Michael
Heineccius, who also wrote the libretti for other Bach
cantatas definitely written for Halle and had favoured
Bach's application for organist at the church as a
successor to Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Musicologist
Christoph Wolff deducts from the "lavish forces" of
four trumpets, timpani and three oboes on top of the
strings, an unprecedented scoring in Bach's cantatas,
that the work was not composed for the intimate
Schloßkirche in Weimar. He dates it as 1714 or 1715.
According to John Eliot Gardiner, the first performance
may have taken place in Weimar in the church of St.
Peter und Paul, performed by the combined musicians of
the ducal Capelle and the town. The lack of a closing
chorale, which closes most of Bach's later cantatas,
has raised the question if the work is based on a
secular cantata.
The cantata has a festive character but lacks certain
features typically associated with Christmas music,
such as Pastoral music, angels' song and cradle song,
even a Christmas carol or chorale, as Gardiner words
it: "The cantata contains none of the usual Nativity
themes: no cradle song, no music for the shepherds or
for the angels, not even the standard Christmas
chorales". The symmetry of the text around the
recitative "Nun kehret sich das bange Leid … in
lauter Heil und Gnaden" (So now, today, the anxious
sorrow is changed … into pure blessing and grace) is
reflected in the music. The recitatives lean toward
arioso at times, typical for Bach's music in the
period. The choral movements show da capo form, but
with distinctly contrasting middle sections, which
relates to motet style. Wolff describes these movements
as "fanfare-like frameworks", a cantabile choral
setting contrasting with virtuoso orchestral playing in
"secular dance".
Gardiner observes that the first recitative for alto,
accompanied by the strings, contains "tortuous
passage[s] in which voice and continuo struggle to free
themselves from "Satan's slavish chains"". The cantata
contains two duets, rare in Bach's cantatas, likely an
expression of communal rejoicing which is expressed
better in a duet than by a single voice. The second
duet is a minuet, illustrating the words "Kommt, ihr
Christen, kommt zum Reihen" (Come, you Christians, come
to dance). Instead of the usual closing chorale, the
cantata ends with a chorus "conceived on the largest of
scales", full of energy. The trumpets begin with
pompous fanfares, the voices first sing a fanfare,
addressing the "highest", then open a permutation fugue
which is later expanded by instrumental doubling and
counteraction, to express the thanks of the devout
souls. The middle section is a second fugue in similar
style which ends with a "preposterous collective trill"
on the word "quälen" (torment), observed by Mincham as
"a passage of extraordinary intensity. The tempo slows,
the harmony becomes tragic and chromatic and the whole
feeling is that of deepest melancholy at the very
thought of Satan’s embrace". Then a da capo of the
complete first section ends the cantata on "the
original celebratory flourishes of the complete
ritornello theme".
In one of the later performances Bach changed the part
of obbligato oboe in movement 3 to an organ, writing it
himself in the part for the continuo organ.
The cantata in seven movements is festively scored for
four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), a
four-part choir, four trumpets, timpani, three oboes,
bassoon, two violins, viola, organ in a later version,
and continuo.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christen,_%C3%A4tzet_die
sen_Tag,_BWV_63).
I created this arrangement for Oboe, French Horn &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC