Text
Poet unknown

Text No. 1, 3, 5, 7
Based on a text by Johann Michael Heineccius
(1674–1722)

First performance
25 December 1723, Leipzig

The introductory chorus opens with an orchestral prelude whose full wind section and powerful tutti rhythms joyfully announce that the dark, musical dearth of Advent is over; Christmas morning is here! The opulent scor-ing for four trumpets, timpani, three oboes and strings is featured only one other time in Bach’s cantata oeuvre, namely in the ceremonial music for the Leipzig council elections “Preise, Jerusalem, den Herren” (Praise, O Jerusalem, the Lord) BWV 119. But Bach is not content to allow the music to simply revel in Christmas joy; rather, he assigns the vocalists a dense movement of coloraturas that focuses more on textual meaning than on rejoicing of the day. Here, the melismas seem to literally “etch” the news of the birth of Jesus Christ into the eternal memory of Christians. At the same time, it may be that Bach, who was raised in a city of craftsmen, wanted to pay homage to the stone masons and engravers who worked so laboriously for the courts and churches of the times. In the middle section of the chorus, the “light” of God’s mercy then breaks forth and emerges as the work’s inspiration.
The inner movements that follow were conceived with particular care. The shimmer-ing string timbre of the recitative “O blessed day! O day exceeding rare” reveals the transcendent spirit of the day, while the repetition of the libretto in the vocal parts and orchestral postlude powerfully evoke the unfathomable act of Christ’s sacrifice. The tenor recitative no. 4 eschews the usual strings and employs instead a virtuosic continuo line to convey the stout courage of the libretto. In the richly orchestrated bass recitative, it seems that Bach, by scoring the accompaniment with both strings and oboes, wanted to interpret the text of “Redouble then your strength, ye ardent flames of worship” literally in the music.
As a rare example, both arias are composed as duets. In the first, a tender adagio, the soprano and bass express their grateful wonderment at God’s love and sacrifice, accompanied by an elegiac oboe cantilena that soars over the saraband-like foundation. In contrast, the alto and tenor duet is accompanied by a full string section that, in a swing-ing 3⁄8 time, calls God’s faithful believers to join together in thanksgiving.
The work concludes with a closing chorus “Highest, look with mercy now” – an unconventional combination of polychoral orchestral concertante passages, catchy choruses and a fugue-like motet. However, the middle section makes all too clear that the idyll of the Nativity and human happiness remain constantly threatened by the malevolence of Satan: Christmas rejoicing and its decorations are but thin veneers masking the temptation, death and (spiritual) privation that pervaded everyday life in the early modern era.