Textbook Johann Sebastian Bachs Christmas Oratorio Music Theology Culture 1St Edition Markus Rathey Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Johann Sebastian Bachs Christmas Oratorio Music Theology Culture 1St Edition Markus Rathey Ebook All Chapter PDF
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Johann Sebastian Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio
Johann Sebastian Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio
Music, Theology, Culture
M A R K U S R AT H E Y
1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
Tell me where is fancy bred/Or in the heart, or in the head?
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, III, 2
God's love and grace are not just mathematical or mechanical relations,
but have their true seat and origin in the movement of the heart of God.
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics II, 1, 370
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Translations xi
Abbreviations xiii
1. Prologue 1
2. Redefining Christmas 13
vii
viii Contents
Bibliographyâ•… 391
Indexâ•… 409
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ix
x Acknowledgments
Markus Rathey
New Haven, November 2015
A N O T E O N T R A N S L AT I O N S
The translations of the texts for Bach’s oratorios are based on Michael Marissen,
Bach’s Oratorios: The Parallel German-English Texts with Annotations (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2008). Translations of texts from Bach’s cantatas follow Alfred
Dürr, The Cantatas of J. S. Bach, trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2005). All other translations (especially of theological texts from
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) are mine unless stated otherwise.
xi
A B B R E V I AT I O N S
The capitalization of pitches and keys uses italics for individual pitches (c–d–e) and
roman type for key areas and chords (C–D–E). Chords (both major and minor) are
capitalized whereas pitches appear in lower-case letters (with indication of octaves,
like in c′); only pitches in the lower octave (C–D–B) are capitalized.
Names of biblical books are spelled out in full (Matthew 1:2–3) when cited in run-
ning text; cited in parentheses are the abbreviated forms (Mt 1:2–3):
Chr Chronicles
Eph Ephesians
Gal Galatians
Gen Genesis
Isa Isaiah
Jas James
Jn John
Lk Luke
Mk Mark
Mt Matthew
Ps (Pss) Psalm (Psalms)
Sam Samuel
BachDok
Bach-Dokumente. Leipzig and Kassel, 1963–72. Complete critical edi-
tion of the source material on Bach, with extensive commentaries.
Edited under the auspices of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig as a supplement
to the Neue Bach-Ausgabe.
bc basso continuo.
Buxtehude-Werke-Verzeichnis: Georg Karstädt. Thematisch-systematisches
BuxWV
Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Dietrich Buxtehude, Wiesbaden:
Breitkopf & Härtel, 1974.
xiii
xiv Abbreviations
Prologue
At the bottom of the score for movement 38 in part IV of the Christmas Oratorio,
hidden in the lower right-hand corner of the page, a keen observer will discover
a small drawing by Johann Sebastian Bach. The drawing shows a little heart, with
the symbol replacing the German word for “heart” in the text “mein Jesus labet
Herz und Brust” (my Jesus refreshes heart and breast) (fig. 1.1). Why would Bach
draw a symbol of a heart rather than write the text? It is easy to give a pragmatic
explanation for this: Bach simply ran out of room at the end of the page, and the
symbol occupied less space in the score than the complete word would have done.
A few pages later, in the aria “Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben” (no. 41), Bach does
the same thing. In mm. 19 and 32, the word “Herz” is once more replaced with
a heart; and again, space constraints appear to be the primary reason. However,
pragmatism alone underestimates the significance of the symbol for eighteenth-
century devotion and piety. The composer could easily have abbreviated the word
with the initial “H.” His copyists, who prepared the performance parts, had access
to the libretto and could have inserted the correct word. Instead, Bach repeatedly
uses a symbol that is ubiquitous in devotional literature and iconography of his
time, and were as omnipresent as symbols such as :-) and @ are in our age of digital
communication.
While drawing the heart saved Bach needed space in the score, it is more than just
a philological detail. For Bach or any other eighteenth-century beholder, the heart
signified much more. The heart symbolized the intimate relationship between the
believer and Jesus—the very same idea that is expressed in these movements from
part IV of the oratorio. This unassuming little detail taken by itself is not much more
than a music historical footnote, so unassuming, in fact, that it was not even men-
tioned in the critical commentary for the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. Yet it directs our atten-
tion to the theological framework of the Christmas Oratorio, which will be explored in
detail in c hapter 3 of this book. The heart draws our attention to other aspects of the
work as well, specifically the genesis of the oratorio itself and its compositional proc-
ess. The conventional practice of composing recitatives among eighteenth-century
1
2 J o h a n n S e b a s t i a n B a c h ’s C h r i s t m a s O r at o r i o
Figure 1.1 J. S. Bach, BWV 248/38, autograph score (D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 32, fol. 35v)
(bpk, Berlin/Mendelssohn-Archiv, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Stiftung Preussischer
Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany/Art Resource, NY)
composers like Handel, Hasse, and Bach was to copy the text first and then turn to
the composition of the music. This second step was sometimes postponed until a
later point in the compositional process after the more demanding movements like
arias and choruses had been written. The unevenly spaced handwriting as well as
the drawing of the heart in mvt. 38 suggests that the order of events was different in
this particular case. It appears that Bach wrote the text after the music had already
been written. Consequently, words sometimes spill over bar lines or, as in the case of
“Herz,” do not fit at all. The reason for Bach’s unorthodox procedure is the unusual
character of the movement. Not only is it an accompagnato recitative, but in the sec-
ond half of the movement the bass is joined in a duet by the soprano who is singing a
chorale text. Consequently, the music could not simply follow the text as in a regular
recitative; here, Bach had to deal with the composition of the music first. The analysis
of this movement in c hapter 9 will show how Bach employs a gendered use of voices
(soprano and bass) and parallel movements in thirds and sixths to create the impres-
sion of a love-duet that musically captures the erotic imagery of the text, and which
directly correlates to the use of the little heart.
Bach’s autograph score of the Christmas Oratorio grants us insight into the com-
positional process, which in turn will bring into focus important aspects of the
P rol og ue 3
music and its relationship with the text. In the second instance of the heart, in the
tenor aria mvt. 41 (“Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben”), the compositional process
was different than that in no. 38 but equally interesting. The music was originally
composed for the secular cantata Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns wachen, BWV 213. For
its use in part IV of the oratorio, Bach’s librettist wrote a new text that fit the music.
Accordingly, Bach copied the entire movement first and then inserted the text, com-
mon procedure in parodies like this. The text-underlay could be challenging if the
new text required more space than the music provided, as in the present case. But
again, he could have solved the problem differently; instead, he deliberately chose
to draw the heart.
Bach’s use of the heart symbol challenges us to explore two seemingly disparate
sides of the oratorio simultaneously: the theological profile of the piece as well as
the philological study of the manuscript source. The polarity and interconnected-
ness between theology and philology captures the two main foci of this book. This
study of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio explores the genesis of the piece and analyzes
the music while paying particular attention to traces of the compositional process,
like corrections and revisions and the use of older material in parodies. In several
instances, Bach’s changes and corrections illuminate his final solutions for com-
positional problems and help us better understand his musical goals. The paths
not taken also help us understand and appreciate the paths he eventually did take.
The composition score for the Christmas Oratorio serves as a tool that allows us to
reconstruct some of the thought processes that led to the final work. We encoun-
ter numerous cases in which the changes made during the compositional process
highlight certain aspects of the text by emphasizing a word or by heightening
the emotive quality of the libretto. In these cases, philology and theology stand
in direct conversation with one another. In other instances, though, they simply
coexist. Not every compositional revision serves the text and its meaning. Rather,
some changes have the purpose of simply increasing the beauty or the syntactic
coherence of the music.
This book locates Bach’s oratorio not only within his own oeuvre but also in the
cultural and religious climate of eighteenth-century Germany. The libretto for the
oratorio often echoes common themes, phrases, or motifs from the late seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries. Other authors of church music texts employed simi-
lar ideas, but these poets are often forgotten because their texts were either not set
to music or composed by those who exist in the shadows of our musical canon.
To name but one example of a composer who wrote Christmas cantatas contem-
porary with Bach—Johann Balthasar Christian Freißlich (1687–1764)—and who
today is familiar with his cantatas? The same is true for the large number of sermons
from Bach’s time. Including these texts in our discussion demonstrates a reper-
tory of common ideas, motifs, and allusions that resonated with the librettist while
he drafted the text for the Christmas Oratorio, with Bach when he composed the
4 J o h a n n S e b a s t i a n B a c h ’s C h r i s t m a s O r at o r i o
music, and among the listeners when they first heard the piece in Leipzig during the
Christmas season 1734/35.
Let us return again to heart drawn into mvt. 38: the heart as a dwelling place of
Christ features prominently in countless hymns, sermons, devotional books, and
religious images from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Bach’s listen-
ers would not have seen the little symbol in the score, but they would have under-
stood and appreciated its significance as much as they would have been aware of
the centrality of this heart-imagery throughout the oratorio. But it is also important
to emphasize that music and text do not always convey the same thing. It would be
misleading to interpret every detail in Bach’s music theologically. Instead, music and
theology have to be understood as two separate (yet interconnected) discourses,
each following their own paradigms, traditions, and rules. Both have their strengths
and weaknesses, capabilities and limitations. The discourses are independent but
they also intersect. If music is paired with a religious text, it necessarily and auto-
matically participates in a theological discourse as well. Every decision a composer
makes, to highlight certain words or to de-emphasize others, is a statement about
the meaning of the text. This statement might seem superficial, but it still reflects
and generates a particular understanding of the words. This exegesis exists and is
shaped by the cultural environment in which both the music and the words were
created. For religious music such as Bach’s oratorio, this environment is reflected in
theological treatises, hymns, devotional literature, and sermons. Referring to these
sources in an interpretation of Bach’s music does not imply that he necessarily was
familiar with all these texts, but they are a window into the religious culture of his
time. The composer probably did not study a theological treatise on the Gospel of
Luke before he embarked on setting the Christmas story from Luke 2, yet theologi-
cal and devotional texts help reconstruct a framework of understanding in which
the composer worked and his audience perceived the piece. Musical and theological
discourses also intersect on a higher level of meta-discourses, like the perception
of reality, of time, and of the divine. These conversations are connected since they
unfurled at the same time and at the same place: Leipzig, 1734. They are shaped by
the same Zeitgeist.1 Accordingly, these theological and philosophical sources pro-
vide a framework in which we are able to analyze the libretto as well as Bach’s treat-
ment of the text.
One important detail is missing from this framework. The identity of the author
of the libretto is still unknown. Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700–1764), known
by his pen name Picander, has often been suggested as the possible author for the
libretto of BWV 248. Bach and Picander had collaborated since 1725, and by the
1
A word coined by Johann Gottfried Herder in 1769, two years before he began to collaborate
with Johann Sebastian Bach’s son Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach in Bückeburg. This is merely a
historical coincidence but demonstrates how historical lines sometimes intersect.
P rol og ue 5
early 1730s he was Bach’s main librettist. What is unusual, however, is that the
libretto was not reprinted in one of Picander’s collections with poetry, as is the case
with most of the other texts he had written for Bach. While this might speak against
him as being the librettist, there are also no internal reasons (theological or poeti-
cal) that would rule out his collaboration. We will return briefly to this question in
chapter 3 of this book.
While the Christmas Oratorio is one of the most frequently performed works by
Bach, it has not received much attention by scholars, particularly in the English-
speaking world. The only monographic treatment of BWV 248 is Ignace Bossuyt’s
overview from 2004, which was translated from Dutch.2 Other books appeared
only in German. The two main reasons for this lack of interest are the seemingly
simple character of the work and the extensive use of parodies, which seemed to
render it esthetically less valuable than the Passions, for instance. In fact, the edi-
tor of the Christmas Oratorio for the Bach-Gesellschaft, Wilhelm Rust, deemed it
necessary to defend the piece against possible accusations of esthetic inferiority,
due to the inclusion of previously composed material. His argument rests on the
assumption that Bach had always intended the parodied movements for the ora-
torio. In other words, the secular cantatas, in which they appeared first, were only
their temporary home (and thus deemed esthetically inferior), while the oratorio
was their intended place.3 The parody problem (“Parodieproblem”) has been dis-
cussed repeatedly by scholars and commentators. While it is obvious that compos-
ers in the eighteenth century did not view the parody technique as esthetically
problematic, as soon as the Christmas Oratorio was viewed as a part of the canon of
Western music, it was then measured against the postulate of originality applied to
Beethoven’s symphonies, Schubert’s songs, and Wagner’s operas. The most signif-
icant contribution to this question has been made by Ludwig Finscher in an essay
from 1969, in which he not only analyzed the technical procedures Bach applied in
his parodies but also attributed an esthetic surplus (“ästhetischer Überschuß”) to
Bach’s music. This surfeit transcends the plain relationship between specific texts
and music, as well as composition and original function.4 Accordingly, this book
traces Bach’s use of parodies in the Christmas Oratorio and shows how Bach meticu-
lously plans the use of previously composed material within the work. Bach revises
the existing music to fit the new text and he also improves minute details that are
independent from the words of the libretto. These revisions are often little different
from revisions he would make in newly composed arias and choral movements,
2
Ignace Bossuyt, Johann Sebastian Bach, Christmas oratorio (BWV 248), trans. Stratton Bull
(Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2004). The book was originally published in Dutch in 2002 and
appeared in an English translation two years later.
3
Wilhelm Rust, foreword to Bach-Gesellschaft Edition (1856), viii.
4
Ludwig Finscher, “Zum Parodieproblem bei Bach,” in Bach-Interpretationen, ed. Martin Geck,
FS Walter Blankenburg zum 65. Geburtstag (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1969), 94–105.
6 J o h a n n S e b a s t i a n B a c h ’s C h r i s t m a s O r at o r i o
which make the use of parodies firmly integrated into the compositional process of
this oratorio. It is ironic that the B-Minor Mass, held in highest esteem by scholars
and listeners alike, is even to a larger degree based on parodies. However, the trans-
formation of the musical material in the Mass is more substantive than that seen in
the oratorio. Furthermore, the B-Minor Mass had already acquired the status of a
model composition in the early nineteenth century before critics became aware of
the parody relationships.
Much of the work in this book is indebted to contributions by earlier genera-
tions of Bach scholars, particularly since the 1950s. The beginning of the second
half of the twentieth century saw a quantum leap for Bach studies. The publica-
tion of Schmieder’s Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) in 1950 provided a reliable
catalogue of Bach’s works—and a universal numbering system that is still in place
today. The start of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe (NBA) in 1954, replacing the Bach-
Gesellschaft Ausgabe from the nineteenth century, not only helped create new
editions that reflected the most advanced state of philological scholarship but
also necessitated a new assessment of the sources. This in turn led to the “new
chronology.” Alfred Dürr’s and Georg von Dadelsen’s research has revolutionized
our knowledge of the chronology and genesis of Bach’s Leipzig vocal works. The
authors showed that the cantatas were, for the most part, a product of his earlier
years in Leipzig and not (as hitherto assumed) the fruit of his more mature years.
While the Christmas Oratorio was not directly affected by the new chronology
(the autograph score is dated in Bach’s own hand and its chronology had never
been in doubt), it does nuance the contextual understanding of the piece. It is
now clear that Bach had turned to the genre of oratorio at a time when his produc-
tion of cantatas had ebbed. Sacred compositions in the 1730s were an exception
for Bach, not the norm any more.
The edition of the oratorio for the Neue Bach-Ausgabe was prepared collabora-
tively by Alfred Dürr and Walter Blankenburg—the former a leading expert of Bach
philology of his time, and the latter a musicologist with a keen interest in hymnol-
ogy and theology. Their different perspectives are reflected in two important and
influential books on the oratorio, which are still considered cornerstones of mod-
ern scholarship on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Dürr’s small study from 1967 focuses
almost entirely on the music: the description of the sources, the technical aspects
of the parody process, and Bach’s use of musical genres.5 Blankenburg’s book, pub-
lished in 1982, gives a description of the music as well but focuses much more on the
theological interpretation of Bach’s composition.6 For the most part Blankenburg
5
Alfred Dürr, Johann Sebastian Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248, Meisterwerke der Musik
8 (Munich: Fink, 1967).
6
Walter Blankenburg, Das Weihnachts-Oratorium von Johann Sebastian Bach (Munich: Deutscher
Taschenbuch-Verlag/Bärenreiter, 1982).
P rol og ue 7
does not consult theological texts from Bach’s time, but instead he works under the
implicit assumption that the music is charged with religious meaning and that this
meaning can be decoded from a modern perspective. His perspective is that of a
German Lutheran and thus relies primarily on Luther as a theological source. The
approaches of both books are limited. Dürr disregards the cultural and religious
context, while Blankenburg takes an anachronistic approach by using a sixteenth-
century theologian and his twentieth-century reception as a Rosetta stone for the
interpretation of an eighteenth-century composition.
Noteworthy is Günter Jena’s book Brich an, o schönes Morgenlicht (1997).7
Written not by a scholar but by a performer, it addresses a general audience and
adds some very perceptive observations about the architecture of Bach’s music and
about the ways he manipulates his musical material. The most recent comprehen-
sive discussion of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio to date is Meinrad Walter’s book from
2006.8 Like Blankenburg, Walter is mostly interested in the oratorio as a work of
religious expression. What differentiates him from his predecessor are a broader
knowledge of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century theology and a number of short
excurses into Bach’s workshop (“Blick in die Werkstatt”), which highlight signifi-
cant details of Bach’s compositional process and of his handwriting. An exclusive
treatment of the theological aspects of the oratorio from a historical perspective is
Martin Petzoldt’s Bach Kommentar, which contains commentary on each of the six
parts of the Christmas Oratorio.9 Petzoldt provides the first systematic discussion
of the theology of the piece. In spite of some methodological shortcomings and a
rather narrow source base, Petzoldt’s commentary is still an important resource for
further scholarship.
Outside of these monographic treatments, the Christmas Oratorio has only
occasionally received the attention of scholars. Important contributions that have
shaped our understanding of the piece are the studies of Bach’s parody technique by
Werner Neumann (1965) and Ludwig Finscher (1969);10 Andreas Glöckner’s con-
siderations of a model for the last part of the oratorio (2000);11 and two important
7
Günter Jena, Brich an, o schönes Morgenlicht: Das Weihnachtsoratorium von Johann Sebastian Bach
(Freiburg, Herder: 1999).
8
Meinrad Walter, Johann Sebastian Bach—Weihnachtsoratorium (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2006).
9
Martin Petzoldt, Bach-Kommentar II: Die geistlichen Kantaten vom 1. Advent bis zum Trinitatisfest,
Schriftenreihe Internationale Bachakademie 14, 2 (Stuttgart/Kassel: Internationale Bachakademie/
Bärenreiter, 2007). While not an independent monograph, the sections on the oratorio comprise
ninety-five pages.
10
Werner Neumann, “Über Ausmaß und Wesen des Bachschen Parodieverfahrens,” Bach-Jahrbuch
51 (1965): 63–85; Finscher, “Zum Parodieproblem bei Bach,” 94–105.
11
Andreas Glöckner, “Eine Michaeliskantate als Parodievorlage für den sechsten Teil des
Bachschen Weihnachts-Oratoriums?,” Bach-Jahrbuch 86 (2000): 317–26.
8 J o h a n n S e b a s t i a n B a c h ’s C h r i s t m a s O r at o r i o
articles by the theologian Ernst Koch about the function of the echo aria in part IV
(1989) and the significance of the alto voice in the oratorio (1995).12 Koch replaces
Blankenburg’s intuitive approach with a more careful evaluation of seventeenth-
and eighteenth-century sources. Finally, Christoph Wolff outlines, in a recent arti-
cle, the ramifications of Bach’s oratorio concept, which views the three oratorios for
the major feast days (Christmas, Easter, Ascension) as part of a larger, unified ora-
torio project.13 Chapter 4 of this book summarizes Wolff ’s observations and adds
some details to his analysis.
The celebration of Christmas as we know it today was born in the nine-
teenth century. The idea of a family feast that revolved around consumerism
and, at the same time, struggled with it developed in the early decades of the
nineteenth century and took shape over the following decades. Scholars such
as Stephen Nissenbaum, Joe Perry, and Susan K. Roll have analyzed the emer-
gence of the modern feast.14 A study of the understanding of the feast in Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio therefore has to go back before the Romantic period. The
following two chapters demonstrate that Bach himself lived during a time of
change. When he was born in 1685, Christmas traditions still retained some of
their medieval roots: carnivalesque rituals and misrule were still frequent in the
streets of Lutheran cities in Germany toward the latter half of the seventeenth
century. Both theologians and secular authorities strove to abolish these tradi-
tions. This “war on Christmas” coincided with a general trend of internalizing
religiosity. Physical and bodily religious practices (like the Christmas plays we
discuss in c hapter 2) gave way to an interior spirituality. Christmas became a
feast that was no longer celebrated in the streets but was instead contemplated
in the human heart. What remained in devotional texts about Christmas were
metaphors—like love, marriage, and the heart—w hich had physical roots but
were now confined to the realm of language and symbol. The rocking of a real
cradle, once a popular practice in the Christmas rituals all over Europe, was
transformed into the image of Jesus inhabiting the cradle of the human heart.
Most of these images were much older and rooted in medieval mysticism and
Lutheran theology; around 1700, though, these metaphors acquired a new
12
Ernst Koch, “Tröstendes Echo: Zur theologischen Deutung der Echo-Arie im IV. Teil des
Weihnachts- Oratoriums von Johann Sebastian Bach,” Bach-Jahrbuch 75 (1989): 203– 11, and
“Die Stimme des Heiligen Geistes: Theologische Hintergründe der solistischen Altpartien in der
Kirchenmusik Johann Sebastian Bachs,” Bach-Jahrbuch 81 (1995): 61–81.
13
Christoph Wolff, “Under the Spell of Opera? Bach’s Oratorio Trilogy,” in J. S. Bach and the
Oratorio Tradition, ed. Daniel R. Melamed, Bach Perspectives 8 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
2011), 1–12.
14
Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas (New York: Vintage, 1996); Joe Perry, Christmas
in Germany. A Cultural History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010); and Susan K.
Roll, Toward the Origins of Christmas (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1995).
P rol og ue 9
Here, we understand that Christ comes as a child to make mankind children of God.
He dwells in the human heart and grants consolation in times of sadness. Chapter 3
explores in more detail these theological ideas and how they were woven into the
libretto for the oratorio.
While chapters 2 and 3 provide the cultural and religious context for the orato-
rio, chapters 4 and 5 will deal with practical issues. As Christoph Wolff has recently
shown, Bach worked on a larger oratorio project during the 1730s, which included
pieces for Christmas, Easter, Ascension, the revision of the St. John and St. Matthew
Passions, and possibly plans for a Pentecost oratorio as well.16 Chapter 4 considers
15
Salomon Deyling, Herrliche Dinge in der Stadt Gottes geprediget (Leipzig, 1734), 5.
16
Wolff, “Under the Spell of Opera?,” 1–12.
10 J o h a n n S e b a s t i a n B a c h ’s C h r i s t m a s O r at o r i o
the reasons for Bach’s sudden interest in this genre in 1734, and it demonstrates
how his own understanding of the genre shaped the peculiar profile of BWV 248.
Chapter 5 then delves into more detail by reconstructing the compositional process
from the earliest planning stages, the inclusion of parody movements, the order of
composition of individual movements within the oratorio, the shaping of musical
ideas, and the revision of both smaller and larger details in the music. The work in
that chapter would not have been possible without the magisterial study of Bach’s
compositional process by Robert Marshall (1972).17 Chapter 5 applies Marshall’s
general observations to the Christmas Oratorio and adds further details to the
picture.
The following six chapters deal with each of the six parts of the oratorio indi-
vidually. Instead of simply proceeding movement by movement, like most of the
previous monographs on the oratorio, each chapter focuses on one crucial aspect
and analyzes its realization in text and music. Part I of the oratorio explores a set
of dichotomies, most of which are already alluded to in Deyling’s sermon outline
quoted earlier: God and man, heaven and earth, sin and salvation, rich and poor,
as well as concepts of time and social status. The first part also introduces the love
imagery that dominates the entire oratorio: bride and bridegroom, the beloved, and
the heart as the dwelling place of the divine. The three parody movements in part I,
the opening chorus and the two arias, provide case studies for Bach’s parody tech-
nique in the oratorio as a whole.
The second part of the oratorio, which culminates in the angelic hymn “Ehre
sei Gott in der Höhe” (May honor be to God on high) can be read and heard as
an essay on the meaning of music and sound. Music as a means of communica-
tion between earthly and heavenly realms is already present in the harmonious
dialogue between angelic and pastoral choruses in the opening sinfonia, and later
movements in part II of the oratorio return to this subject repeatedly. This view
of music—again deeply rooted in the theology of Bach’s time—has ramifications
beyond part II as it demonstrates how sound and harmony can aid in the unifica-
tion of God and men.
This unification, the unio mystica, metaphorically taking place in the human heart,
as point 2 in Deyling’s sermon suggests, is the focus of part III of the oratorio. The
physical (external) movement of the shepherds toward the manger is reinterpreted
as the spiritual (internal) movement of God toward man. This deliberate embod-
iment of an external act correlates with the internalization and spiritualization of
Christmas during Bach’s lifetime. The musical and theological center of part III is
the alto aria “Schließe, mein Herze” (no. 31). It is also the only newly composed
17
Robert Lewis Marshall, The Compositional Process of J. S. Bach: A Study of the Autograph Scores of
the Vocal Works, 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972).
P rol og ue 11
aria in the entire oratorio. Bach’s careful work on this particular movement and the
numerous changes and revisions reflect its importance within the context of the
entire oratorio. As chapter 3 shows, this aria is the turning point in the temporal as
well as the structural framework of the Christmas Oratorio.
Part IV of the oratorio is an extensive meditation on the meaning of the name
of Jesus as the essence of his divine and human nature. The two movements, men-
tioned at the beginning of this prologue, in which Bach drew a heart instead of writ-
ing out the word, appear in this part of the oratorio. The contemplation of the divine
name is intrinsically intertwined with the mystical unity symbolized by the heart
in eighteenth-century devotional writing. Musical and theological questions also
intersect in the famous echo-aria of part IV.
The last two parts of the Christmas Oratorio tell the story of the three wise men
and their journey to the manger in Bethlehem. As the star is the guide to the new-
born child, part V explores the metaphors of light and darkness: light or “enlighten-
ment” becomes a metaphor for the clearer knowledge and understanding of God
and God’s will. The opening movement for part V is the only large-scale choral
movement that was not based on a parody, and this provides another opportunity
to study Bach’s compositional process in more depth. The final part of the oratorio
returns to the juxtaposition of earlier parts, pitting the bridegroom Christ against
his adversaries: namely, King Herod, but by extension all such enemies as Satan,
death, and sin. This part is characterized in particular by its eschatological outlook,
directing one’s view from the past (Christ’s birth) and the present (Christ’s dwelling
in the human heart) to the future (Christ’s return), thus completing the tripartite
temporal structure we explore further in chapter 3.
The Christmas Oratorio weaves together two narratives: the birth of Jesus accord-
ing to the gospels of Luke (parts I–IV) and Matthew (parts V–VI), and the wel-
coming of Christ into the human heart. This second narrative ranges from the
expectation of his coming (parts I–II) to the preparation of the heart (part III) to
the notion that he was “already there,” as the terzet in part V announces. The turning
point of this narrative is the aria “Schließe mein Herze” in part III. Both the special
attention Bach pays to this aria and his use of the symbolic hearts in part IV sug-
gest that Bach was keenly aware of this “second narrative” when he composed the
oratorio. However, this study makes no attempt to reconstruct Bach’s own piety or
demonstrate his position as the “fifth evangelist.” Given the available sources, this
is not possible. What is possible to reconstruct is how the Christmas Oratorio, both
its music and libretto, fits into the religious landscape of early eighteenth-century
Germany.
This book oscillates between musical analysis, source studies, and theology. It
is written not only for musicologists but also for readers who are interested in the
religious landscape of the early eighteenth century as well as the study of central
12 J o h a n n S e b a s t i a n B a c h ’s C h r i s t m a s O r at o r i o
European culture at the end of the Baroque era. Given the interdisciplinary nature
of the subject, readers from different fields of study will sometimes need patience
when the book seems to digress into unfamiliar territory. These tangents are neces-
sary to establish the context of Bach’s piece and to show how the Christmas Oratorio
relates to the views of the Christmas feast in other text genres and disciplines.
Another random document with
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at the end of the chapter. The text of D generally is much less correct
than that of the older copies, and it is derived from a MS. which had
lines missing here and there, as indicated by the ‘deficit versus in
copia,’ which occurs sometimes in the margin. In the numbering of the
chapters the Prologues of Libb. ii. and iii. are reckoned as cap. i. in
each case. The corrections and notes of the rubricator are not always
sound, and sometimes we find in the margin attempts to improve the
author’s metre, in a seventeenth-century hand, as ‘Et qui pauca tenet’
for ‘Qui tenet et pauca’ (ii. 70), ‘Causa tamen credo’ for ‘Credo tamen
causa’ (ii. 84). Some of these late alterations have been admitted
(strange to say) into Mr. Coxe’s text (e.g. ii. 70).
The book is made up of parchment and paper in equal proportions,
the outer and inner leaves of each quire being of parchment. Sixteen
leaves of paper have been inserted at the beginning and twelve at the
end of the book, easily distinguished by the water-mark and chain-
lines from the paper originally used in the book itself. Most of these
are blank, but some have writing, mostly in sixteenth-century hands.
There are medical prescriptions and cooking recipes in English,
selections of gnomic and other passages from the Vox Clamantis,
among which are the lines ‘Ad mundum mitto,’ &c., which do not occur
in the Digby text, four Latin lines on the merits of the papal court
beginning ‘Pauperibus sua dat gratis,’ which when read backwards
convey an opposite sense, the stanzas by Queen Elizabeth ‘The
dowte of future force (corr. foes) Exiles my presente ioye, And wytt me
warnes to shonne suche snares As threten myne annoye’ (eight four-
line stanzas).
With regard to the connexion between D and L see below on the
Laud MS.
for which cp. Wright’s Political Poems, Rolls Series, 14, vol. i. p. 225.
or
but it is also very often used in the correct classical manner. The
MSS. make no distinction between these two uses, but sometimes
join the conjunction to the preceding word and sometimes separate
it, apparently in a quite arbitrary manner. For the sake of clearness
the conjunction is separated in this edition regularly when the sense
requires that it should be taken independently of the preceding word,
and the variations of the manuscripts with regard to this are not
recorded.
Again, some freedom has been used in the matter of capital
letters, which have been supplied, where they were wanting, in the
case of proper names and at the beginning of sentences.
The spelling is in every particular the same as that of the MS.
The practice of altering the medieval orthography, which is fairly
consistent and intelligible, so as to make it accord with classical or
conventional usage, has little or nothing to be said for it, and
conceals the evidence which the forms of spelling might give with
regard to the prevalent pronunciation.
The principal differences in our text from the classical orthography
are as follows:
e regularly for the diphthongs ae, oe.
i for e in periunt, rediat, nequio, &c. (but also pereunt, &c.).
y for i in ymus, ymago, &c.
i for y, e.g. mirrha, ciclus, limpha.
v for u or v regularly as initial letter of words, elsewhere u.
vowels doubled in hii, hee, hiis (monosyllables).
u for uu after q, e.g. equs, iniqus, sequntur.
initial h omitted in ara (hăra), edus (haedus), ortus, yemps, &c.
initial h added in habundat, heremus, Herebus, &c.
ch for h in michi, nichil.
ch for c in archa, archanum, inchola, choruscat, &c. (but Cristus,
when fully written, for ‘Christus’).
ci for ti regularly before a vowel e.g. accio, alcius, cercius,
distinccio, gracia, sentencia, vicium.
c for s or sc, in ancer, cerpo, ceptrum, rocidus, Cilla.
s for c or sc, in secus (occasionally for ‘caecus’), sintilla, &c.
single for double consonants in apropriat, suplet, agredior,
resurexit, &c. (also appropriat, &c.).
ph for f in scropha, nephas, nephandus, prophanus, &c.
p inserted in dampnum, sompnus, &c.
set usually in the best MSS. for sed (conjunction), but in the Cotton
MS. usually ‘sed.’
FOOTNOTES:
1 2nd Series, vol. ii. pp. 103-117.
2 Script. Brit. i. 414.
3 Itin. vi. 55. From Foss, Tabulae Curiales, it would seem that
there was no judge named Gower in the 14th century.
4 Script. Brit. i. 414. This statement also appears as a later
addition in the manuscript.
5 ‘Gower’ appears in Tottil’s publication of the Year-books (1585)
both in 29 and 30 Ed. III, e.g. 29 Ed. III, Easter term, ff. 20, 27,
33, 46, and 30 Ed. III, Michaelmas term, ff. 16, 18, 20 vo. He
appears usually as counsel, but on some occasions he speaks
apparently as a judge. The Year-books of the succeeding
years, 31-36 Ed. III, have not been published.
6 These arms appear also in the Glasgow MS. of the Vox
Clamantis.
7 Worthies, ed. 1662, pt. 3, p. 207.
8 e.g. Winstanley, Jacob, Cibber and others.
9 Ancient Funeral Monuments, p. 270. This Sir Rob. Gower had
property in Suffolk, as we shall see, but the fact that his tomb
was at Brabourne shows that he resided in Kent. The arms
which were upon his tomb are pictured (without colours) in
MS. Harl. 3917, f. 77.
10 Rot. Pat. dated Nov. 27, 1377.
11 Rot. Claus. 4 Ric. II. m. 15 d.
12 Rot. Pat. dated Dec. 23, 1385.
13 Rot. Pat. dated Aug. 12, Dec. 23, 1386.
14 It may here be noted that the poet apparently pronounced his
name ‘Gowér,’ in two syllables with accent on the second, as
in the Dedication to the Balades, i. 3, ‘Vostre Gower, q’est
trestout vos soubgitz.’ The final syllable bears the rhyme in
two passages of the Confessio Amantis (viii. 2320, 2908),
rhyming with the latter syllables of ‘pouer’ and ‘reposer’. (The
rhyme in viii. 2320, ‘Gower: pouer,’ is not a dissyllabic one, as
is assumed in the Dict. of Nat. Biogr. and elsewhere, but of the
final syllables only.) In the Praise of Peace, 373, ‘I, Gower,
which am al the liege man,’ an almost literal translation of the
French above quoted, the accent is thrown rather on the first
syllable.
15 See Retrospective Review, 2nd Series, vol. ii, pp. 103-117
(1828). Sir H. Nicolas cites the Close Rolls always at second
hand and the Inquisitiones Post Mortem only from the
Calendar. Hence the purport of the documents is sometimes
incorrectly or insufficiently given by him. In the statement here
following every document is cited from the original, and the
inaccuracies of previous writers are corrected, but for the most
part silently.
16 Inquis. Post Mortem, &c. 39 Ed. III. 36 (2nd number). This is in
fact an ‘Inquisitio ad quod damnum.’ The two classes of
Inquisitions are given without distinction in the Calendar, and
the fact leads to such statements as that ‘John Gower died
seized of half the manor of Aldyngton, 39 Ed. III,’ or ‘John
Gower died seized of the manor of Kentwell, 42 Ed. III.’
17 Rot. Orig. 39 Ed. III. 27.
18 Rot. Claus. 39 Ed. III. m. 21 d.
19 Rot. Claus. 39 Ed. III. m. 21 d.
20 Harl. Charters, 56 G. 42. See also Rot. Orig. 42 Ed. III. 33 and
Harl. Charters, 56 G. 41.
21 Harl. Charters, 50 I. 13.
22 See Rot. Orig. 23 Ed. III. 22, 40 Ed. III. 10, 20, Inquis. Post
Mortem, 40 Ed. III. 13, Rot. Claus. 40 Ed. III. m. 21.
23 Harl. Charters, 50 I. 14. The deed is given in full by Nicolas in
the Retrospective Review.
24 Rot. Orig. 48 Ed. III. 31.
25 The tinctures are not indicated either upon the drawing of Sir
R. Gower’s coat of arms in MS. Harl. 3917 or on the seal, but
the coat seems to be the same, three leopards’ faces upon a
chevron. The seal has a diaper pattern on the shield that
bears the chevron, but this is probably only ornamental.
26 ‘Et dicunt quod post predictum feoffamentum, factum predicto
Iohanni Gower, dictus Willelmus filius Willelmi continue
morabatur in comitiva Ricardi de Hurst et eiusdem Iohannis
Gower apud Cantuar, et alibi usque ad festum Sancti
Michaelis ultimo preteritum, et per totum tempus predictum
idem Willelmus fil. Will. ibidem per ipsos deductus fuit et
consiliatus ad alienationem de terris et tenementis suis
faciendam.’ Rot. Parl. ii. 292.
27 Rot. Claus. 43 Ed. III. m. 30.
28 Rot. Claus. 42 Ed. III. m. 13 d.
29 English Writers, vol. iv. pp. 150 ff.
30 See Calendar of Post Mortem Inquisitions, vol. ii. pp. 300, 302.
31 So also the deeds of 1 Ric. II releasing lands to Sir J. Frebody
and John Gower (Hasted’s History of Kent, iii. 425), and of 4
Ric. II in which Isabella daughter of Walter de Huntyngfeld
gives up to John Gower and John Bowland all her rights in the
parishes of Throwley and Stalesfield, Kent (Rot. Claus. 4 Ric.
II. m. 15 d), and again another in which the same lady remits
to John Gower all actions, plaints, &c., which may have arisen
between them (Rot. Claus. 8 Ric. II. m. 5 d).
32 Rot. Franc. 1 Ric. II. pt. 2, m. 6.
33 See also Sir N. Harris Nicolas, Life of Chaucer, pp. 27, 125.
34 Rot. Claus. 6 Ric. II. m. 27 d, and 24 d.
35 Rot. Claus. 6 Ric. II. pt. 1, m. 23 d.
36 Rot. Claus. 7 Ric. II. m. 17 d.
37 Duchy of Lancaster, Miscellanea, Bundle X, No. 43 (now in the
Record Office).
38 ‘Liverez a Richard Dancastre pour un Coler a luy doné par
monseigneur le Conte de Derby par cause d’une autre Coler
doné par monditseigneur a un Esquier John Gower, vynt et
sys soldz oyt deniers.’
39 Duchy of Lancaster, Household Accounts, 17 Ric. II (July to
Feb.).
40 Register of William of Wykeham, ii. f. 299b. The record was
kindly verified for me by the Registrar of the diocese of
Winchester. The expression used about the place is ‘in
Oratorio ipsius Iohannis Gower infra hospicium suum’ (not
‘cum’ as previously printed) ‘in Prioratu Beate Marie de
Overee in Southwerke predicta situatum.’ It should be noted
that ‘infra’ in these documents means not ‘below,’ as
translated by Prof. Morley, but ‘within.’ So also in Gower’s will.
41 Lambeth Library, Register of Abp. Arundel, ff. 256-7.
42 The remark of Nicolas about the omission of Kentwell from the
will is hardly appropriate. Even if Gower the poet were
identical with the John Gower who possessed Kentwell, this
manor could not have been mentioned in his will, because it
was disposed of absolutely to Sir J. Cobham in the year 1373.
Hence there is no reason to conclude from this that there was
other landed property besides that which is dealt with by the
will.
43 I am indebted for some of the facts to Canon Thompson of St.
Saviour’s, Southwark, who has been kind enough to answer
several questions which I addressed to him.
44 The features are quite different, it seems to me, from those
represented in the Cotton and Glasgow MSS., and I think it
more likely that the latter give us a true contemporary portrait.
Gower certainly died in advanced age, yet the effigy on his
tomb shows us a man in the flower of life. This then is either
an ideal representation or must have been executed from
rather distant memory, whereas the miniatures in the MSS.,
which closely resemble each other, were probably from life,
and also preserve their original colouring. The miniatures in
MSS. of the Confessio Amantis, which represent the
Confession, show the penitent usually as a conventional
young lover. The picture in the Fairfax MS. is too much
damaged to give us much guidance, but it does not seem to
be a portrait, in spite of the collar of SS added later. The
miniature in MS. Bodley 902, however, represents an aged
man, while that of the Cambridge MS. Mm. 2. 21 rather recalls
the effigy on the tomb and may have been suggested by it.
45 We may note that the effigy of Sir Robert Gower in brass
above his tomb in Brabourne church is represented as having
a similar chaplet round his helmet. See the drawing in MS.
Harl. 3917, f. 77.
46 So I read them. They are given by Gough and others as ‘merci
ihi.’
47 Perhaps rather 1207 or 1208.
48 Script. Brit. i. 415: so also Ant. Coll. iv. 79, where the three
books are mentioned. The statement that the chaplet was
partly of ivy must be a mistake, as is pointed out by Stow and
others.
49 Read rather ‘En toy qu’es fitz de dieu le pere.’
50 Read ‘O bon Jesu, fai ta mercy’ and in the second line ‘dont le
corps gist cy.’
51 Survey of London, p. 450 (ed. 1633). In the margin there is the
note, ‘John Gower no knight, neither had he any garland of ivy
and roses, but a chaplet of four roses only,’ referring to Bale,
who repeats Leland’s description.
52 p. 326 (ed. 1615). Stow does not say that the inscription
‘Armigeri scutum,’ &c.; was defaced in his time.
53 vol. ii. p. 542.
54 vol. v. pp. 202-4. The description is no doubt from Aubrey.
55 On this subject the reader may be referred to Selden, Titles of
Honour, p. 835 f. (ed. 1631).
56 Antiquities of St. Saviour’s, Southwark, 1765.
57 vol. ii. p. 24.
58 Priory Church of St. Mary Overie, 1881.
59 Canon Thompson writes to me, ‘The old sexton used to show
visitors a bone, which he said was taken from the tomb in
1832. I tried to have this buried in the tomb on the occasion of
the last removal, but I was told it had disappeared.’
60 vol. ii. p. 91.
61 Bp. Braybrooke’s Register, f. 84.
62 Braybrooke Register, f. 151.
63 The date of the resignation by John Gower of the rectory of
Great Braxted is nearly a year earlier than the marriage of
Gower the poet.
64 I do not know on what authority Rendle states that ‘His
apartment seems to have been in what was afterwards known
as Montague Close, between the church of St. Mary Overey
and the river,’ Old Southwark, p. 182.
65 At the same time I am disposed to attach some weight to the
expression in Mir. 21774, where the author says that some
may blame him for handling sacred subjects, because he is no
‘clerk,’