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Commentaries on the Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: An Interactive Companion

Christum wir sollen loben schon BWV 121 / BC A 13

Second Day of Christmas

Performed for the first time on the second day of Christmas 1724, this cantata, Christum wir sollen loben schon BWV 121 (To Christ we should sing praises now), belongs to Bach’s chorale cantata cycle. As such, its text is based on a chorale, in this case, the Christmas hymn by Martin Luther, which the hymnals of Bach’s day assigned to all three days of Christmas. Older hymn collections, particularly those of Luther’s era, describe the origins of text and melody thus: “The hymn ‘A solis ordine’ / set in German by Martin Luther. — The German text can be sung nicely with the Latin notes.”1 Hence the origins of the hymn are to be found in the pre-Reformation era. The text is ascribed to Coelius Sedulius, a poet who lived around 450 CE and who is also responsible for a story of Christ in hexameters known as the Carmen paschale, as well as a prose version of this rhymed text.

The libretto Bach used for his cantata exhibits the pattern typical of the chorale cantata cycle: the unknown poet left the first and last strophes of the source chorale unchanged, while he reshaped the remaining strophes into arias and recitatives. The ideas in the text focus on the wonder of the birth of Christ and avoid the significance of the second day of Christmas as a day memorializing the martyrdom of St. Stephen. Hence Luther’s unchanged first strophe stands at the beginning of the cantata text:

Christum wir sollen loben schon,
Der reinen Magd Marien Sohn,
So weit die liebe Sonne leucht,
Und an aller Welt Ende reicht.

To Christ we should sing praises now,
Son of the virginal maidservant Mary,
As far as the beloved sun shines,
And reaches to the ends of all the world.


Luther combines the incarnation of the son of God and his predestined act of redemption in the second strophe:

Der selig Schöpffer alle Ding
Zog an eins Knechtes Leib gering,
Daß er das Fleisch durchs Fleisch erwerb
Und sein Geschöpf nicht alls verderb.

The blessed creator of all things
Put on a servant’s mean body,
That he the flesh through flesh might win
And all his creatures not be ruined.


From the source chorale the author of the cantata text created an aria in iambic meter, his elaborate versification leading to a syllabic opulence:

O du von Gott erhöhte Kreatur,
Begreife nicht, nein, nein, bewundre nur:
Gott will durch Fleisch des Fleisches Heil erwerben.
Wie groß ist doch der Schöpfer aller Dinge,
Und wie bist du verachtet und geringe
Um dich dadurch zu retten vom Verderben.

O you creature exalted by God,
Do not comprehend, no, no, just marvel:
God would gain the salvation of the flesh through flesh.
How great indeed is the creator of all things,
And how scorned and lowly are you
So as to rescue you from ruin.


The unmistakable preacher’s intonation continues in the next stanza, paraphrasing the miracle of the virgin birth, renouncing a rational explanation with the words “Was Wunder, daß allhie Verstand und Witz gebricht, / Ein solch Geheimnis zu ergründen” (What wonder that here, rationality and wit are deficient / To fathom such a mystery) and closing with the hymn-like lines: “Gott wählet sich den reinen Leib zu einem Tempel seiner Ehren, / Um zu den Menschen sich mit wundervoller Art zu kehren” (God chooses the undefiled body as a temple in his honor, / So as, in wonderful fashion, to turn himself toward humankind). The second section of the cantata begins with the aria that follows, in which the faithful Christians turn toward the manger. The model for the text is Luther’s fifth strophe:

Die edle Mutter hat geborn
Den Gabriel verhieß zuvorn,
Den Sankt Johanns mit Springen zeigt,
Da er noch lag im Mutterleib.

The noble mother has born
The one foretold by Gabriel,
The one Saint John celebrated with leaps 
While he still lay in mother’s womb.


The allusion here is to the account, in the first chapter of Luke, of Mary’s visit in the house of Zacharia and her meeting with Elizabeth. The librettist takes up this image, expands it with a reference to the representation of Jesus in the Temple and the words of the ancient Simeon in the second chapter of Luke, and concludes with a return to the present:

Johannis freudenvolles Springen
Erkannte dich, mein Jesu, schon.
Nun, da ein Glaubensarm dich hält,
So will mein Herze von der Welt
Zu deiner Krippe brünstig dringen.

John’s joyful leaping
Already recognized you, my Jesus.
Now, as an arm of faith holds you,
So will my heart, from the world
To your manger, ardently press through.


“Doch wie erblickt es dich in deiner Krippe?” (Yet how does it behold you in your manger?) asks the last recitative, and without waiting for an answer, it announces an offering of thanks that serves as the transition to Luther’s closing strophe:

Gott, der so unermeßlich war,
Nimmt Knechtgestalt und Armut an.
Und weil er dieses uns zugut getan, 
So lasset mit der Engel Chören
In jauchzend Lob- und Danklied hören!2

God, who was so immeasurable,
Assumes a servant’s form and poverty.
And because he has done this for our benefit,
So let there from the choir of angels
An exultant song of praise and thanks be heard!


Once again, Luther captures this thanksgiving in only four lines:

Lob, Ehr und Dank sei dir gesagt,
Christ, geboren von der reinen Magd, 
Samt Vater und dem heilgen Geist
Von nun an bis in Ewigkeit.

May praise, honor, and thanks be declared to you,
Christ, born of the virginal maidservant,
Together with the father and the Holy Spirit
From this time forth until eternity.


For the opening movement, Bach chooses a pattern that strays from the familiar. Certainly, the chorale melody is given phrase by phrase in large note values by the soprano, and the other voices provide a counterpoint in the manner of a fugal motet against this chorale cantus firmus. But this time the ever-present concerted orchestral part, whose independent motivic substance provides unity and cohesion, is missing. This is much more a free-standing motet movement that occasionally allows the basso continuo a certain independence, while woodwinds and strings are led in unison with the choral voices. The composer may most likely have chosen this procedure because the modal character of the chorale tune, with its archaic Phrygian church mode, made a concertante arrangement significantly more difficult. The traditional motet style offered both a solution and a way forward, and Bach accentuated the archaic character of the cantata’s beginning by colla parte support of the choral voices with the ancient traditional Stadtpfeiffer ensemble of cornet and three trombones.

Without transition, the second movement immediately moves to the modern world of recitative and aria. In the first aria, tenor and oboe d’amore compete in equally breathless interweaving, calling to mind the phrase “begreife nicht, bewundre nur” (do not comprehend, only wonder). “Wonder” is the subject of the following alto recitative as well, first without particular emphasis. At the close, though, Bach illustrates “um zu den Menschen sich mit wundervoller Art zu kehren” (to turn to humankind in wondrous fashion) with a daring harmonic shift from a heavenly C-sharp major to the only-too-human key of C major. This level is maintained with consistency and purpose in the ensuing bass aria, accompanied by strings. “Johannis freudenvolles Springen” gives cause for a pointedly musical approach, an uncomplicated harmonic texture that prefers thirds and sixths, so that the thoroughly artistic interweaving of voices threatens to recede into the background. A brief soprano recitative that must soar “jauchzend” (exulting) to a high B leads to the four-part closing chorale, in which the ancient melody, with its Bachian harmonization, sheds something of its modal character.

Footnotes

  1. “Der Hymnus ‘A solis ordine’ / durch Martin Luther verdeutscht. — Der Deutsch text singt sich auch wol unter die lateinischen Noten.”—Trans.
  2. Sources for this cantata have the phrase “So lass ich” instead of “So lasset.” Further, a text booklet from 1728 corroborates the first reading. Accordingly, the last two lines would read in translation: “So I, together with the choirs of angels, will make heard / A jubilant song of praise and thanks” ("Christum wir sollen loben schon” BWV 121 on BachCantataTexts).—Trans.

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