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Das neugeborne Kindlein BWV 122 / BC A 19
Sunday after Christmas
This cantata, Das neugeborne Kindelein BWV 122 (The newborn little child), is a member of Bach’s chorale cantata cycle and was first heard in Leipzig on December 31, 1724. Underlying it is the four-strophe hymn of the same name by Cyriakus Schneegass. Published in 1697, it is one of the main hymns for New Year’s Day. Despite the hymn’s customary designation, Bach’s cantata is for the Sunday after Christmas. Although many chorale collections made it possible for hymns assigned to Christmas to be used for the Sunday after Christmas because it does not appear in the church calendar every year, Bach did not make use of this option.An unknown librettist is responsible for arranging the chorale text to fit the cantata structure. As is usual for Bach’s chorale cantatas, he left the first and last strophes untouched. Accordingly, the cantata text begins with the first strophe of the Schneegass chorale:
Das neugeborne Kindelein,
Das herzeliebe Jesulein
Bringt abermal ein neues Jahr
Der auserwählten Christenschar.
The newborn little child,
The darling little Jesus
Brings once again a new year
To the chosen Christian host.
Similarly, the concluding strophe remains unchanged:
Es bringt das rechte Jubeljahr,
Was trauern wir den immerdar?
Frisch auf! Itzt ist es Singenszeit,
Das Jesulein wend’t alles Leid.
The true year of jubilation arrives!
Why are we mournful anymore?
Cheer up! Now it is time for singing,
The little Jesus reverses all suffering.
Moreover, the original language in the next to last strophe is also incorporated in the cantata text:
Ist Gott versöhnt und unser Freund,
Was kann uns tun der arge Feind?
Trotz Teufel und der Höllen Pfort,
Das Jesulein ist unser Hort.
If God is reconciled and our friend,
What can the wicked foe do to us?
Despite the devil and the gates of hell,
The little Jesus child is our refuge.
The poet working for Bach doubled the size of this strophe by interpolation:
Ist Gott versöhnt und unser Freund,
O wohl uns, die wir an ihn glauben,
Was kann uns tun der arge Feind?
Sein Grimm kann unsern Trost nicht rauben;
Trotz Teufel und der Höllen Pfort,
Ihr Wüten wird sie wenig nützen,
Das Jesulein ist unser Hort.
Gott ist mit uns und wird uns schützen.
If God is reconciled and our friend,
O blessed are we who believe in him!
What can the wicked foe do to us?
His wrath cannot rob us of our solace;
Despite the devil and the gates of hell,
Their fury will be of little use to them,
The little Jesus child is our refuge.
God is with us and will protect us.
Only the second chorale strophe remained for the librettist to take up and freely reshape:
Des freuen sich die Engelein,
Die gerne um und bei uns sein,
Sie singen in den Lüften frei,
Daß Gott mit uns versöhnet sei.
In this rejoice the angels
Who are gladly around and with us,
They sing freely in the air
That God may be reconciled with us.
The arranger of the cantata text clearly thought it inappropriate to leave the Arcadian world of these child-like rhymes in its original condition. At least, an admonishing finger needed to be raised against humankind’s sinful fall. This informed the first aria:
O Menschen, die ihr täglich sündigt,
Ihr sollt der Engel Freude sein.
Ihr jubelierendes Geschrei,
Daß Gott mit euch versöhnet sei,
Hat euch den süßen Trost verkündigt.
O people, those who daily sin,
You shall be the angels’ delight.
Their exultant cries
That God may be reconciled with you
Have proclaimed sweet solace to you.
The ensuing recitative repeats this train of thought with different words, referring to the new covenant forged by Christ:
Die Engel, welche sich zuvor
Vor euch als vor Verfluchten scheuen,
Erfüllen nun die Luft im höhern Chor,
Um über euer Heil sich zu erfreuen.
Gott, so euch aus dem Paradies
Aus englischer Gemeinschaft stieß,
Läßt euch nun wiederum auf Erden
Durch seine Gegenwart vollkommen selig werden:
So danket ihm mit vollem Munde
Für die gewünschte Zeit im neuen Bunde.
The angels, who formerly
Shrank from you as from the damned,
Now fill the air in the higher choir
To rejoice over your salvation.
God, who cast you out of paradise,
Out of the communion of angels,
Now lets you once again on earth.
Become fully blessed through his presence:
Thus thank him with full voice
For the longed-for time in New Covenant.
The second recitative distances itself still further from the underlying chorale text. After the chorale strophe with interpolations, it continues what has gone before and attempts to express the rejoicing and thanks for “the longed-for time in New Covenant.” Proceeding from a verse from Psalm 118, it reads:
Dies ist ein Tag, den selbst der Herr gemacht,
Der seinen Sohn in diese Welt gebracht.
O selge Zeit, die nun erfüllt!
O gläubigs Warten, das nunmehr gestillt!
O Glaube, der sein Ende sieht!
O Liebe, die Gott zu sich zieht!
O Freudigkeit, so durch die Trübsal dringt
Und Gott der Lippen Opfer bringt!
This is a day that the Lord himself has made,
When he brought his son into this world.
O blessed time now fulfilled!
O faithful waiting now satisfied!
O faith that sees its goal!
O love that God draws to himself!
O joyousness that presses through tribulation
And to God the offering of our lips brings!
As expected, Bach’s composition begins with an expansively conceived arrangement on the chorale melody by Melchior Vulpius, first documented in 1609. In spite of the brevity of the chorale strophe, the vocal part claims a considerable portion of the entire movement. The reason for this is the intensively imitative, motet-like treatment of the three lower voices. The contribution of the instruments in the opening movement remains motivically independent and hence without relation to the chorale melody; it is shaded dynamically with remarkable diversity. The barrenness of the plain continuo accompaniment, the intensified chromaticism, and the stubborn return of a formative motive lend the first aria a weighty seriousness. The angels’ music in the “höhern Chor” transforms the ensuing recitative into a chorale harmonization performed by recorders and basso continuo. In the second aria, the chorale strophe, entwined with free poetry, is set as a chorale terzetto with simultaneous performance of two different texts: chorale melody and text are given to the alto, supported by the upper strings; soprano and tenor, set in counterpoint with common thematic material, take on the free verse interpolations; while the basso continuo provides a dance-like, animated, rhythmically profiled foundation that is nonetheless neutral on the whole. The second recitative, now accompanied by the strings, is followed as usual by the closing chorale in a simple setting.