This tag was created by James A. Brokaw II. The last update was by Elizabeth Budd.
Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen BWV 248 III / BC D 7 III
Christmas Oratorio III, December 27, 1734
The third cantata of the Christmas Oratorio, Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen BWV 248 III (Lord of heaven, hear the blather), shares with its five sibling works the entire cantata cycle’s genesis, performance history, and other details. This cantata was first performed on December 27, 1734, the third day of Christmas, in St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. There was no second performance for the congregation at St. Thomas. Although the Gospel reading of the day calls for passages from the beginning and end of the book of John, our cantata instead presents the Gospel reading for the second day of Christmas, from Luke 2:And as the angels went from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another: Let us now go to Bethlehem and see the story, what has happened there, which the Lord announced to us. And they came quickly and found both Mary and Joseph, as well as the child lying in the manger. As they, however, had seen it, they spread the word that they had been told of this child. And everyone who heard it wondered at the things the shepherds had said to them. But Mary remembered all these words and contemplated them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, praising and blessing God for all that they had seen and heard, just as it had been told to them. (15–20)
This account is presented in three sections of varying lengths; each section is answered by a chorale strophe. Each of the first two chorale strophes is joined by a recitative-aria pair that serves to connect to and comment upon the chorale. The words of the shepherds regarding the “story . . . that the Lord has announced to us” are answered by a strophe from Luther’s hymn Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (Praise be to you, Jesus Christ):
Dies hat er alles uns getan,
Sein groß Lieb zu zeigen an;
Des freu sich alle Christenheit
Und dank ihm des in Ewigkeit.
Kyrieleis.
All this he has done for us,
To show his great love,
For this let all Christendom rejoice
And thank him in eternity.
Lord have mercy.
This strophe is framed by a recitative and aria; in its skillful choice of words, the recitative bridges the Gospel passage and the chorale strophe, just as it anticipates the aria text at the same time:
Er hat sein Volk getröst,
Er hat sein Israel erlöst,
Die Hülf aus Zion hergesendet
Und unser Leid geendet.
Seht, Hirten, dies hat er getan;
Geht, dieses trefft ihr an!
He has comforted his people,
He has redeemed his Israel,
Sent salvation here out of Zion,
And ended our suffering.
See, shepherds, this he has done;
Go, this is what you will find!
The associated aria follows the chorale strophe. The aria text’s beginning, “Herr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen / Tröstet uns und macht uns frei” (Lord, your compassion, your mercy / Comforts us and makes us free), is anticipated by the preceding recitative with its keywords “Trost” (comfort) and “Erlösung” (redemption).
The second movement complex is based on the Gospel passage “But Mary remembered all these words and contemplated them in her heart” (Maria aber behielt alle diese Worte und bewegte sie in ihrem Herzen). This is the origin of the strophe chosen from Paul Gerhardt’s hymn Fröhlich soll mein Herze springen (Joyfully my heart shall leap):
Ich will dich mit Fleiß bewahren,
Ich will dir
Leben hier,
Dir will ich abfahren,
Mit dir will ich endlich schweben
Voller Freud
Ohne Zeit
Dort im andern Leben.
I will diligently preserve you,
I will for you
Live here,
To you I will depart,
With you I will finally hover
Full of joy
Beyond time
There in the other life.
This time, the freely versified movements precede the chorale strophe in the order aria–recitative. Even so, the recitative takes on a dual bridge function here as well:
Ja, ja, mein Herz soll es bewahren,
Was es an dieser holden Zeit
Zu seiner Seligkeit
Für sicheren Beweis erfahren.
Yes, yes, my heart shall keep it,
What it has, at this lovely time,
For its salvation,
Experienced as certain proof.
The associated aria may originally have been meant to follow this recitative:
Schließe, mein Herze, die selige Wunder
Fest in deinen Glauben ein!
Lasse dies Wunder, die göttliche Werke,
Immer zur Stärke
Deines schwachen Glaubens sein!
Enclose, my heart, the blessed miracle
Firmly within your faith!
Let this miracle, the works of God,
Be ever a source of strength
For your weak faith!
As positioned, the two movements move closer to their related passages in the Gospel reading or the chorale strophe, respectively. In any case, the recitative undergoes a fundamental transformation: instead of introducing the aria, it becomes a subsequent commentary.
The situation is simpler at the cantata’s close: the Gospel passage is followed only by a chorale strophe taken from Christopher Runge’s hymn Laßt Furcht und Pein (Let fear and pain):
Seid froh dieweil,
Daß euer Heil
Ist hie ein Gott und auch ein Mensch geboren,
Der, welcher ist
Der Herr und Christ
In Davids Stadt, von vielen auserkoren.
Be glad, meanwhile,
That your salvation
Has here been born as God and also as human,
He who is
The Lord and Christ
In David’s city, chosen out of many.
A freely versified chorus serves as a framework that opens and closes the cantata:
Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen,
Laß dir die matten Gesänge gefallen,
Wenn dich dein Zion mit Psalmen erhöht!
Lord of heaven, hear the blather,
Let our faint songs please you
When your Zion exalts you with psalms!
Musically, the facts of the case resemble those of the first two cantatas in the Christmas Oratorio. The evangelist’s narrative, recitatives, and chorale strophes are all newly composed, while the closed forms (arias and choruses) come from earlier works. Thus the cantata opens and closes with a chorus that goes back to the last ensemble of a 1733 congratulatory work for the birthday of the Saxon electress, (Tönet, ihr Pauken BWV 214 [Resound, you drums]), in which the four mythological figures Irene, Bellona, Pallas, and Fama enter one after another to present their congratulations together. With “Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen” the librettist invented an adept new version whose wording, however, seems intended for an opening movement. This created something of a dilemma for our cantata in that although the text is appropriate to the opening, the music has the character of a finale. When repeated at the close, the music is in its proper role, while the text seems a bit out of place. It can be assumed that the movement’s repetition was Bach’s decision, primarily on musical grounds, to round off the first three cantatas tonally.
The counterpart of the extensive duet “Herr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen” (Lord, your compassion, your mercy) is found in the Hercules Cantata, (Laßt uns sorgen BWV 213 [Let us care for]), also from 1733. There it is in F major, for alto (Hercules) and tenor (Virtue), and accompanied by two obbligato violins, while in the Christmas Oratorio it appears in A major, scored for soprano, bass, and two obbligato oboi d’amore. The overall character of the movement and the extensive passages in parallel thirds and sixths in particular clearly point to the love duet in the secular version. Even so, there appears to have been yet another version, now lost and earlier than the 1733 piece. It appears that the music for the aria “Schließe, mein Herze, dies selige Wunder” (Enclose, my heart, this blessed miracle) was also taken from a secular cantata. For this, Bach had in mind the aria “Durch die von Eifer entflammeten Waffen” (Using weapons flaming with fury) from the congratulatory cantata Preise dein Glücke gesegnetes Sachsen BWV 215 (Praise your fortunes, blessed Saxony), performed in 1734. In this aria, the librettist had described something barely comprehensible and difficult to understand; as a musical equivalent, Bach provided a composition without basso continuo, thereby standing the conventional aural image on its head, so to speak. With his consideration of the “selige Wunder,” the librettist for the Christmas Oratorio prepared an ideal second text for this idiosyncratic aria. Yet the cantor of St. Thomas decided against his original plan and in favor of a new composition, the now familiar work for alto with obbligato solo violin.