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Ehre sei dir Gott gesungen BWV 248 V / BC D 7 V
Christmas Oratorio V, January 2, 1735
The fifth cantata of the Christmas Oratorio, Ehre sei dir Gott gesungen BWV 248 V (Let honor be sung to you, God), is for the Sunday after New Year’s Day, an occasion that does not occur every year. It was first performed on January 2, 1735, in Leipzig’s St. Nicholas Church. It unexpectedly leaves aside the Gospel reading for the day, the account of the flight to Egypt in Matthew 2, and takes up the Gospel for the Feast of Epiphany, the account of the wise men of the Orient, also from Matthew 2:When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the land of Judea during the time of King Herod, behold, there came the wise men from the East toward Jerusalem and spoke: Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard that, he was shocked, and all Jerusalem with him. And, gathering all the high priests and scribes in the population, he asked them where Christ should be born. And they said to him: In Bethlehem in the Land of Judea, for it is written by the prophets: And you, Bethlehem, are not the least among the princes of Judea, for out of you will come to me the leader who will rule my people Israel. (1–6)
The Gospel text integrated in the fifth cantata ends with this prediction; the second half is presented in the sixth cantata.
The unidentified librettist places a text of praise and thanks at the beginning of our cantata, in which singing is expressly mentioned and, hence, evokes the idea of “music within music”:
Ehre sei dir Gott gesungen,
Dir sei Lob und Dank bereit’.
Dich erhebet alle Welt,
Weil dir unser Wohl gefällt,
Weil anheut
Unser aller Wunsch gelungen,
Weil uns dein Segen so herrlich erfreut.
Let honor be sung to you, God,
To you may praise and thanks be prepared.
You are exalted by all the world
Because our well-being pleases you,
Because this day
Our every wish has come true,
Because your blessing so gloriously gladdens us.
Although these verses serve their purpose quite well, they cannot disguise their rather generic nature. More recent studies have shown that Bach intended to reuse a particular choral movement here and simply had a new text drawn up to put under it. The meter and rhyme structure of our opening movement correspond compellingly to the closing movement of the cantata Herkules auf dem Scheideweg BWV 213 (Hercules at the crossroads) of 1733, whose address to the Saxon electoral prince reads:
Lust der Völker, Lust der Deinen,
Blühe, holder Friederich.
Deiner Tugend Würdigkeit
Stehet schon der Glanz bereit,
Und die Zeit
Ist begierig zu erscheinen:
Eile, mein Friedrich, sie wartet auf dich!
Delight of the nations, delight of your own,
Flourish, gracious Frederick.
The brilliance of your virtue’s worth
Stands at the ready,
And the time
Is eager to appear:
Make haste, my Frederick, it waits for you!
This text, authored by Christian Friedrich Henrici, also betrays a rather labored handling of vocabulary and grammar; no wonder, for it too was meant to fit an earlier composition (BWV 184.1). This earliest version clearly was composed before 1723, during Bach’s years at Köthen and—if we are not completely mistaken—for Prince Leopold.
An initial section of the Gospel reading follows the opening movement in the cantata libretto, first as secco recitative by the evangelist and then in the form of two brief choral sections with interpolated phrases of free recitative. The wise men’s question, “Wo ist der neugeborne König der Jüden?” (Where is the newborn king of the Jews?), is answered with the metaphor of the heart as dwelling of Jesus Christ:
Sucht ihn in meiner Brust,
Hier wohnt er, mir und ihm zur Lust.
Seek him within my breast.
Here he dwells, to my delight and his.
A further phrase from Matthew, “Wir haben seinen Stern gesehen im Morgenlande und sind gekommen, ihn anzubeten” (We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him), is commented upon by a paraphrase of the Gospel reading for the Purification of Mary (and also the Sunday after Christmas) from Luke 2, regarding the depiction of the infant Jesus in the Temple. The librettist relates the ancient Simeon’s concluding words, “denn meine Augen haben deinen Heiland gesehen, welchen du bereitet hast vor allen Völkern, ein Licht zu erleuchten die Heiden und zum Preis deines Volkes Israel” (30–31; for my eyes have seen the savior, which you have prepared for all peoples, a light for the revelation of the heathen and for the glory of your people, Israel), to the star of Bethlehem:
Wohl euch, die ihr dies Licht gesehen,
Es ist zu eurem Heil geschehen.
Mein Heiland, du, du bist das Licht,
Das auch den Heiden scheinen sollen
Und sie, sie kennen dich noch nicht,
Als sie dich schon verehren wollen.
Wie hell, wie klar muß nicht dein Schein,
Geliebter Jesu, sein!
Blessed are you who have seen this light,
It has happened for your salvation.
My savior, you, you are the light,
That shall shine upon the Gentiles as well
And they, who do not yet know you,
Though they already wish to worship you.
How bright, how clear must indeed your gleam,
Beloved Jesus, be!
This is followed by the fifth strophe from Georg Wessel’s chorale Nun, liebe Seel, nun ist es Zeit (Now, dear soul, now it is time), whose text begins: “Dein Glanz all Finsternis verzehrt, / Die trübe Nacht in Licht verkehrt” (Your brilliance consumes all darkness, / Turns the gloomy night to light).
The recitative’s train of thought is continued here by an aria:
Erleucht auch meine finstre Sinnen,
Erleuchte auch mein Herze
Durch der Strahlen klaren Schein!
Dein Wort soll mir die hellste Kerze
In allen meinen Werken sein;
Dies lässet die Seele nichts Böses beginnen.
Illuminate also my darkened thoughts,
Illuminate also my heart
Through the beams of your clear radiance!
For me, your word shall be the brightest candle
In all of my works;
This allows the soul to embark on nothing evil.
As in our cantata’s opening movement, this is a retexting of music already on hand. The original version is found in a congratulatory cantata performed in 1734 for the Saxon elector-prince and king of Poland,1 praising his magnanimity with these words:
Durch die von Eifer entflammeten Waffen
Feinde bestrafen,
Bringt zwar manchem Ehr und Ruhm;
Aber die Bosheit mit Wohltat vergelten,
Ist nur der Helden, ist Augustens Eigentum.
With weapons aflame with passion
To punish enemies,
Indeed, brings much honor and fame;
But to repay evil with generosity
Is only the hero’s, is August’s character.
The biblical account of King Herod’s terror is commented upon, once again, by a recitative:
Warum wollt ihr erschrecken?
Kann meines Jesu Gegenwart euch solche Furcht erwecken?
O! solltet ihr euch nicht
Vielmehr darüber freuen,
Weil er dadurch verspricht,
Der Menschen Wohlfahrt zu verneuen.
Why would you be frightened?
Can the presence of my Jesus awaken such fear in you?
O! Should you not
Instead rejoice
That he thereby promises
To renew humanity’s well-being.
An aria (actually the terzetto) marked by impatient expectation refers to the end of the reading, with its quote from Micah 5:
Ach wenn wird die Zeit erscheinen?
Ach wenn kömmt der Trost der Seinen?
Schweigt, er ist schon wirklich hier!
Jesu, ach so komm zu mir!
Ah, when will the time appear?
Ah, when will his people’s comfort arrive?
Quiet; he is truly already here!
Jesus, ah, then, come to me!
The metaphor of the human heart as Christ’s dwelling appears again in the final recitative, not least in order to introduce the concluding chorale strophe, taken from Johann Franck’s hymn Ihr Gestirn, ihr hohen Lüfte (You stars, you high skies), whose text begins “Zwar ist solche Herzensstube / Wohl kein schöner Fürstensaal” (Indeed, such a chamber of the heart / Is surely no fine princely hall).
Like all the cantatas of the Christmas Oratorio, Bach’s composition is an amalgam of newly composed movements and others taken over in revised form from earlier compositions. Newly composed for the oratorio are the simple evangelist’s recitatives and more elaborate accompanied recitatives as well as both chorales. The two choral episodes on “Wo ist der neugeborne König der Juden?” and “Wir haben seinen Stern gesehen” have long been thought to have a connection to Bach’s mostly lost St. Mark Passion of 1731 (BWV 247.1), but recent research has called this long-undisputed assumption into question. The origins of the aria “Erleucht auch meine finstre Sinnen” are precisely known: it comes from the congratulatory cantata of 1734 (BWV 215) mentioned above, where it is set for soprano, flute, and what is known as bassetto bass. The elimination of the conventional basso continuo is to be understood symbolically; its timbral world, stood on its head, evokes something unusual, not rationally understandable. In the case of the congratulatory cantata, it is the generous treatment of the enemy. At first, certainly in consultation with Bach, the librettist of the Christmas Oratorio had written the text “Schließe, mein Herze, dies selige Wunder” (Embrace, my heart, the blessed miracle). After the composer decided on a new composition for these verses, the librettist wrote “Erleucht auch meine finstre Sinnen” (Illuminate also my darkened thoughts). Bach combined this version with the existing music, eliminating the symbolically meant bassetto effect as he did so. In place of the soprano, flute, and high-register bass, the new version has bass, oboe d’amore, and a normal basso continuo.
Nothing is known about any possible prehistory of the powerfully expressive trio for soprano, alto, tenor, and solo violin; it seems fully intended for its present text.2 The same is true of the broadly conceived opening chorus, here and there intensified with fugue; despite its relaxed manner and outgoing musical manner, it cannot always hide a certain introverted quality.
Footnotes
- Preise dein Glücke gesegnetes Sachsen BWV 215 (Praise your fortunes, blessed Saxony).—Trans.↵
- Markus Rathey notes that Bach’s score, “remarkably devoid of corrections and revisions,” is clearly a copy, strongly suggesting that it is indeed a parody. “It is the only one of its specific type in the oratorio, it is also the only parodied movement for which we do not have a parody model” (Rathey 2016a, 337–38).—Trans.↵