Christological Cycle: Part 1, Oratorios, Cantatas
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Christological Cycle: Part 1, Oratorios, Cantatas

William L. Hoffman wrote (November 7, 2018):
Bach's calling of a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God," focusing on Jesus Christ and leading to a unique Christological Cycle of major works in the 1730s, has never been defined although his accomplishments as a musician and composer are legion and the starting point to consider what a well-regulated church music embodies. From his middle teen years c1700 to his final year in 1750, Bach built a legacy of church music, both vocal and instrumental, that was without parallel in its breadth and depth. Several facets and conditions underlay Bach's sacred music, providing both great order and shape. Contextually, virtually all of this music was written for sacred services, whether the early main service, primarily on Sundays and holidays with the Services of the Word and Communion when he created special musical sermons, and the Sunday and feast day afternoon vespers Service of the Word, as well as special occasional services of thanksgiving, joy (such as weddings) and sorrow (such as funerals and memorials), in addition to devotions in the home, at civic events, and at the graveside.

These services and the music presented were based upon four elements which Bach thoroughly addressed: the appointed readings (lectionary) for the service from the Bible; the liturgy of specific proper prayers prescribed for the day's service, the theological underpinnings based upon both the readings and the liturgy as handed down by Lutheran writers; and the Lutheran chorale as the integral foundation of religious expression in vocal as well as instrumental music, most notably the organ chorale prelude, a genre that flourished in Germany. Bach exploited all these factors to a degree rarely matched by other composers. He took every possible opportunity to shape a well-regulated church music, including using the alternate readings for the festive 2nd and 3rd Day of Christmas which usually were the Shepherds at the manger (Luke 2:15-20, http://bach-cantatas.com/Read/Christmas2.htm) and John's Gospel Prologue (John 1: 1-14, http://bach-cantatas.com/Read/Christmas3.htm), respectively. Instead, he created a St. Stephen's Cantata BWV 40, "Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes" (For this reason the Son of God appeared, 1 John 3:8, http://bach-cantatas.com/BWV40-D4.htm) and the St. John's Day Cantata, BWV 64, “Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget” (See, what sort of love the Father has shown to us, 1 John 3:1), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV64-D4.htm.

Bach's legacy as described in his 1750 Obituary was the creation of distinctive forms of sacred music for the various services. The unpublished works (New Bach Reader, Obituary: 304) began with "Five full annual cycles [Jahrgang] of church pieces, for all the Sundays and Holidays." Bach preferred the general term of Kirchenstücken and rarely used the term "Kantate." The next, general category covered both sacred and secular vocal compositions: "Many oratorios, Masses, Magnificats, several Sanctus" (the latter three being Latin Church Music), and occasional music involving funerals and wedding cantatas [Brutmessen]. Interspersed were "secular cantatas" [dramata, that is drammi per musica], serenades, music for birthdays and name days "and also several comic vocal pieces." Next were five Passions, one of which for double chorus (Matthew, BWV 244), and double chorus motets. The manuscripts were found in Bach's library stored in shelves with partitions, and were followed by organ music (free preludes and fugues), six trio settings, BWV 525-530, many preludes on chorales, and a book [Orgelbüchlein] of short preludes on church hymns, BWV 599-694. The remainder were keyboard collections, violin and cello sonatas, harpsichord concertos, and a "mass of other instrumental pieces." The vocal works were divided between oldest sons Friedemann and Emanuel, the while other members of the family received other music.

Later, it was determined that Bach composed three annual church cycles of cantatas for all Sundays and feast days, which he shaped as musical sermons, often related to the specific, emblematic sermon of the day. Bach deployed his musical resources most extensively on feast days in the de tempore (Proper Time) life of Jesus Christ, creating cantatas and oratorios or special "Great Cantatas" with ceremonial brass and drums, while shaping intimate cantatas especially for particular thematic Sundays in the omnes tempore (Ordinary Time) second half of the church year. Bach introduced innovative musical and textual devices such as the bass soloist singing biblical texts as the Vox Dei or the Vox Christi in simple, singing arioso style; he created a partial cycle of unique chorale cantatas (48) with elaborate opening choruses and striking, intimate, two-voice duets of poetry and chorale tropes; and he borrowed from opera the concept of dialogue cantatas, most notably the bass as Jesus and the alto as the Soul or Believer. For special events in the church year, he created a dozen two-part cantatas, double cantatas before and after the sermon or double bills. Bach introduced other devices such as the use of instrumental groups for Arcadian pastoral effect in choirs of woodwinds, especially oboes and recorders, and set various choruses and arias to a great range of standard and progressive dance forms such as the polonaise and Scottish-Snap (Lombard Rhythm). Bach also exploited various musical genres, such as the Passion oratorio with elaborate, troped chorale choruses and arias as well as highly-dramatic narrative of elaborate crowd choruses and gospel characters.

Bach's compositional history as Leipzig cantor and music director (1723-50) began with most of the some 200 extant sacred, cyclic cantatas while he favored composing only two genres annually: town council installation cantatas and the annual Passions at Good Friday vespers. In 1725, while composing the Passion and Easter oratorios, he ceased composing chorale cantatas in the second cycle with virtually none for the Easter Season of 13 services and turned instead to a third cycle with nine cantatas set to texts of poet Marianne von Ziegler, emphasizing the Easter Johannine Theology of Jesus' Farewell Discourse to his disciples. Meanwhile, Bach returned to keyboard and other instrumental music while composing birthdays and name day cantatas. In the 1730s, Bach began to compile liturgical plain chorale settings, BWV 253-438, and compose the Missa:Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 232a, serenades and drammi per musica for the Dresden Court and local notables. In the mid-1730s, he composed oratorios (Great Cantatas) for Christmas, Ascension, and possibly Pentecost as well as Schemelli sacred songs, BWV 438-507. Meanwhile, as part of a "well-regulated church music," Bach also focused on Latin Church Music with four more Missae: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-236, compiled two major organ chorale-prelude collections, the Mass and Catechism, BWV 669-689), and the "Great 18," BWV 651-668. In the 1740s, Bach completed his "Great Catholic Mass," while diversifying the annual Passion presentations with two "pasticcios," after Graun, and Keiser-Handel, and possibly two "Brockes Passions" is Handel and Telemann, as a compendium of the German Passion tradition begun in 1700 in Hamburg.

The German Historiae tradition dates to the mid-16 century. "There are also numerous Historiae by Schütz and other composers for the feasts of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, St John Baptist and other religious festivities," says Prof. Dr. Wolfram Steude.¹ The best known and most enduring tradition centered on Christmas (Weinachts), Easter, and the Passion and was observed in many German Lutheran communities into the 19th century (for details of this tradition, see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Easter-Cantatas.htm, "Easter Saxon Reformation Traditions." The Schütz (1585-1672) historiae came out of the Dresden Court tradition of Antonio Scandello (1517–1580) and were replaced by later musicians at the Dresden Chapel, most notably Nikolaus Adam Strungk (1640-1700), who presented his Die Auferstehung Jesu in 1688 and who was admired by both Bach and Handel (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Strungk-Nicolaus-Adam.htm).

Bach Chistological Cycle

The concept of a Bach “Christological cycle” was first articulated in Eric Chafe’s study, “J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.”² The core music cited involved the three extant oratorios on the birth, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, presented in the mid-1730s, and the St. Matthew Passion definitive version of 1736 as well as the St. John Passion, new score (c.1735-42). Chafe suggests that Bach in 1725 may have begun to create the Matthew Passion and the first version of the Easter Oratorio, as part of a grand scheme involving a “Christological cycle” of oratorios, realized in the mid-1730s. In that decade, Bach’s composed oratorios for Christmas, BWV 248 (1734-35); completed the Easter Oratorio, BWV 249 (c.1738); and composed the Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11 (1735) as well as the John and Matthew Passions. To this cycle could be added a possible Pentecost Oratorio, 1735; the partially-reconstructed, parodied St. Mark Passion (1731); and the Latin Magnificat BWV 243(a) and “Great Mass” in B-Minor, BWV 232, begun in 1733, as well as the four Kyrie-Gloria Missae, BWV 233 to BWV 236 (1735-38). Chorale collections also can be considered as part of a cycle related to the theme of the Christian Church as established by Martin Luther.

In addition to the "core" Chistological Passion and feast day oratorios, a Christological cycle embraces 35 cantatas for the incarnation Marian feast days and cantatas for Saints John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, and Michael and All-Angels. While part of the cantata cycles, they also did double duty in a Christological cycle, as well as 15 cantatas composed for special Johannine services. In addition certain cantatas composed for special observances also are appropriate for the Christological services of the Baptism of our Lord, the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and Palm Sunday. The appropriate Marian and saints cantatas, about a dozen, also have a number works of other composers which Bach often presented, notably works of cousin Johann Ludwig Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann (see below, "Events, Themes, Bach's Music").

The first significant study of Bach’s major vocal works, including their liturgical and dramatic underpinnings, is Marcus Rathey’s recent Bach’s Major Vocal Works: Music, Drama Liturgy.³ Rathey discusses each work within the chronology of Jesus Christ’s life as found in the order of the liturgical year and the order in which Bach composed them. The study begins with Jesus’ incarnate conception in the Latin and German Magnificat, the nativity and adoration in the omnibus Christmas Oratorio, the suffering and death in the John and Matthew Passions, the Ascension and Easter Oratorios, and finally the Mass in B-Minor, a “summary of the Christian faith” and “a culmination of Bach’s work” (Ibid.: Prelude: 5). In addition, Bach created through the chorales of Luther and other reformers the Deutsche Messe, the German vernacular setting of the Roman Mass Ordinary.

Christological Cycle Music

A full Christological cycle of “well-regulated (ordered) church music” could embrace all Bach’s sacred music, both vocal and instrumental, for performance at any service in his time in Leipzig. The core music could involve major works for the 15 feast day services, particularly the oratorio music for Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and possibly Pentecost, as well as the three Marian feasts and the saints days for John the Baptist and Michael. The vesper services provided the Good Friday Passion oratorios and the Latin setting of the Magnificat on these feast days which also included settings of the Latin Missae: Kyrie-Gloria and Sanctus. Virtually all of this music included German chorales or quotations from the Latin chants which Bach planned/assembled into orderly instrumental and vocal groupings or collections.

The Lutheran chorale played a central role in Bach's creativity. Its melody or canto, often based on ancient chant or popular folk song, established character and affect, as well as ample opportunity for text expression. The chorale or hymn associated text teaches, informs and uplifts. It enabled Bach, through imaginative and sound basso continuo, to produce appropriate four-part harmony for the most effective word-setting or painting, as well as to portray the larger tonal context or framework, based on the meaning of the text. Bach used the chorale with associated melody in plain, four-part settings as well as chorale fantasias and the canto in arias and recitatives. Instrumentally, Bach used the melody in organ chorale preludes, preludes and fugues, and variation settings.

Bach’s Christological cycle begins with the conception and incarnation found in the Magnificat anima mea (My soul doth magnify the Lord), BWV 243, Mother Mary’s canticle of praise to God and human destiny, as well as Martin Luther’s German vernacular counterpart, Cantata BWV 10 “Meine Seele erhebt den Herren.” It is followed by the beginning of Jesus’ descent in the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, through the major earthly events, ending with his crucifixion on Good Friday in the three oratorio Passions in Luther's Theology of the Cross focusing on the synoptic gospels Matthew and Mark with their sacrificial atonement and the St. John Passion and its sequel, Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday is the Johannine Christus Victor atonement model, found in the Easter Oratorio as the embodiment of Jesus Christ’s divine nature, as well as the watershed of Christology. His lifting up in the Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11, signifies the completion of the sacred Great Parabola, followed at Pentecost with the symbolic descent of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Christian church and the embodiment of Luther’s doctrine of justification. Ultimately is the entire summation and affirmation of Bach’s and the Christian’s faith, found in the “Great” Mass in B Minor, BWV 233.

These works also involved oratorio Passion settings of John, BWV 245 (1724); Matthew, BWV 244 (1727); and Mark, BWV 247 (`1731); feast day oratorios for Easter, BWV 249 (1725), Christmas, BWV 248 (1734-35), and Ascension, BWV 11 (1735), as well as Mass Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-36 (late 1730s), and at least two Good Friday Passion pasticcios of Kesier-Handel and Carl Heinrich Graun etc. in the late 1740s, to which he contributed chorale and other brief settings, and the final "Great Catholic Mass" in B-Minor, BWV 232.

Other works that can be considered part of this Christological cycle are the church-year cantatas for the Marian Feasts based on canticles found in the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke involving Jesus' incarnation: Visitation, July 6 with Mary's Magnificat (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Visitation.htm); the feast of angel Gabriel's Annunciation, March 25 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Annunciation.htm); and Purification (presentation), February 2, Simeon's Nunc dimittis ("Now, Lord, let thy servant depart," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Purification.htm), as well as the Feast (Nativity) of John the Baptist, June 24, with his father, Zachariah's, blessing and prophecy (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Purification.htm).

The final stage in a Christological cycle is the coming of Jesus Christ in judgement at the end of mankind's time, found in the Epistle text, Revelation 12:7-12, the symbolic angels defeat of evil, for the Feast of Michael and All-Ange, celebrated in Bach's time (and today) on September 29, when following the festive service, the gala Leipzig Fall Fair began the next Sunday on the Market Place.

The Reformation's leading theologian, Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Melanchthon), in 1539 set 11 hymn verses in Latin as a paraphrase of the original Latin text of the Epistle, >Dicimus grates tibi> (http://matthaeusglyptes.blogspot.com/2011/09/dicimus-grates-tibi.html, Lord God, to thee we all give praise), using the associated chant melody, followed by his own 11-verse German vernacular paraphrase, "Laßt uns von Hertzen" (Let us from hearts), to an old German melody. Ironically, Melanchthon, who had abhorred the Roman Catholic practice of the veneration of saints and relics, eventually advocated and instituted liturgical observances of the Marian Feasts and saints John the Baptist and the Archangel Michael. Subsequently, in 1554, Paul Eber composed a 12-verse setting of Melanchthon's Latin hymn, "Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir" (Lord God, we all Thank you).

The final stage in a Christological cycle is the coming of Jesus Christ in judgement at the end of mankind's time, found in the Epistle text, Revelation 12:7-12, the symbolic angels defeat of evil, for the Feast of Michael and All-Angels, celebrated in Bach's time (and today) on September 29, when following the festive service, the gala Leipzig Fall Fair began on the Market Place. Of Bach's four cantatas for this feast day, the most symbolic was the final Cantata BWV 149, "Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg" (Songs are sung with joy of victory, Psalm 118:15-16), probably composed in 1728 or 1729 in collaboration with poet Picander. With trumpets and drums, the opening chorus in 9/8 dance style is a parody setting of Psalm 118:15, and the closing chorale is Martin Schalling’s 1569 "Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr" (From my heart I hold you dear, o Lord), using Stanza 3: Ach, Herr, laß dein' lieb' Engelein” (Ah Lord, let your dear angels). Cantata 149 involves Jesus Christ as the sacrificial Blood of the Lamb and the substitute for Michael as the ultimate force that defeats evil in the second half of the Revelation allegorical/eschatological drama,⁴ beginning with Chapter 12. This same Christological satisfaction theory of atonement is the thematic core of John Milton's epic-heroic poem, Paradise Lost of 1667.

Bach's three previous festival presentations had utilized the essential elements of the day’s Epistle text, Revelation 12:7-12: the angels’ defeat of evil in Cantata 50, "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft” (Now is salvation and strength, Revelation 12:11); the 1725 chorale Cantata 130 setting of the Hymn of the Day, "Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir" (Lord God, we all Thank you), the popular Paul Eber hymn praise to God; and 1726 Cantata 19, "Es erhub sich ein Streit" (There was a war, Revelation 12:7), based on Picander's 1724/25 Sammlung Erbaulicher Gedanken, poetic expression of the heavenly canticle of praise. A Christological Cycle could include cantatas from the annual church cycles for the Marian and saints feasts, and in the life of Jesus Christ beginning with the Incarnation.

Events, Themes, Bach's Music

The beginning of the Gospel of Luke is grounded in six events involving the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, found in no other Gospel. These are a series of announcements and canticles of praise in the first two chapters. The events are:

1. Angel Gabriel's Announcement of the conception of John the Baptist (September 24) to his father, the priest Zechariah (1:11-21, https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Luke-Chapter-1/).
2. Gabriel's announcement six months later (March 25) to Mary of the conception of Jesus (1:26-38, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201:26-38&version=KJV.
3, Mary's immediate Visitation to her ?aunt Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah, Canticle (1:39-56) and Magnificat canticle of praise (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1:39-56).
4. Zechariah's blessing canticle and Prophecy at the birth of John the Baptist (June 24, 1:67-79, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A67-79&version=KJV);
5. The Angel's Announcement to the Shepherds of the Birth of Jesus (Christmas, December 25, 2:8-14, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A8-14&version=KJV); and
6. Jesus' Presentation (announcement, February 2, 40 days after Christmas) in the Temple with Simeon's Canticle, 2:22-32, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22%2D32&version=KJV.

Since the Reformation, the three special Marian Festivals honoring the Virgin Mary, Jesus' mother, were celebrated as festivals of Jesus Christ and were observed with festive main service music during Bach's Leipzig tenure. In particular, the Lucan Gospel readings are part of the Vespers evening and Compline night prayer services of the Canonical Hours or Offices. The Feast of the Purification of Mary (February 2) became the Feast of the Presentation of the baby Jesus in the Temple (Darstellung [status of] Jesu) concluding with Simeon's canticle (Luke 2:29-32): "Now, Lord, let thy servant depart" (Nunc dimittis). The Feast of Gabriel's Annunciation to Mary (March 25) became the Feast of the Conception of Jesus (Luke 1:31) (born nine months later on December 25), "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS." The Feast of Mary's Visitation (July 2) to her sister, Elizabeth, became the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56), the Canticle of Praise, "My soul doth magnify the Lord."

While the concept of the Immaculate Conception and the Veneration of the Virgin Mary remain conflicting issues among Christians, the basic principle is established and affirmed in the two Christian Creeds generally affirmed by Catholics and mainstream Protestants.

+The Apostles Creed says, "I believe . . . in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary"; and . . . .”
+The Nicene Creed says: "I believe . . . in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,/ Begotten of his Father before all worlds,/ God of God, Light of Light, / Very God of very God,/ Begotten, not made, / Being of one substance with the Father, / By whom all things were made; / Who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, / And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, / And was made man . . ."

In Latin, the last part of the Nicene Creed text above reads: "Et incarnatus est de Spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine. Et homo factus est" (And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man). In Bach's setting of the Nicene Creed in the B-Minor Mass, this passage is a five-part chorus in old motet style with the source contrafaction being Hasse's has not been found. Bach harmonized Luther's original, vernacular setting of the Creed, "Wir glauben all an einem Gott (We all believe in One God) the second stanza (Jesus Christ), plain chorale BWV 437, with 32 measures in D Major in his complex style of the 1730s with full voicing, elaborate rhythm and chromaticism. The relevant text is: "Von Maria, der Jungfrauen, ist ein warer Mensch geboren durch den heiligen Geist" (Of Mary, the virgin, he is true man born through the Holy Spirit).

The following are the music Bach composed or presented for the various feast days.

Feast of Angel Gabriel's Annunciation (Mariä Verkündigung), March 25, Luke 1: 26-38 Gabriel salutes Mary ((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciation, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/Annunciation.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Annunciation.htm);
*Chorale Cantata BWV 1, "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" (How beautifully shines the morning star 1725)
*BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen (Heavenly King, be welcomed, 1724 double bill)
*BWV 1135=Anh 199, Siehe, eine Jungfrau ist schwanger (See, a virgin is pregnant, 1724 double bill, text only, music lost, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001510?lang=en, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh199-D.htm)
*BWV Anh 156 Herr Christ der ein'ge Gottessohn (Lord Christ, God's only son) by Georg Philipp Telemann, *TWV 1:732, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001467?lang=en
*Johann Friedrich Fasch, "Gottes und Marien Kind" (God's and Mary's Child), Fwv D:G 3 (1732).
Chorale: Elizabeth Kreutzige 1524 "Herr Christ der ein'ge Gottessohn" (Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God); text http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale114-Eng3.htm; Bach settings: chorale Cantata 96 (Trinity 18), BWV 22/5, 132/6, 164/6.

Feast of the Visitation (Mariä Heimsuchung), July 6, Luke 1: 39-56 Mary’s Magnificat (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/Visitation.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/Maria-Heimsuchung.htm,
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Visitation.htm)
*BWV 147, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" (, Heart and mouth and deed and life, Leipzig, 1723)
*BWV 243, Magnificat in D major (1723)
*Chorale Cantata BWV 10, "Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn" (My soul praises the Lord, Leipzig, 1724)
*Johann Ludwig Bach: Cantata "Der Herr wird ein Neues im Lande erschaffen" (The Lord will create a new thing in the land, JLB-13 (1726)
*?Johann Mattheson, Cantata Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn (My Soul Praises the Lord, 1725
*? Georg Melchior Hoffmann, BWV Anh. 21 (Meine Seel erhebt den Herren (My soul praises the Lord), no date http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWVAnh21-Gen.htm.
*? Georg Melchior Hoffmann, BWV 189 Meine Seele ruhmt und preist ((My soul magnifies and praises),
1725-35), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV189-D2.htm, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000229?lang=en.
*Pietro Torri, BWV Anh. 30, Magnificat in C (no date, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001338?lang=en).
Chorale: Martin Luther 1523 "Nun freut euch lieben Christen gemein" (Now rejoice, dear Christians all; Catechism Justification), text http://bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale388-Eng3.htm; Bach's use BWV 388 (http://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV0388.htm, https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-GenieoYaho-fh_hp&hsimp=yhs-fh_hp&hspart=GenieoYaho&p=BWV+388+YouTube#id=1&vid=abc8df3b8d0ced33378066cb82d27969&action=click.

Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, June 24, with his father, Zachariah's, blessing and prophecy, Luke 1:57-80, "The birth of John the Baptist and the Prophecy of Zacharias" (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/John-Baptist.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-John.htm.
*Chorale Cantata BWV 7 Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam (1724)
*Chorus Cantata (2-part) BWV 30 Freue dich, erlöste Schaar (1735)
*Solo (SATB) Cantata BWV 167 Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe (1723)
*Telemann Cantata "Gelobet sei der Herr, der Gott Israel" (Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, TWV: 1:596, 1725)
*Johann Ludwig Bach Cantata "Siehe ich will meinen Engel senden" (See, I will send my angel), JLB 17, (1726)
*Cantata BWV 220 Lobt ihn mit Herz und Munden (anonymous , no date)
Related John the Baptist works from Advent
*Cantata BWV 132, "Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn!" (Prepare the ways, prepare the path!), for the 4th Sunday in Advent, 1 John 19:28 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV220-D.htm);
*Cantata 186a, "Ärg're dich o Seele, nicht" (Be not concerned, O soul), Matt. 11:2-10 (John in Prison), for the 3rd Sunday after Trinity (1717), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qluCadpg-8, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000226?lang=en, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV186-D4.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/Advent3.htm), and *Telemann Cantata BWV 141 (TWV 1:183 (1727), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18tpWsLq2Ig, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000173?lang=en, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV141-D.htm;
*Solo (SATB) Cantata BWV 70a "Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (Watch, pray. Pray, watch), Luke 21: 25-36, Watch and pray always http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Advent.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/Advent2.htm, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000089?lang=en, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfJEOKAIB64
also
*Chorale Cantata 129, "Gelobet sei der Herr, / Mein Gott, mein Licht, mein Leben" (Praised be the Lord, / my God, my light, my life), Trinity Sunday 1726; and
*Chorale Cantata 137, "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren" (Praise the Lord, the mighty king of honour), 1725 (Trinity 12, ?Town Council).
Chorale: Martin Luther 1524 Catechism Baptism hymn, "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam" (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale106-Eng3.htm), Bach BWV 280, http://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV0280.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdKcYvVrmTM

Purification (Presentation; Mariä Reinigung), February 2, Simeon's Nunc dimittis ("Now, Lord, let thy servant depart," (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/Purification.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/Maria-Reinigung.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Purification.htm).
*Solo (B/S) Cantata BWV 82, "Ich habe genug" (I have enough, 1727)
*Solo (ATB) Cantata 83, "Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde" (Joyful time in new stirring, 1724)
*Chorale Cantata BWV 125, "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin" (With peace and joy I journey therein, 1725)
*Solo (TB) Cantata BWV 157, "Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn!" (I leave Thee not, Thou bless me then, ?1728)
*Solo (B) Cantata BWV 158, "Der Friede sei mit dir" (Peace be with you, 1716)
*Solo (A) Cantata BWV 200, "Bekennen will ich seinen Namen" (I want to acknowledge his name, c1742), https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000250?lang=en
*Solo (AT) Cantata BWV 161 Komm, du süße Todesstunde (Come thou, sweetest death-hour), ?1725
*Johann Ludwig Bach "Cantata Mache dich auf, werde licht," (Change yourself, become light) JLB-9 (1726)
*Georg Philipp Telemann: Cantata BWV Anh 157 "Ich habe Lust zu scheiden" (I have delight in parting), TWV 1:833 (1724-35),
Chorale: Martin Luther 1524 Nunc dimittis setting "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin" (With peace and joy I journey therein), text http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale011-Eng3.htm., http://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV0382.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCex3f7ilQE.

Christmas Story

In between the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist and the Jesus' Presentation the Temple was the Christmas Story, the fulfillment of the incarnation of Jesus as man, beginning at Chapter 2 of Luke, https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Luke-Chapter-2/. In 1734, Bach set six consecutive cantatas in his Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, for the six festivals of the 12-day Christmas Season: Christmas Day, Nativity, Luke 2:1-14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpaNo4mWRBE; Christmas 2, Luke 2:15-20, Angels' Annunication to Shepherds, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2enayKFotmo; Christmas 3, Shepherds Adoration, Luke 2:15-20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTZCUsC8wvw;

January 1, Feast of Circumcision, Luke 2:21, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUkznP8e1Lg; Sunday after Christmas, Wise Men from the East, Matthew 2:1-8, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A1-8&version=KJV, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d4INwoYYYk; January 6, Epiphany Feast, Matthew 2:9-12 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A9-12&version=NIV, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DdJeG7rW1c.

Originally viewed as simply plagiarism (parody) with light-weight music, the Christmas Oratorio in recent decades has been accepted as an original masterpiece that perfects the sacred drama form of the oratorio, contrasting progressive, dance-style, gallant music with original polyphonic crowd choruses and contrapuntal detail, a blend of Reformation and devotional chorales, and the use of the love duets as both divine meditation and dialogue chorale tropes for soprano with bass commentary. Some of the ingredients date to the Abendmusik for Advent of Buxtehude that Bach encountered in Lübeck in 1705, particularly a large orchestra with poetic texts. Bach utilizes trumpets and drums in the first, third, and sixth parts of the Christmas Story; introduces pastorale flutes and oboes for the Shepherd's Cantata in Part 2, turns to hunting horns for the Feast of Circumcision, and employs oboes and strings to described the Magi's journey from the east in Part 5. Theologically, Bach introduces "The Passion Chorale," "O sacred head now wounded" is the Part 1, to contrast birth with ultimate death, then closes the final part with a triumphal chorale chorus setting. In Part 4, the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus, the soprano-bass dialogues divine love meditations use the Passiontide chorale, “Jesu, mein liebstes Leben,” “specifically to associate the first shedding of the blood of Christ (circumcision) with the Crucifixion,” comments John Butt.⁵

The entire oratorio is a celebration of the Incarnation, “which would eventually lead to the crucifixion, atonement and resurrection,” says Butt. In his chapter, “Layers of Time: The Theology of the Christmas Oratorio,” Marcus Rathey examines is “The Threefold Meaning of Christmas,” that is the three modes of Christ’s coming into the flesh, into our hearts, and at the final judgement. The oratorio libretto, possibly by Picander, “has three gravitational centers: the historical event of the birth of Jesus, the existential meaning on this coming expressed in the image of Christ’s indwelling in the believer’s heart, and the return of Christ at the end of Time” [the eschatology), says Rathey in his recent study of the Christmas Oratorio.⁶ At the same time, in order to engage the congregation, Bach set plain chorales with elaborate instrumental support in Christmas hymns of Martin Luther, Johann Rist, and Paul Gerhardt, moving from traditional to pietist-flavored stanzas, with at least two hymn-settings on each part.

Johannine Theology

Implicit in the Christmas Oratorio is the Johannine Theology of Christus Victor, of Jesus Christ as the triumphal Sacrificial Lamb, defeating sin, death, and the devil (evil), in contrast to the synoptic Gospel's perspective of the "Satisfaction" theory of Christ's sacrificial death as a substitute on behalf of mankind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christus_Victor). Key unique chapters in John's gospel which Bach set to particular cantatas, are: the first, the Prologue, observed on the 3rd day of Christmas, as the coming of the Light, the Cosmic Christ united with the Father as one before creation; Chapter 3, 1-15, "Nicodemus comes to Christ in the night," and 3:16-20, "God so loved the World"; Chapter 10:1-10, "The Good Shepherd and His Sheep"; and Chapters 14-17, known as the Farewell Discourse on Christian life through the Holy Spirit which Jesus gave to his disciples following the Last Supper, that he will be returning to the Father and with their Holy Spirit guiding the disciples and humanity living under the Great Commandment, to love one another.

The concept of the Christus Victor was first explored in Bach's three cantatas for the three-day Christmas feast: BWV 63, "Christen, ätzet diesen Tag" (Christians, engrave this day), composed in 1714 in Weimar, Cantata BWV 40, "Dazu ist erschienen," “Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget” (See, what sort of love the Father has shown to us, 1 John 3:1), and sister works composed in 1723 of similar shape, scale and theology, beginning with biblical quotations. In his third cycle in 1725, Bach turned to the biblically-based texts of Darmstadt poet Christian Lehms (1711) to create two intimate solo cantatas, the Soul-Jesus dialogue Cantata BWV 57, "Selig ist der Mann" (Blessed is the man, James 1:12), for the death of Stephen, and the quartet-voiced Cantata BWV 151, "Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt" (Sweet consolation, my Jesus comes), for a nominal observance of the Evangelist John.

The Gospel of John is only selectively found in the one-year lectionary of Bach's time and in three three-year lectionary today where it still holds a limited but special place. Apart from the eight services of Easter to Trinity Sunday, only six Sundays or feast days use the Gospel of John: 4th Sunday in Advent, 4th Sunday in Lent (Laetare), 5th Sunday in Lent (Judika), 3rd Day of Christmas, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany, and, the 21st Sunday after Trinity. Three of these dayinvolved closed periods in Leipzig (Advent and Lent) where no polyphonic music was allowed. Meanwhile Bach possessed music and may have been able to utilize the independent, progressive New Church, and the University Paulinerkirche which had collegia musica talented student ensembles to compliment Bach's Thomas School choruses, says Tanya Kavorkian.7 Cantatas were performed on holidays and during the three weeks of the winter, spring and fall fairs as well as, conceivably, Advent and Lent, where the New Church in 1717 presented Telemann's Brockes oratorio Passion on Good Friday morning, says Christoph Wolff.8

The special Johannine services began the church year on the 4th Sunday in Advent with John 1:19-28, John the Baptist as precursor (1:15-18), following the celebrated prologue (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A19-28&version=KJV). Bach created and preserved Cantata 132, "Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn!" (Prepare the ways, prepare the path!) to a Salomo Franck text (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV132-D3.htm). Cantata 132 "amplified the spiritual understanding of John the Baptist's witness . . . the primary thrust of the Gospel," says Eric Chafe in his study of Bach's Johannine compositions.9 The 3rd Day of Christmas the gospel reading is John Chapter 1, Prologue, a poem of Jesus; divine identity, telling of Jesus' cosmic incarnation as the Word and Light that was with God, creator and life itself, born of God before creation that became flesh, and that mankind is God's children. The gospel themes, says Chafe (Ibid.: 101) are antithesis of light and darkness, oneness of Jesus and the Father, and the "filial relationship of the faithful to God" in glory grace and truth of the Christus Victor. Cantata 64 best exemplifies this teaching, followed by Cantata 133, "Ich freue mich in dir" (I rejoice in you), see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV133-D4.htm: "Fugitive Notes: 2nd and 3rd Days of Christmas").

The next Johannine observance is the 2nd Sunday in Epiphany, which is about the Wedding Feast at Cana found only in John's Gospel (2:1-11, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/Epiphany2.htm) and the beginning of Jesus' adult ministry with omens of his sacrificial death. This miracle is the first symbol of his divinity. Bach's three unified cantatas for this event are: 1724, Cantata BWV 155, "Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange?" (Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange? (My God, how long, ah how long); 1725, chorale Cantata BWV 3, "Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid" (Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid" (Ah God, how many a heartache); and 1726, Cantata BWV 13, "Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen" (My sighs, my tears). The negative titles establish the thematic movement from sorrow to joy, the transformation of earthly troubles into heavenly bliss. The cantatas also point to the ‘proper’ time (‘Mine hour is not yet come,’ Jesus said to his mother) at which the believers’ long vigil of tribulation and doubt will finally end. This event was a model of the four senses of scripture cited in the Middle Ages: the six water jars (John 2:6), containing the symbolic substance of Jesus' baptism, represent the literal sense of scripture, while the wine represents the spiritual sense of the synoptics' Last Supper new covenant in his blood granting eternal life. The transformation of water into wine represents the allegorical change from sorrow to joy — the Johannine theme Jesus sounds in his farewell discourse to his disciples that their sorrow at his departure from the earth will change to joy when he returns at the end of time in judgement: "but your sorrow shall be turned into joy" (John 16:20b), finally in the eschatological "End Times" sense. Subsequently, in Lutheran theology "the wedding itself [is] prefiguring the union of the soul (the church) and Christ," as the bride and bridegroom in unio mystica (mystical union), with the "good wine" Jesus produced "reserved for the end signifying eternal life," says Chafe (Ibid.: 102).

Following the completion of his Christological Cycle of feast day oratorios of the incarnate Jesus Christ on earth, Bach in the mid 1730s turned to the personal, devotional sacred songs often found in 18th century pietist hymnbooks particularly the Freylinghausen Gesang-Buch of 1704. The most significant genre were the Jesus Hymns of Epiphany Time, involving informal, personal prayer found in the Schemelli Gesangbuch (Leipzig 1736) in which Bach selected some 67 sacred songs, secured the texts and melodies with figured bass which were published as BWV 439-507. These personal "I" songs focused on the other two coming of Jesus, in the perpetual spirit of the believer in an indwelling (inhabitatio) in the heart of the believer and the final coming of Christ in the eschatological "End Times," in judgement and the eternity of God's Time.

The final two Sundays in Lent, Laetari and Judica, use the Gospel of John, taking up respectively the miracle of the feeding of 5000 (John 6:1-15, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+6%3A1-15&version=KJV), and the Judica Passion Sunday, John 8:46–59, Jesus last words in debate with the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was, I am" (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A46-59&version=KJV). Because of the Laetari Sunday emphasis on affirmation, Bach's Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (NLGB) of 1682 prescribed the following chorales appropriate for Passiontide: Hymn of the Day, "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr Mensch und Gott" (Lord Jesus Christ, true man and God, NLGB 338, Death & Dying); and the Communion/Pulpit Hymns, "O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht" (O Jesus Christ, my life's light, NLGB 374, Death & Dying), "In dich hab ich gehoffet, Herr" (In you I have placed my hope, Lord, NLGB 254, Psalm 31), and "Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht" (Christ, you are the day and light, NLGB 205 Catechism evening song). These also were the same designated chorales for the 5th Sunday in Lent, Judica, in the NLGB.

Bacxh also may have set a parody work for Judica, based on Picander's 1728-29 cycle text, "Böse Welt, schmäh immerhin" (Evil world, degrading anyhow, https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_GSJLAAAAcAAJ#page/n140/mode/1up), closing with the chorale, "Mir hat die Welt." It is borrowed from solo soprano Cantata BWV 209, "Non sa che sia dolore" (He does not know what sorrow is, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV209.htm), which has similar affections. It is an by adaptation of Gustav Adolf Theill, published in 1983 (https://www.worldcat.org/title/bose-welt-schmah-immerhin-kantate-zum-sonntag-judica-nach-bwv-209/oclc/159405685, recording, https://www.apesound.de/en/LP/Classics/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-1685-1750-Verschollene-Kantaten-Vol-2-LP.html).

Meanwhile, Bach composed two cantatas in Weimar for the 3rd Sunday in Lent, Oculi: BWV 54, "Widerstehe doch der Sünde" (Stand firm against sin), and BWV 80a, "Alles, was von Gott geboren" (All that which of God is fathered) which have Christological implications and which Bach altered for other uses in Leipzig, Cantata 54 appropriate for the 7th Sunday after Trinity while Bach also added a new text to the opening aria, "Falsche Welt, dein schmeichelnd Küssen (False world, thy poisonous kisses) at Judas' betrayal of Jesus in the garden. Cantata Cantata 80a with the Luther chorale "A Mighty Fortress is our God" was origindesigned to emphasize its origins in 1526-26 as a Lenten Psalm Hymn, based on Psalm 46:1, Deus noster refugiam (God is our refuge and strength, full text, http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Psalms-Chapter-46/), which is most appropriate as a transfiguration hymn. In Leipzig, Cantata 80a was transformed into a hybrid chorale Cantata 80 for Reformation.

Baptism of Jesus

There are three major events in the ministry of Jesus that were not always observed with Bach's music for various reasons: The Baptism of Jesus, the Transfiguration of Jesus, and Palm Sunday. The Baptism of Jesus in the Lutheran tradition is an event which believers practices with their newborn, immediately having a baptismal service with designated godparents as the rite of initiation into the Christian church. It is now observed on January 6, also the Feast of the Epiphany, when both the birth and baptism of Jesus are observed, beginning in the 3rd century. It is one of five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus, the others being the Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. The Lutheran Church has one iconic chorale for this event, "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam" (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_unser_Herr_zum_Jordan_kam, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Christ-Jordan.htm). Luther’s doctrinal hymn celebrates Jesus’ adult baptism and the beginning of his ministry leading to his sacrifice for the redemption of the believer. Bach composed his chorale cantata setting, BWV 7, in 1724 for the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, the date when Luther's hymn was presented. The hymn follows Matthew's historical account (3:13-17 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+3%3A13-17&version=KJV), and also includes Luther's teachings on the sacrament of baptism as well as a reference in Cantata 7 to the Transfiguration in Stanza 3, "Er ist vom hohen Himmelsthron" ([He is] from the high throne of heaven) as well as the Great Commission to the disciples in Stanza 5 of the hymn (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale106-Eng3.htm).

Bach also composed a liturgical Baptism chorale chorale setting, BWV 280 (http://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV0280.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AECCQdqzEA0) and the liturgical organ chorale versions, BWV 684, 685, in the Clavierübung III catechism settings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkV7Wc7Ck0g).

Three Bach festive cantatas are appropriate for the Baptism of Jesus in today's three year lectionary, says John S. Setterlund.10 Cantata 7 speaks to Matthew's setting (3:13-17) in Year A; Cantata 37, "Wer da gläubet und getauft wird" (Whoever believes and is baptised) for the Feast of the Ascension 1724, is most appropriate for Year B, in Mark's Gospel (1:4-11, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A4-11&version=KJV) on the theme of salvation; and Cantata 123, "Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen" (Dearest Immanuel, leader of the righteous), for the Epiphany Feast 1725, address the Year C, Luke's Gospel (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+3%3A15%2D22&version=KJV) with the link to Immanuel, the affirmation of "God with us."

Transfiguration of Jesus

The Transfiguration of Jesus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Jesus) was a unique event in the life of the gospels as a unique miracle involving Jesus himself. In the single lectionary of Bach's time it was the fixed last Sunday after the Epiphany in the omne tempore (Ordinary Time) which also inluded the post-resurrection Johannine Sundays of the 3rd after Easter to the Trinity Fest and the beginning the full-second half of the church year, the life of church in omne tempore. The Transfiguration of Jesus lead to the three fixed de tempore (Proper Time) "gesimae" Pre-Lenten Sundays. It was preceded in the synoptic gospels by Peter's Confession, acknowledging Jesus, "You are the Christ" (Matthew 16:16). This later Christian observance of Jesus' divinity on Mount Tabor in Israel was not officially observed in Bach's time although the lectionary gave the Epistle as II Peter 1:16-21, Christ's Glory and the Prophetic Word (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A16-21&version=ESV), and the Transfiguration Gospel as Matt. 17:1-9 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+17%3A1-9&version=KJV. It is found in all three synoptic Gospels, reaffirming the identity of God's Son, and alluded to in the Incarnation in John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" and John 18:28-30: "Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." The Monastery on Mt. Tabor is the Desert Father's New Testament equivalent to the Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt in the Old Testament with biblical prophecy and the Trinitarian Divine Dance in today's contemplative literature in the fusion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Transfiguration as the anticipation of the Resurrection was an important event for Martin Luther https://steadfastlutherans.org/2016/01/luthers-notes-on-the-gospel-transfiguration/). It is an affirmation of eternal life, the prophets Moses and Elijah also affirming Jesus as the Messiah through the Theology of the Cross. Historically, the Transfiguration as the last Sunday after Epiphany was not officially part of the Lutheran Church Year and has no designated hymns, yet like Jesus' Baptism is an event essential to the Christian. The preparation of the time of the Passion follows when Jesus goes to Jerusalem in triumph on Palm Sunday, says Paul Zeller Strodach,11 and the authorities response is to plot his death.

Located in Galilee near Tiberias, Mount Tabor is a place of rest, nourishment and stillness, says Belden C. Lane.12 The Gospel for Transfiguration revealed to the disciples "not only the glory of God but also what it means most fully to be human. Part of their amazement at the transfiguration was that, in seeing Jesus, they also saw themselves anew." "A central paradox of apophatic [hidden, negative] tradition," says Lane, "is that the self once lost in desolate emptiness is subsequently rediscovered (or recreated) through union with God. The new self, no longer, bound to the dualism of a "human" subject grasping fir a divine object, exists wholly an intimately in God. The wonder of this transfiguration is profound, as celebrated by mystics in all the Abrahamic faiths."

There are several Bach vocal works appropriate for today's three-lectionary on the Transfiguration of our Lord. For Year A, Matthew's Gospel (17:1-9), is the 1724 chorale Cantata 130 for the feast of Michael and All-Angels, withits majesty of the transfigured Christ, the defeat of evil, and Elijah's chariot in heaven, says Sutterlund (Ibid.: 340). For Year B and the Gospel of Mark 9:2-9 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9%3A2-9&version=KJV), is the 1727 Motet BWV 225, "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" ( Sing to the Lord a new song, Psalm 149:1) which reveals the heavenly splendor as well as brevity of the Transfiguration and life itself, "Wir sind nur Staub" (We are only dust), 225/2/6b. The Year B alternate is 1725 Ascension festival Cantata 128, "Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein" (On Christ's ascension [journey to heaven] alone) which us Christ's final transfiguration. For Year C, the Gospel of Luke 9:28-36, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9%3A28-36&version=KJV) the undated St. Michael's Motet, BWV 50, "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft" (Now is the salvation and the strength, Rev. 12:10) with the triumpoh of the Kingdom of God over evil. The Year C alternative is 1723 pre-Lenten Quinquagesima Cantata 22, "Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe" (Jesus took the twelve to himself, Luke 18:31), with Jesus' announcement of their trip to Jerusalem with the commentary (no. 3): "Sie wollen beiderseits, wenn du verkläret bist, / Zwar eine feste Burg auf Tabors Berge bauen; / Hingegen Golgatha, so voller Leiden ist" (they want on both sides, when you have been transfigured, / to build indeed a strong fortress on Mount Tabor; / in contrast, Golgotha, that is full of suffering), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73eNqNSjt0M.

Palm (Passion) Sunday

In Bach's time in Leipzig during Lenten the feast of the Annunciation on March 25 was observed and when it fell on Palm Sunday, that event also was observed. Bach composed one work for Palm Sunday, Cantata 182 "Himmelskönig, sei willkommen" (Heavenly King, be welcomed) in Weimar on 25 March 1714, when Palm Sunday coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation (Mariä Verkündigung, Mary as the mother of Jesus) and the work served both services. Cantata 182 was repeated in Leipzig on 25 March 1724, in a double bill with lost Cantata BWV 1135=Anh 199, "Siehe, eine Jungfrau ist schwanger (See, a virgin is pregnant). There are six versions of Cantata 182, with the final version dated to 1728 with a final performance of this version after 1728. Palm Sunday and the Annunciation feast also occurred on March 25 in Leipzig in 1725 and 1736 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/Palmsonntag.htm). The dual celebration of joy at the entry into Jerusalem and the sorrow of the impending sacrifice are found in the internal texts of Cantata 182 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWV182-Eng3.htm ).

Christ sacrifice for the satisfaction of atonement in the synoptic gospels is emphasized in the opening choruses of his two Passions according to the Matthew, BWV 244/1, "Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen" (Come, you daughters [of Jerusalem], help me to lament" and the chorale, "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" (O Lamb of God, innocent), most appropriate for Year A, the Matthew Gospel, Chapters 26-27 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26-27&version=KJV), and for Year B, Mark's Gospel, Chapters 14-15 (https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Mark-Chapter-14/, https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Mark-Chapter-15/), with the St. Mark Passion opening chorus, "Go, Jesus, go unto thy pain! / I will unceasingly lament thee / Till me thy comfort reappeareth, / When I am reconciled with thee." An appropriate setting for Palm Sunday of Year C, Luke's Gospel https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22-23&version=KJV) is Bach's early 1708 Cantata 106, "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" (God's time is the very best time) with the two Lukan references to Jesus last words from the cross: "In deine Hände befehl ich meinen Geist" (Into your hands I commit my spirit, 23:46; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R959qeVjQfA) and "Heute wirst du mit mir im Paradies sein" (Today you will be with me in paradise), music, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONE0s528hl0: "SHOW MORE": 11:22, 13:48 .

Bach's settings of the synoptic Passions of Matthew and Mark emphasize the two most important Lutheran theological precepts, Luther's so-called "Theology of the Cross," which is inextricably bound to Luther's doctrine of "Justification by Grace through Faith" (see 'Theological Keys," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/SMP-Spiritual-Hoffman.htm#Lutheran). Imbedded in these two Passions is Anselm's substitution theory of sacrificial atonement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_theory_of_atonement ), in contrast to the Johannine Christus Victor concept (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christus_Victor) in the St. John Passion. The Christus Victor concept is the more acceptable today while Bachs four versions of Johannine Passion oratorio embrace three distinct theological interpretations: the 1724 and last version 1749 include two dramatic episodes from Matthew's Passion account, Peter's weeping following his denial of Jesus (26:75) and the earthquake and rending of the veil of the temple at Jesus death (27:51-52). Bach radically altered his John Passion in 1725, substituting two chorale choruses and three arias to give the work a decidedly atonement emphasis while in the 1732 version, Bach removed the choruses and arias as well as the two references from Matthew, making it a "pure" Christus Victor" rendering.

There is still considerable debate among Bach scholars as to the last of the five Passions listed in Bach's Obituary.

The celebrated settings of Matthew and John went to Emmanuel in the 1750 estate division while Friedemann probably received Mark and the apocryphal Luke Passion, BWV 246 which were listed in Breitkopf's Catalogue in the 1760s. The fifth, which may not be a gospel-based Passion oratorio setting, is sheer conjecture. The so-called Weimar Passion of 1717, presented in Gotha on Good Friday (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001533?lang=en) still has not been accepted into the BWV canon, despite considerable research and the finding that some music was utilized in the St. John Passion. A recent work now under consideration is known as a pasticccio Passion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wer_ist_der,_so_von_Edom_kömmt#Ein_Lämmlein_geht_und_trägt_die_Schuld,_GraunWV_B:VII:4). Its core music is from a c1730 Passion cantata of Carl Heinrich Graun, with additional music of Telemann, Bach (BWV 127/1 and 1088), Johann Christoph Altnikol chorale settings and a motet of Johann Kuhnau, now possibly to Italian musical models of Francesco Durante or Antonio Lotti. It represents the culmination of the German poetic oratorio Passion tradition, emphasizing popular poetic and musical styles as well as chorales and the old-style motet (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV1088-Gen.htm). It possibly was performed by Bach in Leipzig, 1743-1748, and by Altnikol at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on Good Friday, March 23, 1750.

Besides the Good Friday Passion suffering and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the other central event his life was his resurrection on Easter Sunday, the essential beliefs of all Christians. Bach composed a special, Italianate Easter Oratorio parodied in 1725 from a secular birthday serenade and his first active collaboration with poegt Picander. In its textual and musical allusions to the St. John Passion, Bach’s Easter Oratorio as it was conceived in 1725 resembles a concise Gospel harmonization similar to Johannes Bugenhagen’s Die historia des leydens vnd der Aufferstehung vnsers Herrn aus der vier Evangelisten (Wittenberg: 1530), with a Johannine emphasis. For the plot, characters, and themes, Bach begins with the brief Markan Resurrection account, 16:1-8. Here the two Marys go to Christ’s tomb on Easter Sunday to annoint the body in Jewish tradition, find the tomb empty, and are told by a young man (angels in the other versions) that Christ is risen. They are instructed to tell the disciples and Peter that Christ goes to Galilee where he can be seen. To this basic account in the first Gospel, Bach conflates the Johannine story, Chapter 20, in which Mary Magdalene finds the empty tomb and runs away, coming upon Peter and John, suggesting that his body has been removed from the sepulchre “and we know not where they have laid him” (KJV). The two disciples run to the sepulcher, John arriving first and seeing only the burial linen clothes inside, followed by Peter who sees the napkin (burial shroud) outside the tomb. “Then the disciples went away again unto their own home” (John 20:10).

At this point in John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene weeps at the sepulcher and is asked by two angels inside why she is weeping. She turns around and sees a man she supposes is the gardener, who calls her “Mary,” and she replies “Master.” Here Bach portrays the story in the manner of a theological dialectic as established by Martin Luther in his Theology of the Cross, that Jesus Christ is truly man and truly God at the same time, while Bach’s music is heard by the congregation who are, simultaneously, saints and sinners.

Symbolically, in his St. John Passion oratorio, Bach borrowed two dramatic episodes from Matthew’s synoptic account of the Passion: Peter weeping bitterly after his denial of Christ (Matthew 26:75) and the rending of the temple veil and earthquake (Matthew 27:51. The shroud cloth that Peter finds in John’s story as revealed in Bach’s Easter Oratorio (historia) is an allusion to Peter’s weeping bitterly after his denial earlier in John’s account (John 18:27). John in his the middle section of his aria (no. 7), says: “Jesu, durch dein Schweißtuch sein / Ja, das wird mich dort erfrischen / Und die Zähren meiner Pein / Von den Wangen tröstlich wischen.” (Jesus, through your veil / Yes, that will refresh me there / and the tears of my suffering / it will wipe comfortingly from my cheeks.). This could explain why Bach took this episode and added it to the Johannine account where Peter simply denies Christ three times outside the palace of the high priest Caiaphas (John 18:27), followed by Jesus taken to Pilate’s hall of judgement for the central Johannine inquisition and trial. The second insertion, the rending of the temple veil, reinforces the veil image in the Easter Oratorio while the subsequent earthquake at Christ’s death emphasizes the Johannine Christus Victor achievement described in another Heinrich Müller Easter sermon, observes Marcus Rathey (Ibid.: 156f).

Following the Johannine setting of the Easter Oratorio and his special min-cycle of the Johannine Farewell Discourse cantatas, Bach set the last event in the life of Jesus Christ as an oratorio (historia) using the Bugenhagen Evangelienharmonie. While various composers wrote ascension cantatas, including sons Friedemann, Emmanual, and Jihann Christoph Friedrich, there is no record of another ascension oratorio and it should be noted that the most popular category of "Christmas Oratorio" often had no historiae citation of the gospel narrative, instead being a series of poetic Christmas cantatas by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Telemann and others. Heinrich Schütz's 1660 Christmas Story (Weihnachtshistorie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Story_(Schütz)) is a true historia preceded by a three day setting of the Resurrection Story (Auferstehungshistorie) in 1623 at the Saxon Court. The gospel harmony paraphrases the passages from the Lukan Epistle historical account, Acts 1:1-11 (Jesus' Preparation and Ascension), as well as the day's Gospel, Mark 16:14-20 (Great Commission, Ascension), text http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Read/Ascension.htm and Luke's abbreviated Gospel Account (24:50-53, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24%3A50-53&version=KJV). Coming near the end of the Johannine Gospel account, there is no John account of the Ascension, only the inference that the event was another transfiguration or illumination of Jesus' divinity with the Father, followed by the final triumph of the Trinity through the Holy Spirit at Pentrcost and Trinityfest Sunday. Jesus' physical ascension in his human nature was a link to those left behind, reinforcing the certainty of salvation for the faithful below, said Lutheran theologians, while reinforcing the Doctrine of Justification instead of Preordination.

Easter Season Johannine Farewell Settings

Beginning with the third Sunday after Easter (Jubilate), the post-Resurrection Sunday Gospels in Bach’s time, involving the work and witness of the Paraclete (Holy Spirit, advocate, intercessor), primarily focus on Jesus Christ’s Farewell Discourse and promise of the Second Coming to his Disciples (John, Chapter 16). The Sundays, Gospel themes and Bach works are: Jubilate [3rd Sunday after Easter, "Make a joyful noise"], John 16: 16-23, "Sorrow turned to joy" in "Christ's Farewell"; Cantate [4th Sunday after Easter, "Sing"], John 16: 16-23, "The work of the Paraclete (Holy Spirit)"; Rogate [5th Sunday after Easter, "Pray"], John 16: 23-30, "Prayer in the name of Jesus" as Christ's Promise to the Disciples; Exaudi [Sunday after Ascension, "Hear"], John 15: 26-16: 4, "Spirit will come" in the "Witness of the Paraclete"; Cantatas. The Pentecost Gospel is the last of the five unique Jesus’ farewell discourses to his disciples in John’s gospel, Chapters 14-16; Whit Sunday [1st Day of Pentecost], John 14: 23-31 "Promise of the Paraclete" as "The Gift of Peace." John's Gospel for Pentecost Monday is the iconic passage 3:16-21, "God so loved the World" (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3:16-21&version=KJV), and the Gospel for Pentecost Tuesday is John 10:1-10, "The Good Shepherd and His Sheep" (https://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/john/passage/?q=john+10:1-10). And the Gospel for Trinity Sunday, John 3:1-16, "Nicodemus comes to Christ in the night" (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A1-16&version=KJV). For the significance of the Epiphany Time cantatas, see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Epiphany-Cantatas.htm).

Jubilate Sunday presents the Johannine Gospel Chapter 16 sequence of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse to his disciples on the themes of his departure and how the faithful will live “in the world under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” which is alluded to in the synoptic Gospels during his Last Supper with the disciples, observes Chafe (Ibid.: 433). The discourse is the Gospel reading for the third to Sundays after Easter. After the 5th Sunday (Rogate) comes Ascension Day the next Thursday, marking the 40 days of Jesus on earth after his resurrection. Then comes the 6th Sunday (Exaudi), followed by Pentecost, 10 days after Ascension. The feasts of Ascension and Pentecost observe John’s worlds “above” and “below,” the first describing an upward motion or “lifting up” of Jesus Christ the Son to God the Father and the second the descending or coming of the Holy Spirit, completing the Trinitarian complex in a parabola of anabasis and catabasis.

In her texts for the nine consecutive Spring 1725 cantatas from Jubilate Sunday to Trinityfest, poet Mariane von Ziegler “explores the “above/below aspect of John in terms of antithetical and complimentary in the cantatas that lead to and culminate on Ascension Day,” says Chafe (Ibid.: 434). Running through her texts for Bach’s Cantata 103 “is a theme complex that closely reflects the eschatological [last things] character of the above/below complimentary” involving the seeing of Jesus with his disciples prominent in the cantatas of the earlier part of the Easter season and the theme of hearing him in the later part, “a symbolic motion from external to internal that leads to Pentecost and the ‘indwelling’ of God in the faithful” through the presence of the Holy Spirit. This dialectical “double sense of the present/future, physical/spiritual seeing” is particularly clear in the first and second cantatas based on the Farewell Discourse, BWV 103 for Jubilate and BWV 108 for the succeeding Cantate Sunday.

The overall sequence of the first four cantatas balances “the future and present aspects of their eschatological themes,” says Chafe (Ibid.: 438). In Cantata 103 the disciples will be persecuted by “the world” while Jesus’ return brings joy; Cantata 108 shows the way to the other, spiritual world; in Cantata 87, prayer overcomes this world, turning sorrow into joy; and in Ascension Day Cantata 128, based on the Gospel of Mark 16:14-20, Jesus ascending in glory to the world above “provides the foundation for all future hopes: the certainty of salvation.”

The four progressive temporal levels of theological understanding are expressed throughout Cantata 103: the literal-historical is the opening biblical motto; the allegorical in the analogy between the disciples and the church; the tropological in the change from the collective to the personal response; and the eschatological future emerges in the “crown of joy” in the closing chorale, says Chafe (Ibid.: 439).

Ten years Bach's junior by birth (1695) and, ultimately, by death (1760), the already prominent feminist on short notice produced lyrics to fulfill Bach's structural plans. Her first significant poetic venture reveals an unusual gift for understanding Lutheran theology and biblical allusion (though she had no formal schooling), frequent use of biblical quotation, the themes of proclamation and silence, the Vox Christi/Dei element found in Bach's musical sermons, and a literary "depth of feeling and vibrancy of expression," observes Mark A. Peters.13

Author Peters particularly describes (pp. 94-99) two intrinsic elements in the great opening chorus, BWV 103/1: the use of the Vox Christi central bass recitative in the tri-partite form and its complement in the extended, surrounding opening and closing choruses. The voice of Christ is uniquely used in the middle of the chorus for one recitative-arioso line of sorrow in the midst of John's proclamation of sorrow turning to joy. The nine consecutive Ziegler Johannine cantata libretti Bach commissioned have seven incipits from John's gospel, a chorale incipit and a quotation from Jeremiah 17:9 in the final Trinityfest work, BWV 176

Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (You will weep and howl, John 16:20), BWV 103, Jubilate
Es ist euch gut, daß ich hingehe (It is good for you that I should go away, John 16:7), BWV 108, Cantate
Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen (Until now you have asked nothing in my name, John 16:24) BWV 87, Rogate
Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein (On Christ's ascension [journey to heaven] alone), BWV 128, Ascension
Sie werden euch in den Bann tun (They will put you under a ban, John 16:2), BWV 183 Exaudi
Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten (Whoever loves me will keep my word, John 14:23), BWV 74, Pentecost Sunday
Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt (God so loved the world, John 3:16) BWV 68, Pentecost Monday
Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen (He calls his own sheep by name, John 10:3), BWV 175, Pentecost Tuesday and
Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding (There is something obstinate and desperate, Jeremiah 17:9), BWV 176, Trinity Sunday

Concurrent with the Christological oratorios and cantatas, Bach shaped Latin Church with its Christological emphasis, both in all the Mass ordinary movements (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) and the incarnation in the Magnificat, while also shaping Luther's vernacular hymns into the Deutsche Messe settings as well was setting the de tempore and omne tempore Lutheran chorales as vocal litiurgical settings and instrumental organ chorale preludes introducing the service hymns to the congregation. Beginning in Weimar when he began to compose church service cantatas, Bach followed tradition by using plain chorale settings to close his cantatas while composing organ chorale preludes to introduce into the service appropriate hymns for the pulpit sermon, holy communion, and closing, making the service a veritable musical feast.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Prof. Dr. Wolfram Steude, "Passions: Resurrection History and Dialogues," Heinrich Schütz Edition Sacred Choral Works, 2013 Brilliant Classics, 19 compact discs; https://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/511841/94361-Downloadable-Booklet.pdf: 17, https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/h/heinrich-schuetz-edition/.
² See Eric Chafe, “J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: Aspects of Planning, Structure, and Chronology,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 35 (1982): 112 footnote. The article is summarized at the Bach Cantata Website (BCW) Article, Matthäus-Passion BWV 244, “Early History (A Selective, Annotated Bibliography, No. 17),” Prepared by William L. Hoffman (April 2009), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/SMP-Biblio-Hoffman.htm.
³ Marcus Rathey, Bach’s Major Vocal Works: Music, Drama, Liturgy (New Haven CN: Yale University Press, 2016.
⁴ A comprehensive understanding of eschatology is found in the final chapters of Robert J. Marshall’s The Mighty Acts of God: An Overview of Scripture (Minneapolis MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1990: 233-48). For Christology, see Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christology. A new sub-topic, eschatological Christology, see “Pannenburg’s Eschatological Christology,” https://www.academia.edu/12389840/Pannenberg_s_Eschatological_Christology, and "Eschatology, Liturgy, and Christology - Liturgical Press,” https://www.litpress.org/Products/GetSample/5735/9780814657355.
⁵ John Butt notes, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6IHpvmfr6gMeVUzUmlFVWR6QkU/view?usp=sharing scroll down to Page 10; Dundin Concort, Linn Records CKD 499D, details, http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-bach-christmas-oratorio.aspx.
⁶ Marcus Rathey, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio: Music, Theology, Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016: 61).
⁷ Tanya Kavorkian: Baroque Piety: Religion, Society and Music in Leipzig, 1650-1750 (London & New York, Routledge, 2016: 210).
⁸ Christoph Wolff, Johann SebastiBach, Learned Musician, updated ed. (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2013, 290).
⁹ Eric Chafe, Part I Introductory Themes, Chapter 3, "Johannine Themes," in J. S. Bach’s Johannine Theology: The St. John Passion and the Cantatas for Spring 1725 (Oxford University Press, 2014: 100).
¹⁰ John S. Setterlund, Bach Through the Ages: The Church music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Revised Common Lectionary (Minneapolis MN: Lutheran University Press, 2013: 21f.
¹¹ Paul Zeller Strodach, The Church Year: Studies in the Introits, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels (Philadelphia PA: United Lutheran Publication House, 86ff).
¹² Belden C. Lane, "Sinai and Tabor: Mountain Symbolism in the Christian Tradition," in The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1998: 131ff).
¹³ Mark A. Peters, A Woman's Voice in Baroque Music: Mariane von Ziegler and J. S. Bach (Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2008: 74).

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To Come; Christological Cycle, Part 2, Latin Church Music; Chorale Settings