1739 Leipzig Reformation Jubilee: Major Christological Works

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 11, 2025):
In the middle of 1730s, as Bach was reaching the height of his creative powers, he began his most ambitious compositional project: a cyclic constellation of major Christological works (BCW), both vocal and instrumental, as well as related to each other, which took three phases to completion, which required extensive resource development. The project itself also required three phases of research, beginning in 1725 with special, occasional music that suggested established formats; the first half of 1730 when Bach ceased composing church-year cantatas as St. Thomas cantor and took up secular music as Leipzig music director, securing the title of Saxon Court Composer and amassing a collection of potential parodied materials. The second half of the 1730s saw the completion of the bicentennial of the Jubilee of the Introduction of the Reformation in Leipzig with a constellation of completed collections of Missa: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-36; feast day oratorios for Christmas, BWV 248.2; Easter, BWV 249.4; Ascension, BWV 11; and Pentecost, BWV deest (being recovered); the ClavierÜbung III, German Organ Chorale Mass and Catechism, BWV 552, 678-689; and special occasional music for the Reformation involving hybrid chorale Cantata 80 and possibly Cantatas BWV 76, 79, and 192; the Pentecost motet "Der Geist hilf unsre Schwachheit auf"; other Cantatas for Pentecost, BWV 172, 59, 74, and 34).

1725 Johannine Trilogy, Drammi per Musica

It began in 1725 when Bach made a major shift from cessation of his second, chorale cantata cycle, to a Johannine trilogy compendium of Passion, Resurrection, and Farewell Discourse, involving a new version of the St. John Passion, BWV 245.2, with Christus Victor as the concept of atonement (see BCW). This was linked to an Italianate Easter Oratorio, BWV 249.3, which alludes to John's gospel account of the Resurrection (BCW) and is based on a secular serenade model, BWV 249.1 (BCW). This involved Bach's use of previously-existing materials to forge in the second half of the 1730s his new Christological cycle, from profane cantatas, known as drammi per musica, to sacred oratorios, as well as liturgical chorales to shape his related, omnibus Clavier-Übung III, BWV 552, 669-89, German Organ Mass and Catechism (Wikipedia, BCW). The third musical component was the Johannine cycle of cantatas using John's gospel Farewell Address to His Disciples, found in the Easter Season from Jubilate Sunday to Trinity Sunday (BCW, BCW).

Bach's development of his 16 drammi per musica, often with connections to the Saxon Court in Dresden, began in 1725 with the development of thee such occasional, celebratory works, BWV 205, 36c, and 207, with multiple parodies (new text underlay, BCW) (see also BCW). A key collaboration at this time involved the poet Picander (BCW) who may have written three movements paraphrasing the chorale text with Cantata 93, 'Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt Walten" (BCW). Most notable are Picander's drammi per musica and sacred oratorios (festive and Passions). The Bach Cantata Website article, "Bach's Broad Spectrum of Different Compositional Settings" (BCW), has topics on "Exploring Leipzig's Assets, Resources," "Bach-Picander Collaboration, 1725," the "Picander, Count von Flemming," relationship, and the "Leipzig Reformation Jubilee 1739."

Poet Picander

The other key collaboration that Bach exploited was his Leipzig Music Director relationship with Leipzig University (see "Leipzig University Occasional Joy, Sorrow Music," BCW), with a broad array of festive music (see Universität Leipzig: Festive Music). Picander's significance related to his recycling primarily Bach profane works as sacred music. "Re-purposing — as it is called these days — was to become a major source from which good but occasional music from earlier compositions for a particular occasion could be quarried and re-shaped around new libretti created by one poet in particular — Christian Friedrich Henrici, who wrote under the nom-de-plume of Picander," says David Stancliffe¹ in his new study, Unpeeling Bach: What have we learned over the past 50 years about how Bach performed his sacred vocal music?

By 1729, as St, Thomas Cantor, Bach had ceased regular composition of church-year cantatas with three substantial, varied church-year cycles, and as Leipzig Music Director and director of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, he turned his compositional endeavors to instrumental music (i.e. the Clavier-Übung keyboard studies publications), as well as the profane domain in Leipzig with all manner of occasional music of joy and sorrow, a fifth cycle of primarily church pieces (BCW). Beyond the Collegium musicum weekly "extraordinary" concerts, Bach continued to present special occasional concerts for the visiting Saxon Court, primarily for the Elector's birthday or Name Day (August 3). Previously, Bach had composed for Augustus (II) the Strong, birthday 12 May 1727, BWV 1156=Anh. 9 (BCW) and BWV 193a (BCW, BCW), and an overview of both and connections to the Mass in B Minor, BWV 232.4 (BCW). The royal drammi per musica, mist texts by Picander, are: BWV Anh. 9, 193a, Anh. 11, 213 (Prince's birthday, 5 September 1733), 214 (Electoress's birthday, 8 December 1733), 205a (King's coronation, 17 January 1734), 215 (King's Election Day October 5 1734), 207a (Elector's name day, 3 August 1735), 206 (Elector's birthday, 7 October 1736), 1161=Anh. 13 (Homage for royal couple, 28 April 1738), 208a (Elector's name day, 3 August 1742). Other homage works are: BWV 1158=Anh. 12 (Elector's name day, 3 August 1733), deest Serenade BC G 20 (text & music lost, King's coronation, 17 January 1734), BWV 1161=Anh. 13, Serenade (BCW) (text 7 music lost, Homage for royal couple, 28 April 1738).

1730s Major Works Revisions

In 1733, Bach composed and submitted to the Saxon court his initial Missa: Kyrie-Gloria (Missa Brevis), BWV 232.2 (see BCW) while seeking the title of Royal Court Composer, eventually granted on 19 November 1736. The original "Lutheran Mass version of the "Great Catholic Mass" was the model (template) for Bach's subsequent collection of Missae Breves, BWV 233-236, composed in the second half of the 1730s (BCW). Beginning in the later 1720s, Bach had explored the Royal Court Library to learn techniques of stile antico in the composition and presentation of Latin Mass movements from the Kyrie-Gloria from Saxon Court composers and his own Sanctus settings, BWV 237-38, which he programmed as "theonly kind performed on high feast days at the Leipzig main churches, were also the preferred type at the Dresden court church," says Christoph Wolff.² Soon after Augustus the Strong's death, came "the accession to the throne of his son, King August III with BWV 1157=Anh. 11 on 3 August 1732 (BCW), "Bach started a loose sequence of special concerts dedicated almost exclusively to the electoral-royal house in Dresden, for birthdays, name days, and political events, sometimes in the presence of royal family members," says Wolff (Ibid.: 358f). "In contrast to the weekly series, for which few details and no programs are known, the extraordinary concerts are generally well documented, with most of the librettos, any scores, and even performing materials extant, usually with verifiable dates , often accompanied by reports in newspapers and chronicles, as well as receipts and other archival references," he says. Meanwhile, Bach selectively made major additions to his sacred music repertory in the 1730s: St. Mark Passion, BWV 247 (reconstructed, core music from Funeral Ode BWV 198 (1731), Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.2 (1734-35), Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11 (1738), St. Matthew Passion (revision), BWV 244.2 (1736), Easter Oratorio (revision), BWV 249.4 (1738), St. John Passion (incomplete revision), BWV 245.4 (1739), and Magnificat in D, BWV 243.2 (revision, possibly 2 July 1733, "when public performances were permitted to resume after relaxing the state mourning period," says Wolff [Ibid.: 367]). At the same time Bach composed cantatas for special occasions: BWV 29 (Town Council, 1731) and BWV 197.2 (sacred wedding, 1736-37). Between 1728 and 1735 Bach composed four undesignated, pure-hymn chorale cantatas that are appropriate for sacred weddings or for anytime: BWV 97, 1734; 100 III, 1734-35, 117, 1728-31, and 192, incomplete 1730 (source: Wikipedia: scroll down to "Chorale cantatas with unknown liturgical function"), possibly for the court at Weißenfels where Bach was a court composer. Bach also completed the extended hybrid chorale Cantata 80.3 (YouTube), for perhaps the "1739 200th Jubilee of the introduction of the Reformation in Leipzig," according to the Bach Works Catalogue BWV³: 118), as well as Cantata 30 for John's Day feast for c1738 (YouTube). Meanwhile, by 1735 when Bach was appointed Saxon Court Composer and his son Friedemann became organist at St. Sophia Church in Dresden, sufficient materials from Cantatas BWV 213-215 and 248a/6 were used in the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.2, as well as materials from profane Wedding Serenade "Auf! süß entzückende Gewalt," BWV 1163=Anh. 196 for two arias in the Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11 (BWV 1163/3 > BWV 11/4 and BWV 1163/5 > 11/10.

Kyrie-Gloria Masses, BWV 233-236

While most Bach parodies involved "the transformation of secular [occasional] cantata movements into sacred works," the "Kyrie-Gloria Masses, BWV 233-36, of the 1730s, for instance, are based almost entirely on parody models from sacred cantatas,'' Wolff observes (Ibid.: 365). Although these four Lutheran Masses originally were treated by some Bach scholars (Spitta, Schweitzer) as inferior self-plagiarism, increasingly they are seen as an integral part of his compositional process, designed to bolster an integration and understanding of the liturgical significance of such works in the larger corpus of his "well-ordered church music to the glory of God. The first meaningful commentary came from Charles Sanford Terry³ in 1929 in his studies of Bach's works. Like Missae"Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 232.1, Bach also intended the four Lutheran Masses for "the Court Chapel at Dresden." "The autographs of the A Major [BWV 234] and G Major [BWV 236] Masses are contemporary" with the 1736 appointment of "Composer to the Saxon Electoral Court," says Terry (Ibid.: 26f), while "Probability points to all four having been put together after 1736." "A collation of the four Masses indicates that Bach was generally consistent in the treatment of his text," Terry observes, "All of them are planned on a smaller scale than the earlier B minor where the three-clauses of the opening Kyrie become a single movement and the eight movements of the Gloria are reduced to five each. The BWV ³ catalogue dates the Mass in F major, BWV 233.2, to probably late 1730s; the Mass in A Major, BWV 234, to about 1738 with repeats in 1743-46 and 1748-49; the Mass in G minor, BWV 235 also to the late 1730s; and the Mass in G Major,BWV 236, to its 1738 autograph. Although the contrafaction materials are taken almost entirely from sacred cantatas, "a comparison of the original and revised movements hardly supports an accusation of haste," says Terry (Ibid.: 30).

With their consistency in form and musical treatment, the set of four Short Masses constitutes a collection appropriate for both the Catholic and Lutheran liturgy. "The liturgical requirements at the Leipzig churches for the principal morning service on major feast days (Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, Whitsunday, etc.) included the performance of a polyphonic Mass typically consisting of Kyrie and Gloria only, according to Lutheran tradition," says Christoph Wolff in his recent Christological (Messiah Cycle) study.⁴ "The Latin Masses, embodying reworkings of sacred cantata movements and originating in the mid-1730s alongside the oratorios (also from extant, secular models) offers a fascinating parallel. The composers objective was once again to augment the repertorial choices available for the major church holidays," says Wolff (Ibid.: 269), and involving 'substantial passages of new compositions," says Wolff (Ibid.: 278). "There is little question that the Mass opus was meant to stand on its own as a coherent grouping, taking its place among the very finest of Bach's vocal compositions," he concludes 9Ibid.: 278). One suggestion, still debated, is that Count Franz Anton von Sporck (Baroque Composers and Musicians), High Commissioner for Bohemia and a Bach acquaintance beginning in 1725, commissioned the collection for his chapel in Lissa, says Carl de Nys in his liner notes to the Erato recording.⁵ An advocate of the valve horn and deeply religious, he also was an advocate of a complete musical Mass. An overview of the four Short Masses is given in Stancliffe's Unpeeling Bach (Ibid.: 274-78). "While the four Lutheran Masses do not form part of the 'Oratorio Cycle', they share a number of similar features," dating from the same period (1735-38), having a concise form (one-movement Kyrie and five-movement Gloria), and derived from sacred cantata movements. Individually, the Mass in A, BWV 234, has a pastoral character of transverse flutes, "Bach's most eloquent representation of the theology of the incarnation" (Ibid.: 275), suitable for the Christmas feast]; the Mass in F, BWV 233, has "regale overtones" appropriate for Epiphany (Ibid.: 277); the Mass in G minor, BWV 235 and the Mass in G Major, BWV 236, have the conventional instrumental scoring of oboes and strings and are appropriate for Easter Sunday. A comprehensive analysis of the four Short Masses is found at BCW.

Feast Day Oratorio Genesis

While the four Lutheran Masses were assembled after the oratorios were compiled as a cycle beginning in the mid-1730s, these companion pieces constitute a liturgical and biblical compendium of appropriate Christological works that can be woven into an extended festival Mass as modeled on the Bach Lutheran Epiphany Mass in Leipzig c.1740, by Robin A.Leaver and Paul McCreesh ⁶ (BCW).

Liner note topics involve: 1. "Religion and Music in Lei," growth of churches and municipal musical tradition; 2. "Liturgy and Music in Leipzig," the extensive liturgical ordering of the festival Hauptgottesdienst (Main Service) and the provision of traditional and special music with extensive bibliographical sources; 3. "Hymnody and Hymnals," hymnody as fundamental to Lutheran worship with chorales and Congregational responses. Other key service ingredients included "The Role of the Organ" as essential; "The Sermon" as the central part of the Service of the Word; and the use of "Concerted Music," both vocal and instrumental in support of the liturgy, and the cantata (or oratorio as greater cantata) representing the musical sermon with other music before and after the sermon and during communion.

Italianate Easter Oratorio

In the mid-1730s, Bach had sufficient musical materials to begin shaping the main service central music using cantata materials for re-purposing the greater cantata or German oratorio into a full cycle of feast day music. Bach's initial Easter Oratorio, BWV 249.3 as a cantata was premiered on Easter Sunday (1 April 1725, Bach Digital), based on the Shepherd's Cantata, BWV 249.1(a), a vocal serenade also known as a drammi per musica and Bach's first. With four mythological characters and lacking gospel narrative and chorales found in a German Oratorio, this birthday tribute to Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weißenfels on 23 February 1725, is an Italianate oratorio parody (new text underlay) with the emphasis on alternating arias and recitatives with tutti ensembles in 24 brief movements (BCW). On 6 April 1738, Bach repurposed it as a German Oratorio, BWV 249.4 (Bach Digital), the first full score manuscript to bear the title ‘Oratorio’ and replacing the biblical names of the SATB characters, with only the voice parts and making the two ensembles into choruses with trumpets and drums in c.1743-46, with a final performance on 6 April 1749, paired with the St. John Passion, BWV 245.5 two days prior. Previously, virtually all of the major vocal music that was performed during the 1739 Leipzig Reformation Jubilee was based upon previously-existing models of parody works of Bach or two extended works of his predecessor, Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722, Wikipedia), one being the Magnifcat in C Major (Amazon.com) with the four Christmas interpolations also found in Bach's Magnificat in E-Flat, BWV 243.1: "Vom Himmel hoch,""Freut euch," "Gloria in excelsis Deo" angels' hymn of praise, and "Virga Jesse," cradle song beside the manger. Traditionally, the Magnificat was sung in Leipzig at Vespers on Saturdays and Sundays and Bach's was premiered on 2 July 1723 for the Marian Feast of the Visitation, without the interpolations (Bach Digital). The other Kuhnau major work was his inaugural St. Mark Passion Oratorio of 11 April 1721 (mostly lost) for Good Friday Vespers, to alternate between St. Thomas and St. Nicholas churches.

Bach's Large-Scale Vocal Works

Following the Dresden tradition of musical Historiae and the newly established Leipzig tradition of the Passion Oratorio, Bach when he became Leipzig Cantor in 1723 began to develop his Lutheran calling of a "well-ordered church music to the glory of God" at every opportunity. His first Historia, on his first Good Friday, 7 April 1724, was the St. John Passion, BWV 245.1, which "reveals his musical skills, theological understanding, and spiritual depth in equal measure," says David Stancliffe in Unpeeling Bach (Ibid.: 239). This triumvirate of Bachian ingredients, especially his understanding of John's theology, was essential to his systematic revision of subsequent versions as it remained a work in progress — "that would ensure that the work was always being thought through and so heard afresh." Bach's model for John involved music from his 2017 Weimar-Gotha Oratorio Passion" (see BCW: Contents, click on "Bach’s Weimar-Gotha Passion (1717)"; the text of the three arias in the 1725 version, BWV 245.2, is now attributed to Christoph Birkmann, Bach student (BCW). Textually, in lieu of a librettist, Bach relied on poetic paraphrases of the Passion gospel in the manner of the so-called Brockes oratorio Passion, the most popular Passion treatment in Protestant Germany (BCW). The various versions of the St. John Passion have distinctive gospel and textual associations. The 1724 version, BWV 245.1 is a Johannine account with two insertions from Matthew's account of Peter weeping bitterly at his betrayal of Jesus and the rending of the veil of the Jerusalem Temple by the earthquake at Jesus' death. This is what is known as the Christus Victor concept of sacrifice for atonement rather than the synoptic gospel of the Anselm sacrifice as the satisfaction theory of redemption. The 1725 version of the St. John Passion, BWV 245.2 (BCW), substitutes opening and closing chorale-laden choruses and arias that emphasizes sacrifice and redemption. The 1730 version, BWV 245.3 removes the 1725 additions and the two Matthew insertions, thereby creating a true Christus Victor John Passion and bolstering it with the final 1739/49 versions, BWV 245.4 (incomplete) and BWV 245.5, bring changes to the poetic texts and richer chorale harmonizations, while textually returning to the first version, BWV 245.1. Thus, with the revisions, "the work was being thought through and so heard afresh," says Stancliffe (Ibid.: 239) while "the latest was not always the most definitive."

Diverse Origins of St. John Passion

Most significant were the enriching, diverse literary origins of the St. John Passion (BCW). The historia tradition of the Saxon Court — "the power of narrative and the dramatic thread to a work," says Stancliffe (Ibid.: 255) — "seems to have been awakened by his experience of setting the engaged Passion narrative for the Good Friday vesper services from 1724 onwards." The Passion Oratorio was performed almost annually and each had varying versions: St. John Passion, BWV 245 (at least three), St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (at least two), St. Mark Passion, BWV 247 (at least two), with all three having forerunners or models: St. John Passion, BWV 245 (BCW, the Weimar-Gotha Passion (music) and Brockes Passion (poetic texts); St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (BCW), the Passionsoratorium (BCW, Bachfest Leipzig); and St. Mark Passion, BWV 247 (BCW, core music from Funeral Ode BWV 198/1, 3, 5, 8, 10; YouTube). The only other Bach music performed on a regular basis were the annual Leipzig Town Council installation on the Monday following St. Bartholomew's birthday, 25 August. "In the early 1730s, Bach's focus on creating music that might be part of his project to provide a "well-ordered church music" shifted from composing Sunday cantatas that fill the gaps in — or added to — his three annual cycles to a wider canvass, exploring how the best of his music might find a less limited focus," saStancliffe (Ibid.). "To achieve this, Bach was planning to create a set of three narrative-driven 'oratorios' to celebrate Christmas, Easter, and Ascension (or was it to include Pentecost, and so become four?) to complement the more reflective cantatas for those feasts that his contract with the Leipzig authorities had specified." "His models were not only the Passions but also the mini-dramas that he had been producing as secular birthday greetings or anniversary odes with dramatic gestures, rather mire in the manner of an Edwardian house party," Stancliffe says (Ibid.: 256). For these drammi per musica (Wikipedia), Bach also had a dedicated ensemble and venue, the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, (BCW) whose directorship Bach assumed in 1729 (to 1737), with weekly performances at Café Zimmermann and Gardens. Sacred music was performed in the two major churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, as well as the Paulinerkirche university church for major feasts. The other major ingredient was a competent librettist for the madrigalian poetic passages in the choruses, arias, and accompanied recitatives. Bach began collaborating with Picander in early 1725, building on the latter's connections to the Saxon Court faction on the town council who favored dramatic music, especially for Saxon Court visits. Bach also had a close relationship with his personal confessor, Christian Weiss Sr. (BCW), pastor of St. Thomas. Weiss and the lead pastor at St.Nicholas, Salomon Deyling, also Consistory Superintendent, provided many of the sermons to accompany Bach's service cantatas as musical sermons, according to Martin Petzoldt.⁷ The key to the successful utilization of texts was the integration and balance of the poetic choruses and solos with the appropriate chorales and the biblical narrative of the narrator, dramatic characters, and the crowd of turbae choruses. Key to the large works' successful structure was Bach's use of symmetry and the palindrome (mirror) form.

Music of Praise, Thanksgiving: Special Services

Beginning in 1730, Bach as Leipzig music director began providing special music for community observances, ranging from religious services such as the 200th Anniversary of the Augsburg Confession (BWV 190.2(a), 1140=Anh. 3, 120.3(b), 1139.1=Anh. 4), 25-27 June 1730 and a Thanksgiving Service for the War of Polish Succession, 6 July 1734 (BWV 248a) to major observances during the 1739 Leipzig Reformation Jubilee (Pentecost Oratorio, 25 May; 31 October, BWV 80; and the Peace of Dresden at the conclusion of the 2nd Silesian War, 25 December 1745 (BWV 191, 232 Sanctus), repeat 9 January 1746 (details, BCW). Bach's first major work in Leipzig in 1723 was the Magnificat in E-Flat, BWV 243.1(a), serving dual purpose at the Marian Feast of the Visitation (2 July) and Christmas Day (25 December) with four choral interpolations. The second version in D Major, BWV 243.2, was presented on 2 July 1733 on the Feast of the Visitation, when the mourning period for Augustus the Strong was over. The music was appropriate for both the three major feast days as well as the three Marian feast days. The work had an underlying chiastic (pallindrome mirror) structure.

Christmas Oratorio: Six Festive Cantatas

In 1728-29, Bach ceased presenting cantatas weekly as he had done in his earlier years in Leipzig beginning in 1723. The 1728-29 calendar showed that Christmas Day was held on Saturday with the Sunday after New Year's on 2 January 1729 (BCW, BCW). The next Christmas season with this ambitious, festive performance pattern of the three days of Christmas, New Year's, the Sunday after New Year's, and Epiphany — six feasts over 12 days with extended cantatas (gospel narrative, chorales, accompanied recitatives, and "scenas" — arias with commentary chorus) was repeated at Christmas Season 1734-35 with the Christmas Oratorio (BCW, BCW). Thus Bach began to envision a Christmas Oratorio with the Sunday after New Year's repeat in a pattern that was itself repeated in the 1734-35 Christmas Season. Thus his first German Oratorio format for Christmas was conceived before Bach began composing profane drammi per musica to provide materials for repurposing through parody of madrigalian choruses and arias

The scope of multi-day performances is likened to those performances during Holy Week of the four gospel settings of the Passion story, as well as Christmas Markets celebrating the six Christmas feasts individually in clustered Protestant German towns. The dramatic quality of the oratorio is bolstered by Bach's use of chorale quotation during an accompanied recitative love duet in the first part (large cantata Nativity) of the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.2/7 soprano (chorale melody) and bass (accompanied recitative) with oboe and oboe d'amore. "Another form of love duet are the three original chorale-recitative dialogues, sung by the soprano with the bass singing a poetic commentary. Their incipits are: (no. 7), Soprano, “Er ist auf Erden kommen arm” (He has come on Earth in poverty, YouTube), bass, “Wer will die Liebe recht erhöhn” (Who will rightly extol the love); No. 38, Bass, “Immanuel, o süßes Wort! / Mein Jesus heißt mein Hort” (Emmanuel, O sweet word! / My Jesus is my refuge, YouTube), Soprano trope, “Jesu, du mein liebstes Leben, / Meiner Seelen Bräutigam” (Jesus, you who are my dearest life, / My soul's bridegroom); and No. 40, Bass, “Wohlan, dein Name soll allein / In meinem Herzen sein!” (Well then, your name alone / Shall be in my heart, YouTube), Soprano trope, Jesu, meine Freud und Wonne, / Meine Hoffnung, Schatz und Teil” (Jesus, my joy and delight / My hope, treasure and share). The last two chorales are found in the Johann Rist 1642 collection, Himmlische Lieder. These last two dialogues (BCW English translation Francis Browne) are found at the beginning of the Christmas Oratorio, Part 4, the Feast of the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus (Emmanuel, God with us), BCW: scroll down to [39] 3. Recitative [Bass] and chorale[Soprano] and 5 (41). Recitative [Bass] and Chorale [Soprano].

Passion Oratorio Dramatic Scenes

The German Passion Oratorio format with its multi-day settings had a profound influence strengthening the dramatic character of the feast day oratorios, especially Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.2. For example, the initial settings of the St. John Passion, BWV 245.1, and the St.. MatthewPassion, BWV 244.1, have dramatic scenas during Jesus' death on the cross: the John Passion has No. 32, Bass Aria ("Mein teurer Heiland, laß dich fragen," My beloved Saviour, let me ask you) with Chorale (4-part, "Jesu, der du warest tot,"Jesus, you were dead), music YouTube; the Matthew Passion has No. 60, alto aria ("Sehet, Jesus hat die Hand," See Jesus had stretched out his hands), with SATB chorus commentary (YouTube). The St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.1 opens with a chorale fantasia chorus with three musical elements, 1. Chorus "Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen" (Come, you daughters, help me to lament), with 2. SATB chorus commentary (m26), followed by 3. the boys' soprano in ripieno (m30), "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" (O Lamb of God, innocent), music YouTube. These mixed ensemble commentaries had their roots in Italian Opera Seria, which also providedthe formats for arias and recitatives in the cantatas. There were occasional mixed commentary in the form of chorale dialogue (BWV 58/1, "Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II," YouTube, and BWV 60/1, YouTube) and chorale cantatas with chorale and recitative (BWV 93/2, YouTube: 6:05)), and a complex chorale chorus with recitative and second chorale chorus (BWV 95/1, YouTube).

Passion Oratorio Influences on Feast Day Oratorios

Thus, the German Passion Oratorio format had a direct influence on the feast day oratorio, says Stancliffe (Ibid.: 261), combining the elements of the Passions — a biblical historia narrative sung by an Evangelist [tenor] with turba {crowd] choruses, interspersed with chorales, providing allusive links to Lutheran liturgical worship and the reflective free poetry of arias and ariosos — with the tested form of the cantata. This makes the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.2, the first of Bach's oratorio compositions and clearly conceived as a whole in spite of being presented in the form of six cantatas for six separate days over the twelve days of Christmas," says Stancliffe (Ibid.: 261). Its Bachian predecessors as dramatic music originally developed from Köthen vocal serenades, and Leipzig drammi per musica, with antecedents in North German Abendmusiken and Oratorio Passions (gospel) and Passion Oratorios (poetic), see BCW. In his Christmas Oratorio, Bach used materials from two gospels, Luke (Nativity, Annunciation, Adoration), and the Matthew cluster of New Year's Day, Sunday after New Year's, and Feast of Epiphany (Naming of Jesus and the Wise Men). Bolstering the dramatic character is pastoral music (flutes, oboes, horns) in Parts 2 (Annunciation), Part 4 (Naming), Part V (Magi following Star), and Part VI (Flight to Egypt). "The models for the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio were clearly in Bach's mind before he planned the Christmas Oratorio, so it seems that the three were conceived together," says Stancliffe (Ibid.: 269). "The Ascension Oratorio was begun on the same stack of paper that he bought in late 1734 and on which he wrote the Christmas Oratorio." "The Easter and Ascension Oratorios were not premiered together until 1738," says Stancliffe (Ibid.), Easter on 6 April 1738 and Ascension on 15 May 1738. The Easter Oratorio, BWV 249.3, as a cantata "was first heard on 1 April 1725," he observes (Ibid.), a parody of a Köthen vocal serenade, BWV 249.1, text by Picander. "Had Bach and Picander prepared the parodied Easter version (BWV 249.3), asks Stancliffe (Ibid.: 270). Although there is no documentation regarding the librettist of the Bach Christmas, Easter, and Ascension oratorios, scholars agree that Picander was responsible for texting all three, given that he had authored most of the drammi per musica "operatic," storytelling materials parodied in the oratorios. The 1738 version, BWV 249.4, adds the title "Oratorio" without the role relationships of the four mythological characters. Finally, in his final, revised version of 1743, BWV 249.5, Bach dropped the four names and rewrote the secular opening duet movement as an SATB chorus. "With the new libretto planned from the outset, Bach had only to compose recitatives for" movements vi, viii, ix. during Lent 1743. The other changes are largely instrumental, substituting solo flute and oboe d'amore, Stancliffe points out (Ibid. 270f). Finally, as he was want to do, Bach conducted a revival of the Johannine 1725 dual account of the Passion and Resurrection, presenting in 1749 the St. John Passion, BWV 245. 4, on 4 April and the Easter Oratorio, BWV 249.5, on 6 April (BCW). Although Bach was aware of Heinrich Schütz's three-day Resurrection History, SWV 50 (YouTube), he was content to retain the Italianate single-day version which Stancliffe (Ibid.: 271) calls "this Easter operetta," closest to its secular model, lacking the gospel narrative (only paraphrases), reflective aria (commentary to text), and a chorale "to anchor this drama to the churchgoer's liturgical experience." Concludes Stancliffe (Ibid.: 272): "The pre-echoes of Easter in Bach's St. John Passion lead us to expect more drama when it comes to Easter Day; but we have to wait until the Symbolum in the Mass in B Minor from the late 1740s for that."

Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11

Following the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.2, of 1734-35, Bach turned his compositional efforts to an Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11. A Pentecost Oratorio would have to wait until the Reformation Bicentennial Jubilee of 1739 as Bach used the basic movement format in the six "cantatas" of the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.2 to shape a two-part "greater cantata" for the Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11 (music, YouTube). An Ascension Oratorio was a Christological transitional work between the established Easter Resurrection story and the Pentecost descent of the Holy Spirit and birth of the Christian Church. The first pairing was Philipp Heinrich Erlebach's Ascension-Pentecost Oratorio of c1690 at the Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt Court, "Die hocherfreuliche Geschicht Der Himmelfahrt Christi und Sendung des Hiligen Geistes" (The most joyful story of the Ascension of Christ and mission of the Holy Spirit). Two decades later, Bach's predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, composed three Ascension cantatas from 1710 to 1717, with the most likely Ascension Oratorio being "Ihr Himmel jubilirt von oben" (Your Heaven rejoices from above) with full orchestra. Bach contemporary Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (Wikipedia), cantor at Saxe-Merseberg, composed the Ascension Oratorio, Die Himmelfahrt Christi. A competitor for the Leipzig cantor's position, Kauffmann and Bach may have had at least indirect contacts during the following years and his galant style appears to have influenced Bach's Clavierübung III, says John Butt. The model for the two-part, 11-movement BWV 11 is BWV 248/6, the feast of the Epiphany, adapted from BWV 248.1=248a, presented on 6 January 1735 (BCW; scroll down to 248/6, "Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben"). There are three parodied movements in BWV 11: No. 1, chorus "Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen" from BWV 1162=Anh. 18/1 (1732), aria "Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden" (Happy day, long hoped-for hours); No. 4, aria "Ach, bleibe dich" from BWV 1163/3, aria "Entfernet euch, ihr kalten Herzen"; No. 8 aria "Jesu, Deine Gnaden blicke" from BWV 1163/5, aria "Unschuld Kleinrod Reiner Seelen"). The BWV 1163=Anh. 196 secular wedding serenade, "Auf, süß-entzückende Gewalt," of 1725 for a Leipzig couple with connections to the Saxon Court faction on the Leipzg City Council. The closing chorale chorus of BWV 11, "Wenn soll ist doch geschen" (When shall it ever happen), is a fair copy of Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer's Ascension chorale "Gott fähret auf gen Himmel." "Perhaps this large-structured chorale treatment is also baed on an earlier work," says the Marianne Helms/Arthur Hirsch liner notes, translation Linda Paula Horowitz, Hänssler-Verlag, Neuhäusen-Stuttgart, Die Bach Kantate Vol. 7). Another connection in the Christological transitional Ascension Oratorio is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's descriptive oratorio of 1774, "Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu" (The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus) to a Karl Wilhelm Ramler text. Two other Bach sons composed liturgical music for the Ascension feast: Wilhelm Friedemann in Halle, "Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen," BR F 11 (c1750, Johann Jakob Rambach lyrics), and "Wo geht die Lebensreise hin?," BR F 12 (Johann Friedrich Möhring lyrics), and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (so-called "Buckeburg Bach"), "Groß und mächtig, stark und prächtig," Wf XIV/8 (1777, Bach Digital). Friedemann's performance of his BR F 11 was presented c1755-58 on the same program with his father's Ascension Cantata BWV 43, which he had inherited. The Ascension Oratorio uses as its narrative basis not the verbatim biblical readings from the gospels of Mark and Luke, as well as the beginning of Luke's sequel (the Acts of the Apostles), but from the Reformation Easter Evangelienharmonie (Gospel Harmony) of Martin Luther collaborator, Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1558), as found in Movements 2, 5, 7, and 9.

ENDNOTES

¹ David Stancliffe, Unpeeling Bach (self-publishing, no location: The Real Press, The Real Press: 2024: 256), Amazon.co.uk, BCW: scroll down to "David Stancliffe wrote (April 15, 2025): Unpeeling Bach."
² Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (New York NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2013 Updated Edition from 2000; 367), Amazon.com.
³ Charles S. Terry, Bach: The Magnificat, Lutheran Masses and Motets (London: Oxford University Press, 1929: 25-33).
⁴ Christoph Wolff, Ch. 7 "In Critical Survey and Review Mode: Revisions, Transcriptions, Reworkings," in Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2020: 270), see BCW: scroll down to "Late 1730s Survey/Review: Organ, Concerto, Miss, WTC II Collections," "Kyrie-Gloria Masses for Feast Days"; Amazon.com.
⁵ Carl de Kys, liner notes to 1994 Erato recording of the "Bach Missae Breves" (maquette Mister Brown: Sainte-Catherine de Sienne, 1994: 18), YouTube.
⁶ Robin A. Leaver, Paul McCreesh, liner notes to the Archiv production, "Bach Epiphany Mass" (Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon, 1998: 9), BCW).
⁷ Martin Petzoldt, Bach-Kommentar, Theologisch-musikalische Kommentierung der geistlichen Vokalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs, Band I: Die geistlichen Kantaten des 1. bis 27. Trinitatis-Sonntages. (Kassel u.a.: Bärenreiter: 2004), 726 Seiten, ISBN 3-7618-1741-X; Band II: Die geistlichen Kantaten vom 1. Advent bis zum Trinitatisfest, 2007; Band III: Die Passionen, Motetten, Messen und Magnificat, geistliche Kantaten für Kasualien und ohne Bestimmung, 2014; Band IV: Messen, Magnificat, Motteten, Register der Komentierten Werke, Gesamtregister aller Bände.
⁸ John Butt, "J. S. Bach and G. F. Kauffmann: Reflections on Bach's Later Style," in Bach Studies, 2 ed. Daniel R. Melamed (Cambridge 1995: 47-61).
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To Come: The genesis of Bach's Lost Pentecost Oratorio continues in 1735 with the beginning of the Clavierübung III German Organ Mass and Catechism.