Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63
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Christen, ätzet diesen Tag BWV 63 |
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| Christmas cantata by J. S. Bach | |
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| Performed |
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| Movements | 7 |
| Cantata text | Johann Michael Heineccius? |
| Vocal | SATB choir and solo |
| Instrumental |
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Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (Christians, engrave this day),BWV 63, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the Christmas cantata for the First Day of Christmas, possibly in 1713 for the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle. He performed it again for his first Christmas as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, on 25 December 1723.
The cantata is Bach's earliest extant cantata for Christmas, possibly composed in Weimar as early as 1713. The text of the cantata, which echoes theologians in Halle, suggests that it was composed with Halle's Liebfrauenkirche in mind, in 1713, when Bach applied to be organist of this church, or in 1716, when he was involved in rebuilding its organ. The text is possibly by that church's 'Pastor primarius' Johann Michael Heineccius, who also wrote the libretti for other Bach cantatas definitely written for Halle and had favoured Bach's application for organist at the church as a successor to Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Musicologist Christoph Wolff deducts from the "lavish forces" of four trumpets, timpani and three oboes on top of the strings, an unprecedented scoring in Bach's cantatas, that the work was not composed for the intimate Schloßkirche in Weimar. He dates it as 1714 or 1715. According to John Eliot Gardiner, the first performance may have taken place in Weimar in the church of St. Peter und Paul, performed by the combined musicians of the ducal Capelle and the town.
The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle of Titus, "God's mercy appeared" () or from Isaiah, "Unto us a child is born" (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the Nativity, Annunciation to the shepherds and the angels' song (). The poet wrote a text centered in symmetry around a recitative, framed by two duets, two more recitatives and two equal chorus movements. The lack of a closing chorale, which closes most of Bach's later cantatas, has raised the question if the work is based on a secular cantata.
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