Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248

Johann Sebastian Bach’ s Christmas Oratorio, in six parts, each with a cantata intended for performance in a church service on a feast day of the Christmas period, was written during 1733 and 1734. It’s a particularly sophisticated and complex example of parody music, with a likely key collaborator for the text, Christian Friedrich Henrici. The running time for the entire oratorio is around three hours. The first part (for Christmas Day) describes the Birth of Jesus, the second (for 26 December) the annunciation to the shepherds, the third (for 27 December) the adoration of the shepherds, the fourth (for New Year's Day) the circumcision and naming of Jesus, the fifth (for the first Sunday after New Year) the journey of the Magi, and the sixth (for Epiphany) the adoration of the Magi.
 
Like for most of his German-language church music, Bach used Lutheran hymns, and their Lutheran chorale tunes, in his Christmas Oratorio. The first chorale tune appears in the 5th movement of Part I: it is the tune known as Herzlich tut mich verlangen, that is, the same hymn tune which Bach used in his St Matthew Passion for setting several stanzas of Paul Gerhardt's "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" ("O Sacred Head, Now Wounded"). The same melody reappears in the last movement of the oratorio (No. 64, closing chorale of Part VI). In the oratorio there is, however, no association with the pain and suffering evoked in the Passion. Martin Luther's 1539 "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" melody appears in three chorales: twice on a text by Paul Gerhardt in Part II of the oratorio, and the first time, in the closing chorale of Part I, with the 13th stanza of Luther's hymn as text. 

The Christmas Oratorio is exceptional in that it contains a few hymn settings, or versions of hymn tunes, for which there is no known earlier source than Bach's composition: 

• The chorale melody used in No. 33 of the oratorio appears to be based on Georg Ebeling's 1666 "Warum sollt ich mich denn grämen" hymn tune.  The Zahn number of Ebeling's original is 6456a. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio version of the tune is Zahn 6462 first printed in 1769 as No. 143 in the second volume of Bach's four-part chorales published by Birnstiel. 
• No. 38 and 40 set the first stanza of Johann Rist's "Jesu, du mein liebstes Leben" hymn text: the setting is Bach's – it is not based on any known pre-existing hymn tune. 
• The tune used for Johann Rist's "Hilf, Herr Jesu, lass gelingen" hymn text in No. 42 of the oratorio appears to be an original composition by Bach. It is mentioned as such in the last volume of Johannes Zahn's Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, as first of four late additions to his catalogue of German Evangelical hymn tunes.

 
There are very few known hymn tunes by Bach (he used Lutheran hymn tunes in the large majority of his sacred compositions, but rarely one of his own invention): apart from what can be found in the Christmas Oratorio, there appears to be one, partly inspired by a pre-existing melody, in the motet Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229(composed before 1731–32), and at least one entirely by Bach, "Vergiss mein nicht, vergiss mein nicht", BWV 505, in Schemellis Gesangbuch (published in 1736). 
 
Like for his other oratorios, and his Passion settings, Bach employed a narrative based on the Gospel in his Christmas Oratorio. The Gospel narrative of this oratorio followed, to a certain extent, the respective Gospel readings of the church services where the six cantatas of the Christmas Oratorio were to be performed for the first time. The six services of the Christmas season 1734–35 where the oratorio's cantatas were to be performed had these Gospel readings:

1. Christmas Day: Luke 2:1 – 14 (theme: Nativity, Annunciation to the shepherds and the angels' song).
2. Second Day of Christmas: Luke 2:15 – 20 (theme: Adoration of the Shepherds).
3. Third Day of Christmas: John 1:1 – 14 – prologue of the Gospel of John, also known as Hymn to the Word.
4. New Year's Day: Luke 2:21 (theme: Circumcision of Jesus)
5. Sunday after New Year: Matthew 2:13 – 23 (theme: the Flight into Egypt)
6. Epiphany: Matthew 2:1 – 12 (theme: Wise Men From the East)

As usual in most of his oratorios, and all of his Passions, the Evangelist character enunciated the Gospel text in sung recitatives, except the passages in direct speech, which were sung by soloists or choral groups representing the characters who spoke these texts according to the Gospel narrative. The Gospel text included by Bach in his six Christmas Oratorio cantatas consists of:

1. Luke 2:1, 3–7, i.e. part of the Christmas Day reading.
2. Luke 2:8–14, i.e. second half of the Christmas Day reading.
3. Luke 2:15–20, i.e. text of the Second Day of Christmas Gospel reading.
4. Luke 2:21, i.e. the New Year's Day Gospel reading
5. Matthew 2:1–6, i.e. part of the Gospel reading for the Epiphany feast
6. Matthew 2:7–12, i.e. second half of the Gospel reading for Epiphany

 
The Gospel readings for the Third Day of Christmas (Prologue of the Gospel of John), and for the Sunday after New Year (the Flight to Egypt) are not directly used in the Christmas Oratorio.
 
Bach expresses the unity of the whole work within the music itself, in part through his use of key signatures. Parts I and III are written in the keys of D major, part II in its subdominant key G major. Parts I and III are similarly scored for exuberant trumpets, while the Pastoral Part II (referring to the Shepherds) is, by contrast, scored for woodwind instruments and does not include an opening chorus. Part IV is written in F major (the relative key to D minor) and marks the furthest musical point away from the oratorio's opening key, scored for horns. Bach then embarks upon a journey back to the opening key, via the dominant A major of Part V to the jubilant re-assertion of D major in the final part, lending an overall arc to the piece. To reinforce this connection, between the beginning and the end of the work, Bach re-uses the chorale melody of Part I's "Wie soll ich dich empfangen" in the final chorus of Part VI, "Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen"; this choral melody is the same as of "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden", which Bach used five times in his St Matthew Passion.
 
Here are four albums:

Bach, J.S.: Christmas Oratorio. Stephen Layton with Katherine Watson (soprano), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Gilchrist (tenor) & Matthew Brook (bass), and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Trinity College Choir Cambridge. Release Date: 4 Nov 2013. Label: Hyperion. Catalogue No: CDA68031-2. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 88.2 kHz, 24 bit).
Award:
Presto Recording of the Week, 2 December 2013.
 
Bach, J.S.: Christmas Oratotio. Nikolaus Harnoncourt with Christine Schäfer (soprano), Bernarda Fink (alto), Werner Güra (tenor) & Gerald Finley & Christian Gerhaher (bass), and Concentus Musicus Wien & Arnold Schoenberg Chor. Release Date: 6 Oct 2008. Label: Deutsch Harmonia Mundi. Catalogue No: 88697333212. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 44.1 kHz, 24 bit).
Award:
Gramophone Magazine, December 2007, Disc of the Month.
 
Bach, J.S.: Christmas Oratorio. Harry Christophers with Lynda Russell (soprano), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (contralto), Mark Padmore (tenor, Evangelist), Michael George (bass, Herod), Libby Crabtree (angel, Echo), and The Sixteen, The Symphony of Harmony and Invention. Release Date: 3 Nov 2003. Label: Coro. Catalogue No: COR16017. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit).
Awards:
Presto Favourites, Recommended Recording.
Radio 3, Building a Library, December 2005, First Choice.
 
Bach, J.S.: Christmas Oratorio. John Butt with Mary Bevan (soprano), Clare Wilkinson (alto), Nicholas Mulroy (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass) - Cantatas 1, 3, 6), Joanne Lunn (soprano), Ciara Hendrick (mezzo), Thomas Hobbs (tenor), Konstantin Wolff (bass) - Cantatas 2, 4, 5, and Dunedin Consort.Release Date: 21 Oct 2016. Label: Linn. Catalogue No: CKD499. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 96 kHz, 24 bit).
Awards:
Presto Recording of the Week, 2 December 2016.
Presto Recording of the Year, Finalist 2016.

Reference:
Bossuyt, I. (2019). Christmas Oratorio, Wikipedia