Das neugeborne Kindelein, BWV 122

History, hymn and text#

Bach composed the cantata in his second year as in Leipzig for the Sunday after Christmas. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Galatians, “through Christ we are free from the law” (), and from the Gospel of Luke, Simeon and Anna talking to Mary (). This hymn is extremely short, with three stanzas of only four lines each, and reflects the turn of the year more prominently than the birth of Jesus mentioned in the first line. This was suitable as the Sunday after Christmas fell on the last day of the calendar year in 1724. The unknown librettist made no effort to connect to the Gospel reading. Bach first performed the cantata on 31 December 1724.

Structure and scoring#

Bach structured the cantata in six movements, beginning with a chorale fantasia, followed by a series of alternating arias and recitatives, and concluded by a chorale. He scored it for four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of three recorders (Rc), two oboes, taille (Ta), two violin parts (Vl), a viola part (Va), and basso continuo (Bc) with organ. In the following table of the movements, the scoring, keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr’s standard work , using the symbol for common time (4/4). The continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.

Movements#

The opening chorus is a chorale fantasia with a long opening and closing ritornello The soprano recitative is accompanied by a simple recorder trio, a combination designed to represent the “aura of the angels”. The “rather muted” music of the first chorus and the bass aria (the opening line of which translates as “O mortals, ye who sin daily”) have been described by one writer as giving listeners a “moral hangover” after the possible overindulgence of the Christmas holidays.

Publication#

The cantata was published in 1878 with other church cantatas as part of the first complete edition of Bach’s works (Joh. Seb. Bach’s Werke). The editor was Alfred Dörffel.

Recordings#

• Wiener Kammerchor / Vienna State Opera Orchestra. J. S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 122 and BWV 133. Vanguard Bach Guild, 1952.

Series#

The cantata is available as part of series:

Recordings of the complete Bach cantatas#

• Frankfurter Kantorei / Bach-Collegium Stuttgart. Die Bach Kantate. Hänssler. 1972 (rereleased as part of a 6-CD set “Advent and Christmas Cantatas” in 2009). Helen Donath, Helen Watts, Adalbert Kraus, Niklaus Tuller.
• the pioneering set using period instruments on Teldec (Vol. 30, Das Kantatenwerk). Nikolaus Harnoncourt. 1981
• the set conducted by Ton Koopman (Vol. 13, Bach cantatas. 2003)
• the projected set on ATMA Classique (Bach: Cantates pour la Nativité / Intégrale des cantates sacrées Vol. 4). Eric J. Milnes, Montréal Baroque, Monika Mauch, Matthew White, Charles Daniels, Harry van der Kamp. 2007

Recordings of several cantatas#

• Christmas contatas (J. S. Bach: Cantates de Nöel). Philippe Herreweghe. Collegium Vocale Gent. Harmonia Mundi, 1995.

External links#

• BWV 122 Das neugeborne Kindelein: English translation, University of Vermont
• Luke Dahn: BWV 122.6 bach-chorales.com