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Christmas Oratorio
The ''Christmas Oratorio'' (German: ''Weihnachtsoratorium''), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 and incorporates music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a largely lost church cantata, BWV 248a. The date is confirmed in Bach's autograph manuscript. The next complete public performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The ''Christmas Oratorio'' is a particularly sophisticated example of parody music. The author of the text is unknown, although a likely collaborator was Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander). The work belongs to a group of three oratorios written in 1734 and 1735 for major feasts, the other two works being the ''Asce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BWV 248 Autograph
The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a, was published in 1998. The catalogue groups compositions by genre. Even within a genre, compositions are not necessarily collated chronologically. For example, BWV 992 was composed many years before BWV 1. BWV numbers were assigned to 1,126 compositions in the 20th century, and more have been added to the catalogue in the 21st century. The Anhang (Anh.; Annex) of the BWV lists over 200 lost, doubtful and spurious compositions. History The first edition of the ''Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis'' was published in 1950. It allocated a unique number to every known composition by Bach. Wolfgang Schmieder, the editor of that catalogue, grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BG) edition f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magi
Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period, refer to a magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, ''mágos'' (μάγος) was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek '' goēs'' (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astronomy/astrology, alchemy, and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for Pseudo-Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weimar Cantata (Bach)
Johann Sebastian Bach worked at the ducal court in Weimar from 1708 to 1717. The composition of cantatas for the (court chapel) on a regular monthly basis started with his promotion to ' in March 1714. Church cantatas From 1714 to 1717 Bach was commissioned to compose one church cantata a month. His goal was to compose a complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year within four years. In the course of almost four years there he thus covered most occasions of the liturgical year. The first version of ''Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich'', BWV 1136 (formerly ), a lost cantata the libretto of which was written by Georg Christian Lehms and published in 1711 for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, may have been composed in Weimar. Before 1714 Apart from some Weimar cycle cantatas which may have been composed before they were adopted into that cycle ( BWV 18, 21, 54 and 199): *Lost council election cantatas for Mühlhausen: ** 1709: second council election cantata for Müh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Cantata
A Christmas cantata or Nativity cantata is a cantata, music for voice or voices in several movements, for Christmas. The importance of the feast inspired many composers to write cantatas for the occasion, some designed to be performed in church services, others for concert or secular celebration. The Christmas story, telling of music of the angels and suggesting music of the shepherds and cradle song, invited musical treatment. The term is called in German, and in French. Christmas cantatas have been written on texts in several other languages, such as Czech, Italian, Romanian, and Spanish. Christmas cantata can also mean the performance of the music. Many choirs have a tradition of an annual Christmas cantata. Theme Different from Christmas oratorios, which present the Christmas story, Christmas cantatas deal with aspects of it. Bach's ''Christmas Oratorio'', written for performance in Leipzig in 1734/1735 touches many of these themes. It consists of six parts, each part is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
