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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 7 page research paper that examines Bach's Cantata BWV 61, 1714, libretto by Erdmann Neumeister, "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland," which was written to be sung on the first Sunday in Advent. The writer briefly discusses each of the six movements, relating it both to theological themes and discussing its musical structure. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khbach61.rtf
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celebrate a birthday, a wedding or a funeral, and to supply music for the principal Sunday service in the Lutheran church (Westrup 5). Bachs church music, that is,
his cantatas comprise the largest proportion of his prolific output. According to his son Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, J.S. Bach wrote "five full annual cycles of church pieces (cantatas), for
all the Sundays and holidays" (Stapert 20). The Lutheran liturgical calendar contains sixty-five Sundays and events per year, which would mean that Bach wrote over three hundred cantatas expressly for
church services (Stapert 20). Around 200 of these have survived. They are works for both voice and instruments that are meant to be performed as part of the Lutheran liturgy,
following the reading of the prescribed scriptural lesson for that day and, typically, they encompass references to that lesson, functioning "something like a musical sermon" (Stapert 20). Bachs
Cantata BWV 61, 1714, libretto by Erdmann Neumeister, "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland," was written to be sung on the first Sunday in Advent (Robertson 1). It is known that
at least two performances of this cantata took place during Bachs lifetime: once at Weimar and the other performance was at Leipzig. The first performance took place on December
2, 1714 (Whittaker 146). After examining the scriptural reading for this Sunday lesson, the first question that comes to mind is why the first lesson of the Christmas season refers
to Palm Sunday. The purpose of this lesson is to focus on the "humility of Christ," as he made his entry into Jerusalem not on a "kingly warhorse," but on
a donkey and the Savior being born into the world as a human being, so that he might suffer and die for humanitys sins is the "ultimate act of
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