Parody and Its Consequences in the Christmas Oratorio

Abstract

Johann Sebastian Bach set the poetic texts in the Christmas Oratorio—everything that isn’t gospel narrative or hymn stanza—to music he had originally composed for civic occasions. This raises many questions, particularly about the relation between liturgical and secular musical styles in the early eighteenth century. Bach clearly felt able to reuse this music in the Oratorio, but the listener can hear features of that work that point to nonliturgical origins, things that tend to happen more often (or only) in nonchurch pieces. Bach and his librettist found ways to connect the two worlds, identifying religious and theological topics that resonated with textual and musical ideas in the worldly originals they adapted. Evidently motivated by a desire to make full use of the adapted compositions, they also transformed some pieces in ways that force us to consider assumptions about the relationship between text and music in Bach’s works.