The birth of Christ (Herzogenberg)
The oratorio " The Birth of Christ ", op. 90 is a work by the composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg , written and premiered in 1894. The text was compiled by the theologian Friedrich Spitta , who was a friend of Herzogenberg .
The work consists of community chorals with organ accompaniment, larger and smaller choral movements, solo pieces that mostly employ a soloist ensemble, as well as the evangelist (tenor) part, who - as in Bach's Christmas Oratorio - guides the story as narrator. The work is divided into three parts, it progresses from the “promise” through the “fulfillment” of the actual birth to “worship” by angels and shepherds. The text is based on Old Testament words from the Psalms , Genesis and Isaiah in the first part (promise) as well as the Christmas story, essentially based on Luke, in the second (fulfillment) and third part (adoration); concluded by the sentence " So God loved the world " from the Gospel of John . In the chorale, choir and solo movements, 17 traditional Christmas carols are recorded and processed, including some that are still widespread today, but also some that are hardly known today.
Emergence
The work goes back to Herzogenberg's collaboration with Friedrich Spitta in the summer of 1894: Spitta wanted a work that could also be performed for smaller communities without the large traditional oratorio apparatus; he only envisaged organ and harmonium as accompaniment, Herzogenberg then pushed through the string ensemble and the oboe (for the shepherd music). The premiere took place on the 3rd Advent of 1894 in the St. Thomas Church in Strasbourg, in front of an audience of around 2000, with Herzogenberg as conductor and Spitta as tenor soloist.
construction
In the opening prelude of the great organ, the theme from Martin Luther's famous Christmas carol “ Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her ” is carried out like a fugue before the congregation sings two stanzas to the same well-known melody to the text of the first two stanzas from Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's song Dies is the day that God made . Pianissimo then begin the psalm words of promise in the chorus: "I wait for the Lord, my soul awaits". The expectation of the arrival of the Savior (Advent) arises from the depth of looking back at the Fall (Genesis 3) and gains its special dramaturgical dynamic from it. This is commented on by the choir with the sixth stanza from the important Advent song " O Savior, tear open the heavens ": "Here we suffer the greatest need, bitter death stands before our eyes" (cantus firmus, i.e. the melody, in the soprano). The fifth stanza of the same song leads from the depths to the light: "O clear light, o beautiful star ... Come, sun, without its shine, we must be in darkness" (Cantus firmus here in alto); and the third stanza closes this sequence of movements with "O Erd ', schlag aus" (Cantus firmus in the tenor). The climax of the first part is formed by the Isaiah words "The people who walk in the dark see a great light ..." (solo tenor and male choir). The now little-known Christmas carol "Come on, come on, light of the heathens" appears as a large-scale polyphonic choral movement with a slow introduction and allegro fugato; the melody is now in the bass. The community chorale "I was in heavy bonds" concludes the first part of the oratorio as a summarizing commentary; Verses 4 and 6 from the song "How should I receive you" are used here.
At the beginning of the second part (fulfillment) there is the announcement of Mary by the angel (from the Gospel of Luke). The angel orders Mary to name her son, who will be born, Jesus, to which the choir replies with one sentence to the text of the song "Jesus is a sweet name". The promise of the eternal kingdom (Luke 1, 32-33) ends in the choral piece "Be blessed, dear kingdom", which uses the second stanza from the song "Be welcome, David's son" by Johann Jakob Rambach. This is followed by Ernst Moritz Arndt's Christmas poem (and song) "Sound out a song and become a sound" as an alternating song between choir and soloist quartet; it closes with "Eternal salvation is revealed", which leads to the Christmas story in Luke 2. The evangelist's account of the birth of Christ is commented on by the choir with an elaborate sentence on "A rose has sprung" - a key point in the entire work. After an instrumental interlude, Maria (soprano) and Joseph (baritone) follow with "Joseph, dear Joseph mein". As the "Choir of Angels" the high choir voices (without the bass) sing "O holy child, we greet you", a Christmas carol by Franz Graf von Pocci from 1824 that is hardly sung today. The second part culminates in the mighty choral movement on "Honor be." God on high ". To this the parish chorale answers "God alone in the heights' be honor" "and thus concludes the second part.
A pastoral music of the strings and the oboe leads over to “adoration”, in triplet mode it adopts the theme of the following Quempas song “Come and let us honor Christ”, which is written for a three-part children's choir. Then it's the turn of the shepherds (low choir voices without soprano): "Let's go to Bethlehem", followed by the appropriate traditional Christmas carol "Come you shepherds". "Now sing and be happy" is again designed as an alternating song between soloists and choir. "When I watch my sheep", another shepherd's choir, will be played by solo tenor - as lead singer - and male choir. On "Blessed be the Lord", i. H. On the basis of Luke's commentary on the event of salvation, Herzogenberg builds a large choral movement that the soloist quartet and the choir sing alternately. The third part experiences a further increase in dynamics and abundance of voices with the double-choir piece on the Johannes words "So God has loved the world", on which the children's choir with the cantus firmus "He is on earth come poor" is superimposed (the sixth Verse from Martin Luther's "Praise be to you, Jesus Christ"). - But in terms of the overall work, the congregation has the last word: with two stanzas from “Vom Himmel hoch”. The organ aftermath refers back to the prelude at the very beginning of the oratorio, which, despite the variety of elements used, underlines the formal unity of the work.