Many Christmas cantatas – as cantatas in general – were written in the
Baroque era for church services, related to the prescribed readings of the
liturgical year. Cantata texts frequently incorporated
Bible quotations and
chorale.
Chorale cantatas rely on the text of one chorale only. Later composers also set free text, poems and
carols.
Italian baroque The
cantata form originated in Italy, alongside the
oratorio.
Carissimi's pupil
Marc-Antoine Charpentier brought the small-scale Latin Christmas oratorio to Paris (
In nativitatem Domini canticum), while the vernacular Italian Christmas cantata was developed by composers such as
Alessandro Stradella (
Si apra al riso ogni labro 1675),
Francesco Provenzale (
Per la nascita del Verbo 1683) and
Alessandro Scarlatti in Naples,
Antonio Caldara in Vienna (
Vaticini di pace 1713).
German baroque Bach The best known Christmas cantatas today are those of
Johann Sebastian Bach, who composed several
cantatas for the three days of
Christmas in his three annual cantata cycles (1723 to 1725), also before and afterwards: • First Day •
Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63, 1713? 1716? •
Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, 25 December 1724, on
Luther's hymn •
Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, 25 December 1725 •
Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe, BWV 197a, 25 December ?1728 (partly lost) •
Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191, 25 December 1745 • Second Day •
Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, 26 December 1723 •
Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 121, 26 December 1724, on
Luther's hymn •
Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57, 26 December 1725 • Third Day •
Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget, BWV 64, 27 December 1723 •
Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133, 27 December 1724, on a hymn by
Caspar Ziegler •
Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt, BWV 151, 27 December 1725 In the works of Bach's second cycle of
chorale cantatas (1724), the text of the chorale is kept for the outer stanzas, but rephrased in poetry for
arias and
recitatives in the other stanzas. His late cantata
Gloria in excelsis Deo is derived from the
Gloria in his
Missa in B minor, which he had composed for the court of Dresden in 1733 and would later incorporate in his
Mass in B minor. Therefore, the cantata is for five parts and in
Latin. The text of the liturgical Gloria begins with the angels' song, as a link to the Christmas story.
Other German Baroque composers Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel composed for the season 1736/1737 a structure of six cantatas for six feast days around Christmas, similar to Bach's Christmas Oratorio, including
Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis. More of his Christmas cantatas were published in 2007 by
Hofmeister. Christmas cantatas were also composed by
Georg Gebel,
Christoph Graupner,
Andreas Hammerschmidt,
Arnold Brunckhorst,
Johann Samuel Beyer,
Philipp Buchner,
David Pohle,
Johann Hermann Schein and
Thomas Selle, among others.
Classical period During the
Age of Enlightenment, church music was less prominent. In 1796
Jakub Jan Ryba wrote
Česká mše vánoční, which tells within the frame of a
Mass a Christmas story in Czech, set in pastoral
Bohemia.
Romantic period During the
romantic era,
Felix Mendelssohn composed the chorale cantata
Vom Himmel hoch based on Luther's hymn "", and
Josef Rheinberger wrote '''' (The star of Bethlehem) on a text by his wife Franziska von Hoffnaaß. Christmas cantatas were also composed by
Gerard von Brucken Fock (1900),
Charles H. Gabriel and
Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich among others.
20th century In the 20th century,
Benjamin Britten set in 1942 a sequence of carols as
A Ceremony of Carols. His cantata
Saint Nicolas, written in 1948, after World War II, has also been termed a Christmas cantata.
Rudolf Mauersberger composed for the
Dresdner Kreuzchor which he conducted,
Eine kleine Weihnachtskantate (A little Christmas cantata).
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote
Hodie, and
Arthur Honegger composed as his last work
Une cantate de Noël for the Basler Kammerchor and their founder
Paul Sacher. He began his work with a setting of
Psalm 130 and continued with carols. Christmas cantatas were also composed by
Geoffrey Bush,
Steve Dobrogosz,
Geoffrey Grey,
Iain Hamilton,
Julius Harrison,
Hans Uwe Hielscher,
Mathilde Kralik,
Ivana Loudová,
Daniel Pinkham (1957),
Ned Rorem,
K. Lee Scott,
Otto Albert Tichý and
Arnold van Wyk, among others. A Christmas cantata outside the classical music tradition was the 1986 project ''
The Animals' Christmas'' by
Jimmy Webb and
Art Garfunkel. In 1995,
Bruckner's
Fest-Kantate Preiset den Herrn, WAB 16, has undergone an adaptation as
Festkantate zur Weihnacht (festive Christmas cantata) for mixed choir with Herbert Vogg's text "Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe".
21st century In the 21st century, new Christmas cantatas have been written among others by
Toshio Hosokawa and
Graham Waterhouse. == Scoring ==