About this edition
Likely composed during Johann Sebastian Bach's years at Weimar and later revived in Leipzig, Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63, is among the most brilliantly festive of all his church cantatas. It calls for an exceptionally large Baroque orchestra — four trumpets with timpani, three oboes, bassoon, and strings — a blaze of sound Bach reserved only for his grandest occasions. Equally striking is its architecture: a symmetrical arch of seven movements, framed by two monumental choruses with a pair of intimate vocal duets at its heart, and closing without a chorale, a genuine rarity in Bach's sacred output.
This volume reproduces the score from the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe (Band 16, pp. 51–110), published in Leipzig by Breitkopf und Härtel in 1868 and edited by Wilhelm Rust (1822–1892), who would later serve as Thomaskantor at Leipzig. The Bach-Gesellschaft edition was the first complete critical edition of Bach's works, begun in 1851 by a society founded expressly to preserve and publish them. Prepared from the surviving autograph and early performing materials, Rust's volumes set a standard of scholarly rigor that made this the reference text for generations of conductors and researchers, and the foundation on which nearly every later edition has been built.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a public domain source
- Publisher: Purple 4R Publishing
This printing reproduces a public domain historical score, bringing a landmark of nineteenth-century Bach scholarship back to the music stand in a clean, affordable format. We're glad to help this joyous Christmas music reach a new generation of performers, students, and scholars.
