About this edition
First performed in Leipzig on 31 December 1724, the Sunday after Christmas, Das neugeborne Kindelein belongs to Bach's celebrated second cantata cycle of chorale cantatas. It is built entirely on Cyriakus Schneegass's 1597 New Year hymn, and its most remarkable moment comes in the fourth movement, where three recorders softly intone the chorale melody as a serene musica coelestis above a vocal trio — a depiction of the angelic host with no exact parallel elsewhere in Bach's output. Compact but vividly scored for horn, three oboes, strings and continuo, the cantata moves from a bustling opening chorus to a radiant close poised on the threshold of the new year.
This score reproduces the first published edition of the work, drawn from Band 26 of the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe (pp. 21–40), issued in Leipzig by Breitkopf und Härtel in 1878 under plate number B.W. XXVI and edited by Alfred Dörffel (1821–1905). Produced between 1851 and 1899, the Bach-Gesellschaft edition was the first project to gather Bach's complete works in a single critical edition. Prepared from surviving autograph scores and original performing parts, it remained the standard scholarly text for a century and still underpins much modern performance and research. Dörffel, a respected Leipzig music librarian and bibliographer, brought meticulous care to the cantata volumes he prepared.
About this edition:
- Format: complete full orchestral score
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Instrumentation: SATB choir with soloists; horn, three oboes, three recorders, strings and continuo
- Faithfully reproduced from a public domain historical edition
- Publisher: Purple 4R Publishing
This edition brings a public domain historical score back into print, making a treasured Bach cantata easy to study, teach, and perform. We hope it serves conductors, singers, instrumentalists, and scholars well for many years to come.
