Christmas cantata facts for kids

A Christmas cantata is a special kind of music for Christmas. It's like a mini-concert for voices, usually with instruments. Many composers have written these pieces because Christmas is such an important holiday.

Some Christmas cantatas are made for church services. Others are for concerts or other celebrations. The Christmas story itself, with angels singing and shepherds playing music, has always inspired composers. In German, it's called Weihnachtskantate. In French, it's Cantate de Noël. People also write Christmas cantatas in many other languages, like Czech, Italian, and Spanish.

A Christmas cantata can also mean the actual performance of this music. Many choirs have a tradition of performing a Christmas cantata every year.

What Are Christmas Cantatas About?

Christmas cantatas focus on different parts of the Christmas story. This is a bit different from a Christmas oratorio, which usually tells the whole story.

For example, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a famous piece called the Christmas Oratorio. He wrote it for performances in churches during Christmas 1734 and 1735. It has six parts, and each part was for a specific day of the Christmas season. Bach used parts of the Gospels (from the Bible) to connect the sections.

Here are some of the themes in Bach's Christmas Oratorio:

• Part I (for Christmas Day): The birth of Jesus.
• Part II (for the Second Day of Christmas): The angels telling the shepherds about Jesus' birth, and the song "Glory to God, peace on earth".
• Part III (for the Third Day of Christmas): The shepherds visiting Jesus.
• Part IV (for New Year's Day): The naming of Jesus.
• Part V (for the first Sunday after New Year's Day): The Wise Men.
• Part VI (for Epiphany on January 6): The Wise Men worshiping Jesus.

Other composers have used these same themes in their Christmas cantatas.

A Look at History

Many Christmas cantatas were written during the Baroque era (about 1600-1750). These were often for church services. Their words often came from the Bible or church hymns called chorales. Some cantatas, called Chorale cantatas, used only the words from one hymn. Later, composers also used poems or Christmas carols for their cantatas.

Early Italian Cantatas

The idea of a cantata first started in Italy. Composers like Alessandro Stradella and Alessandro Scarlatti wrote Italian Christmas cantatas.

German Baroque Music

Bach's Christmas Cantatas

The most famous Christmas cantatas today are by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote many cantatas for the three days of Christmas. Here are a few examples:

• For Christmas Day:

* Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63 (from around 1713) * Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91 (1724), based on a hymn. * Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110 (1725) * Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191 (1745)

• For the Second Day of Christmas:

* Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40 (1723) * Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 121 (1724), based on a hymn.

• For the Third Day of Christmas:

* Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget, BWV 64 (1723) * Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133 (1724), based on a hymn.

Bach's later cantata, Gloria in excelsis Deo, uses Latin words. These words are from the traditional church song "Gloria", which starts with the angels' song from the Christmas story.

Other German Composers

Other German Baroque composers also wrote Christmas cantatas. These include Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Christoph Graupner, and Andreas Hammerschmidt.

Classical Period

During the Age of Enlightenment (late 1700s), church music was less common. But in 1796, Jakub Jan Ryba wrote the Česká mše vánoční. This piece tells a Christmas story in Czech, set in the countryside of Bohemia.

Romantic Period

In the Romantic era (1800s), composers like Felix Mendelssohn wrote Christmas cantatas. Mendelssohn's Vom Himmel hoch was based on a famous song by Martin Luther. Josef Rheinberger wrote Der Stern von Bethlehem (The Star of Bethlehem).

20th Century

Many composers continued to write Christmas cantatas in the 1900s.

• Benjamin Britten wrote A Ceremony of Carols in 1942, which uses a series of carols.
• Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote Hodie.
• Arthur Honegger composed Une cantate de Noël as his last work. It starts with a psalm and includes carols.
• Even outside of classical music, The Animals' Christmas by Jimmy Webb and Art Garfunkel in 1986 was a Christmas cantata project.

21st Century

New Christmas cantatas are still being written today. Composers like Toshio Hosokawa and Graham Waterhouse have created new works in the 2000s.

What Instruments and Voices Are Used?

All Christmas cantatas have several parts, called movements. Most movements include both solo singers and a choir.

• Some cantatas are like chamber music, meaning they are for a few singers and instruments.
• Others are for a choir singing without instruments (called a cappella).
• Many are for solo singers, a choir, and a full orchestra.
• Some composers specifically ask for a children's choir.
• In many Baroque cantatas, trumpets are very important because they were seen as royal instruments.

Examples of Christmas Cantatas

This table shows some Christmas cantatas and details about them.

• S = soprano (high female voice)
• A = alto (low female voice)
• T = tenor (high male voice)
• B = bass (low male voice)
• SATB means a choir with Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass parts.
• Str = strings (like violins, violas, cellos)
• Bc = basso continuo (a group of instruments providing the bass line and harmonies)
• Other abbreviations are for specific instruments like Fl (flute), Ob (oboe), Tr (trumpet), Ti (timpani).