Bach Conducts Christmas Joy: A Cantata's First Performance
Bach's choir erupted in written laughter — actual "ha ha ha" syllables cascading through the fugue. His Christmas cantata demanded singers giggle in harmony, a radical move when church music meant solemnity. The text promised mouths "full of laughter," so Bach scored it literally: overlapping voices tumbling over each other in joy, eight measures of infectious musical hilarity. Leipzig's congregation had never heard anything like it. The technique spread slowly — too playful for most Protestant churches — but BWV 110 proved something crucial. Sacred didn't have to mean serious. Bach had made delight sound like devotion.
December 25, 1725
301 years ago
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