Here is the first choral piece which will be included in the Christmas Liturgy at St. Bartholomew, Break forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light - by JS Bach.
This "hymn" is a significant choral piece in the repertoire because of the larger work which it comes from: Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 for Weihnachtstag. This piece is the chorale from the second part of the Christmas masterpiece which was composed around 1734. Like most of Bach's sacred cantatas, the chorale was taken from a older well-known tune, in this case from the early Baroque composer Johann Schop, and either incorporated into the polyphony, or in this case, re-harmonized into a SATB setting.
The text, Brich an, o schönes Morgenlicht, was written by the German poet and dramatist Johann von Rist. Also writing two complete cantata texts for Bach, von Rist incorporated a Greek style of sacred text by focusing on the great eternal light which "ushers in the morning."
The stanzas walk the audience through the life of Christ, beginning at his birth with the "angels warning" to the "confidence and joy" of His earthly ministry to the chosen people, all the way to his death and "the powers of hell overthrowing." The chorale ends the way it should be sung: "at last our peace bestowing."
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