Easter Oratorio

Bach’s “Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer”: An Easter Lullaby

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Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer (“Gentle shall be my contemplation of death”) is a sacred tenor aria from Bach’s Easter Oratorio, BWV 249. Sung by Simon Peter following the discovering of the empty tomb of Christ, it is a serene reflection on death as a peaceful slumber. Accompanied by recorders, with their pastoral connotations, the aria unfolds with the gentle rocking motion of a lullaby. The Netherlands Bach Society writes, In Bach’s church …

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Bach’s “Easter Oratorio”: A Celebratory Retrofit

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J.S. Bach’s Easter Oratorio was first performed at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig on Easter Sunday, 1725. But most of this music was not written with Easter in mind. Instead, it was recycled from the now lost secular “Shepherd Cantata,” written a month earlier to celebrate the thirty-first birthday of Bach’s patron, Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. A year later, Bach recycled the cantata again for the birthday of Count Joachim Friedrich von Flemming. The Easter Oratorio opens with an …

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