Throughout 17th and 18th century Germany, Christmas remained a season of reflection and celebration, shaped as much by local tradition and congregational hymn singing as by rousing festive music.

Samuel Scheidt Intrada No.22
Johann Rosenmüller Also hat Gott die Welt beliebt
Christian Geist Wie schön
Johann Christian Bach Merk auf, mein Herz BWV-Anhang 163
Georg Böhm Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland
Dieterich Buxtehude Wachet auf
Johann Thiele Nun ich singe Gott ich knie
Heinrich Schütz Sehet an den Feigenbaum
Johann Sebastian Bach Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 

John Butt director & harpsichord
Zoë Brookshaw soprano
Joanna Songi soprano
Sarah Anne Champion alto
Guy Cutting tenor
Christopher Webb bass 

Throughout 17th and 18th century Germany, Christmas remained a season of reflection and celebration, shaped as much by local tradition and congregational hymn singing as by rousing festive music. From court chapels to town churches, composers contributed to a rich tapestry of Advent and Christmas music, each work offering a different perspective on the story at its heart, the celebration of Christ’s birth. 

Figures such as Scheidt, Schütz and Buxtehude laid the foundations of this tradition, blending sacred and devotional intensity with expressive immediacy, while later composers including J.S. Bach and his sons built upon these influences and transformed them. 

At this festive programme’s core is the chorale Nun komm, Der Heiden Heiland, a cornerstone of Lutheran Advent worship with a distinctive melody that provided the perfect foundation for composers such as Buxtehude, Böhm and J.S. Bach to return to in search of new textures, harmonies and melodic ornamentation. 

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