The New Performance Option for The Christmas Oratorio

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• Large Choral Works with Small Orchestral Forces

Today, the Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach is the undisputed classic among settings of the Christmas story. When it was composed around the turn of the year 1734/35, each of the six parts was performed individually during separate church services. Bach had written a cantata for every holiday around Christmas, for the three Christmas celebration days, New Year's Day, the Sunday after New Year's Day and the Feast of the Three Kings.

However, the Christmas Oratorio is rarely used in church services these days. Most of the time, the first three parts, or occasionally the final three parts, can be heard in church concerts. This is most likely due to the high number of personnel required. Hiring and paying for all the musicians for a performance of just part of the oratorio, as part of a church service, is time-consuming and expensive. Up until now, there have been no convincing arrangements of the oratorio, or individual parts, for smaller ensembles. Now however, arrangements of the first three parts have been published by Carus Verlag, in which the organ replaces the orchestra. Does that work – with such colourful work? In a conversation with the editor Carsten Klomp, we got to the bottom of this question, and learned more about his working methods, ideas and principles.

The Christmas Oratorio awoke a particular fascination for Carsten Klomp in his youth, when he first experienced the work in his choir. To this day, it continues to accompany him as a sought-after continuo player and conductor. Every year, he looks forward to the moment in rehearsal when the first bars sound: “It draws you in, and suddenly, everyone is completely there”. In 2020, however, a performance in its original form was not possible, so other solutions had to be considered. The idea put forward by a colleague of Klomp's seemed at first impossible: “Can you imagine playing it on the organ alone?” His first reaction: “It's unplayable, just the demisemiquavers at the beginning for starters!” But the organ professor couldn't let the idea go. Shortly after, he sat down at his organ and began to ponder the opening bars for hours. Gradually the puzzle came together to form a playable movement. A first success! After that, the rest couldn't be that difficult anymore... And indeed: Part I for organ was completed in time for Christmas Eve 2020, Part II and Part III were completed during the following winters.

Carsten Klomp summarises the three most important principles of his arrangement in his foreword:

1. The organ arrangement should remain as close as possible to the original.
2. It should not simply be a 'reduction for organ', but should make use of all the possibilities of the organ, in terms of sound and playing technique.
3. Despite being faithful to the original, the whole thing should also be playable, which led to some creative solutions in places.

Sometimes the technical limitations of the instrument set a framework for the arrangement and demanded clever handling of the source material. In the opening chorus “Jauchzet, frohlocket”, semiquaver runs fill long sections in the basso continuo, which in terms of sound, Carsten Klomp considers indispensable. However, it is not technically possible to transfer this bass line one-to-one to the pedal, so he put the sixteenth notes in the only possible part, the left hand. But in order to retain the impression of depth, the pedal plays dabbed harmony notes. The result is a version that deviates from the original but contains all the important sound elements.

With the new version for organ, Bach's Christmas Oratorio has been given a new, extremely appealing performance option. Now the individual parts can be performed during a church service without any additional financial or organisational effort, with the same depth that people love the original for. The arrangement is demanding, but still playable. We think that this is a very exciting and successful addition to the performance options for the Christmas Oratorio.