Instrumentation: SATB – 0.0.0.0 – 3.0.0.0 – timp – str – bc

This cantata is a composition by Kuhnau for the first of the Christmas holidays [Christmas Day] and one of his most extensive works. It is underlaid with the free poetry of a hitherto anonymous author, not including any Bible or chorale texts.

Though the dating has not yet been clarified, the structure – two recitative-aria pairings, framed by two magnificent tutti movements – indicates a genesis period within the last years of ...