Ich freue mich in dir (I rejoice in you), BWV 133, is a
church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed
the Christmas cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for the Third
Day of Christmas and first performed it on 27 December
1724. The chorale cantata is based on the hymn by
Caspar Ziegler (1697).
Bach wrote the chorale cantata in his second year in
Leipzig for the Third Day of Christmas as part of his
second annual cycle. The prescribed readings for the
feast day were from the Epistle to the ...(+)
Ich freue mich in dir (I rejoice in you), BWV 133, is a
church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed
the Christmas cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for the Third
Day of Christmas and first performed it on 27 December
1724. The chorale cantata is based on the hymn by
Caspar Ziegler (1697).
Bach wrote the chorale cantata in his second year in
Leipzig for the Third Day of Christmas as part of his
second annual cycle. The prescribed readings for the
feast day were from the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ
is higher than the angels, (Hebrews 1:1–14) and the
prologue of the Gospel of John, also called Hymn to the
Word (John 1:1–14). The cantata is based on the
chorale in four stanzas Ich freue mich in dir (1697) by
Caspar Ziegler. It is one of the newest of the chorales
which served as a base for the second annual cycle,
whereas Bach otherwise preferred the beloved hymns of
poets such as Martin Luther and Paul Gerhardt. The
unknown poet of the cantata text kept the first and the
last stanza, and paraphrased the inner stanzas closely
to a sequence of recitative and aria. The text has no
reference to the readings nor to the feast of John the
Evangelist. It expresses the intimate joy of the
individual believer about the presence of God in the
Jesus child.
Bach first performed the cantata on 27 December 1724.
Bach's successor Johann Friedrich Doles performed the
cantata after Bach's death.
The chorale is sung on a variant of a melody of O Gott,
du frommer Gott. This melody was probably new to Bach
who noted it in the score of the Sanctus, which he also
composed for Christmas in 1724 and later made part of
his Mass in B minor. The cornetto plays the cantus
firmus with the soprano, the oboes play with violin II
and viola, whereas violin 1 "shines above the rest".
The lower voices are set mostly in homophony, with the
exception of expressing "Der große Gottessohn" (the
great son of God). John Eliot Gardiner summarizes: "I
find it hard to imagine music that conveys more
persuasively the essence, the exuberance and the sheer
exhilaration of Christmas than the opening chorus of
BWV 133".
While Bach's Weimar cantata Christen, ätzet diesen
Tag, BWV 63, expressed a communal joy in two choral
movements and two duets, a sequence of four movements
for a single voice reflects the joy of the individual
believer. The alto aria is accompanied by the two oboi
d'amore, the soprano aria by the strings, changing from
an even time in the outer sections to a siciliano in
the middle section. The tenor recitative is marked
adagio twice, once to stress "Der allerhöchste Gotte
kehrt selber bei uns ein" (Almighty God Himself here
visits us), finally to quote from the chorale in both
words and music "Wird er ein kleines Kind und heißt
mein Jesulein" (He has become a little child and is
called my little Jesus). The cantata is closed by a
four-part setting of the last chorale stanza.
Although scored for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto,
tenor, and bass), a four-part choir, cornett to double
the chorale melody, two oboes d'amore, two violins,
viola, and basso continuo, I created a French Horn Solo
part and made this arrangement for French Horn &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
