Иоганн Себастьян Бахтың «Иорданға келген Раббымыз» шіркеу кантатасы

Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan), BWV (Bach Werke Verzeichnis (catalogue of Bach's works))7, in Leipzig for the Feast of St. John the Baptist and led its first performance on 24 June 1724. It is the third cantata Bach composed for his chorale cantata cycle, the second cantata cycle he started after being appointed Thomaskantor in 1723. The cantata is based on the seven stanzas of Martin Luther's hymn "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam", about baptism. The first and last stanza of the chorale were used for the outer movements of the cantata, while an unknown librettist paraphrased the inner stanzas of the hymn into the text for the five other movements. The first movement, a chorale fantasia, is followed by a succession of arias alternating with recitatives, leading to a four part closing chorale. The cantata is scored for three vocal soloists (alto, tenor and bass), a four part choir, two oboes d'amore, two solo violins, strings and continuo.

Bach composed Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam for St. John's Day, 24 June 1724, in Leipzig, as the third cantata of his second annual cycle, the chorale cantata cycle, which had begun about two weeks earlier on the first Sunday after Trinity. The cycle was devoted to Lutheran hymns, in the format of his chorale cantatas rendered by retaining their text of the first and last stanza, while a contemporary poet reworded the inner stanzas.

The cantata in seven movements is scored for three vocal soloists (alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four part choir (SATB), two oboes d'amore (Oa), two solo violins (Vs, the second one only introduced in a later performance), two violins (Vl), viola (Va) and basso continuo (Bc).