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69 Oratorio on Five Afternoons From the Lübeck Abendmusiken to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio Kerala J. Snyder M ost oratorios, like most operas, are performed within a single day as measured by real time in the theater, church, or oratory, regardless of the dramatic time that might be portrayed in their librettos. The Lübeck Abendmusiken and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio bwv 248 form notable—although by no means unique—exceptions to this principle.1 As is well known, the Christmas Oratorio consists of six parts, each similar to a cantata and first performed on the first, second, and third Christmas days of 1734 and on New Year’s Day, the Sunday after New Year, and Epiphany of 1735. The Lübeck Abendmusiken, according to a guidebook from 1697, were “presented yearly on five Sundays between St. Martin’s [November 11] and Christmas, following the Sunday vesper sermon, from 4 to 5 o’clock”;2 those five Sundays were the last two of Trinity and the second, third, and fourth of Advent. Bach carefully timed his famous trip to visit Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck during the fall of 1705 to coincide with the Abendmusik season. He would have expected the regular performances to take place on November 15 and 22 and December 6, 13, and 20 of that year. From the Arnstadt archival records we know that he was back on February 7 and that he had been away for sixteen weeks, because “he had asked for only four weeks, but had stayed about four times as long.”3 That suggests that he 1. Another exception is Friedrich Funke’s Christmas oratorio, its two parts performed in Lüneburg on December 25 and 26, 1693. See Peter Wollny, “Über die Beziehungen zwischen Oper und Oratorium in Hamburg im späten 17. und frühen 18. Jahrhundert,” in Il teatro musicale italiano nel Sacro Romano Impero nei secoli XVII e XVIII (Como: Antiquae Musicae Italicae Studiosi, 1999), 172. 2. Die Beglückte und Geschmückte Stadt Lübeck. Was ist Kurtze Beschreibung der Stadt Lübeck So wol Vom Anfang und Fortgang Derselben In ihrem Bau, Herrschafften und Einwohnern,Als sonderlich Merckwürdigen Begebenheiten und Veränderung (Lübeck: Johann Gerhard Krüger, 1697), 114. 3. Bach-Dokumente II: Fremdschriftliche und gedruckte Dokumente zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs 1685–1750, ed. Werner Neumann and Hans-Joachim Schulze (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1969), 19–20. 70 snyder departed around October 18. From his obituary, we know that he “tarried” in Lübeck “for almost a quarter of a year,”4 which would be about twelve weeks, leaving four weeks for the trip there and back, exactly what it would take to walk the 280 miles each way at an average of 20 miles a day (see Table 1).5 During the years in which Buxtehude served as organist of St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck, from 1668 to 1707, he composed and directed three different types of Abendmusiken there: dramatic oratorios, ceremonial oratorios, and mixed programs of unrelated vocal works, as he did in the year 1700.6 In 1705, while Bach was there, Table 1. Hypothetical calendar of Bach’s 1705–6 trip to Lübeck Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Notes October 1705 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Bach travels 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 to Lübeck November 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Sun.: Abendmusik 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Sun.: Abendmusik December 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 Wed., Thurs.: Extraordinary Abendmusiken 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Sun.: Abendmusik 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Sun.: Abendmusik 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Sun.: Abendmusik January 1706 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Bach returns February 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 to Arnstadt 4. Bach-Dokumente III: Dokumente zum Nachwirken Johann Sebastian Bachs 1750–1800, ed. HansJoachim Schulze (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1972), 82. 5. See Kerala J. Snyder, “To Lübeck in the Steps of J. S. Bach,” Musical Times 127 (1986): 672–77; German translation as Nach Lübeck in den Fußstapfen von J. S. Bach, trans. Martin Botsch (Lübeck: Stadtbibliothek Lübeck...

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