Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Savior of the heathens), BWV 61, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Weimar for the for the first Sunday in Advent and first performed it on 2 December 1714.
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Bach wrote the cantata in Weimar, in his first year as the court organist of Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, for the First Sunday of Advent, and first performed it in the Schlosskirche (court chapel) on 2 December 1714.[1]
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Romans, night is advanced, day will come (Romans 13:11–14), and from the Gospel of Matthew, the Entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–9). The cantata text was provided by Erdmann Neumeister, who included the first stanza of Martin Luther's chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland in movement 1, as the closing chorale the end of the last verse of Philipp Nicolai's Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, and in movement 4 from Revelation 3:20, "Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür und klopfe an. So jemand meine Stimme hören wird und die Tür auftun, zu dem werde ich eingehen und das Abendmahl mit ihm halten und er mit mir." ("Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Anyone that hears My voice and opens the door, to him I will enter and keep the evening meal with him and he with Me."). The poet combined the ideas of the entry of Jesus in Jerusalem and his announcement to return, as in Revelation, with the request to also enter the heart of the individual Christian.
Bach performed the cantata again in his first year in Leipzig on 28 November 1723.[2]
Like other cantatas written in Weimar, the cantata is scored for a small ensemble, soprano, tenor, and bass soloists, a four-part choir, two violins, two violas, and basso continuo.[2]
The first Sunday of Advent begins the Liturgical year. Bach marked it by creating the opening chorus as a chorale fantasia in the style of a French overture, which follows the sequence slow – fast (fugue) – slow.[1][3] During the Ouverture the King of France would have entered a performance; Bach greets a different King. Two of the four lines of the chorale melody[4] are combined in the first slow section, line three is treated in the fast section, line four in the final slow section. The melody of line 1 is first presented in the continuo, then sung by all four voice parts one after another to a solemn dotted rhythm of the orchestra. Line 2 is set four-part, embedded in the orchestra. Line 3 is a fast fugato, with the instruments playing colla parte, line 4 is set as line 2.
The recitative begins secco, but continues as an arioso, with imitation of tenor and continuo. The tenor aria is accompanied by all violins and violas in unison. Movement 4, the quote of Revelation, is given to the bass as the Vox Christi, the knocking is expressed in pizzicato chords of the strings. The response is the individual prayer of the soprano, only accompanied by the continuo, with an adagio middle section. In the closing chorale the violins play a fifth jubilant part to the four vocal parts.[2]
The first source is the score.
General sources are found for the Bach cantatas. Several databases provide additional information on each single cantata:
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