Bach Choir celebrates first Sunday of new year

The Chattanooga Bach Choir celebrates the first Sunday of 2020 with a performance of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Part V, “Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen (Let honor to you, God, be sung),” BWV 248.

The concert continues the choir’s Barnett & Company Cantata Series, which focuses on Bach’s choral works written for specific Sundays in the liturgical calendar. The performance will be held Sunday, Jan. 5, at Christ Church Episcopal, at the intersection of McCallie Avenue and Douglas Street, conducted by David Long.

The program will child “born King of the Jews” (the Sunday after New Year’s Day); and VI. the Magi’s worship with their gifts. On each of these days, Bach’s congregation was inspired by a cantata that recounted one of these stories, commenting and reflecting upon the events and their meanings for the Christian individual and community,” Long explains.

“We are performing the fifth cantata depicting the Wise Men following the star on their journey to find this special child and King Herod’s fear at this news. Scored for two oboes, two violins, viola and continuo, the work begins with a joyful chorus exalting God (“Let honor to You be sung”) and then relates the story with dramatic recitatives and contemplative arias (“Happy are you who have seen the light”), (“Your splendor consumes all darkness”), (“When will he who is the comfort of his people come?”) and concludes with an uplifting chorale (“Indeed such a room in my heart … will seem filled with sunlight”).

“We present these performances of Bach’s inspiring music to provide an hour of beauty and respite on a Sunday afternoon; and on this day, to welcome the new year,” Long says.

For more information: www.chattanoogabachchoir.org.