Christ lag in Todesbanden

BWV 4 performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
conducted by René Jacobs
Grote Kerk, Naarden

Menu
1. Sinfonia
2. Christ lag in Todes Banden (Chor)
3. Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt (Duett)
4. Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn (Arie)
5. Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg (Chor)
6. Hie ist das rechte Osterlamm (Arie)
7. So feiren wir das hohe Fest (Duett)
8. Wir essen und leben wohl (Choral)

Go back

Behind the music

Story

Texts

Credits

Learning young

This early cantata already contains the germ of Bach’s new style

Of all composers, Bach’s style is possibly the most recognisable: a trained ear can easily distinguish Bach from his contemporaries. Throughout his oeuvre, Bach combines technical mastery with a spiritual depth that is always viewed from a human perspective.

But even Bach had to find his musical voice. The Easter cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, is one of his earliest vocal works. He must have written the piece while still in Mühlhausen, where he was working as an organist at the age of twenty-two. The form of the cantata is old-fashioned: no opera arias and no new cantata texts either. Bach sets each strophe of one of Luther’s best-known chorales to music. It is clear that Bach is still working in an older musical idiom here. Later, he was to describe the old style as ‘music that no longer seems to please our ears’.

Nevertheless, in today’s ears, the piece sounds perfect. Bach has a flawless command of the idiom of his forebears. If this had been a cantata by Buxtehude or Pachelbel, it would undoubtedly have been considered one of their masterpieces. And you can see Bach’s style just beginning to emerge.

Bach himself also recognised its worth. Nearly twenty years later, when his style was almost fully developed, he presented the work again, now at his final musical place of work, Leipzig. This was the version we know today, which probably differs in details from the version he used in Mühlhausen. Unfortunately, the original parts for that have been lost.

The cantata beings in sacred quiet: no words – just an instrumental Sinfonia, full of descending lines and sighs, as if Jesus’ Passion is still running through our minds. The first chorus, ‘Christ lag in Todes Banden’, picks up the thread. The choir sings a gloomy text about Jesus’ death, but then switches suddenly to a fierce Hallelujah. It is a quick charcoal sketch of the rest of the cantata, which is symmetrical in structure: chorus – duet – solo – chorus – solo – duet – chorus.

The fierce drama reaches its highlight in the central chorus section, ‘Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg’, which expresses the battle between life and death in music. The voices tumble over one another till only the bass remains, after death and the other parts have been engulfed. The bass aria ‘Hie ist das rechte Osterlamm’ follows the theological, occasionally grotesque text by Luther, which Bach sets to music as a mystical meditation. In the closing duet and the following chorale, the light breaks through at last.

BWV: 4
Title: Christ lag in Todesbanden
Genre: cantatas
Year: 1707-1708
City: Mühlhausen
Lyricist: Martin Luther
Occasion: Easter Sunday
First performance: 24 april 1707?, repeat performance Leipzig in 1724-1725

Dedicated to the memory of

Charles P. Doster

Extra videos

Vocal texts

Original

1. Sinfonia

2. Chor
Christ lag in Todes Banden
für unsre Sünd gegeben,
er ist wieder erstanden
und hat uns bracht das Leben.
Des wir sollen fröhlich sein,
Gott loben und ihm dankbar sein
und singen halleluja.
Halleluja.

3. Duett (Sopran, Alt)
Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt
bei allen Menschenkindern;
das macht' alles unsre Sünd,
kein Unschuld war zu finden.
Davon kam der Tod so bald
und nahm über uns Gewalt,
hielt uns in seinem Reich gefangen.
Halleluja.

4. Arie (Tenor)
Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn,
an unsre Statt ist kommen
und hat die Sünde weggetan,
damit dem Tod genommen
all sein Recht und sein Gewalt;
da bleibet nichts denn Tods Gestalt,
den Stachel hat er verloren.
Halleluja.

5. Chor
Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg,
da Tod und Leben rungen;
das Leben da behielt den Sieg,
es hat den Tod verschlungen.
Die Schrift hat verkündiget das,
wie ein Tod den andern fraß,
ein Spott aus dem Tod ist worden.
Halleluja.

6. Arie (Bass)
Hie ist das rechte Osterlamm,
davon Gott hat geboten,
das ist hoch an des Kreuzes Stamm
in heißer Lieb gebraten.
Das Blut zeichnet unser Tür,
das hält der Glaub dem Tode für,
der Würger kann uns nicht mehr schaden.
Halleluja.

7. Duett (Sopran, Tenor)
So feiren wir das hohe Fest
mit Herzensfreud und Wonne,
das uns der Herr erscheinen läßt.
Er ist selber die Sonne,
der durch seiner Gnaden Glanz
erleuchtet unsre Herzen ganz,
der Sünden Nacht ist verschwunden.
Halleluja.

8. Choral
Wir essen und leben wohl
in rechten Osterfladen;
der alte Sauerteig nicht soll
sein bei dem Wort der Gnaden.
Christus will die Koste sein
und speisen die Seel allein,
der Glaub will keins andern leben.
Halleluja.

Translation

1. Sinfonia

2. Chorus
Christ lay in death’s bonds,
Given for our sin;
He is risen again
And has brought us [eternal] life.
Of this we should be joyful,
Praise God and be thankful to him
And sing hallelujah.
Hallelujah.

3. Duet (Soprano, Alto)
Nobody could restrain death,
Among all the children of humankind;
Our sin made all that so;
No innocence was to be found.
As a result, death came immediately
And seized power over us,
Held us imprisoned in its realm.
Hallelujah.

4. Aria (Tenor)
Jesus Christ, God’s son,
Has come in our stead
And did away with our sin,
Thereby taking from death
All its privilege and its power.
There remains nothing but death’s shape;
[Death] has lost its sting.
Hallelujah.

5. Chorus
It was a wondrous battle [on the cross],
Where death [Satan] and life [Jesus] wrestled;
Life got the victory (there);
It has swallowed up death.
Scripture has proclaimed this:
How one death [Jesus’s] devoured the other [death]
[And] a mockery was made of death.
Hallelujah.

6. Aria (Bass)
Here is the proper paschal/Easter lamb—
God has commanded of it—
Which is, up on the cross’s trunk,
Roasted in ardent love.
The blood [of the lamb, Jesus] marks our door,
[Blood] with which faith rebukes death;
The Destroyer Angel can no longer harm us
Hallelujah.

7. Duet (Soprano, Tenor)
Thus we celebrate the high feast [Easter]
With joy of heart and gladness,
[The feast] that the Lord lets shine upon us;
He himself is the sun,
Who through his luster of grace
Illumines our hearts entirely;
The night of sin has vanished.
Hallelujah.

8. Chorale
We eat and live well
In [Christ, the] proper paschal/Easter flatbread;
The old sourdough shall not
Be with the word of grace.
Christ will be the nourishment
And alone feed the soul;
Faith will live by none other [than Christ].
Hallelujah.

transl. © Daniel R. Melamed and Michael Marissen
For the annotated version of the text and translation, see here.

Credits

Release date

24 April 2025
Recording date

5 November 2023
Location

Grote Kerk Naarden
Conductor

René Jacobs
Soprano

Isabel Schicketanz
Alto

Alexander Chance
Tenor

Thomas Hobbs
Bass

Edward Grint
Ripieno soprano

Lauren Armishaw, Amelia Berridge, Marta Paklar, Anna Bachleitner
Ripieno alto

Sofia Gvirts, Michaela Riener, Emilie Wijers
Ripieno tenor

Adriaan De Koster, João Moreira, Immo Schröder
Ripieno bass

Hidde Kleikamp, Mitchell Sandler, Jaap van der Wel
Vioin 1

Evgeny Sviridov, Sayuri Yamagata, Annelies van der Vegt
Violin 2

Lidewij van der Voort, Lucia Giraudo, Anneke van Haaften
Viola 1

Femke Huizinga, Ivan Jorge Saez Schwartz
Viola 2

Deirdre Dowling, Marta Jiménez
Cello

Lucia Swarts, Matyas Virag
Double bass

Robert Franenberg
Bassoon

Josep Casadellà
Organ

Siebe Henstra
Archiliuto

Shizuko Noiri
Director and editor

Bas Wielenga
Music recording

Guido Tichelman, Lilita Dunska, Pim van der Lee
Music edit and mix

Guido Tichelman
Camera

Martin Struijf
Lights

Ernst-Jan Thieme, Patrick Galvin, Robert Groendijk, Jason Mulder
Grip

NEP
Assistant director

Ferenc Soeteman
Set technique

NEP
Data handling

NEP
Project manager nep

Ron Vermeulen
Assistant music recording

Marloes Biermans
Producer concert

Imke Deters
Producer film

Wietske Hovingh
Dedicated to the memory of

Charles P. Doster

Discover