Buxtehude, Erfreue dich, Erde

The cantata Erfreue dich, Erde (BuxWV 26) is referred to as a “parody” because the composer Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) had written the music and performed it earlier in a different form. There was nothing unusual about that. In his position at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, he needed to churn out cantatas throughout each year. Buxtehude was simply recycling an earlier work—borrowing from himself, if you like.

The first version, Schlagt, Künstler, die Pauken (BuxWV 122) (“Strike, artists, the drums”), was written in 1681 for the wedding of a lawyer in Lübeck. The title page includes Buxtehude’s dedication to the bridal couple “as a sign of his gratitude.” The main aria includes four verses, which in the original work addressed love, beauty, youth, and virtue.

When Buxtehude took the same music to create a Christmas cantata, Erfreue dich, Erde, he replaced those four attributes with four tied to the season: joy, peace, grace, and truth.

The overall form is that of a concerto-aria cantata. It begins with a Coro, a concertante piece featuring brass and timpani alternating with the chorus and strings. The extended aria that follows uses each of the solo voices. The soprano begins with the verse on “joy” (Freud). A ritornello (meaning “little return” and referring to a recurring passage in music) provides an instrumental interlude between each verse. The alto sings the second verse on “peace” (Fried), the tenor on “grace” (Gnade), and the bass on “truth” (Warheit).

A second Coro, So denket und danket (“So Think and Give Thanks”), again alternates chorus with timpani and brass, and the text reiterates the four themes of joy, peace, grace, and truth. The cantata ends with a repeat of the opening Coro.

The distinctive use of timpani parallels Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf preiset die Tage, the opening chorus of J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Buxtehude did not use timpani in any of his other cantatas. And Bach, who as a young man walked 200 miles to Lübeck in order to learn from Buxtehude, may well have known this cantata.