Christmas motifs have been written into numerous pages of Western classical music, and not only on the occasion of the festivities that open the carnival season. In the second movement of George Frideric Handel’s Concerto a due cori, one can easily recognise an excerpt from the first part of The Messiah, devoted to the Old Testament announcements of Christ’s coming.
Johann Sebastian Bach, fulfilling the demands of the Protestant liturgical calendar by the sweat of his brow, wrote many works for the Christmas season. In so doing, he also drew inspiration from Italian musicians, including the composer of the famous ‘Christmas Eve’ Concerto Grosso in G minor, Arcangelo Corelli. Bach’s showstopping solo cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen suited a variety of festive occasions due to its universal, laudatory text. Its virtuosic coloratura parts require soprano and trumpet soloists of the highest calibre.
Christmas themes can also be found in the text of the Credo. One of the most beautiful passages in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Mass in C minor – not without reason referred to as the ‘Great’ – is the expansive, mellifluous aria ‘Et incarnatus est’ from the Credo. Mozart wrote it with his vocally gifted wife Constanze in mind, just as years before he had penned the showstopping motet ‘Exsultate, jubilate’ for the famous Italian soprano Venanzio Rauzzini.