Mouths filled with laughter

Let’s cap off this Advent season with the really big gun of Christmas music. The Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach.

“Unser Mund sei vol Lachens”—“Let our mouth be full of laughter” is the theme, which seems appropriate. Mary and Joseph made it to Bethlehem, they found a place to spend the night, the prophecies have been fulfilled. The final chorale is “Gelobt sei Gott”, “God be praised”, which says it all.

Here we’ve got the J.S. Bach Foundation of St. Gallen, Switzerland, performing the oratorio in a church in Trogen. I do not know why they feel obliged to point out that it’s a Protestant church (all their videos on YouTube seem to be so designated), but it’s a good recording nonetheless.

It’s time to pull out the stops, crank up the volume and rejoice.