(Christians, etch ye now this day) for soprano, alto, tenor and bass, vocal ensemble, trumpets I-IV, timpani, oboe I-III, bassoon, strings and continuo.

In 1957, Bach specialist Alfred Dürr wrote that BWV 63, more than any other of Bach’s cantatas, strives to unify the highest intensity of magnificence with the maximum level of economy. Indeed, three of its four large-scale movements – the two choruses and the aria – follow a strict da capo form. While it is known that the work was re-performed in Leipzig for Christmas in 1793 and probably also in 1729, the exact origin of the cantata has yet to be determined. The surviving original parts would suggest Bach’s Weimar years of 1713/14; nonetheless, the performance of a cantata with a practically identical libretto by Gottfried Kirchhoff, music director of Halle, for the bicentennial celebration of the Reformation in 1717 indicates that Bach may have written “Christen, ätzet diesen Tag” (Christians etch ye now this day) in 1713 as part of his application for the position of organist at the Marktkirche in Halle.