Wikipedia article of the day for April 5, 2026

The Wikipedia article of the day for April 5, 2026 is Easter Oratorio.
The Easter Oratorio, BWV 249, is one of three oratorios composed by Johann Sebastian Bach for high holiday services of the Lutheran church in Leipzig. He wrote an autograph score (page pictured) in 1738, but had already composed the music in 1725 for two works: the congratulatory Shepherd Cantata and a church cantata for Easter. The text of the Shepherd Cantata was written by Picander, in his first documented collaboration with Bach. Picander may also have adapted the text for the Easter work, using unusually neither Biblical text nor chorales. Both works are musical dramas involving male and female characters, which, in the cantata, are from the Biblical Easter narratives. The music is structured in eleven movements, and scored for a festive Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets, timpani, a variety of wind instruments, strings and continuo. Bach performed the Easter Oratorio in 1749, the year before his death.