ABSTRACT
For a long time the small group of Lutheran Masses were generally dismissed as works that Bach hastily put together from earlier cantata movements. It is a small but significant change that demonstrates Bach's sensitivity and skill in reusing his liturgical music. Since, it is argued, the Incarnation means that he is true God and true man and, therefore, invincible, the struggle, though real, can have only one outcome: the victory of Christ. Therefore, in its later form in the Missa, Bach's music has a musical and theological integrity equal to that of its original form in the cantata. It is Bach's theological equation of Christ's Resurrection peace and the Incarnation peace proclaimed by the Christmas angels that led him to see this particular connection between the cantata movement and the liturgical hymn of praise.
