The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas (German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest cantatas date from 1707, the year he moved to Mühlhausen, although he may have begun composing them at his previous post in Arnstadt. Most of Bach's church cantatas date from his first years as and director of church music in Leipzig, a position which he took up in 1723.
Working for Leipzig's and , it was part of Bach's job to perform a church cantata every Sunday and holiday, conducting soloists, the Thomanerchor and orchestra as part of the church service. In his first years in Leipzig, starting after Trinity of 1723, Bach regularly composed a new cantata every week, although some of these cantatas were adapted (at least in part) from work he had composed before his Leipzig era. Works from three annual cycles of cantatas for the liturgical calendar have survived. These relate to the readings prescribed by the Lutheran liturgy for the specific occasion. The last known cantata was composed in 1745.
In addition to the church cantatas composed for occasions of the liturgical year, Bach wrote sacred cantatas for functions like weddings or (the inauguration of a new town council). His secular cantatas, around 50 known works, less than half of which surviving with both text and music, were written for academic functions of the University of Leipzig, or anniversaries and entertainment among the nobility and in society, some of them (congratulatory cantatas) and (homage cantatas).
Bach's cantatas usually require four soloists and a four-part choir, but he also wrote solo cantatas (i.e. for one soloist singer) and dialogue cantatas for two singers. The words of Bach's cantatas, almost always entirely in German, consist mostly of 18th-century poetry, Lutheran hymns and dicta. Hymns were mostly set to their Lutheran chorale tune. His chorale cantata cycle contains at least 40 chorale cantatas, each of these entirely based on text and tune of such hymn.
Titles of the cantatas
Although the German term (Bach cantata) became very familiar, Bach himself rarely used the title Cantata in his manuscripts. In , he wrote (Cantata for solo voice and instruments). Another cantata in which Bach used that term is . Typically, he began a heading with the abbreviation J.J. (, "Jesus, help"), followed by the name of the celebration, the beginning of the words and the instrumentation, for example in . Bach often signed his cantatas with SDG, short for ("glory to the only God" / "glory to God alone").
Bach often wrote a title page for the autograph score and copies of the original parts. For example, he titled the parts of , using a mix of languages to describe the occasion, the incipit, the precise scoring and his name: "Dominica 21. post Trinit / Aus tieffer Noth schrey ich zu dir. / â / 4. Voc. / 2. Hautbois. / 2. Violini. / Viola. / 4. Tromboni / e / Continuo. / di / Signore / J.S.Bach". The occasion for which the piece was performed is given first, in Latin: "" (21st Sunday after Trinity Sunday, with Trinit short for Trinitatem). The title follows, given in German in the orthography of Bach's time. The scoring and finally his name appear in a mix of French and Italian, the common languages among musicians at the time, partly abbreviated.
BWV number Bach wrote more than 200 cantatas, of which many have survived. In the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), Wolfgang Schmieder assigned them each a number within groups: 1–200 (sacred cantatas), 201–216 (secular cantatas), and 217–224 (cantatas of doubtful authorship). Since Schmieder's designation, several of the cantatas he thought authentic have been redesignated as "spurious." However, the spurious cantatas retain their BWV numbers. The List of Bach cantatas is organized by BWV number but sortable by other criteria.
Structure of a Bach cantata
A typical Bach cantata of his first year in Leipzig follows the scheme: Opening chorus Recitative Aria Recitative (or Arioso) Aria Chorale
The opening chorus () is usually a polyphonic setting, with the orchestra presenting the themes or contrasting material first. Most arias follow the form of a da capo aria, repeating the first part after a middle section. The final chorale is typically a homophonic setting of a traditional melody.
Bach used an expanded structure to take up his position in Leipzig with the cantatas , and , both in two parts, to be performed before and after the sermon () and during communion (). Each part is a sequence of an opening movement, five movements with alternating recitatives and arias, and a chorale. In an exemplary way both cantatas cover the prescribed readings: starting with a related psalm from the Old Testament, Part I reflects the Gospel and Part II the Epistle.
Bach did not follow any strict scheme but composed as he wanted to express the words. A few cantatas are opened by an instrumental piece before the first chorus, such as the Sinfonia of . A solo movement begins , instead of a chorus, perhaps because its first words speak of silence. Many cantatas composed in Weimar are set like chamber music, mostly for soloists, with a four-part setting only in the closing chorale, which may have been sung by the soloists. In an early cantata, , Bach marked a repeat of the opening chorus after the chorale.
The chorale can be as simple as a traditional four-part setting, or be accompanied by an instrument, or be accompanied by the instruments of the opening chorus or even expanded by interludes based on its themes, or have the homophonic vocal parts embedded in an instrumental concerto as in the familiar , or have complex vocal parts embedded in the concerto as in , in a form called (chorale fantasia). In , for the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year, he rendered the opening chorus as a French overture.
Singers and instrumentation
Vocal
Typically Bach employs soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists and a four-part choir, also SATB. He sometimes assigns the voice parts to the dramatic situation, for example soprano for innocence or alto for motherly feelings. The bass is often the vox Christi, the voice of Jesus, when Jesus is quoted directly, as in , or indirectly, as in .
In the absence of clear documentary evidence, there are different options as to how many singers to deploy per part in choral sections. This is reflected in the recordings discussed below. Ton Koopman, for example, is a conductor who has recorded a complete set of the cantatas and who favours a choir with four singers per part. On the other hand, some modern performances and recordings use one voice per part. Joshua Rifkin is well known is an advocate of this approach, although it has yet to be followed through in a complete set of cantatas. Nonetheless, Bach would have had more singers available at Leipzig, for example, while the space in the court chapel in Weimar was limited. One size of choir probably does not fit all the cantatas.
Instrumental
The orchestra that Bach used is based on string instruments (violin, viola) and basso continuo, typically played by cello, violone (at the same octave) and organ. A continuo bass is the rule in Baroque music; its absence is noteworthy and often has a special reason, such as describing fragility.
The specific character of a cantata or a single movement is rather defined by wind instruments, such as oboe, oboe da caccia, oboe d'amore, flauto traverso, recorder, trumpet, horn, trombone, and timpani. In movements with winds, a bassoon usually joins the continuo group.
Festive occasions call for richer instrumentation. Some instruments also carry symbolic meaning, such as a trumpet, the royal instrument of the Baroque, for divine majesty and three trumpets for the Trinity. In an aria of BWV 172, addressing the Heiligste Dreifaltigkeit (Most holy Trinity), the bass is accompanied only by three trumpets and timpani.
In many arias Bach uses obbligato instruments, which accompany the singer as an equal partner. These instrumental parts are frequently set in virtuoso repetitive patterns called figuration. Instruments include, in addition to the ones mentioned, organ, flauto piccolo (sopranino recorder), violino piccolo, viola d'amore, violoncello piccolo (a smaller cello), tromba da tirarsi (slide trumpet) and corno da tirarsi.
In his early compositions Bach also used instruments that had become old-fashioned, such as viola da gamba. Alto recorders (flauti dolci) are sometimes used in connection with death and mourning as in .
Solo cantata
Some cantatas are composed for a solo singer (Solokantate), as , for soprano, sometimes concluded by a chorale, as in , for bass. Some of them, like the latter one, use a choir for a closing chorale.
Dialogue cantata A special form of the solo cantata is a dialogue of two solo voices, mostly for Jesus and the Soul (bass and soprano), set like miniature operas. Bach titled them for example , concerto in dialogue. An early example is (1714). He composed four such works in his third annual cycle, (1725), , (both 1726), and (1727).
Text of Bach's sacred cantatas Within the Lutheran liturgy, certain readings from the Bible were prescribed for every event during the church year; specifically, it was expected that an from an Epistle and from a Gospel would be read. Music was expected for all Sundays and holidays except the quiet times (tempus clausum) of Advent and Lent; the cantatas were supposed to reflect the readings. Ideally, a cantata text started with an Old Testament quotation related to the readings, and reflected both the Epistle and the Gospel, as in the exemplary . Most of the solo movements are based on poetry of contemporary writers, such as court poet Salomon Franck in Weimar or Georg Christian Lehms or Picander in Leipzig, with whom Bach collaborated. The final words were usually a stanza from a chorale. Bach's Chorale cantatas are based exclusively on one chorale, for example the early , and most cantatas of his second annual cycle in Leipzig.
The German text may pose difficulties in translation and comprehension. Sometimes caused by archaic language, these issues are also a result of the different social context of modern artists and listeners, who do not share the same biblical and theological knowledge and perspectives as Bach or his audience.
Periods of cantata composition
The following lists of works (some marked as questioned) rely mainly on Alfred Dürr's Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach. Usually the cantatas appear in the year of their first performance, sometimes also for later performances and then in brackets.
Mühlhausen
Bach moved to Mühlhausen in 1707 when he was 22 to take up an appointment as the organist of St. Blasius church (). There is evidence suggesting that he composed a cantata as an audition piece for Mühlhausen, and this may have been . One or two more surviving cantatas may have been composed while Bach was at his previous post in Arnstadt, for example, .
A couple of the surviving cantatas can be firmly dated to his time in Mühlhausen. For example, , was composed for the inauguration of the town council in 1708. By Bach's own account, , was also composed at Mühlhausen. Other cantatas are assumed to date from this period: , related to Psalm 146, likely for New Year's Day , assumed to be a wedding cantata , a funeral cantata
Weimar
Bach worked in Weimar from 1708. He composed a secular cantata, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208, in 1713. The composition of cantatas for the (court chapel) on a regular monthly basis started with his promotion to in March 1714. His goal was to compose a complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year within four years. The cantatas 54 and 199 were performed within the cycle but possibly composed earlier. 1713: ? * 63?