What is a Cantata?

• Cantatas, choral compositions in the Baroque style, contain several movements of solos, duets and choruses with orchestral and/or keyboard accompaniment. These components may take the form of arias and recitatives.

• An aria is a poem or narrative song set to music, performed by voice and instruments. Usually it has two contrasting parts (I and II), ending with a literal or elaborated repeat of 1.

• A recitative, like a narrative song, describes some action, thought or emotion. It follows the natural flow of the language and is more a speaking than a singing composition.

• In the case of Bach, cantatas can be sacred or secular. Sacred cantatas were performed in churches as part of the regular liturgical year, following a cycle of scriptural texts. Secular cantatas celebrated other occasions: an election, a coronation, a wedding or other civic event.

• While Bach stands as the most celebrated cantata composer, others also wrote in this form. Among them are Buxtehude, Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn and von Weber.

• Bach composed more than 200 cantatas in his lifetime, of which around 200 are his proven work. Others are lost, incomplete, or of questionable origin.

Sources:
Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach : The Learned Musician. Norton, 2000.

Web sites:

Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary
www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/

Thomaskirche
www.thomaskirche.org