Cantatas · Masses · Oratorios Passions · Motets

Cantatas
Around 1700 in Protestant central Germany the then
new form of the church cantata, which combined
biblical texts, free poetry, and verses from hymns,
finally claimed its place as the principal musical element
in church services. The primary virtue of this
new form of cantata was seen to be the possibility
which it presented of integrating a biblical reading
with the exhortation characteristic of a sermon (in
the recitatives and arias) and reflection (in verses
from hymns) within a single work. The words of a
cantata were generally related to the readings for a
particular Sunday. Thus numerous annual cycles of
cantata texts were written. Each cycle provided for
all of the Sundays and feast days of the church year.
Most of the 190 surviving sacred cantatas by Johann
Sebastian Bach can be shown by study of the source
material and of stylistic features to belong to three
annual cycles. If the statement quoted in Bach’s obituary
is to be taken literally, it appears that two fifths
of the church cantatas which he composed have
been lost.
At Arnstadt and Mühlhausen Bach had no regular
obligation to compose cantatas. The impressive compositions
which the young church musician wrote for
particular occasions during that period – one thinks of
the psalm cantata Aus der Tiefen rufe ich BWV 131
or the Actus tragicus BWV 106 – still belong, rightfully,
among the best-loved of the master’s works. It was
during his tenure at Weimar, after he had been promoted
to the position of concertmaster on 2 March
1714, that – in order to reduce the pressure of work
burdening the ailing Kapellmeister Samuel Drese –
Bach was instructed “to perform new pieces” every
month. As Kapellmeister at Köthen from December
1717 onwards Bach’s production of cantatas was restricted
to supplying New Year cantatas and music of
homage to mark the Prince’s birthday, because at the
Reformed Church of the Court elaborate church music
was not required. It was with the two Cantatas
BWV 22 and 23, on the last Sunday before Lent in
1723, that Bach successfully passed his examination
for the position of Kantor in Leipzig.
Bach vocal
Cantatas 5
Having become Thomaskantor in Leipzig, Bach was
faced by an entirely different situation, because it
was expected of the new director of church music
that he should provide music which was all, or at
least predominantly, of his own composition. Therefore,
between May 1723 and February 1727 he
wrote in close succession almost 150 cantatas for the
Sundays and feast days of the church year. Bach’s responsibility
did not end with the composition of the
works: he had to supervise the copying of the parts,
to make the necessary corrections and prepare for
the performance, all before he could even begin to
think about the first rehearsal.
Due to the fact that over the course of the years different
individuals copied performance parts and different
kinds of paper were used, in the case of most
of these works the date of the first performance can
be ascertained with a high degree of probability.
The Kantor had the right to participate in the choice
of cantata texts, which enabled Bach to integrate
into his first annual cycle many of the works which he
had composed before moving to Leipzig, either unaltered
or with minor textual and musical alterations.
During his second year in office at Leipzig (1724–25),
with the production of his so called chorale cantata
cycle, Bach embarked upon what was perhaps the
most ambitious project of his entire career. This project
was abandoned at Easter 1725, possibly on account
of the death of the librettist. The annual cycle
was completed essentially with cantatas by Mariane
von Ziegler, but missing chorale cantatas were composed
later. The third cycle is incomplete and appar -
ently originated over several years. Moreover, only
individual cantatas have been preserved.
In addition to his cantatas for the Sundays and feast
days of the church year Bach wrote numerous works
for particular occasions – cantatas for the annual
celebration following the election of the Municipal
Council, music of homage for members of the royal
family of Saxony-Poland, compositions for weddings
and funerals. Unfortunately the majority of these
works have been lost.