Cantatas

In general, two types of genres can be distinguished in Bach's oeuvre: works for organ and vocal-instrumental compositions of the cantata-oratorio type. Among these, the Cantatas are the most widespread and the most numerous. More than 200 works of this genre have survived, but most of them have been lost. It can be assumed that Bach wrote about 300 cantatas. He developed an interest in this genre in his youth in Arnstadt and retained it until the end of his life. Over 250 cantatas were composed in the composer's Leipzig period, the vast majority of them spiritual cantatas, which the composer called concertos, motets, and sometimes passions. His secular cantatas number only 22 - less than a tenth of the total number of works in this genre. They are usually relatively small cycles composed of Bach's usual vocal-instrumental forms: arias, arioso, ensembles, recitatives and choruses, sometimes preceded by an instrumental piece (symphony, overture). Bach took some of the music of these cantatas from his other sacred works. In contrast, music from these cantatas is used much more frequently in the sacred cantatas. Bach's librettists did not belong to the great German poets of the time, and so their cold, outwardly pathetic and clumsy texts are vastly inferior to the composer's beautiful, poetic music. The secular cantatas were usually written in honour of eminent persons (crowned, titled or administrative) in Weimar, Köthen and Leipzig. Bach called them serenades, musical dramas, burlesques and sometimes simply 'cantatas'. In general, they can be divided into three groups: everyday genres, moral-didactic ones, and secular, festive-celebratory ones. Well-known examples in this area are the Peasant Cantata, the Coffee Cantata, and The Contest Between Phoebus and Pan. However, a much wider and artistically significant part of Bach's cantata oeuvre is his works on religious themes. It is in the area of sacred cantatas that the composer almost always comes closest to popular sacred song, especially through the Protestant chorale, which is one of the main foundations of his thematic and melodic style. Sacred cantatas, which usually use gospel texts, are formally intended for performance in church after the Sunday service and sermon. But like the later High Mass and other monumental works of the cultic genres, Bach's sacred cantatas from the Weimar period onwards far outgrew their traditional purpose and became aesthetic values independent of the evangelical church and its ritual.