The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, 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 Muhlhausen, 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 Thomaskantor and director of church music in Leipzig, a position which he took up in 1723.
Working for Leipzig’s Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche, it was part of Bach’s job to perform a church cantata every Sunday and holiday, conducting soloists, the Thomanerchos 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. He probably composed his last cantata in 1745.
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 pieces, each of these entirely based on text and tune of such hymn.
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 (Eingangschor) 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.
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 Es warte alles auf dich BWV 187.
