Church cantata (Bach)


Throughout his life as a musician,[] Johann Sebastian Bach composed cantatas for both secular and sacred use. His church cantatas are cantatas which he composed for use in the Lutheran church, mainly intended for the occasions of the liturgical year.

cantata cycles">History and context

mentions five cantata cycles: "Fünf Jahrgänge von Kirchenstücken, auf alle Sonn- und Festtage", which would amount to at least 275 cantatas, or over 320 if all cycles would have been ideal cycles. The extant cantatas are around two thirds of that number, with limited additional information on the ones that went missing or survived as fragments.
The listing below contains cycle information as available in scholarship, and may include cantatas that are or were associated with Bach, but were not actually composed by him.

Before Leipzig

Bach's earliest cantatas date from more than 15 years before he became Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723. His earliest extant cantatas were composed in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. In 1708 he moved to Weimar where he wrote most of his church cantatas before the Leipzig era. These pre-Leipzig cantatas are not generally grouped as one of the five cycles mentioned in the Nekrolog. The extant cantatas of the pre-Leipzig era are primarily known by their recasting as a cantata in one of the Leipzig cycles.

Early cantatas

Bach started composing cantatas around 1707, when he was still an organist in Arnstadt. The first documented performances of his work take place in Mühlhausen, where he was appointed in 1708.

Weimar

In Weimar, Bach was from 1714 to 1717 commissioned to compose one church cantata a month. In the course of almost four years there he thus covered most occasions of the liturgical year. The expression "Weimar cycle" has been used for the cantatas composed in Weimar from 1714.

Köthen

In Köthen, where Bach worked from 1717 to 1723, he restaged some of his earlier church cantatas. Apart from composing several secular cantatas, Lobet den Herrn, alle seine Heerscharen, BWV Anh. 5, is the only new church cantata he appears to have composed there.

Leipzig

As Thomaskantor, director of music of the main churches of Leipzig, Bach was responsible for the Thomasschule and for the church music at the main churches, where a cantata was required for the service on Sundays and additional church holidays of the liturgical year. When Bach took up his office in 1723, he started to compose new cantatas for most occasions, beginning with Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, first performed in the Nikolaikirche on 30 May 1723, the first Sunday after Trinity. He collected them in annual cycles; five are mentioned in obituaries, three are extant.
The church year begins with the first Sunday in Advent, but Bach started his first Leipzig cycles on the first Sunday after Trinity, which "also marked the beginning of the second half of the Lutheran liturgical year: the Trinity season or "Era of the Church" in which core issues of faith and doctrine are explored, in contrast to the first half, known as the "Temporale" which, beginning in Advent and ending on Trinity Sunday, focuses on the life of Christ, His incarnation, death and resurrection".
Leipzig observed tempus clausum, quiet time, in Advent and Lent, when no cantatas were performed. All cantatas for these occasions date from Bach's earlier time. He reworked some cantatas from this period for different occasions. The high holidays Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were each celebrated on three days. Additionally, feasts were celebrated on fixed dates, the feasts of Purification of Mary, [|Annunciation] and [|Visitation], and the Saint's days of St. John the Baptist, St. Michael, St. Stephen and St. John the Evangelist. Further feasts on fixed days were New Year's Day, Epiphany and Reformation Day. Sacred cantatas were also performed for the inauguration of a new city council, consecration of church and organ, weddings, confession, funerals, and functions of the University of Leipzig.

First cycle

Bach's first cantata cycle consists of cantatas or similar liturgical works first performed from to .

Second cycle

Bach started a second annual cycle on the first Sunday after Trinity of 1724, planned to contain only chorale cantatas, each based on a single Lutheran hymn. He began with O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20, on the first Sunday after Trinity, composed chorale cantatas to the end of the liturgical year, began the next liturgical year with Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62 for the first Sunday in Advent, and kept the plan up to Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, performed on Palm Sunday. For the occasions from Easter to Trinity, he composed no chorale cantatas based exclusively on one hymn, but wrote a few of them in later years, such as Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, for the 28th Sunday after Trinity which had not occurred in 1724.
Bach's second cantata cycle consists of cantatas first performed from to . The first 40 cantatas of this cycle are chorale cantatas, thus this cycle is also known as the chorale cantata cycle. Bach's chorale cantatas written at a later date and restagings of earlier chorale cantatas are also usually understood as being included in this cycle.

Third cycle

Bach's third cantata cycle is traditionally seen as consisting of cantatas first performed from the first Sunday after Trinity in 1725 to Trinity Sunday in 1726, or otherwise before the Picander cycle. More recent scholarship assigns the qualification "between the third and the fourth cycles" to the few known cantatas written from 1727 to the start of the fourth cycle.
In the "third cycle" period Bach also performed many cantatas composed by his second cousin Johann Ludwig Bach a Leipzig premiere. For the period from [|Purification], to Trinity XIII, there are extant copies by Johann Sebastian Bach and his usual scribes for 16 cantatas, covering nearly half of the occasions in that period. Another cantata, JLB 21, was likely also given its Leipzig premiere in this same period, but was for some time misattributed to Johann Sebastian Bach as his cantata BWV 15.

Fourth cycle

Bach's fourth cantata cycle, known as the Picander cycle, consists of cantatas performed for the first time from to , or later in 1729, to a libretto from the printed cycle of 70 cantata texts for 1728–29 by Picander. Later additions to this cycle and Picander librettos without extant setting from Bach's time in Leipzig can be seen as belonging to this cycle.

Later/other

Cantatas not belonging to any of the previous: e.g. first performed after the Picander cycle, uncertainty when it was first performed or for which liturgical occasion it was composed, etc. Generally it is not believed that cantatas composed after the Picander cycle amount to a cycle in its own right, at least there are not enough extant cantatas to unambiguously conclude that a fifth Leipzig cantata cycle ever existed.

Occasions

The Lutheran church of Bach's time prescribed the same readings every year, a section from a Gospel and, recited before this, a corresponding section from an Epistle. A connection between the cantata text and the readings was desired. Relevant readings and hymns are linked to the church cantata article for each occasion.
Roman numerals refer to the position of the given Sunday with respect to a feast day or season. For example, "Advent III" is the third Sunday in Advent and "Trinity V" is the fifth Sunday after Trinity. The number of Sundays after Epiphany and Trinity varies with the position of Easter in the calendar. There can be between 22 and 27 Sundays after Trinity. The maximum number of Sundays after Epiphany did not occur while Bach wrote cantatas.

Advent

Advent is celebrated on the four Sundays before Christmas. In Leipzig, only on the first Sunday a cantata was performed, because it was a Fastenzeit.

Advent I

[|1 – First year in Leipzig], :
[|2 – Chorale cantata cycle], :
3 – Between the second and the fourth cycle?:
[|4 – Picander cycle], libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
[|4 – Picander libretto] for :
4 – Picander libretto for :
5 – Other and/or later:
4 – Picander libretto for :
The Christmas season was celebrated from Christmas Day through Epiphany. In Leipzig, three consecutive days were observed for Christmas, with a Christmas cantata performed every day. If a Sunday fell between 27 December and 1 January, the first Sunday of Christmas, it was celebrated with a cantata too. Other cantatas were composed for New Year's Day, a Sunday between 1 and 6 January and Epiphany.
For the Christmas season of 1734–35 Bach composed the Christmas Oratorio in six parts, each part a cantata to be performed on one of the six feast days that occurred in that Christmas period : three days of Christmas, New Year, the Sunday after New Year and Epiphany.

Christmas Day

1 – First year in Leipzig, 1723:
[|2 – Second year in Leipzig], 1724:
5 – Other and/or later:
On the second day of Christmas Leipzig celebrated Christmas and St. Stephen's Day in alternating years, with different readings.
[|1 – First cycle], 1723:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1724:
[|3 – Third cycle], 1725:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for 1728:
5 – Other and/or later:
, 1723:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1724:
3 – Third cycle, 1725:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for 1728:
5 – Other and/or later:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for 1728 :
On 1 January the feast of the Circumcision of Christ was celebrated, as well as the New Year.
Composed before the numbered cycles:
1 – First cycle, 1724:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1725:
3 – Third cycle, 1726:
4 – Picander cycle, 1729:
5 – Other and/or later:
In some years, a Sunday falls between New Year's Day and Epiphany. It is known as the Sunday after New Year's Day or as the second Sunday of Christmas.
1 – First cycle, :
2 – Later addition to the chorale cantata cycle:
[|3 – Third cycle or "between the third and the fourth cycles"], :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, 1724:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1725:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for 1729:
5 – Other and/or later:
Depending on the date of Easter, a variable number of Sundays occurred between Epiphany and Septuagesima, the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

Epiphany I

, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle:
[|3 – Third year in Leipzig], :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
There is no extant Bach-cantata for Epiphany V, nor for Epiphany VI, Sundays that did not occur every year. In Bach's first year in Leipzig the last Sunday before Pre-Lent was Epiphany IV. In his second year it had been Epiphany III. In his third year in Leipzig the last Sunday before Pre-Lent was Epiphany V, on which occasion he staged a cantata by Johann Ludwig Bach. In the Picander cycle the last Sunday before Pre-Lent was also Epiphany V, but there is no extant cantata for that occasion in 1729.
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
Picander provided a libretto for the sixth Sunday after Epiphany in his 1728–29 cycle of cantata texts, although that Sunday did not occur in the liturgical year for which he wrote his cycle. Epiphany VI did not occur in any of the years Bach was composing his cantata cycles.
4 – Picander cycle, libretto for Epiphany VI:
Pre-Lent, a.k.a. Shrovetide or the Pre-Lenten season, comprises the three last Sundays before Lent.

Septuagesima

is the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
1 – First cycle, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig and "between the third and the fourth cycles":
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
is the second Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
Composed before the numbered cycles:
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
[|1 – Audition and first cycle], and :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig and "between the third and the fourth cycles":
4 – Picander cycle, :
5 – Other and/or later:
During Lent, the Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter, "quiet time" was observed in Leipzig. Only the feast of Annunciation was celebrated with a cantata, even if it fell in that time. On Good Friday, a Passion was performed in Leipzig in a Vespers service.

Invocabit

, libretto planned for :
, libretto planned for :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, libretto planned for :
, libretto planned for :
The only two extant church cantatas Bach composed for Annunciation are also Palm Sunday cantatas. He composed one for this combined occasion in Weimar. In Leipzig Annunciation was the only occasion for which concerted music could be performed during Lent, apart from the Passion performed on Good Friday. When 25 March, the normal date for the feast of Annunciation, fell in Holy Week the feast for Annunciation was moved forward to Palm Sunday, which happened in 1728, the second time Bach restaged his Weimar cantata for the combined Annunciation and Palm Sunday occasion.
The other cantata Bach composed for the combined occasion was the last chorale cantata written in his second year in Leipzig, first performed on . In 1729, the Picander cycle year, Annunciation fell more than two weeks before Palm Sunday. Picander did however not provide a separate libretto for Palm Sunday in his 1728–29 cycle: he proposed to use the same libretto as for Advent I. There is no extant setting of this libretto by Bach, nor of the separate Annunciation libretto.

Good Friday

Bach's Passion settings are not listed as cantatas, nor are such Passions usually included in cantata cycles. As an indication of which Passion was performed in the course of which cycle they are listed here:
Before Leipzig:
1 – First year in Leipzig,
2 – Second year in Leipzig, :
3 – Third to fifth year in Leipzig:
[|4 – Period of the Picander cycle], :
5 – Other and/or later:
The Easter season comprises the time up to Pentecost, starting with three days of Easter.

Easter Sunday

1 – First year in Leipzig, :
[|2 – Second year in Leipzig and/or chorale cantata cycle], :
[|3 – third year in Leipzig], :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
[|2 – Second cantata cycle], :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Second cantata cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
The Sundays between Easter and Pentecost have Latin names, derived from the beginning of the prescribed readings. The first Sunday after Easter is called Quasimodogeniti. Some sources name the Sunday after Easter the second Sunday in Easter, counting Easter Sunday as the first.
[|1 – First cantata cycle], :
2 – Second cantata cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
The second Sunday after Easter is called Misericordias Domini.
1 – First cantata cycle, :
[|2 – Second year cycle] and/or chorale cantata cycle:
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
The third Sunday after Easter is called Jubilate.
Composed before the numbered cycles:
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Second year cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
The fourth Sunday after Easter is called Cantate.
Composed before the numbered cycles:
1 – First cantata cycle, :
2 – Second year cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
The fifth Sunday after Easter is called Rogate.
1 – First cantata cycle, :
2 – Second year cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Second year cycle, :
[|3 – Third cantata cycle], :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
The Sunday after Ascension is called Exaudi.
1 – First cycle, :
[|2 – Second cycle], :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
Leipzig publications with the text of the cantatas for the four occasions from Pentecost to Trinity are extant for 1727 and 1731.

Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost Sunday is also called Whit Sunday.
Composed before the numbered cycles:
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Second cycle, :
3 – "Between the third and the fourth cycles":
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
Pentecost Monday is also called Whit Monday.
2 – Second cycle, :
3 – "Between the third and the fourth cycles":
4 – Picander cycle, :
5 – Other and/or later:
Pentecost Tuesday is also called Whit Tuesday.
1 – First cycle, :
2 – Second cycle, :
3 – "Between the third and the fourth cycles":
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
On Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost, the Trinity is celebrated.
Composed before the numbered cycles:
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Second cycle and chorale cantata cycle:
3 – Third year in Leipzig and "Between the third and the fourth cycles":
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
A variable number of Sundays, up to 27 if Easter is extremely early, occurs between Trinity and the next liturgical year, which starts with the first Sunday of Advent.
Bach's first two Leipzig cantata cycles start on the first Sunday after Trinity: it was the first occasion of his tenure as Thomaskantor, and the next year he composed the first cantata of his chorale cantata cycle for this occasion.
After his cantata for Trinity 1725, which concluded his second year in Leipzig, there are however no extant cantatas before BWV 168 for the ninth Sunday after Trinity, considered the first cantata of the third cycle. For the first Sunday after Trinity 1726 he composed BWV 39, considered as a later addition to the third cycle.
The incomplete fourth cycle was supposed to start on St. John's Day, followed by a cantata for the fifth Sunday after Trinity on, at least as far as the first print of Picander's libretto of this cycle is concerned. Bach's oldest extant setting of a libretto of this cycle is however a cantata for the 21st Sunday after Trinity,, and when the cycle's librettos were printed for the second time in 1732 Picander indicated 1729 as the year of the cycle.
The elusive fifth cycle has an even less clear start. It is not known which cantatas exactly belonged to this cycle: it may have been a collection of cantatas written before Bach's Leipzig time that were not otherwise added to one of the other numbered cycles, and of cantatas written at a later date.

Trinity I

, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle:
3 – Third year in Leipzig, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
3 – Third and fourth year in Leipzig:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
3 – Third and fourth year in Leipzig:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third and fourth year in Leipzig:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
1 – First cycle, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Between the second and the fourth cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle:
3 – Between the second and the fourth cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Between the second and the fourth cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
1 – First cycle, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
1 – First year in Leipzig, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
3 – Third cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
, :
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:

Purification

The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple are celebrated on 2 February.
1 – First year in Leipzig, 1724:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1725:
3 – Between the second and the fourth cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for 1729:
5 – Other and/or later:
The Annunciation is celebrated on 25 March, or on Palm Sunday when 25 March falls in Holy Week. Bach's only extant Annunciation cantatas were composed in years when Annunciation coincided with Palm Sunday.
Composed before the numbered cycles:
1 – First year in Leipzig, Palm Sunday :
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, Palm Sunday :
3 – "Between the second and the fourth cycle":
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for :
5 – Other and/or later:
The Feast of John the Baptist, remembering the birth of John the Baptist, is celebrated on 24 June.
1 – First cantata cycle, 1723:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1724:
3 – Third year in Leipzig:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for 1728:
5 – Other and/or later:
, the visit of Mary with Elizabeth, including her song of praise, the Magnificat, is celebrated on 2 July.
1 – First cantata cycle, 1723:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1724:
3 – Between second and fourth cycle:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto planned for 1728:
5 – Other and/or later:
's Day, i.e. Michaelmas, is celebrated on 29 September.
2 – Chorale cantata cycle, 1724:
3 – Third cycle, 1726:
4 – Picander cycle, libretto originally planned for 1728, setting 1729:
5 – Other and/or later:
is celebrated on 31 October.
1 – First cycle, 1723:
2 – Chorale cantata cycle:
3 – Third cycle, 1725:
4 – Picander cycle:
5 – Other and/or later:

Consecration of church and organ

The election or inauguration of a new town council was celebrated with a service. Normally this was an annual event. The cantata written for such celebrations were indicated with the term Ratswechsel or Ratswahl.