This is a sortable list of Bach cantatas, the cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. His almost 200 extant cantatas are among his important vocal compositions. Many are known to be lost. Bach composed both church cantatas, most of them for specific occasions of the liturgical year of the Lutheran Church, and secular cantatas.
Bach's earliest cantatas were written possibly from 1707, the year he moved to Mühlhausen, although he may have begun composing them at his previous post in Arnstadt. He began regular composition of church cantatas in Weimar between 1708 and 1717, writing one cantata per month. In his next position in Köthen, he composed no church cantatas, but secular cantatas for the court. 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 Thomanerchor and orchestra as part of the church service. In his first year there, starting after Trinity, Bach regularly composed a new cantata every week in his Bach's first cantata cycle. The following year, he followed the format, now basing each cantata on a Lutheran hymn in the chorale cantata cycle. He was less rigid over the following years, but still produced new compositions in his third to fifth years, the Picander cycle of 1728–29, and late works known up to 1745.
Bach also composed cantatas for other church services such as weddings and Ratswahl (the inauguration of a new town council), and he wrote secular cantatas, around 50 known works, for occasions such as academic functions of the University of Leipzig, and anniversaries and entertainment among the nobility and in society.
The list includes both extant cantatas and, as far as known, lost cantatas. It is sortable by the cantata number which equals the number in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), by title, by occasion during the liturgical year, the year of composition and date of first performance, as far as known. The scoring is provided, grouped by singers and groups of instruments. Colouring shows which cantatas are not extant church cantatas and which works were not even composed by Bach, but attributed to him in the past. A link to the free score of the Bach Gesellschaft in the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is provided if available.
Abbreviations
The abbreviations of performers are given for solo singers, choir (typically SATB), brass instruments (plus timpani), woodwinds, strings, keyboard and basso continuo. The basso continuo consists of a group of players, depending upon the scoring of the cantata and the performance location. For example, a bassoon is typically playing when other wind instruments are called for, an organ may be played in church, a harpsichord will be used in secular surroundings.
The list follows the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis and contains all sacred cantatas (1–197, 199), secular cantatas (198, 201–215), fragments (50, 80b, 216, 224) and works formerly attributed to Bach (15, 53, 141–142, 160, 189, 217–223), lost cantatas (36a, 66a, 70a, 80a, 120b and others), as well as works which are no longer considered cantatas (11, 53, 118). Most of the church cantatas are composed for occasions of the Lutheran liturgical year and related to prescribed readings. The Sundays after Trinity are numbered using roman numerals (for example "Trinity II" for the second Sunday after Trinity). The high holidays Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were celebrated for three days, indicated by numbers for the second and third day, for example "Easter 3" for the third day of Easter. Keyboard instruments are only listed for specific solo parts, not as part of the continuo group. If more than one part was composed for one instrument, the number is given, for example "3Tr" for three trumpets.
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, is a church cantata for Annunciation by Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1725, when the cantata was composed, the feast of the Annunciation coincided with Palm Sunday. Based on Philipp Nicolai's hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" (1599), it is one of Bach's chorale cantatas. Bach composed it in his second year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, where the Marian feast was the only occasion during Lent when music of this kind was permitted. The theme of the hymn suits both the Annunciation and Palm Sunday occasions, in a spirit of longing expectation of an arrival. As usual for Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the hymn was paraphrased by a contemporary poet who retained the hymn's first and last stanzas unchanged, but transformed the themes of the inner stanzas into a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias.
Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat, BWV 243, is a musical setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat. It is scored for five vocal parts, and a Baroque orchestra including trumpets and timpani. It is the first major liturgical composition on a Latin text by Bach.
The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas, 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 Mühlhausen, 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.
Angenehmes Wiederau, freue dich in deinen Auen, BWV 30.1, is a 1737 secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, on a libretto by Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander). Bach reused some of its music in later works, including Freue dich, erlöste Schar, BWV 30.2, one of his church cantatas, which was nearly entirely modelled after the secular composition.
SalomonFranck, 6 March 1659 – 11 July 1725), was a German lawyer, scientist, and poet. Franck was working at Weimar at the same time as the composer Johann Sebastian Bach and he was the librettist of some of the best-known Bach cantatas.
Die Freude reget sich, BWV 36.3, BWV36b), is a secular cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The work appears to date from c. 1737-1738, when Bach was living in Leipzig. Bach drew on material he had composed more than a decade earlier for the cantata Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36.1.
Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, a church cantata for the feast of the Ascension of Jesus. Bach composed it in Leipzig and first performed it on 18 May 1724.
O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe, BWV 34.2 is an incomplete wedding cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, of which only the complete libretto and some parts have survived.
Steigt freudig in die Luft, BWV 36.2, is a lost secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig and probably first performed it in Köthen on 30 November 1726.
Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36.1, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig, most likely in 1725. There is evidence that the cantata was performed in April or May that year, and that it was re-staged six years later for the 40th birthday of Johann Matthias Gesner. Bach reused parts of the cantata in two other secular cantatas, and in a church cantata for the first Sunday in Advent, Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36.
Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen, BWV 249a, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. First performed in 1725, the work is also known as "Shepherd Cantata" or "Shepherds' Cantata". Bach reworked the music in his Easter Oratorio.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht, BWV 52, in Leipzig for the 23rd Sunday after Trinity. He led the first performance of the solo cantata for soprano on 24 November 1726.
Alfred Dürr was a German musicologist. He was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
In allen meinen Taten, BWV 97, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig in 1734 for an unspecified occasion. The text consists of the unchanged words of the hymn by Paul Fleming (1642).
Ihr Tore zu Zion also called Ihr Pforten zu Zion, BWVTooltip Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis 193, is a sacred cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Ratswechsel, the inauguration of a new town council, in 1727 and first performed it on 25 August 1727. The music survives in an incomplete state.
A church cantata or sacred cantata is a cantata intended to be performed during Christian liturgy. The genre was particularly popular in 18th-century Lutheran Germany, with many composers writing an extensive output: Stölzel, Telemann, Graupner and Krieger each wrote nearly or more than a thousand. The best known examples, however, are those of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose output stands out not by quantity but by the high level of expertise and craftmanship which they showcase.
The Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis, abbreviated TWV, is the numbering system identifying compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann, published by musicologist Martin Ruhnke.
Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale cantata cycle is the year-cycle of church cantatas he started composing in Leipzig from the first Sunday after Trinity in 1724. It followed the cantata cycle he had composed from his appointment as Thomaskantor after Trinity in 1723.
Picander's cycle of 1728–29 is a cycle of church cantata librettos covering the liturgical year. It was published for the first time in 1728 as Cantaten auf die Sonn- und Fest-Tage durch das gantze Jahr. Johann Sebastian Bach set several of these librettos to music, but it is unknown whether he covered a substantial part of the cycle. This elusive cycle of cantata settings is indicated as the composer's fourth Leipzig cycle, or the Picander cycle.
On Trinity Sunday 27 May 1725 Johann Sebastian Bach had presented the last cantata of his second cantata cycle, the cycle which coincided with his second year in Leipzig. As director musices of the principal churches in Leipzig he presented a variety of cantatas over the next three years. New cantatas for occasions of the liturgical year composed in this period, except for a few in the chorale cantata format, are known as Bach's third cantata cycle. His next cycle of church cantatas, the Picander cycle, did not start before St. John's Day 24 June 1728.
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