Emmanuel Episcopal Church Bach Cantata Series

Continuing a 42-year old tradition, the Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music presents Bach's astounding human document, in the liturgical setting for which it was intended, as well as other sacred works.

The term 'cantata', invented in Italy in the 17th century, refers to a piece of music written for voice or voices and instruments. It applies broadly to works for solo voice, multiple soloists, vocal ensemble, and with instrumental accompaniment of keyboard or instrumental ensemble. It can be a single movement work or consist of multiple movements, and the text can be either sacred or secular. It tended to replace the older terms and forms of the motet and the madrigal, more popular in the Renaissance, and in general reflected a preference for the solo voice.

By Bach's time (1685-1750), cantatas were generally works that contained several movements or distinct sections with tempo and key changes. If a work did not feature a solo voice at any point, it was usually called a motet instead of a cantata. The composers in Germany were quite familiar with the Italian cantata, and copied its structure.

Bach's immediate predecessors, including Buxtehude and earlier generations of the Bach family, were active creators of cantatas – generally sacred works based on Biblical texts, or sometimes on choral texts from the previous century. These types of cantatas were usually performed during a Lutheran church service.

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