Bach wrote a ton of music that wasn’t ever really published. I think he might’ve had just like, his Clavierubung published in his lifetime, but everything else he wrote for his various patrons and courts and church gigs … from what I gather. Speaking of church gigs, Bach wrote so much music for the church, and he did so very piously. The music itself wasn’t particular pious; it was festive, and ornate and intricate and finely polished for some wonderful ensembles, but he didn’t make a lot of noise about himself.
When I was in college, I wanted to write a paper about the Protestant Work Ethic because I just thought Bach did THE MOST as a church composer. While he was indeed a prolific composer, Telemann was just so extra. Like Bach, Telemann wrote five cycles of church music- More than just church music though, Telemann also wrote more than 500 overtures and orchestra suites, 200 concertos, 40 operas, and more than 1,000 total pieces of church music- TOTALLY outshining Bach, and even Handel combined, both of whom wrote a huge amount of music.
Anyway, back to Bach. while in Leipzig in the 1720s, Bach wrote at least four, possibly five cycles of church cantatas while employed as Thomaskantor. I really love Bach’s second cycle of cantatas, starting in 1724, as it was planned to contain only chorale cantatas, music based on melodies of well-known Lutheran hymns. With these sorts of cantatas, a melody is typically presented and reworked length in every movement. The melody might be passed around back and forth between the voices, used as an accompaniment figure in the orchestra, sung in long notes as a cantus firmus melody, presented straightforward as a hymn, or any number of combinations of the aforementioned techniques. Although the music used in this music is distinctly Lutheran, the technique itself goes back hundreds of years and really took root in Latin-texted music for the Catholic church.
Anywhoooooo, a vast majority of Bach’s church cantatas is for a four-part choir (SATB) and features any number of soloists, and is accompanied by an orchestra varying from just the strings, to including woodwinds and brass and percussion as well. Because of these characteristics, writing about Bach’s church cantatas would get a bit exhausting if I were to specify every time a cantata was scored for four-part choir, soloists, and orchestra. To avoid this, I will only specify when a cantata calls for a different voicing, and when there’s a unique or specific orchestra or combination of instruments involved.
Also, when possible, I will try to discuss the origins of music found in Bach’s cantatas. As mentioned earlier, a large portion of Bach’s cantatas comes from older hymns and hymn melodies. As such, Bach was drawing from an enormous pool of music that came before him. Never the innovator, but definitely skilled at reworking preexisting music, Bach also borrowed heavily from himself in all sorts of directions. Some examples include a cantata Bach reworked into a keyboard concerto; a cantata Bach reworked into a mass fragment; and any number of cantatas, movements, and chants Bach reworked to form the sections of his Mass in B Minor.
I think I’ll end my Bach tirade here. I was working on a posting for tomorrow’s church cantatas, but I think I’ll call it a night soon. I’ll have to put together a posting ahead of time for next weekend, as I’ll be in the middle of the forest with the phoenix girls chorus and totally unable to blog from there.
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