Brandon Mendez

MUS 501
Presentation #6
October 16th, 2017

Chapter 19: J.S. Bach Cantatas

Origin

- Lutheran theologian and poet, Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756), introduced a new kind of
sacred work for musical setting called the cantata.
- Neumeister used poetic texts, set as recitatives, arias, and ariosos, that encapsulated the meaning
of the days gospel readings.
- This practice became widespread among Lutherans as the poetry brought together formal and
emotional elements.
- Essentially, the cantata combined past musical traditions, such as the chorale, the solo song, and
the concertato medium, with dramatically powerful elements of operatic recitative and aria.
- J.S. Bach went ahead and formatted his cantatas similarly to Neumeisters.

Role in Church Services

- The church cantata was mostly used in the Lutheran churches in Leipzig, primarily St, Nicholass
and St. Thomass.
- The cantata was conducted by Bach himself and featured the best available musicians.
- Since Bach wanted the two main churches to hear the cantatas, they would alternate performances
between the churches.
- The cantata was weaved into the church service and was directly related to the gospel readings
and theme of the sermon.
- Cantatas were composed weekly, and sometimes even more for special occasions.

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62

- This cantata was based off of Martin Luthers chorale, also entitles Nun Komm der Heiden
Heiland.
- The librettist of the cantata used the first and last stanza of the chorale for the opening and closing
choruses and paraphrased the middle stanzas into poetry, making it more suitable for recitatives
and arias.
- Bach followed the text closely and arranged the work into a similar format of opening choruses,
followed by recitatives and arias, and closing with more choruses.
- The opening chorale mixes two genres, the concerto and chorale motet.
- The jubilant characteristics and repeated rising figures within the movement relate directly to the
text, which express welcome and anticipation for the coming of the Savior.
- The recitatives and arias are very operatic and also include direct relations between the music and
text with the inclusion of word painting, such as a run on the word laufen (run).