The meaning of the term changed over time, from the simple single-voicemadrigal of the early 17th century, to the multi-voice "cantata da camera" and the "cantata da chiesa" of the later part of that century, from the more substantial dramatic forms of the 18th century to the usually sacred-texted 19th-century cantata, which was effectively a type of shortoratorio.[1] Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are calledchurch cantata or sacred cantatas; other cantatas can be indicated as secular cantatas. Several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such asChristmas cantatas.Christoph Graupner,Georg Philipp Telemann andJohann Sebastian Bach composed cycles ofchurch cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year.
The term originated in the early 17th century, simultaneously withopera andoratorio.[citation needed][2] Prior to that, all "cultured" music was vocal. With the rise ofinstrumental music, the term appeared, while instrumental art became sufficiently developed to be embodied insonatas. From the beginning of the 17th century until late in the 18th, the cantata for one or two solo voices with accompaniment ofbasso continuo (and perhaps a few solo instruments) was a principal form of Italian vocalchamber music.[3]
A cantata consisted first of a declamatory narrative or scene inrecitative, held together by a primitivearia repeated at intervals. Fine examples may be found in the church music ofGiacomo Carissimi; and the English vocal solos ofHenry Purcell (such asMad Tom andMad Bess) show the utmost that can be made of this archaic form. With the rise of theda capo aria, the cantata became a group of two or three arias joined by recitative.George Frideric Handel's numerous Italian duets and trios are examples on a rather large scale. His LatinmotetSilete Venti, for soprano solo, shows the use of this form in church music.[4]
The Italian solo cantata tended, when on a large scale, to become indistinguishable from a scene in anopera, in the same way the church cantata, solo or choral, is indistinguishable from a small oratorio or portion of an oratorio. This is equally evident whether one examines the church cantatas of Bach, of which nearly 200 are extant (seeList of Bach cantatas) or theChandos Anthems of Handel. In Johann Sebastian Bach's case, some of the larger cantatas are actually called oratorios, and theChristmas Oratorio is a collection of six church cantatas actually intended for performance on six different days, though together they form as complete an artistic whole as any classical oratorio.
During the baroque era, the term "cantata" generally retained its original Italian usage to describe a secular vocal piece of extended length, often in different sections, and usually Italianate in style. At the same time, vocal pieces of similar scope, often with several singers, and various instruments, were in great demand for the services of theLutheran church. Such pieces were usually calledgeistliche Konzerte (singular:geistliches Konzert, meaning sacred concerto). Many of these pieces were simply called by their opening text. Such pieces for theliturgy or other occasions were not only composed by Bach but also byDieterich Buxtehude,Christoph Graupner,Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel andGeorg Philipp Telemann, to name a few. The editors of theBach Gesellschaft adopted "sacred cantata" as a convenient catchall for most of Bach's liturgical pieces. The term was then retroactively applied byPhilipp Spitta to refer to comparable works by composers fromHeinrich Schütz onwards.[5] Many secular cantatas were composed for events in the nobility. They were so similar in form to the sacred ones that many of them wereparodied (in parts or completely) to sacred cantatas, for example in Bach'sChristmas Oratorio.
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Johann Sebastian Bach, almost 200 of whose cantatas survive, is a notable contributor to the genre.[6]
His cantatas are usually written for a baroque orchestra consisting of a string section, an oboe section, and acontinuo group, timpani and brass were sometimes added on festive occasions such as Christmas or Easter. The vocal forces consisted of a four-part choir and soloists. Bach also wrote some cantatas for only one solo singer (ex.BWV 51).
Christoph Graupner was Hofkapellmeister at the court ofHesse-Darmstadt and provided over 1,400 cantatas during his nearly 50 years of employment there, making him the most significant contributor to the genre. While only a handful of Bach's cantatas contain accompanied chorales (the vocal parts are usually doubled by the instrumental parts), nearly all of Graupner's chorales feature elaborate ritornello sections.[7] This is possibly because Bach's Leipzig congregation was expected to sing along with them, but the Darmstadt court was not. Also, many of Graupner's cantatas exploit elaborate orchestral effects and use exotic instrumentation, such aschalumeau,flûte d'amour,oboe d'amore,viola d'amore,trumpets,horns andtimpani. See:List of cantatas by Christoph Graupner.
The term "cantata" came to be applied almost exclusively to choral works, as distinguished from solo vocal music. In early 19th-century cantatas, the chorus is the vehicle for music more lyric and songlike than in oratorio, not excluding the possibility of a brilliant climax in afugue as inLudwig van Beethoven'sDer glorreiche Augenblick,Carl Maria von Weber'sJubel-Kantate, andFelix Mendelssohn'sDie erste Walpurgisnacht.Anton Bruckner composed severalName-day cantatas, aFestive Cantata and two secular cantatas (Germanenzug andHelgoland). Bruckner'sPsalm 146 is also in cantata form. Mendelssohn'sSymphony Cantata, theLobgesang, is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. It is preceded by three symphonic movements, a device avowedly suggested by Beethoven'sNinth Symphony; but the analogy is not accurate, as Beethoven's work is a symphony of which the fourth movement is a choral finale of essentially single design, whereas Mendelssohn'sSymphony Cantata is a cantata with three symphonic preludes. The full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized byJohannes Brahms in hisRinaldo, which, like theWalpurgisnacht—was set to a text byGoethe. Other cantatas, Beethoven'sMeeresstille, works of Brahms and many notable small English choral works, such as cantatas ofJohn Henry Maunder andJohn Stanley, find various ways to set poetry to choral music. The competition for the FrenchPrix de Rome requires that each candidate submit a cantata.Hector Berlioz failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 withSardanapale. While almost all of thePrix de Rome cantatas have long since been forgotten (along with their composers, for the most part), Debussy's prize-winningL'enfant prodigue (1884, following his unsuccessfulLe gladiateur of 1883) is still performed occasionally today. Late in the century,Gustav Mahler wrote his earlyDas klagende Lied on his own words between 1878 and 1880, andSamuel Coleridge-Taylor created a successfultrilogy of cantatas,The Song of Hiawatha between 1898 and 1900.
Cantatas, both of the chamber variety and on a grand scale, were composed after 1900 as well.[8] Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that one of the most popular pieces of classical music of the 20th century to the layman's ears, is a cantata, namelyCarmina Burana (1935–1936) by the German composerCarl Orff.
In the early part of the century, secular cantatas once again became prominent, while the 19th-century tradition of sacred cantatas also continued.Ralph Vaughan Williams composed both kinds: "festival" cantatas such asToward the Unknown Region (1907),Five Mystical Songs (1911), andFive Tudor Portraits (1936), and sacred cantatas includingSancta civitas (1926),Benedicite (1930),Dona nobis pacem (1936), andHodie (1954).Joseph Ryelandt also composed secular and sacred cantatas, such asLe chant de la pauvreté Op. 92 in 1928 andVeni creator Op. 123 in 1938.Béla Bartók composed the secularCantata Profana, subtitled "The Nine Splendid Stags" and based on a Romanian folk tale, in 1930. Although it began as a song cycle (as reflected also by its title),Arnold Schoenberg'sGurre-Lieder (1900–1903/1910–11) evolved into one of the century's largest secular cantatas.Paul Hindemith composed three works he designated as cantatas:Die Serenaden, Op. 35, for soprano, oboe, viola, and cello (1924),Mahnung an die Jugend, sich der Musik zu befleissigen (from thePlöner Musiktage, 1932), andIte angeli veloces for alto and tenor, mixed chorus, and orchestra, with audience participation (1953–55). OfAnton Webern's last three compositions, two are secular cantatas: Cantata No. 1, Op. 29 (1938–39), and Cantata No. 2, Op. 31 (1941–43), both setting texts byHildegard Jone. Webern had begun sketching a Third Cantata by the time he was killed in 1945.Ernst Krenek also composed two examples: a "scenic cantata",Die Zwingburg, Op. 14 (1922), and aCantata for Wartime, Op. 95, for women's voices and orchestra (1943).Sergei Prokofiev composedSemero ikh (1917–18; rev. 1933), and in 1939 premiered a cantata drawn from the film music forAlexander Nevsky.[citation needed] He wrote two festival cantatas, theCantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution, Op. 74, andFlourish, Mighty Homeland, Op. 114, for the thirtieth anniversary of the same event
Patriotic cantatas celebrating anniversaries of events in theRevolution or extolling state leaders were frequently commissioned in the Soviet Union between 1930 and the middle of the century, though these occasional works were seldom among their composers' best. Examples includeDmitri Shostakovich'sPoem of the Motherland, Op. 47 (1947) andThe Sun Shines over Our Motherland, Op. 90 (1952), and three works by Prokofiev,Zdravitsa! [Hail to Stalin] (1939).Dmitry Kabalevsky also composed four such cantatas,The Great Homeland, Op. 35 (1941–42),The Song of Morning, Spring and Peace, Op. 57 (1957–58),Leninists, Op. 63 (1959), andAbout Our Native Land, Op. 82 (1965).
In 1940, the Brazilian composerHeitor Villa-Lobos created a secular cantata titledMandu çarará, based on an Indian legend collected by Barbosa Rodrigues.Francis Poulenc composed in 1943Figure humaine,FP 120, a cantata for double mixedchoir of 12 voices on poems byPaul Éluard.Igor Stravinsky composed a work titled simplyCantata in 1951–52, which used stanzas from the 15th-century "Lyke-wake Dirge" as a narrative frame for other anonymous English lyrics, and later designatedA Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer (1961) as "a cantata for alto and tenor soli, speaker, chorus, and orchestra".Luigi Nono wroteIl canto sospeso in 1955–56.Hans Werner Henze composed aCantata della fiaba estrema andNovae de infinito laudes (both in 1963), as well as a number of other works that might be regarded as cantatas, such asKammermusik (1958, rev. 1963),Muzen Siziliens (1966), andEl Cimarrón (1969–70).Momente (1962–64/1969), one of the most important works ofKarlheinz Stockhausen, is often described as a cantata.Benjamin Britten composed at least six works he designated as cantatas:The Company of Heaven (1937),Rejoice in the Lamb, Op. 30 (1943),Saint Nicolas, Op. 42 (1949), theCantata academica, Op. 62 (1959), theCantata Misericordium, Op. 69 (1963), andPhaedra, Op. 93 (1975).Alberto Ginastera also composed three works in this form: theCantata para América Mágica, Op. 27 (1960),Bomarzo, Op. 32 (1964), andMilena, Op. 37 (1971), andGottfried von Einem composed in 1973An die Nachgeborenen based on diverse texts, the title taken from a poem ofBertolt Brecht.Mikis Theodorakis composed the cantatasAccording to the Sadducees andCanto Olympico.Herbert Blendinger'sMedia in vita was premiered in 1980, hisMich ruft zuweilen eine Stille (Sometimes a silence calls me) in (1992), andAllein den Betern kann es noch gelingen (It can only be achieved by those who pray) in 1995.Iván Erőd wrote in 1988/89)Vox Lucis (Voice of the Light), Op. 56.Ivan Moody wrote in 1995Revelation.
^Kennedy, Michael "Cantata",The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)ISBN0-19-861459-4.
^Tovey, Donald. Francis.In Musical Forms,[full citation needed]: Meridian Books, 1956; reprinted by arrangement by Oxford University Press.[page needed]
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