A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Kirchen Cantaten
KIRCHEN CANTATEN. The Kirchen Cantaten of the German Lutheran Church corresponded to a great extent with the Anglican anthems, but they were for the most part on a larger scale and had a band accompaniment as well as the organ, which is rarely the case with anthems. They were used on the great festivals of the Church and on festal occasions, such as weddings of great people. They flourished especially in the time immediately before and with Sebastian Bach, and it is with his name that they are chiefly associated, both for the prodigious number and the great beauty of many of the examples of this form of composition which he produced.
Among his predecessors, his uncles Michael and J oli aim Christoph, and the great organist Buxtehude, were composers of Cantatas of this kind, and Bach certainly adopted the form of his own from them at first, both as regards the distribution of the numbers and the words. With them as with him the words were sometimes complete religious songs, but they were also frequently taken from promiscuous sources, passages from the Bible and verses from hymns and religious songs being strung together, with an underlying fixed idea to keep them bound into a complete whole. In some cases they are mystical, in others they are of a prayerful character, and of course many are hymns of praise. In many there is a clear dramatic element, and in this form the dialogue between Christ and the soul is not uncommon, as in the well-known 'Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss, 1 and in 'Gottes Zeit' and 'Selig ist der Mann,' of J. S. Bach. The treatment of the subject is often very beautiful apart from the diction, and expresses a tender touching kind of poetry of religion which is of the purest and most affecting character, and found in Bach's hands the most perfect possible expression in music.
The dramatic element points to the relationship of the Kirchencantaten to the Italian Cantate di Camera, which formed an important section of the operatic department of music which had begun to be cultivated in Italy from the beginning of the 17th century. In composing the earlier Cantatas, Buxtehude and Bach's uncles do not seem to have had this connection very clearly in view, neither does it appear obviously in the earlier examples of John Sebastian. But from the year 1712 Bach began writing music to Cantatas by a theologian and poet named Neumeister, a man of some importance in relation to church music; who wrote poems which he called Cantatas for all the great Festivals and Sundays of the year, following avowedly the dramatic manner of the Italians. Of Bach's contemporaries, Telemann preceded him slightly in setting these Cantatas, as a collection with his music was published in Gotha in 1711. This part of the history of Cantatas, which divides them into two periods in matter of form, is too elaborate to be treated here, but a very full account will be found in Spitta's Life of Bach, Part i, chap, iv, and Part iii, chap. iv.
As regards the music, the form was extremely variable. In a great number of cases the work opened with a chorus, which in Bach's hands assumed gigantic proportions. This was followed by a series of recitatives, airs, ariosos, duets or other kinds of solo music, and in the greatest number of instances ended with a simple chorale. In some cases the work opens with an aria or duet, and at others there are several choruses interspersed in the work, and occasionally they form the bulk of the whole. In one somewhat singular instance (viz. 'Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen') the Cantata consists of two long arias, and two recitatives, and an adagio, all for a bass voice, and ends with a chorale. It is evident that the works were constructed with reference to the particular resources at the disposal of the composer for performance; and in this respect the band varied as much as the musical form of the work. Sometimes the organ was accompanied by strings alone, at others by a considerable orchestra of strings, wood and brass. With developed resources the Cantata occasionally began both in the older and the later forms with an instrumental introduction which was called irrespectively a symphony or a sonata or sonatina, and evidently had some relationship to the instrumental Sonate di Chiesa which were common in Italy in the Roman Catholic Churches. This practice appears to have been more universal before Bach's time than appears from his works, as instrumental introductions to Cantatas with him are the exception. In such an astonishing number of examples as Bach produced it is inevitable that there should be some disparity in value. A considerable number are of the highest possible beauty and grandeur, and a few may not be in his happiest vein. But assuredly the wealth stored up in them which has yet to become known to the musical public is incalculable. Their uncompromising loftiness, and generally austere purity of style has hindered their universal popularity hitherto; but as people learn to feel, as they ultimately must, how deeply expressive and healthily true that style is, the greater will be the earnest delight they will find in music, and the greater will be the fame of these imperishable monuments of Bach's genius.[ C. H. H. P. ]
We take the opportunity to add the contents of the two volumes of Kirehencantaten published by the Bachgesellschaft since the issue of p. 120 of this work.
1873. Twenty-third year.
(Issued Aug. 1876.)
101. Nimm von uns Heir.
102. Herr, deine Augen sehen.
103. Ihr werdet weinen und heulen.
104. Du Hirte Israel.
105. Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht.
106. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit.
107. Was willst du dich betrüben.
108. Es ist euch gut.
109. Ich glaube lieber Herr.
110. Unser Mund sei voll Lachens.
1874. Twenty-fourth year.
(Issued Dec. 1876.)
111. Was mein Gott will.
112. Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt.
113. Herr Jesu Christ, du höchster Gut.
114. Ach. lieben Christen.
115. Mache dich mein Geist bereit.
116. Du Friedefürst Herr Jesu Christ.
117. Sei Lob und Ehr.
118. O Jesu Christ mein's Leben's Licht.
119. Preise Jerusalem, dem Herrn.
120. Gott, man lobet dich.
[App. p.690 "For continuation of the list of cantatas see Bach-Gesellschaft in Appendix, vol. iv. p. 529. Since that article was in type, the number of cantatas has been increased to 170, by the publication in 1887 of the 33rd volume (due 1883), which contains the following:—
161. Komm du süsse Todesstunde.
162. Ach, ich sehe.
163. Nur Jedem das Seine.
164. Ihr, die ihr euch.
165. O heil'ge Geist-u. Wasserbad.
166. Wo gehest du hin.
167. Ihr Menschen, rühmet
168. Thue Rechnung!
169. Gott soll allein.
170. Vernüg te Ruh'.