Cantata is a usually short composition
featuring several movements and it features a story so in the case of
Bach's cantatas we feature an element from the Bible but we also have secular
cantatas which might feature a mythological story. The word cantata
comes from the Italian 'cantare', 'to sing' and quite often we have two main forms
of composition within a cantata we have an aria which is really just a melody
an 'air' if you like and that's the sort of usually the thoughtful bit where the
singer thinks and reflects on one aspect of the story and then linking these
arias we have what's called a recitative and a recitative is when the story is
told more explicitly and that usually takes the form of almost a spoken type
of text but obviously with a melodic shape so its presented by the singer but
again it's a much more spoken thing and the bass department simply plays chords
to support this bit of the story so much more direct action. When Bach got his job at Leipzig one of
the jobs, these duties he was expected to do was to compose a cantata for the
Sunday service and he was expected to come up with a new cantata for every
single calendar service. This is an incredible
undertaking and the fact that we have so many surviving cantatas by Bach shows
quite how prolific he was and how hard-working he was to create these
astonishing compositions and to leave us with this amazing body of work. I like to
think that at the end of every service on Sunday he would heave a big sigh of
relief and then start work again on the next cantata on Monday and of course
this was a new composition it needed new parts to be presented and to be written out.
It would also need the choristers to be rehearsed, instrumentalists to be
assembled and I think we can't really underestimate how much work this
must have been and what an amazing achievement it is that we've got these
unbelievable compositions.