Bach's secular cantatas

This is a sortable list of the Bach cantatas, the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach's almost 200 extant cantatas are among his important vocal compositions.

The list includes both extant cantatas and, as far as known, lost cantatas. It is sortable by the cantata number which equals the number in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), by title, by occasion during the liturgical year, the year of composition and date of first performance, as far as known. The scoring is provided, grouped by singers and groups of instruments. Colouring shows which cantatas are not extant church cantatas and which works were not even composed by Bach, but attributed to him in the past. A link to the free score of the Bach Gesellschaft in the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is provided if available.

The abbreviations of performers are given for solo singers, choir (typically SATB), brass instruments (plus timpani), woodwinds, strings, keyboard and basso continuo. The basso continuo consists of a group of players, depending upon the scoring of the cantata and the performance location. For example, a bassoon is typically playing when other wind instruments are called for, an organ may be played in church, a harpsichord will be used in secular surroundings.

The list follows the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis and contains all sacred cantatas (1–197, 199), secular cantatas (198, 201–215), fragments (50, 80b, 216, 224) and works formerly attributed to Bach (15, 53, 141–142, 160, 189, 217–223), lost cantatas (36a, 66a, 70a, 80a, 120b and others), as well as works which are no longer considered cantatas (11, 53, 118). Most of the church cantatas are composed for occasions of the Lutheran liturgical year and related to prescribed readings. The Sundays after Trinity are numbered using roman numerals (for example "Trinity II" for the second Sunday after Trinity). The high holidays Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were celebrated for three days, indicated by numbers for the second and third day, for example "Easter 3" for the third day of Easter. Keyboard instruments are only listed for specific solo parts, not as part of the continuo group. If more than one part was composed for one instrument, the number is given, for example "3Tr" for three trumpets.

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