Church cantata

A church cantata or sacred cantata is a cantata intended to be performed during a liturgical service. The liturgical calendar of the German Reformation era had, without counting Reformation Day and days between Palm Sunday and Easter, 72 occasions for which a cantata could be presented. Composers like Georg Philipp Telemann composed cycles of church cantatas comprising all 72 of these occasions (e.g. Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst). Such a cycle is called an "ideal" cycle, while in any given liturgical year feast days could coincide with Sundays, and the maximum amount of Sundays after Epiphany and the maximum amount of Sundays after Trinity could not all occur.

In some places, of which Leipzig in Johann Sebastian Bach's time is best known, no concerted music was allowed for the three last Sundays of Advent, nor for the Sundays of Lent (apart when Annunciation fell on a Sunday in that period, or in Holy Week), so the "ideal" year cycle (German: Jahrgang) for such places comprised only 64 cantatas (or 63 without the cantata for Reformation Day).

Other occasions for church cantatas include weddings and funeral services. In the 19th century cantatas were composed by composers such as Felix Mendelssohn.

As the bulk of extant cantatas were composed for occasions occurring in the liturgical calendar of the German Reformation era, including Passion cantatas for Good Friday, that calendar is followed for the presentation of cantatas in this section. Most cantatas for occasions in the liturgical year made reference to the content of the readings and/or of Lutheran hymns appropriate for the occasion. Also chorale melodies of such hymns appeared in cantata compositions, for instance for Bach most typically in the closing four-part chorale of the cantata. Thus below also readings and hymns associated with the occasion are listed, for the hymns for instance based on Vopelius' Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch. Data such as readings and hymns generally apply to Bach's Leipzig: differences may occur in other places, or other times, as indicated.

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