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{{short description|Vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
[[File:Soloquartet and strings.jpg|thumb|300px|Soloquartet and strings]]

A '''cantata''' ({{IPAc-en|k|æ|n|ˈ|t|ɑː|t|ə}}; {{IPA|it|kanˈtaːta|lang}}; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the [[Italian language|Italian]] verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a [[vocal music|vocal]] [[Musical composition|composition]] with an [[musical instrument|instrumental]] [[accompaniment]], typically in several [[movement (music)|movement]]s, often involving a [[choir]].

The meaning of the term changed over time, from the simple single-voice [[Madrigal (music)|madrigal]] 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 short [[oratorio]].<ref>[[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Kennedy, Michael]] "Cantata", ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', second edition, revised (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) {{ISBN|0-19-861459-4}}.</ref> Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called [[church cantata]] or sacred cantatas; other cantatas can be indicated as secular cantatas. Several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as [[Christmas cantata]]s. [[Christoph Graupner]], [[Georg Philipp Telemann]] and [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] composed cycles of [[Church cantata (Bach)|church cantata]]s for the occasions of the liturgical year.

==Historical context==
The term originated in the early 17th century, simultaneously with [[opera]] and [[oratorio]].{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 February 2022 |title=Cantata Definition: What Is a Cantata in Music? |url=https://www.masterclass.com/articles/cantata |website=MasterClass}}</ref> Prior to that, all "[[high culture|cultured]]" music was vocal. With the rise of [[instrumental|instrumental music]], the term appeared, while instrumental art became sufficiently developed to be embodied in [[sonata]]s. From the beginning of the 17th century until late in the 18th, the cantata for one or two solo voices with accompaniment of [[Figured bass#Basso continuo|basso continuo]] (and perhaps a few solo instruments) was a principal form of Italian vocal [[chamber music]].<ref>Timms, Colin, [[Nigel Fortune]], Malcolm Boyd, [[Friedhelm Krummacher]], [[David Tunley]], James R. Goodall, and Juan José Carreras. 2001. "Cantata", §I. ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (professor of music)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan Publishers.</ref>

A cantata consisted first of a declamatory narrative or scene in [[recitative]], held together by a primitive [[aria]] repeated at intervals. Fine examples may be found in the church music of [[Giacomo Carissimi]]; and the English vocal solos of [[Henry Purcell]] (such as ''Mad Tom'' and ''Mad Bess'') show the utmost that can be made of this archaic form. With the rise of the [[da 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 Latin [[motet]] ''Silete Venti'', for soprano solo, shows the use of this form in church music.<ref>Tovey, Donald. Francis. ''In Musical Forms'', {{Full citation needed|date=April 2016}}<!--Place of publication, please.-->: Meridian Books, 1956; reprinted by arrangement by Oxford University Press.{{Page needed|date=April 2016}}</ref>

==Differences from other musical forms==
{{Listen|filename=Wo ist doch.ogg|title=''Wo ist doch mein Freund geblieben'', BuxWV 111 |description=A sacred cantata by [[Dieterich Buxtehude]]|filename2=Bach, BWV 147, 10. Jesus bleibet meine Freude.ogg|title2=10. Chorale: ''Jesus bleibet meine Freude''|description2=From the cantata [[Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147|''Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben'', BWV&nbsp;147]] by Johann Sebastian Bach (Orchestra Gli Armonici)}}
The Italian solo cantata tended, when on a large scale, to become indistinguishable from a scene in an [[opera]], 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 (see [[List of Bach cantatas]]) or the ''[[Handel at Cannons#Chandos Anthems|Chandos Anthems]]'' of Handel. In Johann Sebastian Bach's case, some of the larger cantatas are actually called oratorios, and the ''[[Christmas 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.

==Baroque==
{{see also|Church cantata|List of church cantatas by liturgical occasion}}
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 the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] church. Such pieces were usually called ''geistliche Konzerte'' (singular: ''geistliches Konzert'', meaning sacred concerto). Many of these pieces were simply called by their opening text. Such pieces for the [[Christian liturgy|liturgy]] or other occasions were not only composed by Bach but also by [[Dieterich Buxtehude]], [[Christoph Graupner]], [[Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel]] and [[Georg Philipp Telemann]], to name a few. The editors of the [[Bach Gesellschaft]] adopted "sacred cantata" as a convenient catchall for most of Bach's liturgical pieces. The term was then retroactively applied by [[Philipp Spitta]] to refer to comparable works by composers from [[Heinrich Schütz]] onwards.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Krummacher|first1=Friedhelm|title=Cantata, § II: The German cantata to 1800|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/04748pg2|website=Grove Music Online|access-date=6 July 2017}}</ref> Many secular cantatas were composed for events in the nobility. They were so similar in form to the sacred ones that many of them were [[Parody#Music|parodied]] (in parts or completely) to sacred cantatas, for example in Bach's ''Christmas Oratorio''.

===Bach cantatas===
{{Main|Bach cantata|List of Bach cantatas}}
{{expand section|date=April 2018}}
Johann Sebastian Bach, almost 200 of whose cantatas survive, is a notable contributor to the genre.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dellal|first1=Pamela|title=What is a Cantata?|url=http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/notes_cantata/what_is_a_cantata.htm|website=www.emmanuelmusic.org|access-date=22 April 2018}}</ref>
<!--to be completed: Chronology: Early works (BWV 4, BWV 71), many sacred cantatas from his time at Weimar and later at Leipzig, secular cantatas (often parodies)-->

His cantatas are usually written for a baroque orchestra consisting of a string section, an oboe section, and a [[basso continuo|continuo]] 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]]).

===Graupner's cantatas===
[[Christoph Graupner]] was Hofkapellmeister at the court of [[Hesse-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.<ref>Richard Kram, ''The Cantata Chorales of Christoph Graupner'', 2013</ref> 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 as [[chalumeau]], [[flûte d'amour]], [[oboe d'amore]], [[viola d'amore]], [[trumpet]]s, [[horn (instrument)|horn]]s and [[timpani]]. See: [[List of cantatas by Christoph Graupner]].

==Classical and romantic period==

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 a [[fugue]] as in [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]'s [[Der glorreiche Augenblick]], [[Carl Maria von Weber]]'s ''Jubel-Kantate'', and [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s ''[[Die erste Walpurgisnacht]]''. [[Anton Bruckner]] composed several [[Name-day]] cantatas, a [[Festive Cantata (Bruckner)|Festive Cantata]] and two secular cantatas (''[[Germanenzug]]'' and [[Helgoland (Bruckner)|''Helgoland'']]). Bruckner's [[Psalm 146 (Bruckner)|Psalm 146]] is also in cantata form. Mendelssohn's [[Choral symphony|Symphony Cantata]], the ''[[Lobgesang]]'', is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. It is preceded by three symphonic movements, a device avowedly suggested by Beethoven's [[Ninth Symphony (Beethoven)|Ninth 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's ''Symphony Cantata'' is a cantata with three symphonic preludes. The full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized by [[Johannes Brahms]] in his ''[[Rinaldo (cantata)|Rinaldo]]'', which, like the ''Walpurgisnacht''—was set to a text by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]. Other cantatas, Beethoven's ''Meeresstille'', works of Brahms and many notable small English choral works, such as cantatas of [[John Henry Maunder]] and [[John Stanley (composer)|John Stanley]], find various ways to set poetry to choral music. The competition for the French {{lang|fr|[[Prix de Rome]]|italic=no}} requires that each candidate submit a cantata. [[Hector Berlioz]] failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 with ''[[Prix de Rome Cantatas (Berlioz)|Sardanapale]]''. While almost all of the {{lang|fr|Prix de Rome|italic=no}} cantatas have long since been forgotten (along with their composers, for the most part), Debussy's prize-winning ''L'enfant prodigue'' (1884, following his unsuccessful ''Le gladiateur'' of 1883) is still performed occasionally today.  Late in the century, [[Gustav Mahler]] wrote his early ''[[Das klagende Lied]]'' on his own words between 1878 and 1880, and [[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]] created a successful [[trilogy]] of cantatas, ''[[The Song of Hiawatha (Coleridge-Taylor)|The Song of Hiawatha]]'' between 1898 and 1900.

==Twentieth century and beyond==
{{Cleanup|date=April 2018|reason=Recentism and WP:INDISCRIMINATE. See comment in wiki text for more information}}<!--This section is just a listing of pieces called (by the composer or somebody else) "cantatas". It is hard to read and seems borderline [[WP:INDISCRIMINATE]]. Either this is better summarized and a general conclusion about cantata writing in modern times can be found in some sources, or this goes in an appropriate list-article. It is also ridiculous that all these composers, most barely known, are listed, while Bach, whose cantatas are well known, is barely given a passing mention (i.e. this smells strongly of recentism). So this is an issue of [[WP:UNDUE]] too.-->
Cantatas, both of the chamber variety and on a grand scale, were composed after 1900 as well.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hunter|first1=Sophie|title=Cantata in a Castle|url=http://sophiehunter.net/post/124990689820/written-by-sophie-hunter-the-guardian-25-july|website=The Guardian}}</ref> 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, namely ''[[Carmina Burana (Orff)|Carmina Burana]]'' (1935–1936) by the German composer [[Carl 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 as ''[[Toward the Unknown Region]]'' (1907), ''Five Mystical Songs'' (1911), and ''[[Five Tudor Portraits]]'' (1936), and sacred cantatas including ''Sancta civitas'' (1926), ''Benedicite'' (1930), ''[[Dona nobis pacem (Vaughan Williams)|Dona nobis pacem]]'' (1936), and ''Hodie'' (1954). [[Joseph Ryelandt]] also composed secular and sacred cantatas, such as ''Le chant de la pauvreté'' Op.&nbsp;92 in 1928 and ''Veni creator'' Op.&nbsp;123 in 1938. [[Béla Bartók]] composed the secular ''[[Cantata 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]]'s ''[[Gurre-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.&nbsp;35, for soprano, oboe, viola, and cello (1924), ''Mahnung an die Jugend, sich der Musik zu befleissigen'' (from the ''Plöner Musiktage'', 1932), and ''Ite angeli veloces'' for alto and tenor, mixed chorus, and orchestra, with audience participation (1953–55). Of [[Anton Webern]]'s last three compositions, two are secular cantatas: Cantata No. 1, Op.&nbsp;29 (1938–39), and Cantata No. 2, Op.&nbsp;31 (1941–43), both setting texts by [[Hildegard 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.&nbsp;14 (1922), and a ''Cantata for Wartime'', Op.&nbsp;95, for women's voices and orchestra (1943). [[Sergei Prokofiev]] composed ''Semero ikh'' (1917–18; rev. 1933), and in 1939 premiered a cantata drawn from the film music for ''[[Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev)|Alexander Nevsky]]''.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}} He wrote two festival cantatas, the ''[[Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (Prokofiev)|Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution]]'', Op.&nbsp;74, and ''Flourish, Mighty Homeland'', Op.&nbsp;114, for the thirtieth anniversary of the same event

Patriotic cantatas celebrating anniversaries of events in the [[Russian Revolution|Revolution]] 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 include [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s ''Poem of the Motherland'', Op.&nbsp;47 (1947) and ''The Sun Shines over Our Motherland'', Op.&nbsp;90 (1952), and three works by Prokofiev, ''Zdravitsa!'' [Hail to Stalin] (1939). [[Dmitry Kabalevsky]] also composed four such cantatas, ''The Great Homeland'', Op.&nbsp;35 (1941–42), ''The Song of Morning, Spring and Peace'', Op.&nbsp;57 (1957–58), ''Leninists'', Op.&nbsp;63 (1959), and ''About Our Native Land'', Op.&nbsp;82 (1965).

Patriotic cantatas were also created in China during the [[Chinese Civil War|civil war]] and the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. For example, the [[Yellow River Cantata]] was composed in 1939.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-09-28 |title=The Story of the Cantata that Led to the Famous Yellow River Piano Concerto |url=https://www.wrti.org/arts-desk/2015-09-28/the-story-of-the-cantata-that-led-to-the-famous-yellow-river-piano-concerto |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=WRTI |language=en}}</ref>

In 1940, the Brazilian composer [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]] created a secular cantata titled ''Mandu çarará'', based on an Indian legend collected by Barbosa Rodrigues. [[Francis Poulenc]] composed in 1943 ''[[Figure humaine]]'', [[FP (Poulenc)|FP]] 120, a cantata for double mixed [[choir]] of 12 voices on poems by [[Paul Éluard]]. [[Igor Stravinsky]] composed a work titled simply ''[[Cantata (Stravinsky)|Cantata]]'' in 1951–52, which used stanzas from the 15th-century "Lyke-wake Dirge" as a narrative frame for other anonymous English lyrics, and later designated ''[[A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer]]'' (1961) as "a cantata for alto and tenor soli, speaker, chorus, and orchestra". [[Luigi Nono (composer)|Luigi Nono]] wrote ''[[Il canto sospeso]]'' in 1955–56. [[Hans Werner Henze]] composed a ''Cantata della fiaba estrema'' and ''Novae de infinito laudes'' (both in 1963), as well as a number of other works that might be regarded as cantatas, such as ''Kammermusik'' (1958, rev. 1963), ''Muzen Siziliens'' (1966), and ''[[El Cimarrón (musical work)|El Cimarrón]]'' (1969–70). ''[[Momente]]'' (1962–64/1969), one of the most important works of [[Karlheinz 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.&nbsp;30 (1943), ''[[Saint Nicolas (Britten)|Saint Nicolas]]'', Op.&nbsp;42 (1949), the ''[[Cantata academica]]'', Op.&nbsp;62 (1959), the ''Cantata Misericordium'', Op.&nbsp;69 (1963), and ''[[Phaedra (cantata)|Phaedra]]'', Op.&nbsp;93 (1975). [[Alberto Ginastera]] also composed three works in this form: the ''Cantata para América Mágica'', Op.&nbsp;27 (1960), ''Bomarzo'', Op.&nbsp;32 (1964), and ''Milena'', Op.&nbsp;37 (1971), and [[Gottfried von Einem]] composed in 1973 ''An die Nachgeborenen'' based on diverse texts, the title taken from a poem of [[Bertolt Brecht]]. [[Mikis Theodorakis]] composed the cantatas ''According to the Sadducees'' and ''Canto Olympico''. [[Herbert Blendinger]]'s ''Media in vita'' was premiered in 1980, his ''Mich ruft zuweilen eine Stille'' (Sometimes a silence calls me) in (1992), and ''Allein 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.&nbsp;56. [[Ivan Moody (composer)|Ivan Moody]] wrote in 1995 ''Revelation''.

Cantatas were also composed by [[Mark Alburger]], [[Erik Bergman]], [[Dave Brubeck]], [[Carlos Chávez]], [[Osvald Chlubna]], [[Peter Maxwell Davies]], [[Norman Dello Joio]], [[Lukas Foss]], [[Roy Harris]], [[Arthur Honegger]], [[Alan Hovhaness]], [[Dmitry Kabalevsky]], [[Libby Larsen]], [[Jón Leifs]], [[Peter Mennin]], [[Dimitri Nicolau]], [[Krzysztof Penderecki]], [[Allan Pettersson]], [[Daniel Pinkham]], [[Earl Robinson]], [[Ned Rorem]], [[William Schuman]] (''[[A Free Song]]''), [[Roger Sessions]], [[Siegfried Strohbach]], [[Michael Tippett]], [[Kurt Weill]], [[Jörg Widmann]] (''[[Friedenskantate (Widmann)|Friedenskantate]]'', ''Cantata in tempore belli'') and {{ill|Jan Ryant Dřízal|cs}} (''Christmas Cantata'').

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Cantatas}}
{{EB1911 poster|Cantata}}
*[http://www.dolmetsch.com/defsc.htm Dolmetsch music dictionary: C–Car]
*[http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textc/Cantata.html Multimedia Dictionary: Cantata] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027175101/http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textc/Cantata.html |date=27 October 2014 }} at [[Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University|Virginia Tech]]

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[[Category:Cantatas| ]]
[[Category:Italian words and phrases]]
[[Category:Classical music styles]]