Welcome to a unique website devoted to Bach's Cantatas.
You are never more than two clicks away from an original essay on each of the church and 'secular' cantatas. There are over 1000 music examples which can be heard by clicking the icons (see below).
Please note: rising hosting and editorial fees have meant that, unless this site attracts some form of patronage, it may be taken off line in the new year.
Volume One - Experimentation
The first Leipzig cycle followed by the early and secular cantatas.
Experimentation and recycling within the first cycle followed by the earliest religious and extant secular cantatas.
Volume Two - Consolidation
The second Leipzig cycle followed by the later chorale cantatas.
The chorale as the critical foundation of the cantata.
Volume Three - Culmination
Cycles three and four and the late works.
Contextual considerations and expansions of the genre.