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Cantata

Cantata No.62 Movement I – Bach

The Cantata (which in Italian is cantare which means a piece that is to be sung) is generally a music for the vocals, chorus and instruments which is based on a poetic narrative of a lyric or dramatic nature. The cantata has several movements all of which are generally short and consist of arias, recitatives and instrumentals. Cantatas are usually based on a sacred theme but it can also be based on a secular theme. Bach composed sacred ones.   The cantatas that he composed were meant for the Sunday church sermons. They were also for special occasions. Bach composed one cantata every week for 5 years! The German cantata absorbed the recitative, aria and duet of the opera, the pomp/grandeur of the French overture and the dynamic style of the Italians. All these elements were unified and thus made the cantata quite rich.
Bach’s cantatas have anywhere between 5 to 8 movements of which the 1st and the last and usually one middle movement are choral ones. These vary from simple hymn like settings to elaborate choral fugues. Mixed with the choruses are solo arias and recitatives, some of which may be based on a chorale (a chorale is a hymn tune specially associated with the German Protestantism) melody or its text. In the cantata we can find elaborate movements with ornate vocal lines and expressive instrumental accompaniments. The orchestral accompaniments combine contrapuntally with the vocal line to create the proper mood for the text and illustrate its meaning. In many cases, the aria is conceived as a kind of duet between voice and a solo instrument, so that a single instrumental color prevails throughout the piece. This went with the principle of the ‘single affect’ in the Baroque era.
The Cantata No.62 1st movement opens with the orchestra. At 0:50 the chorale fugue starts (we can clearly hear because one voice commences then others join in one by one and imitate what the 1st voice did). Then at 1:17 again we have the orchestra....