The cantata
The cantata (“piece to be sung,” as opposed to the sonata, “piece to be played”) is a multi-movement vocal composition for soloists, possibly chorus, and instruments.
- Italian chamber cantata (Carissimi, Alessandro Scarlatti, young Handel): one or two voices and continuo, alternating recitatives and da capo arias on a secular text (often amorous or pastoral).
- Lutheran sacred cantata (Bach, Telemann): for the Sundays and feasts of the liturgical year, tied to the readings of the day. According to his obituary Bach wrote about 300; about 200 survive.
Typical structure of a Bach cantata from Leipzig (years 1723–1729)
| Number | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opening chorus | often a chorale fantasia: the chorale melody in long values in the soprano, over a large orchestral concerto and counterpoint in the other voices |
| 2 | Recitative | secco or accompanied |
| 3 | Aria | often da capo, with obbligato instrument (oboe, flute, violin) |
| 4 | Recitative | |
| 5 | Aria or duet | |
| 6 | Closing chorale in four voices | the congregation recognizes the melody; simple harmonization with instruments doubling |
Example: “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” BWV 140 (1731): opening chorus on the chorale, duets between soprano (the soul) and bass (Christ) with violino piccolo and oboe, a central movement with the chorale melody in the tenors against a famous unison string line (later transcribed for organ as Schübler Chorale BWV 645), closing chorale.
Bach also wrote secular cantatas (the Coffee Cantata BWV 211, the Peasant Cantata BWV 212).
The oratorio
A large dramatic but not staged composition on a (almost always) sacred subject, for soloists, chorus and orchestra. It arose in Rome in the seventeenth century in the oratories of St. Philip Neri (hence the name). Elements:
- a narrator (text, historicus) who tells the story in recitative;
- characters entrusted to the soloists (arias, duets);
- choruses representing the people or commenting.
Historical stages:
- Carissimi, Jephte (c. 1648).
- Handel, English oratorios: Saul, Israel in Egypt, Messiah (first performance in Dublin, 1742), Judas Maccabaeus. The “Hallelujah” chorus and the fugal final “Amen” are models of choral writing.
- Haydn, Die Schöpfung (The Creation, 1798): the depiction of the initial chaos and the explosion in C major on the word “Licht.”
- Mendelssohn, Elijah (1846).
- 20th century: Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius (1900); Honegger, Le Roi David; Tippett, A Child of Our Time (with spirituals in place of chorales).
The Passion
Account of the Passion of Christ according to one of the Gospels, in oratorio form:
- the Evangelist (tenor) narrates in secco recitative;
- Christ (bass) sings with sustained string accompaniment;
- the turbae (short, agitated choruses of the crowd);
- arias and meditation choruses on poetic texts;
- chorales sung by the community.
Bach, St. John Passion BWV 245 (1724) and St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 (1727), the latter for two choruses and two orchestras, with the great opening chorus “Kommt, ihr Töchter” that superimposes a chorale sung by a children's choir (ripieno). In the 20th century: Penderecki, St. Luke Passion (1966); Arvo Pärt, Passio (1982).
How to analyze an oratorio or a cantata
- Make a table of the numbers: type (chorus, recitative, aria, chorale), voices, obbligato instruments, keys.
- Study the overall tonal plan: there is often an arch (beginning and end in the same key, extreme points in remote keys).
- Analyze the choruses: fugal, homorhythmic, on chorale.
- Connect the musical choices to the text (prosody, rhetorical figures: descents for “death,” ascents for “resurrection,” chromaticism for pain).
For a producer
The cantata is the model of the concept album: pieces of different natures (chorales, lyrical numbers, spoken interludes) united by a story and a recurring melody, with a choral finale that everyone can sing. The oratorio is the model of the concert-form musical and of many film scores with chorus.
Related
Sacred forms 1: the mass and the motet, The Bach chorale, Baroque opera: recitative, arioso and da capo aria, Leitmotif and music drama, Vocal harmonies and choir voicing, Gang vocals, doubles and mass choirs.