| Lists of |
| Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach |
|---|
This is a sortable list of Bach cantatas, the cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. His almost 200 extant cantatas are among his important vocal compositions. Many are known to be lost. Bach composed both church cantatas, most of them for specific occasions of the liturgical year of the Lutheran Church, and secular cantatas.
Bach's earliest cantatas were written possibly from 1707, the year he moved to Mühlhausen, although he may have begun composing them at his previous post in Arnstadt. He began regular composition of church cantatas in Weimar between 1708 and 1717, writing one cantata per month. In his next position in Köthen, he composed no church cantatas, but secular cantatas for the court. Most of Bach's church cantatas date from his first years as Thomaskantor and director of church music in Leipzig, a position which he took up in 1723. Working for Leipzig's Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche, it was part of Bach's job to perform a church cantata every Sunday and holiday, conducting soloists, the Thomanerchor and orchestra as part of the church service. In his first year there, starting after Trinity, Bach regularly composed a new cantata every week in his Bach's first cantata cycle. The following year, he followed the format, now basing each cantata on a Lutheran hymn in the chorale cantata cycle. He was less rigid over the following years, but still produced new compositions in his third to fifth years, the Picander cycle of 1728–29, and late works known up to 1745.
Bach also composed cantatas for other church services such as weddings and Ratswahl (the inauguration of a new town council), and he wrote secular cantatas, around 50 known works, for occasions such as academic functions of the University of Leipzig, and anniversaries and entertainment among the nobility and in society.
The list includes both extant cantatas and, as far as known, lost cantatas. It is sortable by the cantata number which equals the number in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), by title, by occasion during the liturgical year, the year of composition and date of first performance, as far as known. The scoring is provided, grouped by singers and groups of instruments. Colouring shows which cantatas are not extant church cantatas and which works were not even composed by Bach, but attributed to him in the past. A link to the free score of the Bach Gesellschaft in the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is provided if available.