The art of Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata
This website is dedicated to the sublime works of one of the most influential composers of not only the Baroque era but also the entire world of music. His wealth of knowledge, unmatched skill and undeniable tenacity makes him appealing to listeners of all ages. The music he put forth spans every language barrier and speaks to the listener in a way that no other melody can; it is this unique sound, and especially that of the cantatas, that I found so remarkably intriguing. And so, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to share with the world my love affair with the 200 or so remaining cantatas.
On this page, I’ve prepared some information regarding copyrights as well as some links I feel that are relevant and worthwhile.
Cordially,
Webmaster
| Title | Description | Author/Webmaster |
| General Introduction to the Cantatas | ||
| General Introduction Cantatas | Jan Koster | |
| J. S. Bach FAQ – Bach’s Cantatas | Bach’s Cantatas – what are they, where are they? | Bernard S. Greenberg |
| Searching for the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach | [Music Library, Kent State University] | Mary Du Mont |
| Bach Cantatas: A Brief Orientation | Briefly goes through the various periods of Bach cantata production | Baroque Music Club |
| Welcome to Bach_Cantatas | A discussion group for Bach’s Sacred Music performed in a traditional format | Boyd Pehrson |
| Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): Cantatas | General Introduction to the Bach Cantatas [Carus-Verlag] | Ulrich Leisinger |
| Bach Cantatas: A Legacy Of Beauty | Short Introduction [Knowledge Network – Knowledge Tools] | |
| Cantatas – Cantata | [Radio B.A.C.H.] | |
| J. S. Bach – His Cantatas as a Musical Resource | [The Treble Chorus of New England] | Marie Stultz |
| KantorAssistant | A search engine dedicated to Bach’s cantatas. The user can explore the whole cantata catalogue with various search criteria: cantatas and excerpts for a particular ensemble; all cantata texts; the ranges of the choir and solo voices, etc. | Sandrine Feurer |
| Texts of the Cantatas | ||
| Texts of the Complete Vocal Works, with English Translation and Commentary | English translations | Z. Philip Ambrose |
| The Bach Cantatas – Original Texts | Original German texts. The cantatas are sorted in different ways such as by when they should be performed in the church year or alphabetically or by BWV number etc. Includes also translations to French & Dutch of many cantatas. | Walter F. Bischof |
| Bach German Vocabulary List | German – English | Bernard S. Greenberg |
| Die Texte zu den Vokalwerken von Johann Sebastian Bach nach BWV Nummern geordnet | Original German texts | Lyle K. Neff (Indiana University) |
| Emmanuel Music – Bach Cantata Translations | English translations (all Sacred Cantatas & some other vocal works) | Pamela Dellal |
| J.S. Bach: Miscellaneous Vocal Work | Singable English translations of 11 movements from Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works [Lied & Song Texts Page] | Ebenezer Prout |
| J.S. Bach | Translations into French of some cantatas [French] | Christophe Chazot |
| Hideo Kobayashi Bach Site | Translations into Japanese of some cantatas [Japanese] | Hideo Kobayashi |
| Juan Sebastián Bach (1685 – 1750) | Translations into Spanish of 31 cantatas and some of Bach’s other vocal woirks [Spanish] | KAREOL |
| Les cantates de Bach en Français | Translations into French of 43 cantatas [French] | Bach en Combrailles |
| Bienvenu à bachoque.ch ! | Translations of all the sacred cantatas (BWV 1-200) into French comprehensible for today [French] | Marc Seiler |
| Lists of the Cantatas | ||
| Classical Music Pages – J.S. Bach – Works – Cantatas | Matt Boynick | |
| Bach Werke Verzeichnis – Complete BWV Catalog | ||
| BWV Catalog | French | Robert Poliquin |
| Bach Cantatas sorted by BWV Number | Walter F. Bischof | |
| Cantatas According to the Church Year | Jan Koster | |
| Complete Works by BWV Number | Jan Hanford | |
| J.S. Bach Works List – Church Cantatas | Classical Net | |
| J.S. Bach Works List – Secular Cantatas | Classical Net | |
| Index to the Sacred Cantatas by BWV Number | In Brilliant Classics – Complete Bach Edition | Kruidvat Bach Edition |
| Bach Bibliography – Essential Collections | Yo Tomita | |
| J.S. Bach’s Works Catalog | David J. Grossman | |
| Bach Cantatas and Vivaldi Concerti – Compilation in Two Parts – Part 1: The Bach Cantatas | List of the cantatas by BWV number, including references and instrumentation [University of Colorado] | Trevor Cramer |
| MIDI & MP3 Files of Bach Cantatas | ||
| The Classical Music Archive – Bach’s Sacred Music Page | Pierre R. Schwob | |
| Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen | Cantata BWV 32 | László Zsidai |
| A Johann Sebastian Bach MIDI Page | Cantata BWV 147 | Hylke Tromp |
| Art Levine – J.S. Bach | Cantatas BWV 1, BWV 24, BWV 74 | Art Levine |
| Music of Bach – Collection of the Complete Bach Cantatas available for listening online | Cantatas BWV 1-215 [The recordings are the Teldec collection which were recorded by Harnoncourt & Leonhardt] | David Zale |
| J.S. Bach – The Sacred Cantata – Performed by Pieter Jan Leusink | About Pieter Jan Leusink’s Bach Cantata Cycle, background information and mp3′s | Leo Ditvoorst |
| The Silvis Woodshed | MIDI files of various Bach Cantatas & other vocal works | Silvis Woodshed |
| MIDI files of Bach Cantatas | MIDI files of about 15 cantatas, and also Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 & Johannes-Passion BWV 245 | Yoshiko Fujimoto |
| Muse Data – Bach-Gesellschaft Editions of Bach’s Cantatas | Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities at Stanford University – MIDI files & Scores | Walter B. Hewlett & Eleanor Selfridge-Field |
| J.S. Bach – MIDI Orgel | 33 MIDI files (and some mp3’s) from Bach Cantatas & other vocal works | Ryo Masuda & Takako Masuda |
| Western Music Studies Database | MP3 files of a few cantatas & the Mass in B minor BWV 232 | |
| Scores of the Cantatas | ||
| The Figured Organ Player’s Part to the Cantata, BWV 7 | Cantata BWV 7 | Teri Noel Towe |
| Scan Extract from Cantata 29 | Cantata BWV 29 | London Bach Society |
| J.S. Bach’s Church Cantatas | Cantatas BWV 1-199 [Full Vocal Parts with Piano Accompaniment] | Yu Chao |
| J.S. Bach – The Sacred Cantata | Links to acrobat (.pdf) files of scores of the Bach cantate’s from the Bach Gesamtausgabe, published by the Bach Gesellschaft in Leipzig, 1851-1899 | Leo Ditvoorst |
| Alte Bach-Gesamtausgabe Johann Sebastian Bach’s Werke | For the first time in the history of the Bach-Society/ Leipzig the “Ancient Edition of the Works by Bach” appeared in a professional, digitalized form on three CD-ROM’s with its complete texts, musical notes, contents and facsimiles of about 16,800 pages | Fred Steltner |
| CPDL – Choral Public Domain Library – J.S. Bach | CPDL – A Free Sheet Music Archive. The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) is the largest website devoted exclusively to free choral sheet music. Begun in December 1998, the site has over 350 contributors and 9,300 scores. | Rafael Ornes |
| Books about the Cantatas | ||
| Bach Bibliography | Yo Tomita | |
| J.S Bach Bibliography | Jan Koster | |
| Bach Books | Simon Crouch | |
| Other Sites about the Cantatas | ||
| The Cantatas of J. S. Bach – as applied to the Lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer and the Revised Common Lectionary | Lists the cantatas in the order of when they fall during the church year.Has an introduction outlining the historical context of these works as wll as a description of the instruments in use at that time | Jonathan Dimmrock |
| SWR – Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach Zum Bach-Jahr 2000 in der Reihe “Kantate” | ||
| Stichting Utrechtse BACH Cantatediensten | [Dutch/English] | Robert Tausk |
| The Oboe and the Oboe d’amore in Bach’s Church Cantatas | J. William Denton | |
| Bach’s fiauto and fiauto d’echo | David Lasocki | |
| Home Page Jan Koster – selection of 19 favourite arias from the cantatas | Jan Koster | |
| Beoordeling van de Cantates van Bach | [Dutch] | Johan de Wael |
| J.S. Bach – cantatas with trumpets | Walter Roth | |
| J.S. Bach Cantatas – Parody & Arrangement | Henny van der Groep | |
| Arias from Bach Cantatas with English Horn Obligato | Article [PDF] [University of Colorado] | Frederick Meyer |
| The Schenker-Oppel Analyses Of Bach Cantatas | Article [University of North Texas] | Timothy Jackson |
| Johan Sebastian Bach: Cantatas | Articles & Websites related to Arts, Music, Composition, Composers, B, Bach, Johann Sebastian, Cantatas [Serebella Real Information] | Serebella.com Team |
| Cantatafinder | The Cantatafinder is a free on-line search engine offering the complete set of Bach’s sacred cantatas. Apart from core details such as title, instrumentation, occasion etc., it provides full-text search and some special features (incl. re-use of hymns). More specifically, the Cantatafinder serves as an index to the BCP releases of the SDG label as it tells you the volume and the exact track numbers of the cantata within the series. Here is an example (two results). | |
Bachs Bits
