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AN INTRODUCTION TO BACH'S SECULAR CANTATAS

KEY WORKS

Der Streit zwischen Phoebus and Pan BWV 201
'Coffee Cantata' BWV 211
'Peasant Cantata' BWV 212

    Secular Cantatas - an introduction

    In Italy , where the term 'cantata' originated, music was categorised according to whether it pertained to 'church', 'chamber' or 'theatre', and there was a tradition of secular cantatas called 'chamber cantatas'.

    In the German protestant adaptation of the genre, secular cantatas were commissioned and performed as festive celebrations in homage to the rulers in their princely courts. Mythological subjects were deemed to be suitable for this form of tribute. There can be adulatory references to the figure who his the subject of the celebration, but these do not 'appear' as themslves.

    Some secular cantatas were devised as purely public entertainments, with no reference to a 'tribute' figure. Bach's Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan is an example of this, as is the Coffee Cantata, which even sports a narrator!

    © Graeme Kay/BBC

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