The Cantata Trail

A listening journey through Bach's vocal music

The city of the linden trees

Among the most lucrative obligations of Bach’s job in Leipzig was to write a yearly cantata for the inauguration of the City Council, a ceremony performed in Nikolaikirche in late August every year. Several of these cantatas have survived. Cantata 120 probably dates from 1742 and it represented another opportunity for Bach to reuse that […]

Two violin building blocks

“Prelude” from the Partita for solo violin, BWV 1006 Influenced by the Italian models of solo and trio sonatas that were circulating widely in Europe, Bach first ventured beyond the keyboard with two sets of works for string instruments – the six Sonatas and Partitas (three of each in alternating order) for solo violin, and […]

A web of wedding music

Scholars believe that this cantata, as well as BWV 120b (of which only the text survived) and BWV 120, are all adaptations of a lost cantata from Bach’s Köthen period. 120a is believed to date from 1729, composed for the wedding of an unknown couple. As you can see in the attached BGA score, many […]