IN20 J.S. Bach’s Chorale Cantatas

Markus Rathey, Yale Institute of Sacred Music/Yale School of Music

9:00 - 11:30 am , June 9 - 13

$400

During the second year of his tenure at St. Thomas’s in Leipzig (1724–1725) Johann Sebastian Bach tackled his largest project: a cycle of cantatas for the entire year, which was based on popular hymns of the Protestant church. Even though he broke off the project for unknown reasons in January 1725, the remaining 40 cantatas are still the largest scaled cycle Bach composed, dwarfing by far the oratorios, passions, and his organ music.

The chorale cantatas are interesting for two reasons: the texts combine paraphrases of congregational hymns with interpretations of the biblical readings for the Sunday. Like a sermon, the cantatas aim to translate the biblical message into the present. Secondly, Bach experiments with different techniques of chorale settings, making the cycle of chorale cantatas almost an encyclopedia of his techniques as a composer of hymn settings. The course will focus on these two aspects, exploring the way the theological and musical layers intersect and how they support each other.

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