What's the difference between a cantata and a chorale?

Question

I'm referring to genre in Johann Sebastian Bach's era.(Baroque period)

Answer 1

Cantatas were large scale church music for special occasions. Chorales were small scale church music for regular church services. Some of Bach's Cantatas almost qualify as oratorios like "The Messiah" by Handel while some of Bach's chorales are still sung as hymns in Sunday services today.

Answer 2

Chorale Cantata

Answer 3

A chorale is often a part of a cantata.

A cantata contains several movements, some of which may be solo arias, recitatives, choruses, and chorales. The words are usually taken from the Bible or religious poems.

A chorale is another name for hymn; some of Bach's chorales are still found in Christian hymnbooks. Typically, a cantata ends with a chorale, which is one of the shorter movements of the cantata.

Answer 4

Bach was required to write a Cantata for each Sunday to be performed by the choir of the church he was employed by. They formed a specific part of the service and would be based, usually, on the Gospel or Epistle for the day. They might set biblical texts interspersed with more poetic texts written for Bach. Often, but not always, they would include a chorale or chorales, an arrangement of a well known hymn. One of the best known is the 'Wachet Auf' cantata, written for advent which includes choral arrangements based on the hymn tune we still sing 'Wake, oh Wake for Night is Flying'. Then at the end the chorale is set 'straight' as it were. Chorale preludes are organ arrangements based around a known hymn tune which would be well known to the congregation and, still, sometimes, to us. 'In dulci jubilo' for example. Bach also wrote several 'secular' cantatas, i.e. not to religious texts. Perhaps the most famous of these is the 'Coffee Cantata' railing against the dreadful habit of imbibing that delightful drink! So, a cantata was a piece of music which might or might not include a hymn tune chorale. Chorales also punctuate Bach's well known St. Matthew and St. John Passions, notably 'Oh Haupt voll blut und wunden. that we know as 'Oh sacred head sore wounded' Finally, Bach's Christmas Oratorio is, in fact, a set of six cantatas meant for performance on Christmas Day and the days following. Again, they all include chorales, mainly of well known (at the time) Christmas hymns. I should finally mention that although the chorales well well known to the congregation, there is no evidence they were intended to be sung other than by the choir.

Answer 5

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RE:
What's the difference between a cantata and a chorale?
I'm referring to genre in Johann Sebastian Bach's era.(Baroque period)

Answer 6

see the online encyclopedia
Wikipedia
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**Cantata
**Chorale
**J.S. Bach
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