Cantata service

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A cantata service is a Christian service in which the focus is on the performance of a sacred cantata by church music . The performance of the cantata is then interwoven with the liturgy . A cantata service is prepared jointly by a clergyman and a church musician or cantor. The cantata service contains both moments of a concert and the basic character of a service, which is what makes it tense, but also its special charm. A cantata service is particularly successful if the dense interlinking of the music performed, the spoken word and the celebrated liturgy succeeds.

Rediscovery of form

Cantatas in church services experienced a low point at the beginning of the 19th century. The verdict of an unknown cantor in 1805 is indicative of this: "To force theological or moral considerations into rhymes, to shout to God or the congregation over the sound of violins and horns, is, if not ridiculous, but certainly extremely unintentional and inappropriate."

The prerequisite for the modern cantatas service was the re-discovery of Bach's cantatas in the 19th century. In 1845 Johann Theodor Mosewius , director of the Breslau Singakademie, was the first to call for the introduction of Bach cantatas in his church cantatas and chorale songs in his book JS Bach . Through the Thomaskantor Moritz Hauptmann , Bach cantatas were naturalized again in the Leipzig church service in the middle of the 19th century .

The form of a cantatas service was further enlivened by Karl Straube in Leipzig from 1918 when he performed all of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantatas and "gave them a permanent place in the services of the main Leipzig churches".

Practical aspects

Liturgical

Parts of the cantata can function as part of the liturgy from the proprium or ordinarium part , for example as Hallelujah calls or prayer parts . Participants in a cantata service are usually vocalists (accompanied by instrumentalists), because this form of service focuses on the word and the content of the cantata in addition to the music.

Sermon in the cantata service

As a rule, a spiritual aspect of the cantata is preached in the cantata service or the Bible text on which the cantata is based is interpreted, so that the cantata and the service are closely linked and a liturgical total work of art is created. Notes relating to the church season that result from the history of the origin of a cantata (e.g. Advent cantatas, Christmas cantatas, Passion cantatas) can also be taken up and related to the corresponding liturgy or sermon.

Hymnological

If the cantata contains a hymn book song or a hymn verse (e.g. the Bach cantata What God does, that is well done, BWV 99 ), the divine service in the sermon and in the selection of the church songs will not ignore this, but deepen this aspect. Here, under certain circumstances, the boundary to the song service is touched. The corresponding sermon is then a song sermon .

Linguistically

For the sake of a better understanding of the cantata texts, the community should be given a sheet of text with the complete cantata text. The possibly historical linguistic form of a text can thus be better conveyed to a congregation in the service and poetically objectionable passages can also be processed better in this way. The cantata then succeeds in “becoming a piece of worship”.

Cantata compositions in the cantata service

The most important cantata composers who are suitable for Christian cantata services include the masters of the Baroque age : Dietrich Buxtehude , Nicolaus Bruhns , Matthias Weckmann , Vincent Lübeck , Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann , the cantatas mainly, but not exclusively, composed for ecclesiastical and liturgical use. But modern also offers interesting church cantatas by composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, e.g. B. Rolf Schweizer , Paul Ernst Ruppel , which are suitable for performance in cantata services.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handed over by Georg Feder in The Protestant Church Cantate , in: The Music in Past and Present, Vol. VII, Bärenreiter-Verlag 1958, ISBN 3-7618-5913-9 , Col. 603
  2. ^ Johann Theodor Mosewius: JS Bach in his church cantatas and choral songs , Berlin 1845.
  3. ↑ Georg Feder: Decay and Restoration , in: History of Evangelical Church Music , ed. v. Friedrich Blume, Bärenreiter-Verlag 1965, 2nd edition, p. 260.
  4. ↑ Georg Feder: Decay and Restoration , in: History of Evangelical Church Music , ed. v. Friedrich Blume, Bärenreiter-Verlag 1965, 2nd edition, p. 261.
  5. ↑ Hans Klotz , article Karl Straube in Vol. 12 of the MGG , 3rd ed. 1965, Col. 1445.
  6. ^ Wilhelm Jannasch, RGG , 3rd edition, vol. III, Tübingen 1959, col. 1128