A composition in several movements for solo voice(s), instruments, and perhaps also chorus Depending on text, cantatas are categorized as either secular or church cantatas
Properly, a piece that is sung, as opposed to 'sonata,' a piece that is played In the early 17th Century, the word was used to refer to extended pieces of secular music, for one or two voices with accompaniment
A cantata is a fairly short musical work for singers and instruments. a piece of religious music for singers and instruments (from the past participle of cantare; CHANT). Work for voice or voices and instruments of the Baroque era. From its beginnings in early 17th-century Italy, both secular and religious cantatas were written. The earliest cantatas were generally for solo voice and minimal instrumental accompaniment. Cantatas soon developed a dramatic character and alternating sections of recitative and aria, paralleling the simultaneous development of opera, and they came to resemble unstaged operatic scenes or acts. In Germany the Lutheran cantata developed more directly out of the expanding choral motet, and almost always involved a chorus. A single chorale (hymn) often served as the basis for an entire cantata, which might have up to 10 diverse numbers, including duets, recitatives, and choral fugues. The most celebrated are the approximately 200 written by Johann Sebastian Bach. After 1750 the cantata gradually declined
A genre of choral music that is usually sacred, in several movements The sacred cantata was sung as the centerpiece of the Lutheran church service in the eighteenth century About a half hour long, sacred cantatas were based around the hymn for that Sunday, featuring a small orchestra, organ, chorus, and perhaps one or two soloists Secular cantatas have been written in a wide variety of languages, including German, Russian, Italian, French, and English, and were heard as concert pieces primarily in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries