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Between June 1724 and March 1725, Bach wrote about 40 cantatas in a row for the churches of Leipzig, one for almost every Sunday and holiday. A cantata is a piece for choir, soloists and orchestra sung during the service, and each of these was built on a well-known Lutheran hymn, using its words and its tune.

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Bach became Thomaskantor, the director of church music in Leipzig, in 1723, and in his first year he supplied a cantata almost every week, some adapted from earlier works. For his second year he set himself a plan: each cantata would be built on one Lutheran hymn, or chorale. The opening chorus sets the first verse with the hymn tune in the sopranos, the middle verses are reworded for solo singers, and a plain four-part setting of the last verse closes the piece. The idea may have been inspired by the 200th anniversary of the first Lutheran hymn books, printed in 1524. The series stopped after Palm Sunday 1725, possibly because the writer who reworded the hymns for him, probably Andreas Stübel, had died that January. The Bach scholar Klaus Hofmann has called it the largest musical project Bach ever undertook.

Türkçe oku
Bach, Haziran 1724 ile Mart 1725 arasında Leipzig kiliseleri için art arda 40 kadar kantat yazdı; neredeyse her pazar ve yortu günü için bir tane. Kantat, koro, solistler ve orkestra için yazılıp ayinde seslendirilen bir eserdir. Bu kantatların her biri, tanınmış bir Lutherci ilahiyi sözleri ve ezgisiyle temel alıyordu.

Bach 1723'te Leipzig'in kilise müziği yöneticisi, yani Thomaskantor oldu; ilk yılında neredeyse her hafta bir kantat hazırladı, bunların bir kısmı eski eserlerinden uyarlamaydı. İkinci yılı için kendine bir plan koydu: Her kantat, koral denen tek bir Lutherci ilahiye dayanacaktı. Açılış korosu ilahinin ilk kıtasını, ezgisi sopranolarda duyulacak biçimde işler; aradaki kıtalar solo şarkıcılar için yeniden yazılır; eser, son kıtanın sade, dört sesli bir düzenlemesiyle kapanır. Bu fikre, ilk Lutherci ilahi kitaplarının 1524'te basılmasının 200. yıl dönümü ilham vermiş olabilir. Dizi 1725'te, Paskalya'dan bir önceki pazar olan Palmiye Pazarı'ndan sonra kesildi; bunun nedeni, ilahileri onun için yeniden yazan kişinin, büyük olasılıkla Andreas Stübel'in, o yılın ocak ayında ölmesi olabilir. Bach uzmanı Klaus Hofmann bu diziyi, Bach'ın giriştiği en büyük müzik projesi olarak niteler.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Chorale cantata cycle
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