(Ger. Choralkantate).
A composition generally scored for a combination of voices and instruments and cast in several distinct and relatively independent sections or movements, two or more of which are based on the text (and usually also the melody) of a German chorale. The chorale cantata grew from the multi-sectional chorale concerto as developed by Scheidt and was cultivated most extensively from about 1650 to 1750 by the church composers of north and central Germany. In the late 17th century there were two main types: the ‘pure’ chorale cantata in which all the movements are based on the strophes of a single chorale; and the ‘mixed’ chorale cantata in which the first and last, and perhaps a central movement too, are based on a chorale, while the remaining movements are settings of other texts. In the 1720s J.S. Bach introduced a third type, the chorale paraphrase cantata, in which the interior movements, set as recitatives and arias, are based on poetic paraphrases of the internal strophes of a chorale, while the outer movements retain the original text and melody of the first and last chorale strophes.
See Chorale settings.
ROBERT L. MARSHALL