Best Cantata

Belshazzar's Feast is a cantata by English composer William Walton, first performed in 1931, for baritone soloist, mixed chorus, and a large orchestra that includes prominent brass and percussion. Osbert Sitwell assembled its English text from biblical passages concerning the Babylonian feast, the w...

Gurre-Lieder is a massive cantata composed by Arnold Schoenberg between 1900 and 1911, based on poems by Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen. The work requires exceptionally large forces, including a massive orchestra, five vocal soloists, a narrator, and multiple choruses. Despite being completed d...

Figure humaine is a secular cantata for unaccompanied double mixed chorus composed by Francis Poulenc in 1943 during the German occupation of France. Its eight movements set poems by Paul Éluard concerning suffering, resistance, human dignity, and freedom. The final movement sets Éluard's poem Liber...

Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78, is a cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra assembled by Sergei Prokofiev in 1939 from music written for Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film. Its seven movements recount the defense of medieval Novgorod against invading Teutonic Knights, culminating in the Battle on the...

Belshazzar's Feast is a large-scale choral-orchestral work composed by the English composer William Walton in 1931. Subtitled a cantata for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, the piece features a libretto by Osbert Sitwell based on biblical texts from the Book of Daniel. It is renowned for its massive...

Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21, is a sacred cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, developed during his early career and performed in several versions. Its German text moves from grief, doubt, and lament toward consolation and praise, using solo voices, choir, and an instrumental ensemble. The work i...

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff and first performed in 1937. It sets 24 secular poems from a medieval manuscript known as the Codex Buranus, using texts primarily in Latin, with passages in Middle High German and Old French. Written for vocal soloists, chorus, children's cho...

Johann Sebastian Bach's Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78, is a sacred cantata first performed in Leipzig in 1724 during his second annual cantata cycle. It is based on a hymn by Johann Rist and opens with an elaborate chorale fantasia, while its final movement presents the chorale in a straightforwa...

Il canto sospeso is a cantata by Italian composer Luigi Nono for soprano, alto, and tenor soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra. Composed in 1955 and 1956, it sets excerpts from farewell letters written by European resistance members who were condemned to death during the Second World War. Nono dist...

Cantata Profana is a secular cantata composed by Béla Bartók in 1930 for tenor and baritone soloists, double mixed chorus, and orchestra. Its Hungarian text, adapted by Bartók from Romanian colinde, tells of nine brothers who are transformed into stags and can no longer return to their former home....

Buxtehude’s *Membra Jesu nostri* BWV 75 is a significant Baroque choral work composed in 1680. This cantata cycle explores themes of Christ's suffering through seven interconnected movements. It showcases Buxtehude’s skill within the sacred vocal tradition and remains a vital piece for scholars, per...

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20, is a sacred cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, first performed in Leipzig in 1724 for the first Sunday after Trinity. It opened Bach's second annual Leipzig cantata cycle, a sequence largely based on Lutheran chorales. The work uses vocal soloists, choir, and instru...

Saint Nicolas, Op. 42, is a cantata by Benjamin Britten composed in 1948 and based on episodes and legends from the life of Saint Nicholas. Written for tenor soloist, mixed chorus, treble voices, strings, percussion, piano duet, and organ, it combines professional and amateur forces. Britten designe...

In the Beginning is a sacred choral work composed by Aaron Copland in 1947 for mezzo-soprano soloist and unaccompanied mixed chorus. Its text is drawn from the King James Version of Genesis and recounts the creation of the world through the creation of humanity. Commissioned for a Harvard University...

In Terra Pax is a Christmas work by English composer Gerald Finzi, completed in 1956 for soprano and baritone soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra. Subtitled A Christmas Scene, it combines Robert Bridges's poem Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913 with the account of the angels and shepherds from the Gospel o...

Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer central to the development of Neapolitan opera and the chamber cantata. He wrote numerous operas, oratorios, serenatas, and hundreds of cantatas, often using clear distinctions between recitative and aria and helping establish the three-part da ca...

Quickening (1999) by James MacMillan is a work for children's choir, adult chorus, and orchestra setting texts centred on the Annunciation and the mystery of human life.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an English composer of Sierra Leone Creole descent who achieved immense fame in the 1890s for his celebrated cantata trilogy 'The Song of Hiawatha,' based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem. Born in London in 1875, he studied at the Royal College of Music under Charles...

Lauda Sion, Op. 73, is a choral cantata composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846. The work sets the traditional Latin sequence text for Corpus Christi, originally attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, for soloists, double chorus, and orchestra. It was commissioned to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the...

Memorial by René Clausen (b. 1953) is a 2002 American choral work setting texts related to grief and loss, composed in response to the September 11 attacks and widely performed as a work of communal mourning.