During the first decade of the eighteenth century, a new generation of Italian composers brought the latest styles to a Vienna lagging behind the musical innovations that were occurring in cities such as Venice, Rome, and Naples. Among the intrepid individuals to join the Habsburg court was the north Italian composer Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677–1726). When Antonio began his service to the Habsburg emperor, he was still a young and little-known composer, but it was in Vienna that he distinguished himself as one of his generation’s most gifted composers of dramatic vocal music. The six cantatas by Antonio Bononcini found in this edition, from the Viennese manuscript A-Wn, Mus.Hs.17587, represent the new Italian style that flourished at the imperial Viennese court of Emperor Joseph I. Through their innovative use of form, design features, and affective harmony, melody, and rhythm, they demonstrate that, although Antonio’s cantata output is much smaller than that of his more famous brother Giovanni, his compositional style reveals a composer of superior craftsmanship and imagination.

During the first decade of the eighteenth century, a new generation of Italian composers brought the latest styles to a Vienna lagging behind the musical innovations that were occurring in cities such as Venice, Rome, and Naples. Among the intrepid individuals to join the Habsburg court was the north Italian composer Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677–1726). When Antonio began his service to the Habsburg emperor, he was still a young and little-known composer, but it was in Vienna that he distinguished himself as one of his generation’s most gifted composers of dramatic vocal music. The six cantatas by Antonio Bononcini found in this edition, from the Viennese manuscript A-Wn, Mus.Hs.17607, are written for soprano or alto with strings, and the string instrumentation is unique in specifying two of the violins and the violoncello as di concerto (that is, concertino), and two violins and double bass as di concerto grosso (that is, ripieno). These cantatas represent the new Italian style that flourished at the imperial Viennese court of Emperor Joseph I. Through their innovative use of form, design features, affective harmony, melody, and rhythm, they demonstrate that, although Antonio’s cantata output is much smaller than that of his more famous brother Giovanni, his compositional style reveals a composer of superior craftsmanship and imagination.

Detailed survey of Vivaldi's unjustly neglected chamber cantatas, showing them to stand comparison with his more famous works. Vivaldi's chamber cantatas for solo voice, some forty in total, are steadily gaining in popularity: but because of their relatively small place in the oeuvre of a composer famed for his productivity, and also on account of the general scholarly neglect of their genre, they are little discussed in the literature. This book comprehensively explores their literary and musical background, their relation to the composer's biography, the chronology of their composition, and their musical qualities. Each cantata is discussed individually, but there is also a broader consideration of aspects concerning them collectively, such as performance practice, topical allusion, and the conventions of Italian verse. The author argues that while Vivalid's cantatas are not as innovative as his concertos and operas, he produced several masterpieces in the genre that rank with his best music. MICHAEL TALBOT is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool.

Handel wrote over 100 cantatas, compositions for voice and instruments decsribing the joy and pain of love. In the first comprehensive study of the cantatas, Harris investigates their place in Handel's life as well as their extraordinary beauty.

A history of music for the imperial court “from a professor, choral director, and professional tenor who has studied Viennese cantatas for half a century” (Lowell Lindgren, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Lawrence Bennett provides a comprehensive study of the rich repertoire of accompanied vocal chamber music that entertained the imperial family in Vienna and their guests throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The cantata became a form of elite entertainment composed to amuse listeners during banquets or pay homage to members of the royal family during special occasions. Concentrating on Baroque cantatas composed in the Habsburg court, Bennett draws extensively on primary source material to explore the stylistic changes that occurred within the genre in the generations before Haydn and Mozart. “An important book. It deserves to be warmly welcomed not only by scholars but also by performers of Baroque vocal chamber music.” —Early Music “Shed[s] light on an important yet seldom-discussed repertory, written by someone whose expertise is unquestionable.” —Music and Letters “By taking multiple analytical approaches, Bennett establishes an overall understanding while also demonstrating how individual composers approached the genre. . . . Recommended.” —Choice “An important tool for understanding the context in which cantatas were composed and performed, and in which the Hapsburgs’ important music collection . . . was created.” —Notes “A wealth of new information . . . from a scholar who writes clearly and perceptively, and who has devoted decades of attention to the material.” —Steven Saunders, Charles A. Dana Professor of Music, Colby College

In this collection of essays Mary Cyr explores some of the written and unwritten performance conventions that applied to French and English music of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Using composers' own notations, marks added by 18th-century performers, historical treatises, and pictorial evidence, she investigates both vocal and instrumental genres, including opera, cantatas, instrumental chamber music, and solo music for the viol and violin. Some of the performance conventions remain controversial, such as the use of gesture by the French opera chorus, and others are still little-known, such as the use of the double bass for rhythmic and harmonic support in early 18th-century French opera. As many of these essays demonstrate, French Baroque music allowed performers a wider latitude of nuance and expression than is often assumed today. The essays in this volume will be of particular interest to scholars and performers who are interested in adopting a historically-informed approach to performing music by Henry Purcell, Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and their contemporaries. Several studies also deal with attributions, sources, and the discovery of a cantata by Rameau.

Internationally recognized Bach authority Hans-Joachim Schulze authored a 225-part series on the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. In this collection, James A. Brokaw II translates a selection of the essays, illuminating a wide range of biographical and cultural features of Bach’s life and creative milieu. Schulze’s lively and engaging discussions provide a wealth of rewarding insights and perspectives focusing on individual cantatas, their texts, and the questions of chronology and context that attend them. The University of Illinois Press has paired the volume with a special web-based companion overseen by the translator and hosted by the Illinois Open Publishing Network. This online resource includes Brokaw’s translations of all 225 of Schulze’s essays alongside digital tools for searching, sorting, and bundling the commentaries according to date of composition, position within the liturgical church year sequence, and librettist.