Chorale cantata
A cantata whose movements are all based on the text and tune of a single hymn.
What it means
A chorale cantata is a multi-movement cantata in which the text and tune of a single hymn run through the whole work: the hymn's stanzas are distributed across the movements and set in different ways, while the chorale tune itself recurs as a unifying thread, usually as a cantus firmus in the opening movement and as a plain four-part chorale in the closing one.
Musical use
The genre reached its high point with Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote chorale cantatas for almost the whole of his second Leipzig annual cycle (from 1724), keeping the outer stanzas verbatim while freely reworking the inner ones into recitatives and arias.
A chorale cantata should be distinguished from a free church cantata, which is not based on a single hymn, and from a chorale setting, which is usually a single, self-contained piece rather than a multi-movement cantata.
Performance practice
When you listen to a chorale cantata, follow how the familiar hymn tune disappears and resurfaces across the work — often hidden quietly in the bass or an instrumental part before returning clearly in the closing chorale.