Peasant Cantata

What it means

Peasant Cantata is the name for a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach kept in a folk-like tone that sets a text in Saxon dialect. It arose as music of homage for a festive occasion and is scored for two voices and a small instrumental ensemble. The by-name is not Bach’s own; it has become established because the figures depicted and the tone are rural in character.

Musical use

Musically the work is instructive, because it shows how the dance and song types of the time enter art music: the short movements take up melodies and rhythms familiar to the listeners and set them beside artfully worked numbers. The secular cantata differs from the church cantata in its occasion and its text source, not in its construction: here too recitative, aria and ensemble alternate. Not seldom movements of secular cantatas were later given a sacred text and reused — a procedure called parody.

Performance practice

Take the folk-like tone seriously without lapsing into caricature: the movements are carefully worked in craft and tolerate no carelessness. Work at intelligibility of text, because the dialect is unfamiliar to many listeners; a translation in the programme helps. Keep the scoring small and transparent, as the score prescribes. Clarify the dance characters of the individual numbers and shape them differently in tempo and articulation. Watch for a light, speaking continuo accompaniment.

Remember that the movements are short and change quickly: the effect arises from the succession, not from the working-out of individual numbers, which is why transitions should stay terse. Check which melodies are quoted as familiar models, for these references carry the wit of the work. Score the continuo leanly and play with mobility, so that the rural tone does not become heavy. For the audience a short introduction is helpful, because otherwise neither dialect nor allusions are intelligible. Check also the movement order of the edition used, since numbers are counted differently in older prints.