The Bachfest Leipzig is marking a special anniversary in 2023: In the year 1723, so exactly 300 years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) took up his post as cantor of St. Thomas Church in the Saxon city. His job involved planning the music for worship in several churches on around 60 days of the year, as well as teaching pupils at the St. Thomas School. To accomplish this mammoth task, Bach composed cantatas at a rate of almost one a week during his first year in office alone. The compositions, which later became known as Bach’s “first cantata cycle in Leipzig,” not only astonished his contemporaries but continue to delight people to this day. These compositions are extraordinary not only for their diversity but also for the way in which Bach reworked traditional musical forms and expanded the genre into new creative terrain – all in the space of one year between 1723 and 1724. Despite their technical challenges, these cantatas are among the Baroque composer’s most popular and frequently performed works.
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