Cantata Cycles

Four cycles of cantatas are defined by scholars. Many have been lost. Here is a list of those we have.

Four cycles of Bach's Leipzig cantatas are generally talked about; this table appears on Wikipedia.
The table below is adapted from Christoph Wolff, 2000, p 270-287.

BWV numbers in parentheses are repeat performances of cantatas written earlier.
Cycle One:
* 1723: 75, 76, (21), 24, (185), 167, 147, 186, 136, 105, 46, 179, (199), 69a, 77,
25, 138, 95, 148, 48, (162), 109, 89, (163), 60, 90, 70, (61, 63), 40, 64

* 1724: 190, 153, 65, 154, (155), 73, 81, 83, 144, 181, (18, 22, 23, 182, 31, 4), 66,
134, 67, 104, (12), 166, 86, 37, 44, (172, 59), 173, 184, (194, 165)


Cycle Two:
* After Trinity of 1724 he started a second annual cycle of mainly chorale cantatas.
20, 2, 7, 135, 10, 93, 107, 178, 94, 101, 113, 33, 78, 99, 8, 130,
114, 96, 5, 180, 38, 115, 139, 26, 116, 62, 91, 121, 133, 122

* 1725: 41, 123, 124, 3, 111, 92, 125, 126, 127, 1 (Chorale cantatas end)
Cantatas of unknown origin: 6, 42, 85
Mariane von Ziegler texts: 103, 108, 87, 128, 183, 74, 68, 175, 176


Cycle Three:
* After Trinity of 1725 Bach began a third annual cycle.
168, 137, 164, 79, 110, 57, 151, 28, 16, 32, 13, 72, 146, 43, 129
39, 88, 170, 187, 45, 102, 35, 17, 19, 27, 47, 169, 56, 49, 98, 55, 52,
36, 58, 82, 84


Cycle Four:
* 1726: 197a, 171, 156, 84, 159, 190, 145, 174, 149, 188, 157


Outside the annual cycles:
36, 248, 158, 11, 34, 30, 51, 50, 200
(Chorale cantatas, later additions)
177, 9, 137, 80, 140, 14, 112, 129, 117, 192, 100, 97


For special occasions
119, 193, 29, 69, 34a, 197, 195, 157, 194, 120

Next entry: Cantata BWV 24

Previous entry: Cantata BWV 76

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