was not divided between a variety of
subjects. The clergyman of highest standing at Leipsic, Superintendent
Deyling, a preacher of great eloquence and theological learning,
co-operated heartily with Bach in this scheme. A series of cantatas for
every Sunday and festival for five years--about three hundred and
eighty in all--was composed by Bach, chiefly during the first years of
his stay at Leipsic. Unfortunately many of these are lost; but one
hundred and eighty-six for particular days, and thirty-two without any
days specified, still remain. Their music is so completely in character
with the subject of the words as to form a perfect exposition of the
text. In some the orchestral introductions and accompaniments are made
illustrative of the scene of the text; as for instance in one on
Christ's appearing to His disciples in the evening after His
resurrection, the introduction is of a soft, calming character,
representing the peacefulness of evening and of the whole scene.
Another, on the text 'Like as the rain and snow fall from heaven,' is
introduced by a symphony in which the sound of gently-falling rain is
imitated. In others the instrumental parts and some of the voices
express the feelings excited by meditation on the words. Sometimes, in
the midst of a chorus in which the words of the text are repeated, and,
as it were, commented on, a single voice, with the accompaniment of a
few instruments, breaks off into some well-known hymn in a similar
strain of thought or feeling."

Handel in his younger days wrote many cantatas for the church, though
they are now but little known. The entire list numbers one hundred and
fifty. On his return from England to his post of chapel-master at Hanover
in 1711 he composed twelve, known as the Hanover cantatas, for the
Princess Caroline, the words written by the Abbe Hortentio Mauro, to
which no objection was offered by Handel's master and patron,
notwithstanding he was a Lutheran prince. Several written in England are
still preserved in the royal collections. On Holy Week of the year 1704,
the same week in which Reinhardt Kaiser brought out his famous Passion
oratorio, "The Bleeding and Dying Jesus," Handel's Passion cantata was
first produced. Kaiser's work had been denounced as secular by the
pastors, because it did not contain the words of Holy Scripture. Handel's
was founded on the nineteenth chapter of St. John, and thus escaped the