chorale cantata

Term used for a form of church cantata, especially by Bach, which draws on the text and, usually, music of a Lutheran hymn. The chorale words and melody may (rarely) be present in each movement of the cantata ( in Christ lag in Todesbanden), or some verses may be replaced by free paraphrases of the text or completely new material set as recitatives or arias. Treatment varies from the simple harmonizations found as the last movement of many cantatas to the complexity of the massive fantasia-like chorus which opens Ein' feste Burg.