How many sacred cantatas did Bach compose?

How many sacred cantatas did Bach compose?

• A. 150
• B. 300
• C. 200
• D. 50

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is the size of Bach’s sacred cantata output. Bach wrote a vast number of cantatas for Lutheran worship, especially during his Leipzig years, to fit nearly every Sunday and feast day. Contemporary scholarship routinely rounds the sacred cantata total to about two hundred. That figure reflects what survives, plus the pieces we know from sources that may not be complete, and accounts for revisions or uncertain attributions. So, around two hundred is the best-supported estimate of how many sacred cantatas he composed. The other options don’t fit because they are notably smaller or larger than what the surviving catalog and scholarly consensus support.

The main idea here is the size of Bach’s sacred cantata output. Bach wrote a vast number of cantatas for Lutheran worship, especially during his Leipzig years, to fit nearly every Sunday and feast day. Contemporary scholarship routinely rounds the sacred cantata total to about two hundred. That figure reflects what survives, plus the pieces we know from sources that may not be complete, and accounts for revisions or uncertain attributions. So, around two hundred is the best-supported estimate of how many sacred cantatas he composed. The other options don’t fit because they are notably smaller or larger than what the surviving catalog and scholarly consensus support.