The ubiquitous presence of the Bach cantatas in posthumous reception and present-day performance practice easily obscures the fact that the Central German church music of the Baroque distinguished itself through a preponderantly different appearance. Bach’s aspiration to develop all the combinatorial possibilities and his quite problematic equalisation of orchestral compactness and vocal lines rather represent a special case that, not by chance, came into con ict with new ideals of comprehensibility and definitude.
The extensive cantata oeuvre of Christoph Graupner, only parts of which have been apprehended until now, is audibly orientated towards a different goal: to promote devotion through emotional clarity, thus gratifying the connoisseur without making undue demands on amateurs. Graupner’s music aims to grab hold of the listener without losing intellectual elegance and the composure which is a courtly public’s due. His credo of the utmost possible “Simplicität”, laid down in the preface to the
Darmstadt Chorale Book in 1728, must not be misunderstood, however: Graupner’s cantatas speak a comprehensible, but thoroughly elevated and markedly intellectual language. Unlike the sovereign, easily grasped Telemann
and the often ingeniously plain Stölzel, Graupner prefers a refined elaboration with a hidden, deeper meaning that is not always easily accessible and audibly reckons with an informed interpreter. When we read in a 1781 Darmstadt testimonial about Graupner that he “linked art with nature, splendour with simplicity, charm with beauty” and thus “brought about ... edification and enjoyment”, then these were compliments from the eighteenth-century point of view to which a Sebastian Bach, for example, could hardly lay claim.
