Editing Cantata (section)

==Classical and romantic period==

The term "cantata" came to be applied almost exclusively to choral works, as distinguished from solo vocal music. In early 19th-century cantatas, the chorus is the vehicle for music more lyric and songlike than in oratorio, not excluding the possibility of a brilliant climax in a [[fugue]] as in [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]'s [[Der glorreiche Augenblick]], [[Carl Maria von Weber]]'s ''Jubel-Kantate'', and [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s ''[[Die erste Walpurgisnacht]]''. [[Anton Bruckner]] composed several [[Name-day]] cantatas, a [[Festive Cantata (Bruckner)|Festive Cantata]] and two secular cantatas (''[[Germanenzug]]'' and [[Helgoland (Bruckner)|''Helgoland'']]). Bruckner's [[Psalm 146 (Bruckner)|Psalm 146]] is also in cantata form. Mendelssohn's [[Choral symphony|Symphony Cantata]], the ''[[Lobgesang]]'', is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. It is preceded by three symphonic movements, a device avowedly suggested by Beethoven's [[Ninth Symphony (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]]; but the analogy is not accurate, as Beethoven's work is a symphony of which the fourth movement is a choral finale of essentially single design, whereas Mendelssohn's ''Symphony Cantata'' is a cantata with three symphonic preludes. The full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized by [[Johannes Brahms]] in his ''[[Rinaldo (cantata)|Rinaldo]]'', which, like the ''Walpurgisnacht''—was set to a text by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]. Other cantatas, Beethoven's ''Meeresstille'', works of Brahms and many notable small English choral works, such as cantatas of [[John Henry Maunder]] and [[John Stanley (composer)|John Stanley]], find various ways to set poetry to choral music. The competition for the French {{lang|fr|[[Prix de Rome]]|italic=no}} requires that each candidate submit a cantata. [[Hector Berlioz]] failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 with ''[[Prix de Rome Cantatas (Berlioz)|Sardanapale]]''. While almost all of the {{lang|fr|Prix de Rome|italic=no}} cantatas have long since been forgotten (along with their composers, for the most part), Debussy's prize-winning ''L'enfant prodigue'' (1884, following his unsuccessful ''Le gladiateur'' of 1883) is still performed occasionally today.  Late in the century, [[Gustav Mahler]] wrote his early ''[[Das klagende Lied]]'' on his own words between 1878 and 1880, and [[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]] created a successful [[trilogy]] of cantatas, ''[[The Song of Hiawatha (Coleridge-Taylor)|The Song of Hiawatha]]'' between 1898 and 1900.