Christoph Graupner in the context of "Orchestral suite"

A cantata (/kænˈtɑːtə/; Italian: [kanˈtaːta]; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb cantare, "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.

The meaning of the term changed over time, from the simple single-voice madrigal of the early 17th century, to the multi-voice "cantata da camera" and the "cantata da chiesa" of the later part of that century, from the more substantial dramatic forms of the 18th century to the usually sacred-texted 19th-century cantata, which was effectively a type of short oratorio. Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called church cantata or sacred cantatas; other cantatas can be indicated as secular cantatas. Several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas. Christoph Graupner, Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach composed cycles of church cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year.

A church cantata or sacred cantata is a cantata intended to be performed during Christian liturgy. The genre was particularly popular in 18th-century Lutheran Germany, with many composers writing an extensive output: Stölzel, Telemann, Graupner and Krieger each wrote nearly or more than a thousand. The best known examples, however, are those of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose output stands out not by quantity but by the high level of expertise and craftmanship which they showcase.

The bulk of extant cantatas were composed for occasions occurring in the liturgical calendar of the German Reformation era, including Passion cantatas for Good Friday, and most made reference to the content of the readings and to Lutheran hymns appropriate for the occasion. The melodies of such hymns often appeared in cantatas, for example as in the four-part settings concluding Bach's works, or as a cantus firmus in larger choral movements. Other occasions for church cantatas include weddings and funeral services. The genre was later taken up by composers such as Felix Mendelssohn.

A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to five dances, sometimes with a prelude. The separate movements were often thematically and tonally linked. The term can also be used to refer to similar forms in other musical traditions, such as the Turkish fasıl and the Arab nuubaat.

In the Baroque era, the suite was an important musical form, also known as Suite de danses, Ordre (the term favored by François Couperin), Partita, or Ouverture (after the theatrical "overture" which often included a series of dances) as with the orchestral suites of Christoph Graupner, Telemann and J.S. Bach.

Partita (also partie, partia, parthia, or parthie) closely resemble the dance suites of the Baroque Period (and are often used synonymously with suites and variations with the addition of a prelude movement at the beginning of each partita. It was originally the name for a single-instrumental piece of music (16th and 17th centuries), but Johann Kuhnau (Thomaskantor) at Leipzig until 1722), his student Christoph Graupner, and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) used it for collections of musical pieces, as a synonym for suite. In the early Baroque period, a partita referred to a string of variations or a piece in parts that reflected different dances.