Boxberg: Aus der Tiefen - Cantatas & Sacred Concerts

Boxberg worked as an organist in Grossenhain from 1692 to 1702. From here he worked simultaneously as a singer, opera director, opera composer and also as a librettist, in Leipzig and at the courts of Wolfenbuttel, Ansbach and Kassel, and later as an organist in Gorlitz. The cantatas he composed do not follow the model common at the time in terms of form and instrumentation, with choirs, solo arias, recitatives and chorales, with an orchestra consisting of strings, wind instruments and continuo. A large part of the works are chamber music with a singing voice and two melody instruments, plus bassoon and organ. Formally, many of the solo cantatas consist of a dictum (Bible text appropriate to the Sunday of the church year) and an aria, usually four verses long. The name of these works is "Conncert con Aria". Another cantata form uses psalms and chorales in it's content. In formal terms, these cantatas can be assigned to the earlier, motet-like style.