From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcantatacan‧ta‧ta /kænˈtɑːtə, kən- $ kən-/ noun [countable] APMa piece of religious music for singers and instruments
Examples from the Corpus
cantata• Much more important as a cantata composer was Rossi, a childhood pupil of de Macque.• A cantata in nine movements by Josef Rheinberger will also be performed.• Direct speech has that personal quality Jean-Jacques Rousseau later recognized as being intrinsic to the best cantatas.• Musical variety seems to have been Campra's principal aim in nearly half of his later cantatas.• These masterly cantatas date from different periods in Bach's life.• There were many voices, screaming differently, loudly raised in a badly orchestrated cantata.• The cantata ends with a famous meditation on the setting moon and Pleiades.• However, in two cantatas in book 3 allusive figuration recurs in a manner that indubitably aids the drama.Origin cantata (1700-1800) Italian Latin, from the past participle of cantare; → CHANT1 