In music, a chorale cantata is a sacred composition for voices and instruments, principally from the German Baroque era, in which the organizing principle is the words and music to a chorale. Usually, a chorale cantata is in multiple movements or parts. Most chorale cantatas were written between approximately 1650 and 1750. By far the most famous is by J. S. Bach, especially the cantatas composed in his second annual cycle of cantatas started in Leipzig in 1724.
The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1730 and 1820. However, the term classical music is used in a colloquial sense to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially