Sharon Cleary, age 13, of Bowling Green, Ohio, for her question:

IN MUSIC, WHAT IS A CANTATA?

A cantata is a short musical composition for one or more soloists and an orchestra, usually with a chorus. It resembles an opera but it does not have the stage action that an opera has. A cantata is like an oratorio although it is usually much shorter.

Cantatas developed in the early 1700s. They became especially popular for use in Protestant church services. A cantata da chiesa is a church cantata, based on sacred subjects while one based on a secular subject is called a cantata da camera, or chamber cantata.

Johann Sebastian Bach is regarded as perhaps the greatest composer of cantatas. He wrote about 300 of them, including five complete series for the Sundays and the holy days of the church year. Only about 200 have survived, however.

Such composers as Claude Debussy, George Friderich Handel, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti and Igor Stravinsky also wrote cantatas that have become popular.

The subject of an oratorio is usually taken from the Bible, but may be a theme which is not strictly sacred. The oratorio is named from the Oratory, or mission hall, in Rome where from 1571 to 1594 sacred musical performances were held.