24 essays on J.S. Bach's church cantatas, written by renowned conductor Craig Smith, founder of Emmanuel Music, the first American ensemble to complete a full cycle of Bach cantatas. The essays are accompanied by full libretti, numerous musical examples, the liturgical readings for the respective Sunday, and selected art works that illustrate the cantatas' themes. With a unique relationship to Bach's works and their liturgical function, Smith engages the cantatas as living works of art, exploring how they work musically, emotionally, and theologically. Integrating spiritual, psychological, and compositional analysis, these vivid essays reveal Bach's power to communicate complex messages of faith, doubt, and the human condition. In the Foreword, eminent composer and close friend of Smith, John Harbison, writes: "Craig's writing embraces, at times dissolves, never ignores, the distance – esoteric, temporal, linguistic, cultural – that the Bach cantatas carry. The paternalistic theology, the presentness of sin, the Devil, the rough proximity of Death is never evaded or finessed. That which should remain difficult is acknowledged. That which immediately attracts is gratefully received. What is constantly suggested is that this may be the finest music that the finest composer wrote, and that it is never too late to catch up to it." Craig Smith (1947-2007) was the founding music director of the Emmanuel Music orchestra and chorus in Boston and led the first complete cycle of Bach's cantatas in the United States as well as expansive explorations of works from the 16th century to the present day. Mr. Smith was born in Lewiston, Idaho, on Jan. 31, 1947. He began studying the piano at 4 and continued at Washington State University and the New England Conservatory, where he completed a bachelor's degree in 1969 and a master's in 1972. He founded Emmanuel Music, a group based at Emmanuel Church in Boston, in 1970. Its original goal was to present a season of Bach cantatas, but after a few performances, Mr. Smith decided to make his way through the entire collection of more than 200 works. That project occupied Mr. Smith and his ensemble for seven years, and he maintained the tradition of conducting a Bach cantata every Sunday as part of the church's worship service. But in the ensemble's own concerts, he found other composers to explore. He led most of the major sacred works of the 17th-century composer Heinrich Schütz, as well as the compete Schumann lieder and the chamber music and vocal works of Brahms and Debussy. Mr. Smith devoted 51 concerts, over seven years, to the chamber and vocal music of Schubert and performed several works by the contemporary composer John Harbison. Mr. Smith was best known internationally for his collaborations with the iconoclastic director Peter Sellars and the choreographer Mark Morris. Mr. Smith's work with Mr. Sellars included three Mozart operas, "Così Fan Tutte," "Don Giovanni" and "Nozze di Figaro," which were controversial for their urban 20th-century settings. He also conducted Mr. Sellars's production of Handel's "Giulio Cesare" and works by Weill, Gilbert and Sullivan and Gershwin, as well staged performances of Bach's Cantatas BWV 82 ("Ich habe genug") and BWV 199 ("Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut"). The soloist in those works was the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who began her career as a violist in the Emmanuel Music orchestra. Her recording of the works with Mr. Smith and the ensemble is regarded as one of the highlights of the current Bach discography. Mr. Smith's principal collaboration with Mr. Morris was a choreographed setting of the Handel work, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato," first performed at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, where Mr. Smith was principal conductor from 1988 to 1991. He conducted it at the Serious Fun festival at Lincoln Center in 1995. He taught at the New England Conservatory from 1993 to 2000 and also at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Juilliard and the Tanglewood Music Center. His discography includes the Peter Sellars Mozart trilogy on DVD and CDs devoted to the music of Bach, Schütz, Mozart and John Harbison. Pamela Dellal, mezzo-soprano, has enjoyed a distinguished career as an acclaimed soloist and recitalist, She has appeared in Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall, and premiered a Harbison chamber work in New York, San Francisco, Boston and London. Her repertoire encompasses an astonishing range from 12th-century monody through Renaissance songs, Baroque cantatas and oratorios, 18th–21st century art songs and operas, and premieres of new works. She has performed under acclaimed conductors William Christie, Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Hogwood, Paul McCreesh, Bernard Labadie and Roger Norrington, in appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society, the Tokyo Oratorio Society, the Lydian String Quartet, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Boston Bar