Semantics of the Musical Language of J. S. Bach's Spiritual Cantatas of the Passion Type

The purpose of the article is to analyse the semantic aspects of J. S. Bach’s passion cantatas, identify and reveal their semantic depth, philosophical and religious inspiration. The research methodology is based on the application of fundamental general scientific methods of cognition, as well as special musicological methods, in particular, analytical in the study of scientific literature; genre and style, historical and cultural methods, which contribute to the establishment of patterns of development and particularity of the cantata genre as a complete artistic object; hermeneutic method, which helped to comprehend the true philosophical meaning of the Bach’s cantatas. Semantic analysis emerges as one of the main and the most promising methods for deciphering the semantic structures of the Bach’s spiritual cantatas. The scientific novelty is to reveal the semantic aspects of J. S. Bach’s spiritual cantatas of the passion type as carriers of soteriological theory, which are manifested by musical rhetorical figures and symbolism, to promote better understanding of symbolic and rhetoric principles of the composer’s artistic thinking. Conclusions. Semantic analysis of the musical language of J. S. Bach’s spiritual cantatas has demonstrated that in the passion cantatas Bach’s interpretation of Lutheranism, namely the soteriological theory that reveals the doctrine of salvation, is reflected to the highest degree. It can be concluded that the composer builds his cantatas of the passion type according to the dramatic principle “from suffering to grace”. Johann Sebastian Bach applies a whole range of passion symbols. He often uses the rhetorical figure of passus duriusculus as a symbol of suffering to reproduce the pain and torment of Christ. It has been found out that immersion in the spiritual depth of J. S. Bach’s spiritual cantatas of the passion type gives ground to re-discover the multidimensionality of the complex of age-old questions that contribute to the emergence of new meaning