During the heyday of baroque music, a new musical form known as the "cantata" became popular. Named for the Italian verb "cantare," which means "to sing," a cantata is a musical work written to showcase either a single vocal soloist or several soloists. In the early 1600s, the cantata's instrumental accompaniment often consisted of a single harpsichord, but the style gradually developed to include a chamber group or full-size orchestra, and often a chorus as well. Cantatas had both secular and sacred themes; while some composers specialized in cantatas for church performance, others wrote cantatas celebrating nature or historical events and personages.
During the baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote 200 cantatas, many on religious themes. The most famous composer of secular cantatas was Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) who wrote more than 600 secular cantatas with titles such as "Il Rosignolo" ("The Nightingale") and "La Primavera" ("Spring"). The cantata form continued well into the 20th century, with examples by composers such as Benjamin Britten and Igor Stravinsky.
Created for popular entertainment, ballad operas were generally far less formal in musical style than cantatas, and have their roots in stage performance rather than religious worship. Ballad operas are stage plays, either comic or dramatic, with plots punctuated by songs accompanied by an orchestra --- very much a forerunner of the modern Broadway musical. These songs often became popular hits of the day, sung by everyone from popular singers to street performers.
Ballad operas originated in England, but their popularity soon spread throughout Europe. The most famous ballad opera of the era was "The Beggar's Opera," composed in 1728 by John Gay and still performed today. Like many ballad operas of the era, "The Beggar's Opera" is a farce on the political and social structures of England during that time.
Written to showcase the singing voice, both ballad operas and cantatas rely heavily on expert vocal performance. Typically, the cantata style is written more for the singer trained in concert technique, with vocal lines often heavily ornamented with trills and difficult solo work. While ballad operas also feature arias with some degree of difficulty, many of the featured songs are technically less difficult to perform, and are written more in keeping with popular song styles of the era.