Musicology Annotation << Back Cantata «Der Tod Jesu», verses by K. W. Ramler with the music by C. G. Graun Alexandra N. Khanova Two famous in their time authors – an opera composer С. G. Graun and a poet, a connoisseur of the musical recitation K. W. Ramler – in 1755 created jointly a unique masterpiece that had met the latest trends in the fi eld of aesthetics, theology, literature and vocal music. The writing appeared before their contemporaries as the embodiment of refined taste satisfying at the same time the needs of religious feeling and firmly entered into the liturgical and concert Lutheran practice for more than one and a half century. The appearance of the Graun-Ramler product became one of the key moments in the history of the German oratorio. Due to this opus the interest in the cantatas and oratorios was increased again in Germany in the 1750s. The style and dramatic features of this work became the object to imitate and theorize that contributed to the formation of a specifi c tradition of the so-called «Lyrical oratorio» of the 2nd half of the XVIII century. Keywords: K. W. Ramler, C. G. Graun, Cantata, Passion, lyrical Oratorio, Berlin School, sensitive (empfi ndsamer) Style, Ch. Batteux. Contacts: E-mail: a-hanova@list.ru Pp. 03-11.