These excerpts from Bach cantatas were chosen not only for the beauty of their musical content, but also because of the pedagogical value they possess. The excerpts embrace two distinct areas of Baroque vocal music: the melodic realms of the aria and recitative. The aria and arioso quotations in the collection, generally presented without accompaniment, are intended for sight-singing. The aria and recitative excerpts with continuo accompaniment also provide students with serious harmonization tasks and are, therefore, principally related to their music theory studies. Volume I contains the easier cantata excerpts, Volume II the more difficult ones.