Bach And God

Bach & God explores the religious character of Bach\u27s vocal and instrumental music in seven interrelated essays. Noted musicologist Michael Marissen offers wide-ranging interpretive insights from careful biblical and theological scrutiny of the librettos. Yet he also shows how Bach\u27s pitches, rhythms, and tone colors can make contributions to a work\u27s plausible meanings that go beyond setting texts in an aesthetically satisfying manner. In some of Bach\u27s vocal repertory, the music puts a spin on the words in a way that turns out to be explainable as orthodox Lutheran in its orientation. In a few of Bach\u27s vocal works, his otherwise puzzlingly fierce musical settings serve to underscore now unrecognized or unacknowledged verbal polemics, most unsettlingly so in the case of his church cantatas that express contempt for Jews and Judaism. Finally, even Bach\u27s secular instrumental music, particularly the late collections of abstract learned counterpoint, can powerfully project certain elements of traditional Lutheran theology. Bach\u27s music is inexhaustible, and Bach & God suggests that through close contextual study there is always more to discover and learn

Rejoicing Against Judaism In Handel\u27s \u27Messiah\u27 (George Frideric Handel)

Scholars have too little investigated questions of religious meaning in Handel\u27s Messiah, particularly the work\u27s manifest theological anti-Judaism. Previously unknown historical sources for the work\u27s libretto compiled and arranged by Charles Jennens (1700–73) reveal the text\u27s implicit designs against Jewish religion. Handel\u27s musical setting powerfully underscores these tendencies of Jennens\u27s libretto and adds to them, reaching a euphoric climax in the Hallelujah chorus. Within its arrangement of juxtaposed Old Testament prophecies and their New Testament fulfillment and with its matching musical styles, Handel\u27s Messiah could hardly have expressed more powerfully its rejoicing against Judaism than by having the ferocious tenor aria “THOU [Jesus] shalt break THEM [the Jews] with a rod of iron” answered by the chorus “Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” The aria is a setting of Psalm 2:9, a passage that was generally and unquestioningly believed among Christians in Handel\u27s day to have foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in the year 70. This horrible event was construed as a divine punishment of Judaism for its failure to accept Jesus as God\u27s promised messiah. The Hallelujah chorus apparently sees cause for rejoicing in such vengeance. Further, this chorus quotes the melodies of several hymns whose texts concern the depiction in Matthew 25 of acceptance by a bridegroom of five wise virgins and his rejection of five foolish virgins. This parable was taken to symbolize the welcoming of Ecclesia, Christianity and Jesus as the messiah, and the rejection of Synagoga and Judaism. In 18th-century England most Christians fervently believed that a choice between Judaism and Christianity was a choice between eternal damnation and eternal salvation. This would have represented motivation indeed for Messiah to project Christian theological contempt for its sibling religion

An Introduction To Bach Studies

This volume is a guide to the resources and materials of Bach scholarship, both for the nonspecialist wondering where to begin in the enormous literature on J. S. Bach, and for the Bach specialist looking for a convenient and up-to-date survey of the field. It describes the tools of Bach research and how to use them, and suggests how to get started in Bach research by describing the principal areas of research and citing the essential literature on each piece and topic. The authors emphasize the issues that have engaged Bach scholars for generations, focusing on particularly important writings on recent literature on overviews, collections of essays and handbooks and on writings in English. Subjects covered include bibliographic tools of Bach research and sources of literature Bach\u27s family Bach biographies places Bach lived and worked Bach\u27s teaching the liturgy Bach source studies and the transmission of his music repertory and editions genres and individual vocal and instrumental works performance practice the reception and analysis of Bach\u27s music and many others. The book also offers explanations of important and potentially confusing topics in Bach research, such as the organization of the annual cantata cycles, pitch standards, the history of the Berlin libraries, the structure of the critical commentary volumes in the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, and so on. This book opens up the rich world of Bach scholarship to students, teachers, performers, and listener