Description
Book SynopsisThis volume draws together a collection of Robin A. Leaver's essays on Bach's sacred music, exploring the religious aspects of this repertoire through consideration of three core themes: liturgy, hymnology, and theology. Rooted in a rich understanding of the historical sources, the book illuminates the varied ways in which Bach's sacred music was informed and shaped by the religious, ritual, and intellectual contexts of his time, placing these works in the wider history of Protestant church music during the Baroque era.
Including research from across a span of forty years, the chapters in this volume have been significantly revised and expanded for this publication, with several pieces appearing in English for the first time. Together, they offer an essential compendium of the work of a leading scholar of theological Bach studies.
Table of ContentsPreface
Part I Liturgy
1. Bach’s Cantatas and the Liturgical Year
2. Bach’s Music and the Leipzig Liturgy
3. Bach’s Agnus Dei Compositions
4. Bach’s Parody Process: From Cantata to Missa
5. Bach and the Cantata Controversy in the Early Eighteenth Century
Part II Hymnology
6. Bach and Johann Christoph Olearius
7. Bach’s Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4): Hymnology and Chronology
8. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein
9. Bach and the Hymnic Aria
10. Bach and the Letter Codes of the Schemelli Gesangbuch
Part III Theology
11. Bach and Pietism
12. Bach, Gesner, and Johann August Ernesti
13. Bach and Erdmann Neumeister
14. Bach’s Clavierübung III
15. Bach and Anniversaries of the Reformation
Bibliography
