Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach

Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach collects seventeen essays by leading Bach scholars. The authors each address in some way such questions of meaning in J. S. Bach’s vocal compositions—including his Passions, Masses, Magnificat, and cantatas—with particular attention to how such meaning arises out of the intentionality of Bach’s own compositional choices or (in Part IV in particular) how meaning is discovered, and created, through the reception of Bach’s vocal works. And the authors do not consider such compositional choices in a vacuum, but rather discuss Bach’s artistic intentions within the framework of broader cultural trends—social, historical, theological, musical, etc. Such questions of compositional choice and meaning frame the four primary approaches to Bach’s vocal music taken by the authors in this volume, as seen across the book’s four parts: Part I: How might the study of historical theology inform our understanding of Bach’s compositional choices in his music for the church (cantatas, Passions, masses)? Part II: How can we apply traditional analytical tools to understand better how Bach’s compositions were created and how they might have been heard by his contemporaries? Part III: What we can understand anew through the study of Bach’s self-borrowing (i.e., parody), which always changed the earlier meaning of a composition through changes in textual content, compositional characteristics, the work’s context within a larger composition, and often the performance context (from court to church, for example)? Part IV: What can the study of reception teach us about a work’s meaning(s) in Bach’s time, during the time of his immediate successors, and at various points since then (including our present)?The chapters in this volume thus reflect the breadth of current Bach research in its attention not only to source study and analysis, but also to meanings and contexts for understanding Bach’s compositions.

Mark A. Peters is professor of music at Trinity Christian College. Reginald L. Sanders is professor of music at Kenyon College.

Series Editor Foreword Robin A. Leaver Preface Mark A. Peters and Reginald L. Sanders Paragram for Professor Dr. Don O. Franklin Ruth Tatlow Part I: Bach's Vocal Music in Theological Context 1. In Honor of God and the City: Strategies of Theological and Symbolic Communication in Bach's Cantata Gott ist mein König (BWV 71) Markus Rathey 2. Two "Johannine" Cantatas: Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes (BWV 40) and Sehet, welch eine Liebe (BWV 64) Eric Chafe 3. Death to Life, Sorrow to Joy: Martin Luther's Theology of the Cross and J. S. Bach's Eastertide Cantata Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (BWV 103) Mark A. Peters 4. Toward an Understanding of J. S. Bach's Use of Red Ink in the Autograph Score of the Matthew Passion Mary Greer 5. The Theological in Bach Research (2007) Martin Petzoldt Part II: Analytical Perspectives 6. Formal and Motivic Design in the Opening Chorus of J. S. Bach's Magnificat Reginald L. Sanders 7. The Tonally Open Ritornello in J. S. Bach's Church Cantatas Kayoung Lee 8. The Christian Believer and the Sleep of Jesus: "Mache dich, mein Herze, rein" from J. S. Bach's Matthew Passion Wye J. Allanbrook Part III: Bach's Self-Modeling: Parody as Compositional Impetus 9. Parody and Text Quality in the Vocal Works of J. S. Bach Hans-Joachim Schulze 10. J. S. Bach's Parodies of Vocal Music: Conservation or Intensification? Robin A. Leaver 11. J. S. Bach's Dresden Trip and His Earliest Serenatas for Köthen Gregory Butler 12. Bach's Second Thoughts on the Christmas Oratorio: The Compositional Revisions to "Bereite dich, Zion," BWV 248/4 Steven Saunders 13. The Passions as a Source of Inspiration? A Hypothesis on the Origin and Musical Aim of Well-Tempered Clavier II Yo Tomita Part IV: The Reception of Bach's Vocal Works 14. The Leipzig Audiences of J. S. Bach's Matthew Passion to 1750 Tanya Kevorkian 15. The Vocal Music of the Bach Family in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works Jason B. Grant 16. The Need for a New Music: J. S. Bach in Contemporary Context (1946) William H. Scheide 17. Bach at the Boundaries of Music History: Preliminary Thoughts on the B-minor Mass and the Late Style Paradigm Robert L. Marshall About the Authors