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Articles about J.S. Bach, his Religion & his Music

Acoustic Illusions; Endlessly Rising Canon
Stefan Scheller

Articles on Classical Music, 'Early Music' and Performance - Bach
Contains a series of essays/articles/reviews on Bach's vocal and instrumental music. He is particularly interested in changes in performance practice
Author: Bernard D. Sherman

Authentic at heart
Visiting American conductor Joshua Rifkin, in Israel to lead the Camerata orchestra, is known for having caused a stir in the musical world [Ha’aretz]
Author: Haggai Hitron

Бах — бесконечная музыка / Краткий обзор музыки Баха (original text in Russian)
Bach -- An Endless Music / Short Overview of Bach Music (translated to English by Google)
Short Overview of Bach's Music for beginners. Concise recommendations of "starting-point" recordings divided by genres of Bach music: keyboard, orchestral, sacred, organ, etc. And additional information: visualisation of Bach music and more.
Author: Serge Smirnoff

Bach and Antisemitism [N/A]
Expresses the opinion that he was not anti-Jewish and that while holding to 18th century norms, he presented the New Testament texts as written and did not harp on the Jews in his arias and recitatives [J.S. Bach FAQ]
Author: Bernard S. Greenberg

Bach and Luther, Music and Theology
Examines their shared thoughts, touching on the Theology of the Cross, faith, Law and Gospel, death, and music as servant and vehicle of Christian proclamation [Japan Lutheran Hour]
Author: Eriko Fukai

Bach and Today's Theologians
States that Bach's liturgical accomplishments include not proof-texting, but presenting the Scriptures in a straightforward manner so they might reveal themselves as God intended [Theology Today]
Author: Paul S. Minear

Bach B Minor Mass
Analysis of the theological enumeration of certain portions of the piece according to a Trinitarian understanding of God [Baroque Choral Guild]
Authors: Kenneth Hannaford & Audrey Wong

Bach, Mozart and the Musical Midwife
A long essay about the musical influence of Bach on Mozart which was instigated by 'midwife' Baron Van Swieten
Author: Michelle Rasmussen

Bach, the Evangelist [N/A]
Text of radio play featuring the composer with contributions from Michael Merissen, Robin Leaver, and John Kleinig, with references to various compositions as his music and theology are examined [Radio National]
Author: Stephen Watkins

Bach: the Baroque and Beyond
Graduate seminar includes motivic variation, development, and saturation, permutation, symmetry, and counterpoint in the composer and others of the period, as well as later developments

Bach: The Fifth Evangelist
Emphasizes the religious education and theological understanding of the composer as a means of understanding and appreciating his compositions [Christianity Today]
Author: Mark Galli

Bach’s Method of Transcription [N/A]
Among the huge corpus of works by J.S. Bach is a sizeable number of transcriptions. A rather neglected part of the Bach repertory, these transcriptions have only recent]y gained more respectability and interest among scholars and performers. Their impact on the area of performance practice and the study of Bach's compositional process is evident in a number of notable studies [Del Mar College]
Author: Philip Hii

Bach's Lutheranism [N/A]
Article about J.S. Bach and his influence on music in the Lutheran church and on Lutheranism generally
Author: Christopher D. Barth

Bach's Notation of Tempo and Early-Music Performance: some reconsiderations [Early Music]
Author: Bernard D. Sherman

Bach's own performance practice of his passions and cantatas in Leipzig
The complete series of Chapters that together give a picture of how Bach performed his church music in the two main churches in Leipzig. Some of the chapters (in Dutch) were part of Rens Bijma’s thesis, but these now include errata and other additions and improvements.
Author: Rens Bijma

Canons and Fugues of J. S. Bach (The)
Studies of the composer's life and music, concentrating on the contrapuntal music [Sojurn]
Author: Timothy A. Smith

Canons: Why Did Bach Write Them?
Essay concludes that canonic processes may have held profound theological significance for the composer [Sojurn]
Author: Timothy A. Smith

Coming to Fresh Terms with the Sacred in Bach [N/A]
An essay about Masaaki Suzuki [New York Times]
Author: Bernard D. Sherman

Confluence in Music
Online essay, written along the same lines as Why Bach?. It is about three passages--in Bach, Beethoven, and Bartok respectively--that exhibit a coming together of many musical elements in an elegant (in the mathematical sense) and arresting way. (The Bach discussion--roughly a 6h of the essay--is taken from Why Bach?.)
The essay is 6000 words long with 50 self-playing, notated examples. The interface to the examples is "friendlier" than the one in Why Bach?, and the examples play on all web-capable devices.
Author: Daniel Brown

An Empirical Study of Intonation in Performances of J. S. Bach's Sarabandes: Temperament, 'Melodic Charge' and 'Melodic Intonation'
Orbis Musicae (published by Tel Aviv University) [PDF]
Author: Eitan Ornoy

Greatest Lutheran Composer (The)
A tribute to Bach and his contributions to church music [Suite 101]
Author: James Sucha

Intentionality and Meaningfulness in Bach's Cyclical Works
This article examines pattern and meaning in the canons and other parts of the composers' works, both sacred and secular. Includes VCD sound [Sojurn]
Author: Timothy A. Smith

J. S. Bach: Orthodox Lutheran Theologian
A brief study his theology, examining whether he was an Orthodox Lutheran, a Pietist, or a Rationalist. Includes endnotes, annotated bibliography, and a brief time line [Xrysostom]
Author: Rev. Walter Snyder

J.S. Bach in Japan [N/A]
The Article makes claims that the composer's religious music is evangelizing Japan and preparing hearers for Christianity [First Things]
Author: Uwe Siemon

Johann Sebastian Bach's Achievement
The Integration of European Music in the Aftermath of the Wars of Religion [Ferment Magazine]
Author: Roy Lisker

Keyboard temperament analyzer/calculator
Free spreadsheet, including the "Bach/Lehman 1722" temperament of my Early Music article
Author: Dr Bradley Lehman

Music, dimensions, chaos, and extremes
(Or: why I am a pacifist, beyond the obvious basic belief that killing people and destroying property are wrong....)
Author: Dr Bradley Lehman

The Musical Offering - A Musical Pedagogical Workshop by J.S. Bach, or The Musical Geometry of Bach's Puzzle Canons
1. Prologue: Bach presents a Musical Offering
2. On the concept of transformation principles in music
3. Bach's Puzzle Canon Workshop
4. Conclusion
5. Epilogue: The case of Felix Mendelssohn's entry in Hans Christian Andersen's Album
Author: Michelle Rasmussen

On Bach & the Curved Bow
[Princeton]
Author: James Pritchett

Performance in Theory and in Practice: Helmuth Rilling’s Interpretations of Bach’s B minor Mass
Orbis Musicae (published by Tel Aviv University) [PDF]
Author: Uri Golomb

Performance Practice: Plain Recitative in Bach's Vocal Works
And, more specifically: may (or 'should') performers play the bass notes and/or harmonic improvisations with shorter value than notated, punctuating the continuo bass with rests
Author: Dr Bradley Lehman

Rifkin's Pesky Idea
[Early Music]
Author: Bernard D. Sherman

Robert and Clara Schumann, and their teacher Johann Sebastian Bach
Robert Schumann's 200th birthday article [English/Danish]
Author: Michelle Rasmussen / Schiller Institute

Schering's Wacky Theory
[Early Music]
Author: Joshua Rifkin

The Seen and the Unseen: Hidden Allegorical Links in the Trinity Season Chorale Cantatas of J.S. Bach
Abstract of a dissertation. There is a button on the page that opens the pdf file of the manuscript.
Author: Linda Gingrich

Table Talk: What Language Shall I Borrow To Thank You, Dearest Friend?
Lutheran Ministerium and Synod of the United States newsletter includes article on the religious works of Bach [LMS-USA]
Author: Ralph Wm. Spears

The esoteric search for "hidden" melodies
Esotericism debunked: as to "composers' intentions" hiding secret tunes in other music...and Bach, in particular.
Author: Dr Bradley Lehman

The Keyboard Temperament of J.S. Bach
[Eunomios – An Open Online Journal for Theory, Analysis and Semiotics of Music]
Author: John Charles Francis

The Overlooked Richness of the Recitatives of Bach's Cantata 78
[Haverford College]
Author: Joyce Kelley

Tradition and Individual Style in the Motets of J. S. Bach [N/A]
Essay examines how the composer expanded this musical genre within the context of its existing form [California State University]
Author: Natalie Beck

Was Bach Jewish?
The Article examines affinities between the composer's works and Hebraic theology, especially in Biblical expression and in action over theologizing [Prospect]
Author: Norman Podhoretz

What does a musical performer think about?
Basic issues; Gestural performance; Gestural example
Author: Dr Bradley Lehman

When Did Bach Find Time to Pray?
Brief examination of the gematria, or number patterns in his compositions, suggesting that their careful placement was part of his prayer and meditation [Adoremus Bulletin]
Author: Terry Mattingly

Understanding Bach 1 (2006)
Editorial by RUTH TATLOW
The Postmodern Mindset, Musicology and the Future of Bach Scholarship by JOHN BUTT
Exploring the Limits: the Tonal, the Gestural, and the Allegorical in Bach’s Musical Offering by RUTH HACOHEN
Big Boys Don’t Cry? Attitudes towards Death in Bach’s Leipzig by ANDREW STEWART
Transgression, Transcendence and Metaphor – the ‘Other Meanings’ of the B-Minor Mass by REINHARD STROHM
The Use and Abuse of Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Section in Musicology Today by RUTH TATLOW
Discussion statement: Bach’s Music in Society today
An experiment in reception and conception: re-textingBach’s St John Passion for Good Friday 2005 by RUTH HACOHEN
BNUK

Understanding Bach 2 (2007)
Editorial by RUTH TATLOW
Bach in Mind by IAN CROSS
A Polonaise Duet for a Professor, a King and a Merchant:
On Cantatas BWV 205, 205a, 216 and 216a by Johann Sebastian Bach by SZYMON PACZKOWSKI
Collections, bars and numbers: Analytical coincidence or Bach’s design? byy RUTH TATLOW
Anna Magdalena as Bach’s Copyist by YO TOMITA
‘Ihr Augen weint!’ Intersubjective Tears in the Sentimental Concert Hall by ISABELLA VAN ELFEREN
Bach's Music and Newtonian Science: A Composer in Search of the Foundations of his Art by CHRISTOPH WOLFF
BNUK

Understanding Bach 3 (2008)
Editorial by RUTH TATLOW
Bach: Forerunner of the Future through Exploration of the Potential of Learned and Natural Schemata by DALIA COHEN
‘His superior ideas are the consequences of those inferior ones’: Influence and Independence in Bach's Early Creative Development by RICHARD D. P. JONES
An Early English Imprint of the ’Crucifixus’ of the B minor Mass (BWV 232II/5) by ROBIN A. LEAVER
The Musician-Novels of the German Baroque: New Light on Bach's world by STEPHEN ROSE
The Weimar Organ Tablature: Bach’s Earliest Autographs by PETER WOLLNY and MICHAEL MAUL
Report on the Third Johann Sebastian Bach Dialogue Meeting by YOUNG SCHOLARS’ FORUM 2008
Responding to Notation: Interpreting Dynamic Markings in the Instrumental Music of C.P.E. Bach by RACHEL BALDOCK
New Perspectives on the Canons of Johann Sebastian Bach by ELISE CREAN
The Keyboard Copyists of Fux’s Circle with particular emphasis on Gottlieb Muffat by ALISON DUNLOP
The Application of Forensic Document Examination Techniques to the Writings of J.S. Bach and A.M. Bach by MARTIN W. B. JARVIS
Trailing the Sources: A Pursuit of a Europe-wide Picture of Bach Reception in the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries by TANJA KOVAČEVIĆ
The ’Lost’ Eighteen: Breitkopf, Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-century Re-emergence of Bach’s 15 Grands Preludes on Corales by IAN MILLS
Eighteenth-century Coffee-House Culture: A New Context for Bach’s Music? by BURKHARD SCHWALBACH
BNUK

Understanding Bach 4 (2009)
Bach: Text and Drama
Editorial by REINHARD STROHM
New Evidence on Thomaskantor Kuhnau's Operatic Activities, or: Could Bach have been allowed to compose an Opera? By MICHAEL MAUL
Passion and Drama in German Literature by IRMGARD SCHEITLER
The Dramaturgy of Religious Emotions in Bach's Cantatas: Aristotelian Process in Neoplatonic Frames by RUTH HACOHEN
Rhetoric, Gesture and Scenic Imagination in Bach's Music by REINHOLD KUBIK and MARGIT LEGLER
Recent Discoveries in St Petersburg and their Meaning for the Understanding of Bach's Cantatas vy TATIANA SHABALINA
Bach among the Heretics: Inferences from the Cantata Texts by PETER SMAILL
Relationships between Text and Music in the 'hybrid' Recitatives of Bach's second Leipzig Cantata Cycle by JULIAN MINCHAM
BNUK

Understanding Bach 5 (2010)
Editorial by RUTH TATLOW
Bach and the Feminised Galant by SUZANNE ASPDEN
Bach Reception in Prague: An 1845 Performance of the Second Kyrie from the B minor Mass by TANJA KOVAČEVIĆ
Blinding us with Science? Man, Machine and the Mass in B minor by JOSHUA RIFKIN
YOUNG SCHOLARS' FORUM
The Fourteen Canons (BWV 1087): Foundation or Culmination? - A re-evaluation of their position among Bach's late works by ELISE CREAN
J.S. Bach, the Choralvorspiele and the Late Eighteenth-Century Aesthetic Notion by IAN MILLS
Anna Magdalena Bach’s Büchlein (1725) as a Domestic Music Miscellany by YAEL SELA
Report on 14th Biennial International Conference oBaroque Music, Belfast 2010 by OBIN A. LEAVER and RUTH TATLOW
BNUK

 

Prepared by Aryeh Oron (September 2001 - July 2022)


Links: Main Page | Cantatas | Other Vocal | Instrumental | Chorales | Arrangements & Transcriptions | General Bach Sites | Articles | Books | Portals | Mailing Lists
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Classical Music | Members of Bach Mailing Lists




 

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Last update: Saturday, July 23, 2022 15:02