Bach & God
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:16th Jun '16
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Bach & God explores the religious character of Bach's 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's pitches, rhythms, and tone colors can make contributions to a work's plausible meanings that go beyond setting texts in an aesthetically satisfying manner. In some of Bach's 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's 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's secular instrumental music, particularly the late collections of "abstract " learned counterpoint, can powerfully project certain elements of traditional Lutheran theology. Bach's music is inexhaustible, and Bach & God suggests that through close contextual study there is always more to discover and learn.
'Bach & God' is the splendid title of a new book by Michael Marissen...It brings to mind two approximately equal figures engaged in a complicated dialogue, like Jefferson and Adams, or Siskel and Ebert. The book is one of a number of recent attempts to grapple with Bach's religiosity. * Alex Ross, The New Yorker *
This collection is a valuable resource and fascinating reading to anyone who appreciates Lutheran history and theology, J. S. Bach and his works, or historical research into theology. * Nancy Saultz Radloff, Anglican and Episcopal History *
In this excellent and provocative study the author aims to show the religious explanatory power that lays behind any understanding of Bachs music ... The book is very well documented and the analysis therein (both from a musicology standpoint and a religious studies perspective) is coherent overall ... an excellent addition to the critical studies into the religious meaning of Bachs music. * Ronald Charles, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Francis Xavier University *
Michael marissen sets out to be thorough and honest (p. xv) as he investigates religious meaning in Johann Sebastian Bachs music. His scholarship is scrupulous, and thus he successfully achieves this goal. His meticulous arguments are convincing, and his use of sources -- for example relying on books that existed in Bachs own library -- grounds the subject in its context. * Robinson McClellan, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology *
[A] splendid title ... It brings to mind two approximately equal figures engaged in a complicated dialogue, like Jefferson and Adams, or Siskel and Ebert. * Alex Ross, The New Yorker *
ISBN: 9780190606954
Dimensions: 211mm x 145mm x 28mm
Weight: 408g
282 pages