Bach Books
B-0226
Title:	Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology
Sub-Title:
Category:	Essay Collection / Research
J.S. Bach Works:
Author:	Robin A. Leaver
Written:
Country:	USA
Published:	March 2021
Language:	English
Pages:	412 pages
Format:	Hard Cover / Kindle
Publisher:	Routledge; 1st edition
ISBN:	ISBN-13: 978-0367242718 ISBN-10: 0367242710
Description:	This volume draws together a collection of Robin A. Leaver’s essays on J.S. 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 J.S. 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 J.S. Bach studies.
Discussions:	Part 1: Chapters 1&2 | Part 2: Chapters 3&4 | Part 3: Chapters 4&5 | Part 4: Chapters 7&8 | Part 5: Chapters 9&10 | Part 6: Chapters 11&12 | Part 7: Chapters 13&14 | Part 8: Chapter 15 & Addendum
Buy this book at:	HC: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de Kindle: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de
Source/Links: Contributor: Aryeh Oron (June 2021 - November 2021)

Discussions - Part 1

Intro to Leaver, Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, Theology

William L. Hoffman wrote (June 23, 2021): The principles of Bach's sacred calling of a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God" are based on four Lutheran documents in the German vernacular: Martin Luther's Formula Missae and Small Catechism, the Saxon Agenda, and the hymnbook) and supported through the core disciplines of liturgy, hymnology, and theology, as discussed in Robin A. Leaver's new Bach Studies with 15 selective, revised, and updated essays.1 These latest studies offer new insights into various arguments related to Bach's motives, methods and opportunities of integrating Lutheran principles into his music. The Reformation forces that drove Bach's sacred music began with the Lutheran liturgy involving the established one-year church service lectionary of biblical lessons or readings (Old Testament [First Reading], Psalm, Epistle, Gospel) for the appointed main services of the church year. The Sundays and Feast Days of the festive de tempore (about time, ordinary time) first half of the church year concern the major seasonal events in the life of Jesus Christ and the omnes tempore (all the time, proper time) non-festive second half, called Trinity Time, emphasize the teachings and themes of the Christian Church. These four documents began with the foundational ordinary and proper texts of these services as found in Luther's Formula Missae of 1523, “Order of Mass and Communion for the Church at Wittenberg” (Worship Traning). Subsequently in 1539 came Saxon “Duke Heinrich’s Agenda,” defining the ingredients, scope, and emphases of the public services in the Leipzig churches (BCW: "Liturgy & Music in Leipzig’s Main Churches"), securing the Lutheran confession as the religious denomination in Saxony, replacing Catholicism. Two other documents were essential to the establishment of the Lutheran Church. Luther's Small Catechism of 1529 embraced the fundamental church teachings of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the Office of the Keys and Confession, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and the daily prayers (Martin Luther's Small Catechism). To enhance literary understanding and engagement of the congregants, Luther concurrently developed the hymn book, beginning with the Wittenberg hymnal of 1524, followed by the Enchiridion and Johann Walther's Geystlich Gesangk-Buchleyn (1524) of 43 vocal pieces for the Church Year and the Deudsche Messe und Ordnung Gottis diensts (German Mass and Order of Divine Service,1526, BCW). Leaver on Bach's Sacred Music Leaver as the leading scholar of Bach sacred music2 has published extensively with great versatility since 1971, compiling numerous articles, critical reviews, studies, scholarly writings, and editings,3 as well as recent books, with major contributions on sacred studies of Luther, Heinrich Schütz and Bach. His first significant publication was Bachs theologische Bibliothek (Bach's Theological Library) in 1983 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hänssler), GBV-VZG). Other Leaver-related books which impact on his new collection of Bach essays involve Luther's Liturgical Music 4 and The Whole Church Sings: Congregational Singing in Luther's Wittenberg.5 Leaver also has a festschrift on his speciality, music and theology.6 Says the publisher's forward to Leaver's new Bach Studies essay collection: "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." Leaver's Bach Studies follows a topical trajectory in three sections with five chapters each: 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): Hymnologand 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. Bach Cantatas, Liturgical Year The first part on liturgy begins with Chapter 1, "Bach’s Cantatas and the Liturgical Year," involving the fundamentals of Lutheran's founding documents, with an outline of the liturgical church year services (Ibid.: 3f) and the designated Epistle and Gospel lessons or lections in the Lutheran worship one-year lectionary (Ibid.: 5f) that guided Bach's composition of his core cantatas as musical sermons.7 Table 1.1 of the essential Epistles and Gospels for the Church Year (Ibid.: 7, Amazon.com: "Look inside") includes the texts from Old Testament to New Testament, specific service, and Bach's specific vocal works for that designated service. As musical sermons, Bach's sacred cantatas were presented in Leipzig at the early main service on Sundays or holidays with the emphasis on the gospel, and were repeated at the other leading church (alternating at either St. Thomas or St. Nicholaus in the afternoon abbreviated vesper service which focused only on the service of the word and not also on the service of communion. The accompanying pastor's sermons could be shaped into annual cycles, says Leaver (Ibid.: 11), published as devotional home readings. These sermon annual cycles used themes such as Liederpredigten (sermons on designated chorales) or "emblematic" sermons, "in which exegesis was associated with a symbol that arose from the text," says Alfred Dürr,8 such as describing Christ throughout the year "as the supreme craftsman" in various descriptive guises to fit each of the some 60 annual church main services. For more than the past 20 years, Leaver also has contributed Bach sacred music essays to major Bach companion collection publications.9 Theological books contributed to a major influence on Bach's sacred music, notably anthologies of church-year sermons of Luther, Heinrich Müller, and August Pfeiffer, forming "the theological and devotional background to Bach's composition and performance of his cantatas," says Leaver (Ibid.; 14). Epistle, Gospels in Lutheran Culture The chapter's next section "Epistles and Gospels in Lutheran culture" (Ibid.; 16), shows that the designated readings "permeated virtually every aspect of contemporary life at that time," he says (Ibid.: 17). Printed materials included devotional handbooks of personal prayers for public and private home worship, as well as the hymnals for both venues offering "an index of specific hymns that expressed the themes" for the particular services for church and home, as well as Bible reading and the study of Luther's Small Catechism at home. In addition, Latin schools attached to Lutheran churches also studied the New Testament readings that "were the foundation for Lutheran identity," says Leaver (Ibid.: 18). As with the pulpit sermons, the musical sermons "were able to draw on this shared experience and common consciousness." "The cantatas were, therefore, heard with a level of sophistication, perception, awareness, and understanding that is lost to us today," which Leaver will explore in a new publication.10 The first chapter's final section, "The Development of the cantata from chanted lections," examines Luther's basic practice of chanting (intoning) the Epistle and Gospel as he directed in his Formula Missae (1523) and Deutsche Messe (1526), the latter with musical notation as monodic chant (Ibid.: 19). This was the impetus for sung liturgy (both in Latin and German) for more than two centuries and the basis for Bach's sacred cantatas, which began about 1600 with the Evengelienmotette (Gospel motet), polyphonic settings of key verses as the embryo of the church cantata. Their actual use in the service is conjecture but could have been placed within the chanted gospel itself or "after the chanted Gospel as an introduction to the sermon," Leaver suggests, as "the bridge between the chanting of the word and the preaching of the word" (Ibid.: 20). Luther's Mass and Catechism hymns, often based on Latin translation as well as intonation and cantus firmus, served as sung liturgy and pedagogy, such as the creedal hymn Wir glauben all an einem Gott (We all believe in one God).11 Following the development of the Gospel motet came the concerted addition of instruments in the 17th century and non-biblical (poetic) verse and hymn settings by 1700. "Here is the developing cantata growing out of the Gospel of the day," he observes (Ibid.: 20). Erdmann Neumeister (Wikipedia) pioneered the "reform" or Italian opera-style cantata with recitatives and da capo arias as the 18th century cantata became an essential part of the liturgy for the gathered congregation, placed after the Gospel reading but before the pulpit sermon," Leaver concludes (Ibid.: 21).12 Fugitive Note While some commentators and Bach scholars have derided the seemingly low quality of many of his texts, Bach sought in Leipzig (the crossroads of Lutheranism) to understand all manner of doctrinal interests and incorporate special qualities of Orthodoxy, Pietism, and Catholicism (!) into his vocal music, utilizing some 20 librettists from traditional to innovative, applying his creative musical genius to foster the height of verbal expression and interpretation. Beginning with his first cantata cycle (1723-24), which his Leipzig audience experienced over the next five years when Bach first began repeating his Easter and Pentecost cantatas, one “is to be dazzled by the fecundity of his invention, his extraordinary consistency, and the rich diversity of texture, mood and form he managed to achieve,” says John Eliot Gardiner in his Bach musical biography, BACH: Music in the Castle of Heaven (Alfred A, Knopf: New York, 2013: 290; Amazon.com). ENDNOTES 1 Robin A. Leaver, Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology (Abingdon UK: Routledge, 2021); Amazon.com. 2 Leaver: biography, University of Illiois Urbana-Campaigns; publications, Bach-Bibliographie; recent books, Amazon.com. 3 Leaver's editing (selective): 1. Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig (Concordia Publishing House); 2. J. S. Bach and Scripture: Glosses from the Calov Bible Commentary (Concordia Publishing House); 3. International Symposium: Understanding Bach's B-minor Mass, Discussion Book 1. Full Papers by the Speakers at the Symposium on 2, 3 and 4 November 2007 (Resarch Gate), 4. Exploring Bach's B-minor Mass (Amazon.com); 5. Anne Leahy, J. S. Bach's "Leipzig" Chorale Preludes: Music, Text, Theology, ed. Leaver (Amazon.com); 6. Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion, ABS Bach Perspectives 12 (Amazon.com); 7. The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (Amazon.com; and Contextual Bach Studies (Rowman & Littlefield). 4 Robin A. Leaver, Luther's Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications (Amazon.com). 5 Robin A. Leaver, The Whole Church Sings: Congregational Singing in Luther's Wittenberg (Amazon.com). 6 Leaver festschrift, Music and Theology: Essays in Honor of Robin A. Leaver (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007); contents, OBV-SG. 7 Historical One-Year Lectionary (current, LCMS 2020-2021) is a distillation of the essential readings from all four gospels while the current three-year Revised Common Lectionary Wikipedia) involving Year A, Gospel of Matthew; Year B, Gospel of Mark; Year C, Gospel of Luke, while unique portions of the Gospel of John are read throughout Eastertide, as well as select services during Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, and Lent. The lectionary is discussed at SPL Faitmount. The de tempore festive first half church year centers on unique historic observances common to both lectionaries. The omnes tempore church half-year services in Bach's One-Year lectionary has a thematic pattern from the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) involving seven parables, seven miracles and five teachings from the first through the 19th Sunday after Trinity, followed by eschatological topics of Last Days, Second Coming, God's Kingdom, and Eternity through the end of Trinity Time (also called Pentecost Season). For Bach vocal works appropriate for both lectionaries, see John S. Setterlund, Bach Through the Year: The Church Music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Revised Common Lectionary (Amazon.com). The next Leaver essay section, "Epistles and Gospels and the dissemination of Bach's cantatas" (Ibid.: 14) deals with the Bach Gesellschaft publication of Bach's works, beginning in 1850 with the cantatas numbered consecutively but not chronologically, beginning with the most extant manuscript collection of the chorale cantatas, found at the Thomas School. 8 Alfred Dürr, "Development of the Bach Cantatas," in The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text, rev. & trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005: 29f); Amazon.com. 9 Other Robin A. Leaver Bach sacred music essays: 1. "Music and Lutheranism," "The Mature Vocal Works and Their Theological and Liturgical Context," in The Cambridge Companion to Bach, ed. John Butt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997: 35-45, 86-122), Amazon.com; 2. Chapter 7, "Churches," Chorales," in The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (London: Routledge, 2017: 142-190, 358-376), Amazon.com; and 3. "Church Calendar," "Hauptgottesdienst" (principal divine service), "Lutheranism," "Missa," "Vespers," in Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, ed. Malcolm Boyd (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999: 109f, 209-211, 277f, 297-299, 489f), Amazon.com. 10 Leaver will pursue a new Bach study, "A Liturgical Handbook to the Vocal Works of Bach," following "a Luther edition I have to complete before I can think about the Handbook project again," he says in a recent personal correspondence. Leaver's handbook "will look at each major section of the church year, reveal the propers of the season, which will be given in modern notation, together with a discussion of how the vocal works composed for that part of the church reflect such details. The project is still at the gestation stage," he said in a 2017 interview with Daniel Martyn Lewis ( Daniel Martin Lewis: Interview with Robin Leaver: answer to question, "What are your current areas of research, and what may we look forward to reading about in the future?"), which also contains a plethora of Leaver autobiographical information. 11 Bach's setting of Luther's Mass and Catechism hymns, as found in the Clavierübung III, and his chorale settings from the Deutsche Messe, are discussed, respectively, in BCW and in BCW. 12 A full liturgical-musical Mass setting is found in the "Bach Epiphany Mass" as it might have been celebrated at St Thomas's in Leipzig, 1740 (YouTube, Amazon.com). Information found in the liner notes of Leaver and conductor Paul McCreesh, particularly in the sections "Religion and Music in Leipzig," "Liturgy and Music in Leipzig," "Hymnody and Hymnals," and "Concerted Music," also is found in Leaver's new essays. Leaver and McCreesh also collaborated in the liner notes for the Heinrich Schütz "Christmas Vespers" reconstruction c.1664 (Amazon.com, Amazon.com). ————— To Come: Leaver Bach Studies, Liturgy, Chapters 2-5.

Leaver: Chapter 2, Bach’s Music, Leipzig Liturgy

William L. Hoffman wrote (July 2, 2021): The first of the three parts of Robin A. Leaver's Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, Theology,1 relates to Bach's spirituality engendered by Lutheran Liturgy through the founding Reformation documents that in Chapter 1, "Bach’s Cantatas and the Liturgical Year" (BML), initially affirmed the church year cycle that dominated the succeeding both secular and religious life, and leading to Chapter 2, "Bach’s Music and the Leipzig Liturgy," involving "the weekly pattern of worship within which Bach's music was heard in Leipzig" (Ibid.; 22-48). Following the devasof Germany during the religious Thirty Years War (1618-48, Wikipedia), major cities such as Leipzig began to recover and actually prosper, being at the crossroads of European economy and the religious currents of the Reformation. In Leipzig, Lutheran churches were added to meet growing attendance at Sunday main services and to accommodate spiritual diversity, including a Catholic chapel, while conflicts continued involving Pietism and the Thomasschule music emphasis. Bach came to Leipzig ahead of his family to present Pentecost Cantata 59 at the Paulinerkirche. The three cycles of cantatas as musical sermons entailed some 20 varied librettists showing the influences of various Reformation currents. The Saxon 1539 Lutheran Agenda defined the ingredients, scope, and emphasis of the public services in the Leipzig churches. The Hauptgottesdienst (Main Service) was a rich tradition of music and bi-lingual liturgy in both German and Latin. The choir tradition stimulated a rich musical tapestry. Leipzig Churches, Choirs As the population grew so did Leipzig's Evangelical Lutheran churches to accommodate increasing Sunday main service congregants, bolstered by a first-rate university and a Latin school which trained the churches' choristers, Leaver says in the first section of the second chapter, "Churches and choirs" (Ibid.: 22-26). Three main religious currents — Orthodoxy, Pietism, and Catholicism — infused the city's life, as did the establishment of churches to accommodate this spiritual diversity, beginning at the end of the 17th century, notably with the progressive Neukirche (1699) and the university-led Paulinerkirche (1710), besides the treasured Thomaskirche with its choir school and the dominant Nikolaikirche with its leading theologians and community elite. The Catholic chapel was established in 1710 in the Saxon Pleissenburg fortress2 while Pietism also was accommodated.3 Leipzig was a community prospering from spiritual reawakening, intellectual stimulation at Leipzig University, and material wealth. The results by Bach's coming in 1723 as Thomaner cantor and Leipzig music director were eight established churches, says Leaver (Ibid.; 23) as well as a flourishing choir tradition and three annual trade fairs at Epiphany (winter), Eastertide (spring), and St. Michael and All-Angels (fall), with publishing a dominant industry. Meanwhile, "there were attempts to diminish the role of music in the Thomasschule and to expand the intellectual content of the curriculum,"4 he observes (Ibid.; 24), with Bach caught in the middle of the two forces. Bach's Cantatas, Reformation Influences Bach's primary responsibility was the Thomas School Choir I, part of the organization of four choirs to service the city's churches and also provide ancillary activities outside the churches. He furnished weekly, original figural music (primarily cantatas), accompanied by the local Stadtpfeiffer and Kunstgeiger. Bach also supplemented the instrumental accompaniment with members of the Collegiuum musicum, notably at the Paulinerkirche "on the major festivals of the church year," says Leaver (Ibid.: 25). Before he officially became Leipzig cantor and music director in late May 1723, Bach probably, initially composed Pentecost Sunday Cantata 59, “Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten I” (Who loves me will keep my word, John 14:23; YouTube), presenting it on May 16 at the Paulinerkirche. A special opportunity arose when Bach had come ahead of his family and began to acquaint himself with the Leipzig University resources such as patrons and potential librettists and the church where he could present his cantatas on feasts days with the talented university and civic musicians of the Leipzig Collegium musicum (source: BCW). As Bach created three cycles of church music over the next five years, various contemporary spiritual perspectives found their way through the poetry of some 20 sacred music librettists, showing the myriad Reformation influences of Universalism, Quietism, Socinianism, Rosicrucianism, Pelagianism, Chiliasm, Eschatology, and Calvinism.5 Liturgical Sources, Studies The second section in Chapter 2, "Liturgical sources and studies" (Ibid.: 26f), shows the 1539 Saxon Agenda (Kirchen-Ordnung, BCW) which provided the basic forms of worship and allowed that in larger communities with "Latin schools and universities, such as Leipzig, both Latin and German were used side by side," Leaver observes (Ibid.: 26). In essence, the Agenda defined the ingredients, scope, and emphasis of the public services in the Leipzig churches, beginning in 1539 with the community’s acceptance of the Lutheran Reformation.6 The Agenda established the Mass Proper readings of the lectionary New Testament Gospel and Epistle and other readings of the church year Sundays and Feast Days as the basis of the teachings of the Main Services of the Word and Sermon. The harmony of the Gospel accounts of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ were prescribed for Holy Week and Easter. Three theological documents establishing the foundation of the church as its essential service practices were embodied first in the 1530 Augsburg Confession of fundamental beliefs. Second was Luther’s Small Catechism of 1529 as an explanation of the liturgy of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the Office of the Keys and Confession and the Service of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Third was the general Prayers provided by local authority. In addition, local churches began printing their own interpretive hymn books. Leipzig liturgical practices were bolstered by two activities, says Leaver (Ibid.; 26f): individual devotional handbooks of "prayers to be said privately at various junction of the liturgy"7 and "incidental sources" "on details of liturgical practice in the city's churches."8 The Sunday afternoon vesper service of the word added the concerted Kyrie-Gloria, the Psalm reading, and the concerted Magnificat. Hauptgottesdienst (Main Service) The next, major section in Leaver's Chapter 2 deals with the ingredients of the "Hauptgottesdienst" (main service, Ibid.; 27-43)9 in Leipzig where "the details changed from season to season, from festival to festival, from day to day," says Leaver (Ibid.; 27). Music played a major role, beginning with the organ prelude as well as the chorale preludes, interludes, and accompaniment of hymns (Hymn of the Day, Creedal Hymn, Pulpit Hymn, communion hymns, closing hymn); the sung Introit motet (Erhard Bodenschatz, Florilegium Portense, Wikipedia, BCW); a concerted Missa: Kyrie-Gloria for major festivals; the cantata as musical sermon before the pulpit sermon; communion music including hymns, instrumental music, cantata selections; organ postlude. The Mass Propers (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion) could be sung, with special music. Leaver establishes sections of the Mass main service: 1. Preparation (prelude, motet/hymn/introit, Kyrie-Gloria); 2. Ministry (Service) of the Word (Epistle, Gradual Song, Gospel, Nicene Creed, cantata, creedal hymn, sermon); 3. Ministry (Service) of the Sacrament (Lord's Prayer, Verba Testimenti, Communion and music, post-communion collects); and 4. Dismissal (Benediction, closing hymn, organ postlude). Following the opening organ prelude, the Latin music motet/hymn/introit involved the following pattern (Ibid.: 32): 1. Introit, chanted at Advent, Lent, Easter, possibly three pre-Lenten ('gesima) Sundays and Exaudi; 2. Hymns, sung de tempore Christmas to Epiphany, Easter to Ascension, Pentecost festival, Feast of the Trinity; and 3. Motets, other Sundays and celebrations, primarily Sundays after Trinity (omnes tempore). The Mass Ordinary sections could be suseparately and selectively at festivals (Kyrie, Gloria, Nicene Creed, Sanctus-Benedictus-Osana, and Agnus Dei10 (during communion, Latin Agnus Dei at beginning, German Christe, du Lamm Gottes at end). Vespers Additions: Music, Texts Next is the penultimate section of Chapter 2, "Bach’s Music and the Leipzig Liturgy," the "Vespergottesdient" (Ibid.: 43-47), dealing with the Sunday afternoon vespers Service of the Word alone, without the Service of Communion, featuring the musical (cantata) and pulpit sermon (based on the day's Epistle), alternating between the Nikolaikirche and the Thomaskirche. The order of the Lutheran Vespers was: Organ Prelude, Hymn, Cantata (on feast days only), Hymn of the Day, Psalm, Lord’s Prayer, Hymn, Announcement of the Sermon, Hymn “Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend,” Epistle Reading, Sermon, Prayers, Magnificat, Responsory (Collect and Benediction), and Hymn, “Nun danket all Gott.” An added feature was the pastor's Psalm reading,11 as well as "a long devotional prayer, and the Lord's Prayer," says Leaver (Ibid.; 44). Another feature is the German Magnificat, Meine Seele erhebt den Herren (BCW, BCW), preceded by a chorale prelude, possibly BWV 648 (YouTube) an adaptation of the chorale duet aria, BWV 10/5 (YouTube), or the extended chorale prelude, BWV 733, "perhaps suggested by some special occasion," says Leaver (Ibid.: 46). On major festivals as well as Marian feasts, the Latin Magnificat or Bach's concerted setting, BWV 243, was presented following the vespers sermon (see "Musical Sequence of Vespers on Christmas Day," as well as discussions of BWV 243, BCW). The Vespers closed with the pastor intoning the Aaronic Blessing (Num. 6:24-26, Wikipedia). On most Sundays, but not on major festivals, "Vespers was immediately followed by an exposition of Luther's Small Catechism, called the Catechismus Examen, involving prayers, Small Catechism reading, exposition, hymn-singing. Although not documented, an appropriate Bach Catechism chorale from the 1739 Clavierübung III (BCW) may have been performed at this time (see "Clavierübung III: Catechism Chorales, BWV 678-689," BCW, YouTube: 40:52ff). Choir Tradition, Rich Musical Tradition In the final section, "Bach as the leader of Liturgical music" (Ibid.: 47f), Leaver describes Bach's overall responsibilities for the four church choirs: Choir I alternating with choir II (prefect-led) at the Thomaskirchke and Nikolaikirchke; major festivals in the Paulinerkirche; and oversight of prefect-led choir III motets and chorales in the Neukirche and Choir IV chorales at the Petrikirche and Johanniskirchke. Leaver also emphasizes the "extensive use of motets" of Bodenschatz in stile antico, which Bach rehearsed and performed" "alongside his cantatas, and he may also have rehearsed motets with Choir II" and perhaps even the other two choirs, "fundamental in the worship of the Leipzig churches," says Leaver (Ibid.: 48), which the motets "have yet to receive the attention they deserve." In its totality, Bach's music for the liturgy, as a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God," involved an unequaled and "extraordinarily rich variety of music," in settings of Lutheran hymns, involving chorale cantatas, organ chorale preludes, and austere chants, as well as polyphonic motets both short and extended for double chorus (BWV 225-26, 28-30), achieving "the contrapuntal elegance of voices and instruments in Bach's concerted style." ENDNOTES 1 Robin A. Leaver, Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology (Abingdon UK: Routledge, 2021); Amazon.com. 2 See Robin A. Leaver, "A Catholic Hymnal for Use in Lutheran Leipzig: Catholisches Gesang-Buch (Leipzig, 1724), in Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion, Bach Perspectives 12, ed. Robin A. Leaver, American Bach Society (Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2018: 40), Amazon.com. 3 See Tanya Kavorkian, Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650–1750 (Abingdon UK: Routledge, 2007: 14), Amazon.com. 4 Two recent books examine the Thomas School and Leipzig life: Michael Maul, Bach's Famous Choir: The Saint Thomas School in Leipzig, 1212-1804, Eng. trans. Richard Howe (Woodbridge GB: Boydell Press, 2018), Amazon.com, Boydell & Brewer, and Jeffrey S. Sposato, Leipzig After Bach: Church and Concert Life in a German City (1750-1847) (Oxford University Press, 2018), Amazon.com: "Look inside"); review/commentary found at BCW: "New Bach-Related Studies: Thomas School, Leipzig After Bach." Two additional resources are Aryeh Oron, Bach's Pupils (BCW), and Stephen Rose, Musical Authorship from Schütz to Bach, Musical Performance and Reception (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2019), Amazon.com. 5 See Peter Smaill, "Bach Among the Heretics: Inferences from the Cantata Texts," in Understanding Bach, 4, 101-118; c. Bach Network UK 2009, Bach Network UK. 6 Source: "Liturgy & Music in Leipzig’s Main Churches," BCW: "Leipzig Lutheran Agenda." 7 Devotional handbooks: Leipziger Kirchen-Andachten (Google Books) and Leipziger Kirchen-Staat (Google Translate); personal prayer was an emphasis of Pietism in Bach's time, see Robin A. Leaver, "Bach and Pietism: Similarities Today" (Concordia Theological Quarterly), see also Luther devotional readings, "Day by Day" (Amazon.com). 8 Contemporary commentary on liturgical practice in Leipzig: Johann Christoph Rost, sexton (1716-39) Thomaskirche (Google Translate), and Leipzig historian Christoph Ernst Sicul (Google Translate; publications, Bach Bibliography), both authors cited extensively in Günther Stiller, Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig, ed. Robin A. Leaver (St. Louis Mo: Concordia, 35f), https://www.cph.org/pdf/991247.pdf; Leaver also cites (Ibid.; 26) 20th century studies: 1. Charles S. Terry, Joh. Seb. Bach, Cantata Texts, Sacred and Secular: With a Reconstruction of the Leipzig Liturgy of his Period, Amazon.com) and 2. Martin Petzoldt (BCW). 9 General outline of the Hauptgottesdienst found in Figure 2.1 (Ibid.: 28), Google Books 10 Agnus Dei, Bach's use discussed in Leaver Chapter 3 (Ibid.: 41ff), "Bach’s Agnus Dei Compositions" 11 Bach's use of Psalm settings is discussed at "Psalms at Bach's Vocal Works," BCW: sections "Psalms in Bach's Hymn Book" and "Bach & the Psalms," as well as "Chorales: Psalms, Christian Life, Troubles, Thanks, Weddings," BCW, Apple Music. 12 See "Musical Context of Bach Cantatas: Motets & Chorales for Events in the Lutheran Church Year / Chorales by Theme," BCW, last section, beginning "The established polyphonic motet opening Introit Psalm setting . . . ." ————— To Come: Leaver Chapter 3, 'Bach’s Agnus Dei Compositions"

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