Bach Books
General Discussions - Part 3

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New books about Bach

John Pike wrote (March 24, 2005):
Sorry for cross-posting but wanted to reach a wide audience. Some of you may be interested in some new books from Cambridge UP:

J. S. Bach and the German Motet (Paperback)
Daniel R. Melamed
An exploration of Bach's motets in the context of the German motet tradition.
http://www.cambridge.org/0521619769


The Clavichord (Paperback)
Bernard Brauchli, Foreword by Christopher Hogwood
- Series: Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs
This is a richly illustrated history of the clavichord, the forerunner of the modern piano.
http://www.cambridge.org/0521619890

"Kurtzer, iedoch höchstnöthiger Entwurff einer wohlbestallten Kirchen Music"

David Glenn Lebut Jr. wrote (March 25, 2005):
Could anyone point out to me where I could find (online or in print) a copy of Bach's 1730 "Kurtzer, iedoch höchstnöthiger Entwurff einer wohlbestallten Kirchen Music; nebst einigem unvorgreiflichen Bedenkken von dem Verfall derselben." in the original language and in an (authoritative) English translation?

Liesbeth van der Sluijs wrote (March 25, 2005):
[To David Glenn Lebut Jr.] On this url is the site of the combined German antiquariats, and more specific, here is your title in German, in several versions: http://www.zvab.com/SESSz95825622411111749781/gr2/en/index.html

and:

U. Siegele, "Bachs Endzweck einer regulierten und Entwurf einer wohlbestallten Kirchenmusik". In: Festschrift G. von Dadelsen. Stuttgart, 1978, 313.

I found that on: http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/biblio.html

If I find more, I will inform you.

David Glenn Lebut Jr. wrote (March 26, 2005):
[To Liesbeth van der Sluijs] Thanks. I have actually found a copy (in The Bach Reader) of an English translation, so now I just need the German original.

Bradley Lehman wrote (March 26, 2005):
[To David Glenn Lebut Jr.] A facsimile is page 148 of the New Bach Reader, and an authoritative English translation is Appendix 3 in Andrew Parrott's book The Essential Bach Choir. It's also discussed closely and thoroughly in Joshua Rifkin's book Bach's Choral Ideal.

Charles Francis wrote (March 26, 2005):
[To David Glenn Lebut Jr.] The German original is in the Bach-Dokumente "Schrifstücke von der Hand Johann Sebastian Bach" and also in Andrew Parrott's "Essential Bach Choir" together with translation.

Marc wrote (March 26, 2005):
[To David Glenn Lebut Jr.] In his book 'The Essential Bach Choir', Andrew Parrott uses this memorandum for his point of view that Bach performed the cantates and passions OVPP. I must admit I haven't read Parrott's book myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if he offers the whole text of the 'Entwurff'.

PS: I myself have the text of the Memorandum in a Bach-biography by Luc-André Marcel. It's not an English but a Dutch translation, though.

John Pike wrote (March 29, 2005):
Matthew Westphal wrote:
< Parrott's THE ESSENTIAL BACH CHOIR includes the complete text of the Entwurff in the original German and in English translation. >
Yes. This is a reliable translation. One needs to be very careful about translations. There are plenty of rogue ones around, which are totally unreliable and say only what the translator wanted them to say. Rifkin has much to say on this matter in "Bach's Choral Ideal". This is difficult to get hold of in the UK. I had to get it from the publishers in Germany, but the main part of the book is written in English.

Thomas Braatz wrote (April 3, 2005):
[To John Pike] I have even had my doubts about the English translation in Parrott's book. A case in point is the rendering of 'per Choros' in paragraph 4 (p. 163 & 167) where the original reads:

From Bach's Entwurff (1730):
>>Derer [referring back to 'Chöre' which is definitely plural describing each and every choir of every church in Leipzig under Bach's jurisdiction] Concertisten sind ordinaire 4; auch wohl 5, 6, 7 biß 8; so mann nemlich per Choros musiciren will.<<

The translation in Parrott's book reads (p. 167):
>>Concertists are ordinarily four [in number], indeed even five, six, seven [and] up to eight -- if one wishes, that is, to perform music 'per choros' [i.e. for more than one choir].<<

The translation given in the NBR on p. 146 reads:
>>The concertists are ordinarily 4 in number; sometimes also 5, 6, 7, even 8; that is, if one wishes to perform music for two choirs ['per choros'].<<

Just what is implied or assumed here?

1) that Bach's main choir can be subdivided into two choirs as needed (as in the SMP (BWV 244) later version or in a Bach motet which the 'motet'-choir would not be able handle anyway)?

2) that Bach would have to send some concertists (from 1 to 4 concertists) from his main choir to one of the other choirs to help out when necessary, thus depleting his pool of concertists in the main choir?

3) that Bach, if he wanted to combine, for instance, the 1^st choir with the 2^nd choir would then need section leaders (concertists) from both choirs, thus meaning that the pool of singers (including extra concertists) would not need to be depleted.

4) that, although Bach, in the preceding paragraph, had just referred to "vocalists" being divided into two categories: concertists and ripienists, he may have anticipated here including the instrumentalists which he mentions in the second sentence that follows it so that Bach could possibly be referring to certain pupils who would function as concertists, let's say, in the violon and viola sections. This might explain why Bach does not state simply "generally 4 concertists, but sometimes 8." Is it possible that Bach can refer to a choir ['Chor' and 'Chöre'] as including both voices and instrumentalists? Walther, in his 'Musicalisches Lexicon..." [Leipzig, 1732] defines 'Concertisten' as "ein Auszug der besten Sänger und Instrumentisten" ["a selection of the best singers and instrumentalists."] There is also a very real problem with the phrase/term 'per Choros' which hearkens back to Michael Praetorius who uses this term frequently, often in combination with another word: 'variatio per choros' which means obtaining contrast by means of varying sound groups ["Kontrastierung der Klanggruppen"] where instrumental groupings are considered on a par with vocal ones. Anyone who has read my translation of the MGG I article on 'Congregational Singing' will know what I am talking about here (See: Congregational Singing [Articles]).

I am somewhat confused about the term 'per choros' grammatically as well. Classical Latin has 'chorus' with a plural 'chori' coming from the Greek 'choros' [also singular.] It would seem logical that 'choros' in 'per choros' would be singular (in Late Latin or is this a hodge-podge of Latin and Greek?) and that the preposition 'per' would imply: 'by means of the unit known as 'choros' (which in ancient Greek meant a band or group of dancers, singers, {and instrumentalists?}) The implication seems to be a plurality of types under a common designation somewhat like the phrase "The family are not at home today" implying the existence and recognition of the individual members. Likewise, could it be that 'choros', although appearing to be singular, would be construed as a plural, revealing the fact that 'choros' can be divided in numerous ways?

One of the few references using this term, 'per Choros' in the Grove Music Online [Oxford University Press, 2004, acc. 4/3/05] is one translated by Clytus Gottwald from the German original on Praetorius by Walter Blankenburg:

>>But he [Praetorius] further developed the theological understanding of music, which culminated in the eschatological concept of the heavenly choir (cf Walter's Lob und Preis der löblichen Kunst Musica, 1538), saying (in the 'Commefactio' of Urania), with reference to Isaiah: 'Musica per Choros Caelestia canens . because the art of choral singing is truly the correct, heavenly way of making music'. In its theoretical foundations and practical aims and in its realization through composition, Praetorius's work thus displays an unusual degree of uniformity at a time of great change in musical history.<<

Knowing what Praetorius stood for in the performance of church music, we have to assume that this "Musica per Choros" refers to Praetorius' recommendation to use varying sound groupings of instruments and voices [not only singing as translated above] as evidence of the art of heavenly music making.

Is there any similar implication in Bach's way of using this term in the Entwurff? And if this is the case, then how could this impinge upon Rifkin's tightly organized and strictly logical interpretation of the 'Entwurff'? Are the concertists (those 1, 2, or 3 from the group greater than 4 but less than 8)possibly referring to those in the string section of Bach's orchestra?

Bach Books

Eric Bergerud wrote (April 29, 2005):
<< See also several 17th- and 18th-century sources cited by John Butt in Bach Interpretation (http://tinyurl.com/bkmtu), in the section devoted to "The 'Cantabile' Style" (pp. 11-15). >>
Bradley Lehman wrote: < Yes, that's an excellent book. I had taken it back to the library a few days ago with the end-of-term due date, but I'll get it again in the summer. I should probably just buy a copy of it someday..... Thanks for mentioning that reference again.
Richard Troeger's new book about Bach keyboard interpretation is good, too. >
I've just stumbled onto a splendid Bach book for non-specialists. The English title is Twenty-Four Inventions on Johann Sebastian Bach by Wolfgang Sandberger. It was published to accompany the Teldec Bach 2000 cycle (everything the master did). Anyway, it's a splendidly written and wonderfully illustrated interpretative biography of Bach and his music. Just what the doctor ordered for Bach lovers that would be stumped by a score of the SMP (BWV 244). I'd think that even wiser heads would find the visuals most satisfying. It's not hard to recognize the jacket - it's got the big yellow-blue BACH 2000 on it.

New Bach Bio

Eric Bergerud wrote (May 18, 2005):
Just finished a New York Review by Joseph Kerman concerning a new volume in the Cambridge "Musical Lives" series on Bach: The Life of Bach by Peter Williams. The reviewer is pretty kind to the work (typical of NYR unless the political or social occasion requires a nasty hatchet job). Anyway, the author has taken the CPE Bach Obit as the central vehicle to structure his brief account around (214 p. But available for $22 paper, a bargain compared to some volumes recently talked about.) Anyone seen this thing?

Doug Cowling wrote (May 18, 2005):
Eric Bergerud wrote:
< The reviewer is pretty kind to the work (typical of NYR unless the political or social occasion requires a nasty hatchet job). >
Well, the purpose of the NYR is to provide book summaries so we don't have to actually read the book.

By the way, the Time has an online service though which you can read the first chapter of books on the best-seller list.

I'll check to see if the Williams biogrpahy has been posted.

Baroque Beatles Book

Uri Golomb wrote (February 21, 2007):
Someone on this list -- I think it was Doug Cowling -- asked whether Rifkin's Baroque Beatles Book is currently available. The answer is yes: a CD re-issue was published by a label called "Collectors' Choice Music" last year: http://www.ccmusic.com/item.cfm?itemid=CCM06842.

By today's standards, it's a pretty short disc -- less than 40 minutes. According to the re-issue notes, Rifkin planned a sequel, which was abandoned -- but not before he composed some items for it; so maybe one day he'd re-record it, with those other items -- and on period instruments. I would like to hear that: Rifkin's writing is so idiomatically baroque that it would sound better on period instruments... (according to Rifkin, in the re-issue notes, one review of the original recording described it as containing "some of the most enlightened examples of baroque practice" -- and by the standards of the time, this was probably true; but the standards have shifted since then -- thanks, among others, to Rifkin himself). I understand that Rifkin did (or does) perform pieces from the Baroque Beatles Book with his Bach Ensemble from time to time (including some pieces from the abandoned sequel) from time to time); he even did the Bach-style cantata in one-per-part (even though he wrote it for a chorus...). So a re-recording would be a good idea on several grounds (though, given a choice, I'd still prefer to just have more Bach from him). Meanwhile, the CD is available, and it's very enjoyable.

Bach Bibliography

Jean Laaninen wrote (August 6, 2007):
I'm interested in knowing if anyone has used either of the following texts, and in hearing some general impressions about these two books.

The first is Handbook to Bach's Sacred Cantata Texts by Melvin Unger (pricey even used) and the second is J. S. Bach, J. S. Bach The Complete Cantatas by Martin Neary.

I believe I have previously used Analyzing Bach Cantatas, by Eric Thomas Chafe, when I was a student.

Thanks for any thoughts on these texts. I might mention that as I have before that I found the Dürr text valuable, and have added it to my library. I discovered early this afternoon that our music library has eighty-five web pages of material on Bach, and significant resources on the Cantatas, almost to the point of overwhelming me. Another book that sounds quite interesting is A Conductor's Guide to the choral-orchestral works of Johann Sebastian Bach. I'd be interested in hearing if any of you have used this book.

Thanks in advance for any comments anyone can provide.

Paul T. McCain wrote (August 7, 2007):
[To Jean Laaninen] I have Unger and it is, simply put, wonderful! I know it is pricey. A friend overheard me expressing interest in it and bought a copy for me. What a surprise! I love it.

I do not have the Neary book.

Jean Laaninen wrote (August 7, 2007):
[To Paul T. McCain] Thanks Paul. Wish I had a friend like yours, but actually if I wait until Christmas my husband probably would be that friend. He knows I've had my eye on a couple of texts from Germany that are not published in English, and a couple others on Amazon.com used. However, I will check with inter-library loan for them first and determine with the available shelf space here if they are a good choice for me. So far the library system here has been able to help with most of the articles and texts I wish to see. That's how I have built my small music and language library My book habit has been pretty extensive, historically. But for the right book a choice to purchase eventually takes place. I thought Unger looked very good. and probably is worth every penny.

I also might mention that I went ahead and finished The Hammer of God. I laughed, cried, got frustrated and enjoyed the trip through the latter half. What a journey!

Paul T. McCain wrote (August 7, 2007):
[To Jean Laaninen] Glad you enjoyed "Hammer of God." It's a terrific book. Bo Giertz was a gifted writer and bishop.

Peter Smaill wrote (August 7, 2007):
[To Jean Laaninen] Melvin Unger's handsome tome is in the style of a concordance, with biblical references for every line if the texts. Not all expressions in the Cantatas actually have a close biblical connections - the mystical images and the Trinitarian references are quite remote- so some of the cross connections are rather tenuous. Nevertheless, it more than any other works opens up the intense biblical learning of the writers of the texts. It also has useful indices such as lists of the known librettists, and Cantatas derfrom texts in Revelation or the Apocrypha.

Deliberately Unger translates very close to the order of the German (BWV 110/6, for example, talks of singing from the heart's bottom!) ("Herzens grund").

I think the other book you refer too may in fact be the Stokes text translations produced at the same time as the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage for John Eliot Gardiner. Martin Neary, the controversial ex Organist of Westminster Abbey wrote the preface, a fine summation of the importance of the Cantatas though he dates the discovery of the Calov Bible a quarter century after the usual date. Here the other extreme of translation occurs; in creating fine English some German words with theological significance disappear.

The rhyming English translations in the Harnoncourt/Leonhardt series are woeful either as poetry or translations, I'm afraid (e.g., as I recall, "Schoss" is translated as castle ("Schloss" ) instead of "breast")! The French versions here are much better if that is a second language.

Chafe has a meticulous musical approach to the Cantatas with much interest in the hermeneutics of Bach's use of keys.

Duerr really is the best for both musical and textual emphasis (full translations are given),Wolff excellent on history and context, whereas the Stokes and Unger works are text-oriented. However the nature of Bach scholarship is such that no single author dominates the field. Whittaker despite its many mistakes remains often the most detailed analysis and Robertson is still the best quick guide. In German, Schulze is the most interesting and for imagery, there is in any language nothing to match Haeselbock, also in German but in discrete short entries so easily translated with the help of a dictionary. All IMHO.

Jean Laaninen wrote (August 7, 2007):
[To Peter Smaill] Thank you Peter. I will take your letter to the library with me as I look at the available resources, or make requests for inter-library loan. I can work with French even though on occasion I need to look up a word or two. I wish I could speak it also, but I have not had the social opportunity to pursue the language in person. My German is more limited, but I can work with it--therefore I am glad to know Unger's texts origins. Although it has been a while since I worked with Greek I can cross-reference his materials from a good Greek source if something seems confusing to me. It is really helpful to know which texts are most reliable for different aspects of study. Thanks again.

Two new books on positive and negative religious aspects of Bach

Michael Marissen wrote (July 6, 2016):
This is to let you know about two new books that contribute to serious discussion of the positive and the occasionally contemptuous religious aspects of Bach's music.

Michael Marissen, Bach & God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016); details: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/bach-and-god-9780190606954?cc=us&lang=en&

Lauren Belfer, And After the Fire: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 2016); details: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062428516/and-after-the-fire

You might also find interesting an interview about these two books that was published recently in The New York Times: A Literary Couple Grapple With Bach And His God, by James R. Oestreich (May 25, 2016)

Many thanks,

James Janzen wrote (July 6, 2016):
[To Michael Marissen] Interesting to note that according to the interview the two authors are married.

Thank you for making us aware of these books.

New book

Jean-Pierre Grivois wrote (July 6, 2016):
An original and very well documented book published in France.
Entre les notes de Bach.
Edited by Heloise d’Ormesson.
Bach tells his own story with a lot of facts verified historically among which many are unpublished until this day.
Available on Amazon among other sites.

Book Review: New Bach Books To Come

William Hoffman wrote (July 26, 2016):
Marcus Rathey, Christmas Oratorio (OUP), https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bachs-Christmas-Oratorio

Peter Williams, Bach: A Musical Biography, Bach
Peter Williams revisits Bach's biography through the lens of his music, revealing the development of the composer's interests and priorities.

Robin A. Leaver, ed. Routledge Research Companion: Bach, The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (Hardback) - Routledge
The Ashgate Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach provides an indispensable introduction to the Bach research of the past thirty-fifty years. It is not a lexicon providing information on all the major aspects of Bach's life and work, such as…

William Hoffman wrote (July 28, 2016):
Petzoldt, Martin: Bach-Kommentar Band 3 - Die Passionen, Motetten, Messen und Magnificat, geistliche Kantaten für Kasualien und ohne Bestimmung (Kassel u.a.: Bärenreiter), publication January 1, 2017 (Amazon on-line),
Bach-Kommentar - Band 3: Passionen, Messen, Motetten, Fest- und Kasualkantaten (Schriftenreihe der Internationalen Bachakademie Stuttgart)

Marissen, Gardiner, Chafe, and Butt books on Bach in THE NEW YORKER 2-Jan-2017

William Hoffman wrote (December 31, 2016):
From: Michael Marissen
Sent: Dec 26, 2016 10:13 AM
Hope you enjoy this 2-Jan-17 New Yorker essay discussing recent Marissen, Gardiner, Chafe, and Butt books on Bach and religion: http://www.newyorker.com/magaz ine/2017/01/02/bachs-holy- dread

Please forward to others you think might be interested.

My best, MM

Michael Marissen
New York, NY, USA
Daniel Underhill Emeritus Professor
of Music - Swarthmore College

Anna Magdalena Books

William Hoffman wrote (August 1, 2019):
There are two new, scholarly publications of Bach widow Anna Magdalena : David Yearsley's Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks (https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/sex-death-and-minuets-anna-magdalena-bach-and-her-musical-notebooks/david-yearsley/hardback/9780226617701.htm and Eberhard Spree's just-published study Die verwitwete Frau Capellmeisterin Bach. Studie über die Verteilung des Nachlasses von Johann Sebastian Bach, that shatters the Romantic myth of poverty to show a shrewd businesswoman (Google Translate.

New Bach Studies: Evangelists of the Modern

William Hoffman wrote (September 4 2019):
Two recent books about Bach studies, David Yearsley's Sex Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks,¹ and the Bach in Context essays-Festschrift, Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach,² have explored various current issues in Bach research, from Yearsley's gender and reception history study of Bach's second wife to the collection of contextual essays involving self-modeling and reception history. A recent article, Evangelists of the Postmodern: Reconfigurations of Bach since 1985,³ byIrish musicologist Harry White, is primarily a dialectical recent reception history study of Anglo-American (new) musicology evangelists which could open up a box of pandoras. Three major figures in new musicology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_musicology) and their perspectives on Bach — the Post-Modern Evangelists of the emerging Susan McClary, the music philosopher Lydia Goehr and the venerable Richard Taruskin — (non-Bach specialists) are analyzed from a Bachian perspective. This involves reconfigurations over the last thirty years since the watershed 1985 Bach Tercentenary, with previous historical studies dating back to Charles Burney in 1789 and forward to musicological dean Theodore Adorno in the 1950s, with the current contemporary, parallel trajectory dealing with the "New" Bach scholars, notably John Butt, says White.

The current history began at mid-20th century, observes White, with Adorno's classic article, "Bach Defended Against His Devotees (https://lamusicologia.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/adorno1.pdf), which is still part of "recent configurations of musical narrative and meaning in relation to Bach's significance" (Ibid.: 88), which resurfaced along with Burney's original judgement in these scholarly investigations. Meanwhile, one of the Bachian mythological accretions was the motif of Bach as the "Fifth Evangelist," which was assailed by Friedrich Blume in his 1962 "Outlines of a New Picture of Bach (https://academic.oup.com/ml/article-abstract/44/3/214/1096166?redirectedFrom=PDF), and subsequently lead to a group of Bach theologians, called the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für theologische Bachforschung, affirming Bach's spirituality, which disbanded in the 1990s. This controversy produced three theological studies in English: Günther Stiller's Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig, ed. Robin A. Leaver; Eng. trans. Herbert J. A. Bouman et al (St. Louis: Concordia, 1984); Robin A. Leaver, J. S. Bach and Scripture: Glosses From the Calov Bible Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia, 1985), and Jaroslav Pelikan's Bach Among the Theologians (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986).

Near the end of his article (Ibid.: 103, Footnote 56), White lists contemporary Bach scholars with a theological perspective that involves "reception history as a meaningful construct" (Ibid.: 103): Michael Marissen's Lutheranism, Anti-Judiasm and Bach's St. John Passion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); Tanya Kevorkian's Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650-1750 (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), and Karol Berger's Bach's Cycle, Mozart's Arrow: An Essay on the Origins of Musical Modernity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007). "All three works are prominently engaged by Butt," says White" in Butt's Bach's Dialogue with Modernity: Perspectives on the Passions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres, 2010). Marissen wrote a sequel, Bach and God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016; https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0215.htm). Butt's book "holds in apposition a dual conception of modernity that obtains from the sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century," says White (Ibid.: 99, citing Butt: 17), provides a "close reading of the Passions which argues a perspective on Bach that is oriented against the ordinances of post-modern discourse," and "re-inscribes Bach in history through the agency of musical works which are 'firmly grounded in the experience of the past' and yet 'somehow oriented toward the future'."

The "Old" Bach pre-1945 revival was received as "the supreme intelligencer of German musical sovereignty" which survives in conservative Bach scholarship "otherwise dedicated to his 'stand-alone' status," suggests White (Ibid.: 86, Footnote 3).⁴ The origins of the current perspective date back to Burney's condescension (he was a champion of Handel in the 1785 centenary) and were secured in Nicholas Forkel's 1802 Biography (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35041/35041-pdf.pdf?session_id=9ae3021b81c0702a2859b8031491860e9c793193) when the Bach revival began. While the "New" Bach is the subject of his article, observes White, there are emerging scholars who "are receptive to the kind of intellectual disturbance" the "New" Bach represents, including Marissen, Kevorkian, and Berger as well as Laurence Dreyfus (Patterns of Invention, https://www.music.ox.ac.uk/about/people/academic-staff/emeritus-fellows/laurence-dreyfus/), Eric Chafe (tonal allegory, Johannine theology, https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=42315e8fec00ec6efb3f2034dac342374ad452b8), Daniel Melamed (Hearing Bach's Passions, Mass in B Minor, Christmas Oratorio; http://info.music.indiana.edu/faculty/current/melamed-daniel-r.shtml), and David Yearsley (counterpoint meanings, https://music.cornell.edu/david-yearsley).

Much of White's article is focused on the Bach criticism with "post modern attenuations," he says (Ibid: 87), involving McClary's Bach "as an agent of radical discontent with the canon ("The Basphemy of Talking Politics During the Bach Year," in Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987; http://assets.cambridge.org/97805213/79779/frontmatter/9780521379779_frontmatter.pdf); Goehr's "strategic deconstruction of Bach as a composer of musical works" (The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works – An Essay in the Philosophy of Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198235410.001.0001/acprof-9780198235415), and Taruskin's repudiation of the hegemony of German musical idealism through Bach's "aesthetic, religious, and expressive orthodoxies" (The Oxford History of Western Music, Vol I: The Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-History-Western-Music-Vol/dp/0195222709). In particular. Goehr criticizes the "general sense of borrowing" with "no uniqueness or ownership of any given expression," (Goehr: 182-3, in White: 92). With their "innovative and pioneering" "influential reconfigurations of narrative in western musical culture," says White (Ibid.: 87), these polemical critiques "collectively reflect the more general trajectory of Anglo-American musicology of the past generations." Butt's Bach's Dialogue with Modernity is a "strategic recovery of the imaginative autonomy of individual works [Passions] by Bach in the wake of such readings" by McClary, Goehr, and Tauskin.

Adorno's seminal work begins as a critique of the historically-informed performance practice at mid-20th century ("punctilious purity" and "objectivity," Ibid.: 143) which anticipates the later conflicts involving Urtext principals and "historically-informed performance practice," says White (Ibid.: 89), citing Dreyfus.⁵ Adorno's dialectic study is conflicted, says White, "as in his remarkable distinction between 'universality' of the music's ahistorical condition and the false consciousness of its quasi-theological power" (Ibid.: 89, ref. Adorno: 135). At the same time, Adorno cites Bach modernismsin five fugues from both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier (Ibid.: 136-140): II: VII E-Flat, BWV 876b (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8Oy15WkHM, "evocation": 138); I:XIII, F-sharp minor, BWV 859b (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ANAnxwBJSM, "subjective grace"); II: XVIII, G-sharp minor BWV 887b (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGVL_ac9VCI: 3:27, "vague harmonization"); I:II, C-sharp minor, BWV 847b (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWUOVkTE_Gc, a "pre-schematic state"); and II:IX in E Major, BWV 878b (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIIVmdl4I8, "archiac-sounding"). Adorno also emphasizes the "lyrical element" with "differentiation, individuation, freedom" that point to the future, and even suggests in his closing (Ibid.: 146) that the orchestrations of the Viennese "moderns" Schoenberg and von Webern (whom he championed), in the six-part Ricerata No. 2 (Musical Offering, BWV 1079, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xobJeC4SnRA) and E-Flat Major (Musical Offering, BWV 1079) "St. Anne" Fugue, BWV 552b (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC8wB2Bo890), are "models of an attitude to Bach which corresponds to the stage of his truth," says Adorno.

"A convenient example of this progressive understanding" of Bach is the recent series of essays on the B-minor Mass, says White (Ibid.: 103).⁶ It "unmistakably affirms the historical integrity" of the music with "textual scholarship, numerical and proportional analyses, stylistic, scrutiny and documentary study" as a single entity with self-standing text, and refuting previous criticism of Friedrich Smend and Taruskin. "If BWV 232 is intelligible as an autonomous musical work because of empirical research, might we not want to reconsider other works by Bach in the light of these findings," White asks. "An increasing conflict between autonomy, cultural meaning and historical significance lies at the very nerve center of Bach reception since 1985," says White (Ibid.: 106). The 'Old' Bach "lost its singularity of meaning no later than 1945" while the "New" Bach Testament "is a much more plural enterprise" and "a continuity of meaning." "Despite the dramatic reconfigurations of his music over the past thirty years, a study of Bach's reliances in relation to the musical imagination of his contemporaries is long overdue."

ENDNOTES

¹ David Yearsley, Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks (University of Chicago Press, 2019), https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BachCantatas/conversations/messages/39778.
² Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach, edds. Mark A.Peters & Reginald Sanders; Festschrift for Don O. Franklin, the eighth Contextual Bach Studies, series edited by Robin A.Leaver (Lanham MD: Lexington Books, 2018); three-part analysis: http://bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0219.htm, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BachCantatas/conversations/messages/39773, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BachCantatas/conversations/messages/39778.
³ Harry White, Evangelists of the Postmodern: Reconfigurations of Bach Since 1985, Understanding Bach, 12, 85–107 (Bach Network UK 2017), https://bachnetwork.co.uk/ub12/ub12-white.pdf. Harry White UB 12 (2017) holds the Chair of Music and is the professor of historical musicology at University College, Dublin. He is currently writing a book about concepts of authority and imaginative autonomy in the music of Fux, Bach and Handel, The Musical Discourse of Servitude: Authority, Autonomy and the European Musical Imagination, 1700-1750 (https://soundcloud.com/tlrhub/the-musical-discourse-of-servitude). Biography, https://people.ucd.ie/harry.white.
⁴ Bach revival summarized in Bach, ed. Yo Tomita (Farnham: Ashgate/Routledge, 2011, https://www.routledge.com/Bach-1st-Edition/Tomita/p/book/9780754628910: Contents). White notes (Ibid.: 86) that Tomita omitted reception history articles since that aspect of Bach research is "a work in progress" (Bach Introduction: xxviii).
⁵ See Dreyfus' critique of "Early Music Defended Against its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Performance in the 20th Century," Music Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Summer, 1983: 297-322, Oxford University Press; http://www.posgrado.unam.mx/musica/lecturas/historiaInterpretacion/JSTOR/Dreyfus-The%20Musical%20Quarterly.pdf).
⁶ Exploring Bach's B-minor Mass, eds. Yo Tomita, Robin A. Leaver and Jan Smaczny (Cambridge: University Press, 2013); contents: https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/music/eighteenth-century-music/exploring-bachs-b-minor-mass?format=HB#contentsTabAnchor.

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TO COME: Other new trends in Bach scholarship

New book on Fux, Bach and Handel

Harry White wrote (December 10, 2020):
Members might be interested to know that I have recently published a new book entitled The Musical Discourse of Servitude. Authority, Autonomy, and the Work-Concept in Fux, Bach and Handel, which is available from Oxford University Press.

With many thanks and best wishes

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (December 10, 2020):
[To Harry White] Congratulations Harry White!

It looks like a wonderful book, and is available via Amazon with a "look inside" option available for browsing. Amazon.com

Harry White wrote (December 10, 2020):
[To Kim Patrick Clow] Thank you so much, Kim! Best, Harry

William Hoffman wrote (December 10, 2020):
[To Harry White] Ordered, I also have a discussion on the Bach Cantatas Website, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/Book-Gen3.htm: "New Bach Studies: Evangelists of the Modern."

Zachary Uram wrote (December 11, 2020):
[To Harry White] Congratulations on the publication of your book!

Harry White wrote (December 11, 2020):
[To Zachary Uram] Dear Zach, many thanks! Harry

Jeffrey Solow wrote (December 11, 2020):
[To Harry White] I just requested that the Temple University library acquire it.

Harry White wrote (December 11, 2020):
[To Jeffrey Solow] Many thanks for this!

Die Zahl im Kantatenwerk Johann Sebastian Bachs by Arthur Hirsch

Aryeh Oron wrote (March 27, 2021):
The book "Die Zahl im Kantatenwerk Johann Sebastian Bachs [German] by Arthur Hirsch is a study and organized presentation of numerical and numerological symbols in Bach's cantatas, with examples and analysis of virtually every cantata movement.

I was allowed by Patricia Goldeberg, the author's daughter, to presend this book on the BCW. See: https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0224.htm
You are invited to read the book on the BCW and send us your impression/reviews.

New Book: Noelle M. Herber, J.S. Bach's Material and Spiritual Treasures

William Hoffman wrote (April 14, 2021):
Availabat: Amazon.com, Boydell & Brewer

New Book: Robin A. Leaver, Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology

William Hoffman wrote (April 14, 2021):
Available at: Amazon.com, Rutledge - Taylor & Francis Group

New Bach Essay Book To Be Published, Rethinking Bach

William Hoffman wrote (June 4, 2021):
A wide-ranging collection of essays on Bach, called Rethinking Bach, edited by Bettina Varwig, will be punished this fall by the Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press, with contributions from 17 scholars involving (Table of Contents). Histories, Bodies, Meanings, and Currents.

Zachary Uram wrote (June 4, 2021):
[To William Hoffman] $99?! Why so expensive.

Jeffrey Solow wrote (June 4, 2021):
[To Zachary Uram] Aimed at academic libraries.

Zachary Uram wrote (June 4, 2021):
[To Zachary Uram] Ah!

William Hoffman wrote (October 5, 2021):
To be released November 1, says Amazon, Amazon.com

Stefan Lewicki wrote (October 5, 2021):
[To William Hoffman] Wait till you see the price - Amazon UK lists it at £64.00. One I won’t be getting for Christmas, I’m afraid.

New Book by Christoph Wolff

Holger Hilsenitz wrote (November 6, 2021):
this week I received a newsletter from the editor Carus and I would like to share with you the new Book written by Christoph Wolff: Bach vocal.
Carus-Verlag [English]
Carus-Verlag [German]

Michael Hochgartz wrote (November 7, 2021):
This works for me: Carus-Verlag

But the promised eBook apparently does not exist. Seems to be a kind of "private" BWV, shortly before the new BWV is to be published by Bärenreiter. Mysterious...
https://www.book2look.com/book/5vipLoJ4VH

Zachary Uram wrote (November 7, 2021):
[To Michael Hochgartz] This book is only available in German, not English? :(

David Stancliffe wrote (November 8, 2021):
[To Zachary Uram] But as its substantially tables and lists and dates, that shouldn't be a major problem.

M. Zimmer wrote (November 8, 2021):
For me it was about $60 shipped to USA. Isn't Wolff also involved in the new BWV? Seems like a conflict of interest, but this one at least is in print.

Michael Hochgartz wrote (November 8, 2021):
Sorry; my mistake. The New BWV is provided by Breitkopf&Härtel, not by Bärenreiter. I am curious to know the price... Wolff's book seems to me as a wistful echo of the failed "Bach Compendium". https://www.bach-leipzig.de/de/bach-archiv/das-neue-bach-werke-verzeichnis

William Hoffman wrote (November 8, 2021):
Shipping to USA by Express is only $20; see Bach -- We Are Family, https://www.facebook.com/groups/bachwearefamily

William Hoffman wrote (November 9, 2021):
The Bach Compendium (BC, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Ref/IndexRef-BC.htm), IMO, is not a failure. The vocal music volumes (A-H) highlight alternate editions and works (no BWV number) where no music survives but there are source-critical texts and other documents which are being catalogued in the BWV 3 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BC), BWV 1135-63 (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/BWVSystem-4.htm), Breitkopf & Härtel in Wiesbaden for publication in March 2022. The BC Organ Works volumes (J free, BWV 525-598; K chorale based, BWV 599-805, 1090-1120, Anh., deest, etc.) have assigned numbers J 1-88, K 1-198 (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/CompleteOrgan.pdf), as well as the BWV3, BWV 1168-1175. As you can see, scholars are still finding organ works possibly involving Bach, beyond a rigid fundamentalist-literalist perspective, in which Bach may have had a hand (literally) in helping students shape organ compositions in a workshop setting. In preparation is Christine Blanken's NBArev BA 5939-01, Organ Chorales I (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nbarev/overview-of-volumes/#content). A second edition, Organ Chorales II, is planned, subject to all manner of research. In addition, the BC volumes of instrumental music (L-P) also involve secondary sources and the remaining volumes (Q-Z) await further studies such as the NBA Addenda (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/series-ix/#c1590) and Documents/Supplements ( https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/supplement/#c1591).

It takes a generosity of spirit and a willingness to open one's mind, to open a Box of Pandoras.

Michael Hochgartz wrote (November 9, 2021):
[To William Hoffman] Where and when to buy "the BC volumes of instrumental music (L-P)“? The "remaining volumes (Q-Z)“ ?? Have you ever heard of the "Treuhandgesellschaft" that killed this - actually incomparable project 1990ff. at the instigation of West German monopolists?

William L. Hoffman wrote (November 10, 2021):
Michael Hochgartz wrote:
< Treuhandgesellschaft >
Bach-Archiv Leipzig says the BWV3 will replace the remainder of the BC volumes. There is still much work to be done on Bach's instrumental music, especially putative reconstructions.

William Fischer wrote (November 1, 2021):
New Book by Christoph Wolff/ Bach Compendium - about Treuhandgesellschaft

I think the term, which is usually given as Treuhandanstalt, refers to the "trust agency" that the government of the former East Germany, in its last days, established to carry out the privatization of the state-owned resources - essentially almost the entire economy - of East Germany as it was being absorbed into West Germany (or, if you prefer, the [re-]unified Germany). Treu means "true" or "loyal" or "faithful", hand means - duh! - "hand", Gesellschaft means "company" or "society", and "Anstalt" means "institution". Here "state-owned" has a particular flavor. The enterprises - from little stores to big factories - that operated in East Germany were classed as "Volkseigene Betriebe" (VEB) or "enterprises owned by the people".

The problem, as the Wall fell and East Germany began to be (re-)incorporated into a larger Germany, was immense: how to integrate what was once state property into what was supposed to become the private sector of the new territories of Germ. For those of us who are Americans this situation is difficult to conceive. Since 1776 (or 1783, more accurately) - one exception to be noted soon - we have had a continuous form of government and, similarly, an economy. The exception is the South in and after the Civil War, which experienced a virtual revolution in its economy, in its currency, and in ownership of property (not just the emancipation of those who had been slaves but also real estate and businesses).

Had there been no movement to (re-)unite East Germany with (West) Germany - and for at least a while the notion of a non-Communist but independent East Germany was in the air -, the main problem would have been how to move that property into private (including corporate) ownership when no one on the soil of that formerly socialist-communist-Marxist country had any capital with which to purchase that property. Crude distribution of the real property and the funds and whatever else of value there was, like patents, would have been either a feeding frenzy or else just impossible to carry out.

And it would have been unthinkable - or, rather, easily thinkable but politically and ethically impossible - to just put that immense amount of property - the entire economy of the DDR - up for sale and then, as would have been expected, find that outside money was going to buy itself the entire economy of a new country. But the privatization still had to occur even after (re-)unification, so that people could have jobs and get paid and then eat. That introduced a new and entirely foreseeable if not easily avoidable problem: how to prevent Germans from the former West Germany, with their immense amounts of capital, from buying up all that newly privatized property.

If you want to read up on this matter in the customary Wikipedia, go to: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt

The English version is available through the usual link, but is far shorter and says almost nothing about the huge controversies and scandals that became attached to the Treuhand. I saw something of that on a small scale when I visited the former East Germany in 2002, at a time when Germany itself was also dealing with integration of its economy into the EU, including posting prices in both euros and marks. People talked about how "Wessis" were coming in to pick up property and start businesses in the former East. Even now, the former East is dealing with a depressed local economy, depopulation, etc. In 2018 my own Portland Bach Cantata Choir toured in the Leipzig-Dresden area. The larger cities have prospered and prettified, but the depression - economic and social/psychological - is to be found especially in the outlying areas.

I also had the somber experience of talking with one of the pastors of a church we sang in, which was disconcertingly near what was now a memorial site located where earlier was the secret police HQ of the town. He told how sad it was for his church to find out that their custodian had been a Stasi informer. Not a prestigious personage in the church, to be sure, but it was the perfect position there for an informer. It is consoling to note that Leipzig's Nikolaikirche, which Bach knew and served so well, lay at the heart of the resistance that brought down the Wall.

If in fact the Treuhand I have described here is the one that somehow impeded the progress of the Bach resource discussed here by others, I simply can't address that. Maybe some in this thread who have the specialized knowledge and local experience can take that up.

I supposed an entire book could be written about how various long-term cultural projects, in general or specifically in Central Europe, some managed - some of them anyway - to survive while the world around them was - repeatedly - crashing down. Sure, the harsher items, like pillaging of museums, murdering of artists, and so on, get the major attention. But building major resources through projects that take decades or even generations is also important to a culture. It happens that I have spent decades studying the poet Friedrich Hölderlin. On June 6, 1941, German scholars began producing the major Stuttgart edition of his works. A few weeks later Germany invaded the USSR. Still, work on the edition continued and was completed in 1985. Behind those dry dates lies so much to wonder about: Which young scholars died before their time, how resources were found (or not) as the war came closer and closer to Stuttgart, and - a messy matter - how the academicians managed (or failed to manage) the projects intellectually, ideologically, and ethically, especially since the Nazis had a particular interest in co-opting Hölderlin - and Goethe, and Schiller, and Wagner, and Luther, and even Bach. So did the East Germans, and so - in our own way - do we, in ways that I hope are more honorable.

S.K. Lewicki wrote (November 11, 2021):
[To William Fischer] I found this very interesting. Thank you.

Listing of Bach biographies and films

William L. Hoffman wrote (June 18, 2022):
[To Aryeh Oron] I came across this listing of Bach biographies and films: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Biographies_of_Johann_Sebastian_Bach. I also enjoy reading your BCW accounting of books, https://bach-cantatas.com/Books/index.htm.

Thank you so much,

Bach Books: General Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3