Bach And God

Bach & God explores the religious character of Bach\u27s 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\u27s pitches, rhythms, and tone colors can make contributions to a work\u27s plausible meanings that go beyond setting texts in an aesthetically satisfying manner. In some of Bach\u27s 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\u27s 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\u27s secular instrumental music, particularly the late collections of abstract learned counterpoint, can powerfully project certain elements of traditional Lutheran theology. Bach\u27s music is inexhaustible, and Bach & God suggests that through close contextual study there is always more to discover and learn