Further information: Gerald Hoekstra, Bach’s Church Music
Assignments: Preparation for each class will involve short readings (provided via email) and listening to the works to be discussed. Recordings will be made available online.
Schedule:
1 Introduction: The Baroque Era; Listening to Baroque music, its styles and forms
2 Bach’s life and career; the core of 18th-century Lutheran theology
Cantata 106 “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbesten Zeit” (funeral 1707)
3 The Lutheran liturgy and its music: cantatas, motets, passions, chorales
Cantata 4, “Christ lag in Todesbanden” (Easter 1708, 1725)
Cantata 61, “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland” (Advent 1714)
4 Bach’s musicians and their instruments
Cantata 21, “Ich hatte viel Bekümernis (Trinity III 1714)
Cantata 26, “Ach, wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig” (Trinity XXIV 1724)
5 Bach’s audience
Cantata 78, “Jesu, der du meine Seele” (Trinity XIV 1724)
Cantata 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (Annunciation 1725)
6 Bach and his contemporaries: Handel, Telemann, et al.
Cantata 140, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (Trinity XXVII 1731)
Magnificat in D (1723)
Cantata 51, “Jauchzet Gott” (Trinity XV 1730)
7 Holy Week in Leipzig’s churches; madrigalian poetry in Lutheran church music
The St. Matthew Passion (1727)
8 Bach’s later life and works
The B Minor Mass (assembled 1747-49): Kyrie, Credo