Commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach: Kantor
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is acknowledged as one of the most famous and gifted of all composers past and present in the entire western world. Orphaned at the age of ten, Bach studied with various family members but was mostly self-taught in music.
He began his professional career as conductor, performer, composer, teacher, and organ consultant at age 19 in the town of Arnstadt. He traveled wherever he received good commissions and steady employment, ending up in Leipzig, where the last 27 years of his life found him serving as Kantor, responsible for all music in the city’s four Lutheran churches.
Acclaimed more in his own time as a superb keyboard artist, the majority of his compositions fell into disuse following his death, which musicologists use to date the end of the Baroque Period and the beginning of the Classical Era. However, his compositional ability was rediscovered, in large part due to the efforts of Felix Mendelssohn. The genius and sheer magnitude of Bach’s vocal and instrumental compositions remain overwhelming. Also, whether due to nature or nurture, he was but one of the giants in, perhaps, the most talented musical family of all time.
Christendom especially honors J. S. Bach, a staunch and devoted Lutheran, for his lifelong insistence that his music was written primarily for the liturgical life of the Church, glorifying God and edifying His people. For an overview of the Christological basis of his work and a strong argument that he was among the theological giants of Lutheranism, please read J. S. Bach: Orthodox Lutheran Theologian?.
Today we remember his “heavenly birthday,” for it was on 28 July AD 1750 that the Lord translated Mr. Bach to glory.
Soli deo gloria — To God alone the glory! These words appear on most manuscripts of Bach’s compositions as testimony to his faith and his idea of music’s highest, noblest use.
A friend, Mr. Bob Myers, drew this to my attention. It would be best for you to watch this while it still remains up on YouTube. This is a recent documentary that offers a fairly good overview of the Reformation and the work of J.S. Bach as the servant of the Lutheran Church that he was, laboring away in near obscurity, using limited resources. It’s kind of quirky, in a typically British way. It is good that it focuses on the music as Bach actually wrote it and for the purpose he wrote it. Everyone is familiar with Bach’s instrumental works, but in fact his massive cycles of Church cantatas are his greatest achievements. This documentary “gets it” as well, if not better, than anything I’ve seen before. There are some great scenes filmed in St. Mary’s Church, Wittenberg; St. Thomas, Leipzig, and St. George, Eisenach. The churches are not always clearly identified. It’s a shame they didn’t subtitle the chorales and cantatas as they were sung. But that’s often the way it is: people focus more on the music and not the words, which, to Bach, were the most important reason why he wrote his music. The Word of God was conveyed by Bach’s music in powerful ways, but it is not the music, per se, that is the thing, it is the Word of God, and … most importantly and significantly of all Bach was interested in conveying Christ and Him crucified. This aspect of his work is hinted at but never specifically articulated. We can only assume the American Lutheran pastor who is interviewed in this piece did explicitly confess Christ, but his remarks were edited out. That’s usually how it is with Bach. People grow increasingly uncomfortably the more specifically Christian the talk gets. But Bach’s great church music was all about Christ. They can’t help but tell us that when they feature the popular chorale from Bach’s Cantata 147, Jesus, Joy of Man’s Desiring.
Renowned actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music in this documentary series for BBC FOUR. Simon’s travels bring him to Germany where Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation led to a musical revolution and ultimately to the glorious works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Luther, a Catholic monk who was also a composer, had a profound effect on the development of sacred music. He re-defined the role of congregational singing and the use of the organ in services. Crucially he also developed the hugely important tradition of singing in the vernacular which would characterize protestant worship for the next 500 years. Martin Luther’s reforms – and the century and a half of music that followed – shaped the world of JS Bach. Although today he is considered by many to be one of the greatest composers in history, in reality Bach spent most of his life working for the church and unknown to anyone outside of a small part of Germany. Simon’s journey includes Eisenach, in Eastern Germany, where Bach was born and the extraordinary space of the Thomaskirke in Leipzig where the composer spent much of his career. Here he discovers how Johann Sebastian Bach was in many ways a one man music factory, who for many years produced for the church work of the very highest quality, week after week after week. Bach wrote over a thousand pieces of music, and nearly two thirds of them he produced for the Lutheran Church. Throughout the programme, in the period setting of St George’s Lutheran Church in East London, conductor Harry Christophers leads singers from ‘The Sixteen’ and a small group of baroque instrumentalists through some of the key repertoire – including: ‘Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring’, one of Bach’s most celebrated religious works, which is based on a Lutheran hymn tune.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dAC1lLYJpg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7-fUPwPHaE
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu1rfLUTzow
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gZKv19KEtA
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lecMZDofRw
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr6g9B4nCnI
HT: Bob Myers.
McCain observation:
Lutherans, ask yourself why it is that it takes the BBC to do a documentary like this, and why “we” can’t muster the will and resources to produce this. I say this to our shame. While we fritter away our time chasing after whatever is popular in American Evangelicalism, the very things that can, and do, make Lutheranism an absolutely unique and distinct confession of Christianity are ignored, set aside, or worse yet, spoken of with derision—by Lutherans! Lord, have mercy on us all.
Pastor McCain you made my day! Thank you for telling us about the BBC documentary on Bach and the Lutheran musical legacy. As I was watching it on youtube, the mail came and my copy of TLSB arrived. What a great combination–God’s Word and the music of JS Bach! This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
McCain response: Yes, we arranged for that to happen. CPH tracking devices sensed when you were watching the JS Bach and triggered the delivery. Grin.
Excellent, Pastor McCain. Thank you. And “The Sixteen” is a superb group, although it bothered me somewhat the camera get on centering on the cute blond female singer. Oh, well. And yes, I echo your observation: why is it that it takes the Brits to do this, when Lutherans should be at the forefront of making a production of this sort of THEIR OWN?
McCain response: Oh, well, better her than one of the shaggy guys in the chorus.
Excellent point regarding Bach’s contribution to congregational singing, which has fallen on hard times. The “kickin’ worship band” model has not just turned worship into a spectator sport, but as a result worship music no longer has to be singable in a corporate setting. It has a narcissistic appeal, which individuals enjoy listening to in their cars or singing in the shower, but it isn’t music which stirs your soul when heard sung where two or more are gathered together. Once in a while, I run across a Lutheran congregation where the liturgy is sung. It’s powerful; non-musical pastors probably hate it.
The other significance of Bach is that he is a bridge between the ancient and the modern. His music is rooted in the best of the medieval period, but he embraced what was new at the time – even experimenting with the pianoforte – the early rendition of the piano. He contributed many technical advances to pipe organ design and playing. From that perspective, I think Bach does challenge the sensibilities of traditionalists. Worship can embrace new styles and technologies and still connect us to the past.
And his music was objective, rather than smarmy and subjective. His music did point us to the cross, rather than mere feelings. In an era of what Steve Camp coined as “God/Jesus is my girlfriend” worship songs, that, too, may be hard for many to understand these days.
Lutherans, ask yourself why it is that it takes the BBC to do a documentary like this, and why “we” can’t muster the will and resources to produce this. I say this to our shame.
With that, I’ll direct kudos to the BBC: while it would be neat for Lutherans to produce documentaries like this, “we” also don’t have a broadcast arm nor distribution channels. I’m going to write my local PBS station – they often procure BBC documentaries for broadcast; I wonder if they’d be interested in this series.
I was also looking to see if it was available ‘for sale’ anywhere and Wikipedia (via Google) noted that this documentary was part of a four-part series on “Sacred Music”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Music_(TV_series)
Thank you for introducing and linking to this wonderful documentary. It brought tears of joy to this former chorister once again studying to apply some of the riches of the Lutheran musical legacy.
GOOD SHEPHERD INSTITUTE CONFERENCE MARKS TENTH YEAR AT CTS WITH BACHFEST AND PREACHING WORKSHOP
FORT WAYNE, IN (CTS)—One of the church’s best known and well-loved musicians is Johann Sebastian Bach. Attendees to the Tenth Annual Good Shepherd Institute Conference will get to know him anew through this year’s theme of Bach in Today’s Parish: Still the Evangelist, November 1-3, on the campus. For additional information concerning the conference and preaching workshop or to register online, go to http://www.goodshepherdins titute.org or call 260-452-2224
Also the Todestag of Antonio Vivaldi, who died nine years earlier. Another great composer–although his theology was Catholic. Where are the Bachs and Vivaldis of today?
@Chad Thompson
AWESOME. Thanks for the additional information; I just ordered a copy of Sacred Music through my local public library.
As to the BBC’s production of “our” treasure–the spoils of the Egyptians!
Will take me a while to work through the BBC documentary, but looks like a fine resource.
BBC Radio 3 did the complete works of Bach with many features before Christmastime a few years ago. A bit much for some listeners but fascinating nonetheless.
A bit of an academic nitpick on some of your information about Luther, vernacular and the organ. Luther himself had no particular love of the organ, and in fact disliked its use in the alternatim practice of his day, where the organ actually *substituted* for some verses or couplets of the liturgical songs (Kyrie, Gloria, etc). Despite Luther’s view, the organ continued to be used in this way in the Lutheran liturgy – in fact, the organ did not actually play WITH the congregation well after Luther’s day. The practice of organ accompaniment to chorales only began to gain steam in the mid 1600′s, but was far from universal. Even Bach, whose earlier positions expected the organ to accompany the congregation, had to do an about-face at Leipzig, where the earlier tradition of unaccompanied congregational singing still held pride of place.
Though Luther’s cultivation of congregational song is certainly important, with today’s knowledge, it might be overstating the case to say Luther “developed” a vernacular singing tradition. He really built on a popular tradition of congregational and devotional singing that flourished before him, despite the official Roman non-congregational style. Look at how many chorales have a pre-Reformation basis that Luther may have tweaked a bit. The Benedictine Fr. Anthony Ruff of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville is one of the people who most writes and speaks on this topic, and also shows that counter-Reformation Catholic leaders did their part to encourage assembly song in the Roman domain, even to the point of including Luther’s own works!
The most accessible summary of *Bach’s* worship practice in Leipzig is Gunther Stiller, “J.S. Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig”, published in English by Concordia.
In paragraph 3 of my comment, I meant to say: “the organ did not actually play WITH the congregation *until* well after Luther’s day. ” Hopefully the context made it clear enough what I meant, but wanted to make it explicit.
The music of J.S. Bach and those he influenced is featured here: http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/listings/2010/1025/ .
I own this documentary! Fine work. Another documentary on youtube, better in my opinion, is Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s cantata pilgrimage. It films the Monterverdi choir traveling around Germany performing all of the extant cantatas on the day for which they were written. Although focusing mainly on the cantatas, it is a commendable documentary that everyone should watch for it sheds new light on the lesser known cantatas, Bach’s greatest acheivements! Soli Deo Gloria!
Off the beaten path — one of the best experiences of my life was my freshman and sophomore year music theory in college, which was from the magnificent and now rarely seen Eastman Series (aka McHose) taught my Eastman grad professor. Pretty much Bach chorale part writing. After that you can hear bloody anything musical. From which I taught myself, just following Bach, to improvise from a figured bass and also play Jazz. Bach was just the total musician, and his words, though I read them in a Benedictine university, that music is for the glory of God and the permissible delight of the human spirit, stuck with me ever since as a guiding aesthetic, not to mention as an utterly realistic recognition of the great power of music to be misued we so often see, even in church. And though it might make PW cringe, the 1974 Modern Jazz Quartet album “Blues on Bach” remains to this day one of the few albums I return to again and again. Man, would I love to jam with JS and John Lewis, although they’d both blow me off the stand quickly then get down to business.
@Terry Maher (Past Elder)
Terry -
An anecdote about your Professor, Allen McHose, at the Eastman School of Music here in Rochester….
For quite some time, he “moonlighted” mornings on his way to work by first stopping off at the home of George Eastman (founder of Eastman Kodak). In lieu of an alarm clock back in the ’20s, Eastman liked to be awakened by the sound of the organ located in the mansion’s downstairs great reception hall.
One morning, however, after McHose had played some Bach, Eastman threatened to dismiss him, if he ever again presumed to play Bach. (Eastman, raised in and angered by spiritualism in his childhood home, was an avowed non-churchman.) And so, McHose taught and played Bach elsewhere — at the Eastman School, and at Brick Presbyterian Church, where he was organist and choirmaster for 35 years.
(As told to me years ago by my dad, a friend of McHose.)
Which, to me, simply proves Eastman was fallible.
@ptmccain
Unhappily, Pastor, George Eastman, who never married, died by suicide with a revolver in 1932 at age 78.