Bach Perspectives

Bach Perspectives
Author: Michael Marissen
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 190
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780803210486

This volume examines a fascinating dimension of J. S. Bach’s music: the crucial influence it has exerted upon the musical works of many other composers. In a series of articles by distinguished musicologists, compositions by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Hindemith, and others are considered in light of the ways in which they bear Bach’s unmistakable imprint. Ludwig Finscher opens with a survey of Bach’s influence through several centuries, examining his sway over composers from Mozart and Beethoven to Schumann, Wagner, and Reger. Thomas Christensen shows that various of Bach’s early disciples claimed authority from their master for opposing assessments of music and musical theory. Robert L. Marshall argues that Mozart’s intense involvement with Bach’s music probably occurred much earlier in his career than has generally been thought. William Kinderman demonstrates that Beethoven’s assimilation of Bach also occurred very early in his career and that all aspects of Beethoven’s mature style are heavily indebted to Bach. Walter Frisch reveals how Brahms’s absorption in Bach’s work involves a fruitful relation to cultural tradition. Steven Hinton traces Hindemith’s evolving—yet essentially consistent—understanding of Bach’s music. A work that subtly yet decisively traces Bach’s presence in the ongoing history of composition, this volume is an important contribution to our understanding of Bach and of his many eminent successors.

Bach Perspectives, Volume 5

Bach Perspectives, Volume 5
Author: Stephen A. Crist
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2002-12-17
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780252027888

In this work, nine scholars track Johann Sebastian Bach's reputation in America from an artist of relative obscurity to a cultural mainstay whose music has spread to all parts of the population, inspired a wealth of scholarship, captivated listeners, and inspired musicians.

Bach Perspectives, Volume 6

Bach Perspectives, Volume 6
Author: Gregory Butler
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2007-01-02
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252030427

As the official publication of the American Bach Society, Bach Perspectives has pioneered new areas of research in the life, times, and music of Bach since its first appearance in 1995. In a series long known for its major essays by leading Bach scholars and performers, Bach Perspectives, Volume 6 is no exception. This volume opens with Joshua Rifkin's seminal study of the early source history of the B-minor orchestral suite. It not only elaborates on Rifkin's discovery that the work in its present form for solo flute goes back to an earlier version in A minor, ostensibly for solo violin, but also takes this discovery as the point of departure for a wide-ranging discussion of the origins and extent of Bach's output in the area of concerted ensemble music. Jeanne Swack presents an enlightening comparison of Georg Phillip Telemann's and Bach's approach to the French overture as concerted movements in their church cantatas, and Steven Zohn views the B-minor orchestral suite from the standpoint of the "concert en ouverture," responding to Rifkin by suggesting that the early version of the B-minor orchestral suite may also have been scored for flute.

Bach Perspectives, Volume 7

Bach Perspectives, Volume 7
Author: Gregory Butler
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2008
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252031652

Correspondence capturing Dreiser's own take on his long and eventful life In addition to his novels, short stories, plays, poetry, and a flood of journalism, Theodore Dreiser is estimated to have written an astonishing 20,000 letters. A Picture and a Criticism of Life presents a selection from his previously unpublished letters and shows Dreiser in every mood and circumstance, from crisply professional to happily unbuttoned. Meticulously annotated by Donald Pizer, the selections often shed significant new light on the writer's beliefs and activities during the various stages of his long career. A volume in the series The Dreiser Edition, edited by Thomas P. Riggio

Bach Perspectives, Volume 8

Bach Perspectives, Volume 8
Author: Daniel R. Melamed
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252090217

As the official publication of the American Bach Society, Bach Perspectives has pioneered new areas of research in the life, times, and music of Bach since its first appearance in 1995. Volume 8 of Bach Perspectives emphasizes the place of Bach's oratorios in their repertorial context. These essays consider Bach's oratorios from a variety of perspectives: in relation to models, antecedents, and contemporary trends; from the point of view of musical and textual types; and from analytical vantage points including links with instrumental music and theology. Christoph Wolff suggests the possibility that Bach's three festive works for Christmas, Easter, and Ascension Day form a coherent group linked by liturgy, chronology, and genre. Daniel R. Melamed considers the many ways in which Bach's passion music was influenced by the famous poetic passion of Barthold Heinrich Brockes. Markus Rathey examines the construction and role of oratorio movements that combine chorales and poetic texts (chorale tropes). Kerala Snyder shows the connections between Bach's Christmas Oratorio and one of its models, Buxtehude's Abendmusiken spread over many evenings. Laurence Dreyfus argues that Bach thought instrumentally in the composition of his passions at the expense of certain aspects of the text. And Eric Chafe demonstrates the contemporary theological background of Bach's Ascension Oratorio and its musical realization

Bach Perspectives 11

Bach Perspectives 11
Author: Mary Oleskiewicz
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2017-11-07
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252050088

Among his numerous children, Johann Sebastian Bach sired five musically gifted sons. The eleventh volume of Bach Perspectives presents essays that explore these men’s lives and careers via distinctive and, in several cases, alternative and interdisciplinary methodologies. Robert L. Marshall traces how each of the sons grappled with—and at times suffocated beneath—their illustrious father’s legacy. Mary Oleskiewicz’s essay investigates the Bach family’s connections to historical keyboard instruments and musical venues at the Prussian court, while David Schulenberg looks at Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s diverse and innovative keyboard works. Evan Cortens digs into everything from performance materials to pay stubs to offer a detailed view of the business of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s liturgical music. Finally, Christine Blanken discusses how the rediscovery of Bach family musical manuscripts in the Breitkopf archive opens up new perspectives on familiar topics. A supplemental companion website is now available for Bach Perspectives 11. This resource features additional images, captions, and short descriptions to provide an essential supplement to the printed text.

Bach's Dialogue with Modernity

Bach's Dialogue with Modernity
Author: John Butt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2010-01-14
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1139485423

Providing a detailed analysis of Bach's Passions, this 2010 book represents an important contribution to the debate about the culture of 'classical music', its origins, priorities and survival. The angles from which each chapter proceeds differ from those of a traditional music guide, by examining the Passions in the light of the mindsets of modernity, and their interplay with earlier models of thought and belief. While the historical details of Bach's composition, performance and theological context remain crucial, the foremost concern of this study is to relate these works to a historical context that may, in some threads at least, still be relevant today. The central claim of the book is that the interplay of traditional imperatives and those of early modernity renders Bach's Passions particularly fascinating as artefacts that both reflect and constitute some of the priorities and conditions of the western world.

Bach Perspectives, Volume 12

Bach Perspectives, Volume 12
Author: Robin A. Leaver
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2018-10-24
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252050711

Johann Sebastian Bach was a Lutheran and much of his music was for Lutheran liturgical worship. As these insightful essays in the twelfth volume of Bach Perspectives demonstrate, he was also influenced by--and in turn influenced--different expressions of religious belief. The vocal music, especially the Christmas Oratorio, owes much to medieval Catholic mysticism, and the evolution of the B minor Mass has strong Catholic connections. In Leipzig, Catholic and Lutheran congregations sang many of the same vernacular hymns. Internal squabbles were rarely missing within Lutheranism, for example Pietists' dislike of concerted church music, especially if it employed specific dance forms. Also investigated here are broader issues such as the close affinity between Bach's cantata libretti and the hymns of Charles Wesley; and Bach's music in the context of the Jewish Enlightenment as shaped by Protestant Rationalism in Berlin. Contributors: Rebecca Cypess, Joyce L. Irwin, Robin A. Leaver, Mark Noll, Markus Rathey, Derek Stauff, and Janice B. Stockigt.

Bach perspectives. 1. 1995

Bach perspectives. 1. 1995
Author: Russell Stinson
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780803210424

Volume one contains essays by David Schulenberg, Russell Stinson, Michael Marissen, Eric Chafe, Stephen Crist, and James Brokaw.

Bach Perspectives, Volume 9

Bach Perspectives, Volume 9
Author: Andrew Talle
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2013-12-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252095391

This provocative addition to the Bach Perspectives series offers a counternarrative to the isolated genius status that J. S. Bach and his music currently enjoy. Contributors contextualize Bach by examining the output, reputation, and compositional practices of his contemporaries in Germany whose work was widely played and enjoyed in his time, including Georg Philipp Telemann, Christoph Graupner, Gottlieb Muffat, and Johann Adolf Scheibe. Essays place Bach and his work in relation to his peers, examining avenues of composition they took while he did not and showing how differing treatments of the same subjects or texts resulted in markedly different compositional results and legacies. By looking closely at how Bach's contemporaries addressed the tasks and challenges of their time, this project provides a more nuanced view of the musical world of Bach's time while revealing in more specific terms than ever how and why Bach's own music remains fresh and compelling. In this volume, Wolfgang Hirschmann proposes an ethnographic approach that contextualizes Bach's works, addressing the aesthetic paths he took as well as those he did not pursue. Steven Zohn's essay considers Telemann's contribution to the orchestral Ouverture genre, observering how Telemann's approach to integrating the national styles of his time was quite different from, but no less rich than, Bach's. Andrew Talle compares settings and strategies of Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust by Bach and Graupner. Alison Dunlop presents valuable primary research on Muffat, the most commonly cited keyboard music composer in Vienna during Bach's lifetime. Finally, Michael Maul sheds new light on the Scheibe-Birnbaum controversy, contextualizing the most famous critique of J. S. Bach's compositional style by discussing the other composers that Scheibe critiqued.