Von Luther zu Bach: Bericht uber die Tagung 22.-25. September 1996 in Eisenach, and: My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach (review)

Von Luther zu Bach: Bericht über die Tagung 22.-25. September 1996 in Eisenach. Edited by Renate Steiger. (Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Theologische Bachforschung E.V.) Sinzig: Studio, 1999. [287 p. ISBN 3-89564-056-5. DM 68 (pbk.).]

My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach. By Calvin R. Stapert. (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies Series.) Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2000. [xviii, 241 p. ISBN 0-8028-4472-3. $16 (pbk.).]

Von Luther zu Bach, a collection of sixteen papers presented at the 1996 meeting of the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Theologische Bachforschung (International Society for Theological Bach Studies), a group of approximately twenty theologians and musicologists from several European countries and the United States, is an important contribution to German baroque studies in the fields of music and theology. In commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther, the conference, From Luther to Bach, took place in Eisenach, where both Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach spent part of their childhood. The papers, all but one in German, span five broad areas: "The Aesthetic of the Real Presence: The Motif of unio from Luther to Bach," "Music in the Divine Service: The Lutheran Chorale as the Foundation of Liturgy and Figural Music," "Lutheranism and Judaism," "The Controversy over the Hamburg Opera," and "Comfort in Death: Evidence of the Lutheran ars moriendi and Ministering to the Soul of the Dying" (all translations are mine).

The papers by Robin A. Leaver, Renate Steiger, Don O. Franklin, and Niels Back will be of particular interest to those who are concerned with the theological and liturgical background of Bach's sacred vocal works. In his paper (the only one in English) entitled "The 'Deutsche Messe' and the Music of Worship," Leaver shows that the German order of service that Luther laid out was, above all, musical, and relied to a great extent upon the music training carried out in the Latin schools. Music instruction in the schools not only formed part of a liberal arts curriculum, but also was intended to enable the school choir to lead the music in the local church. The liturgical, musical, and pedagogical innovations outlined by Luther in the Deutsche Messe influenced Bach's early education, the conditions of his employment as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and the very nature of his church music. His two surviving Passions for Good Friday and his sacred cantatas, which are essentially musical commentaries on the assigned Gospel readings, reflect the tradition of singing the Gospel established by Luther.

In her article on the role of Brautmystik (bride mysticism) in the three cantatas Bach composed for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, BWV 182, 180, and 49, Renate Steiger draws upon Abraham Calov's commentaries by Luther and other theologians (such as Heinrich Müller) on the assigned Gospel reading, Matt. 22:1-14, the parable of the royal wedding feast, to reveal how the cantata texts highlight three different facets of unio (mystical union). A major portion of her article is devoted to showing how Bach's choice of musical-rhetorical figures was influenced by theological considerations.

Focusing on the cantata Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (BWV 38), Don O. Franklin suggests that Bach used the Phrygian mode and modern tonality, respectively, to represent the "old and new Adam" mentioned in Luther's commentaries on Psalm 130, the basis of Luther's hymn Aus tiefer Not. Franklin notes that both Luther and Bach set the chorale in the rarely encountered, archaic-sounding Phrygian mode and that the hymn permeates the cantata. Bach's use of the mode in the opening movement can be construed as a musical metaphor for Luther's "old Adam" and the...