Daniel Vetter and the Domestic Keyboard Chorale in Bach's Leipzig

The role of modest music in the domestic devotion of Lutherans is still little understood. This article uses Daniel Vetter's collection of keyboard chorales, Musicalische Kirch-und Haub-Ergotzlichkeit (1709-13) to reveal the musical and devotional practices of middle-class Leipzigers in the era of Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Kuhnau. Whereas other chorale books catered for the church organist (such as Johann Samuel Beyer's Musicalischer Vorrath, 1716-19), Vetter's collection was owned by well-off amateur musicians; and it was in sufficient demand to be printed, at a time when most keyboardists were resigned to their music staying in manuscript.