Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Melamed, Daniel R.

Description

1. xvi, 184 pages : illustrations, music; 22 cm

Summary

1. "Many scholars and music lovers hold that J.S. Bach is a modern figure, as his music seems to speak directly to the aesthetic, spiritual, or emotional concerns of today's listeners. But, by eighteenth-century standards, Bach and his music in fact reflected and forcefully promoted a premodern world and life view. In Bach against Modernity, author Michael Marissen offers a new look at Bach that considers problems of inattentiveness to historical considerations in academic and popular writing about Bach's relation to the present. He also puts forward interpretive reassessments of key individual works by Bach and examines problems in modern comprehension of the partly archaic German texts that Bach set to music. Lastly, he explores Bach's music in relation to premodern versus enlightened attitudes toward Jews and Judaism and enquires into the theological character of Bach's secular instrumental music. Throughout, the book provides overlooked or misunderstood evidence of Bach's private engagement with religious and social issues that he also addressed in his public vocal compositions. Marissen ultimately argues that, while we are free to make use of Bach and his music in whatever ways we find fitting, we ought also to guard against miscasting Bach in our own ideological image and proclaiming the authenticity of that image, and hence its prestige value, in support of our own agendas." --

Subject

1. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750 > Criticism and interpretation
2. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750
3. Criticism and interpretation

Contents

1. Part I : Constraints of history on interpretation. Bach against modernity ; Bach's handwritten entries in his Bible -- Part II : Brief commentaries. Fractal gavottes and the ephemeral world in Bach's Cantata 64 ; Time and eternities in Bach's Cantata 23 ; Bach's Christmas oratorio and a blessed end ; Bach and art and Mammon -- Part III : Texts. Historically informed renderings of the librettos from Bach's cantatas (with coauthor Daniel R. Melamed) -- Part IV, Jews and Judaism. On the Jews and their so-​called lies in the Fourth Gospel and Bach's St. John Passion ; Bach and sons in the Jewish salon culture of nineteenth-​century Berlin -- Part V : Theological character of secular instrumental music. Bach's sacred Brandenburg concertos ; The serious nature of the quodlibet in Bach's Goldberg variations.

Call number

1. JMD 23-143

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-179) and indexes.

Language (note)

1. Chiefly in English, with some passages in German.

Author

1. Marissen, Michael, author.

Title

1. Bach against modernity / Michael Marissen.

Publisher

1. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023]

Copyright date

1. ©2023

Type of content

1. text
2. still image
3. notated music

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-179) and indexes.

Language

1. Chiefly in English, with some passages in German.

Added author

1. Melamed, Daniel R., contributor.

ISBN

1. 9780197669495 hardcover
2. 0197669492 hardcover

Research call number

1. JMD 23-143