Analyzing Bach Cantatas (review)

Abstract

Analyzing Bach Cantatas. By Eric Chafe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. [xvii, 286 p. ISBN 0-19512099-x. $55 (hbk.); ISBN 0-19516182-3. $29.95 (pbk.).] Music examples, bibliography, index. In Analyzing Bach Cantatas, Eric Chafe continues down the road he began in two of his previous books, Tonal Allegory in the Vocal Works of J. S. Bach (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) and Monteverdi's Tonal Language (New York: Schirmer Books, 1992). As in Tonal Allegory, the repertory on which he focuses is the vocal works of Bach, and in both previous books the principal lens through which he views the works is tonal structure. The audience Chafe hopes address is as wide a range possible of scholars, professional musicians, students, and Bach lovers whom he hopes to stimulate . . . become deeply involved with the Bach (p. ix). The principal type of involvement the book aims at is hermeneutic, for although the title might suggest otherwise, Chafe does not employ analysis simply a revealer of purely structure, He always employs it in the service of interpretation. Three chapters lay musical and contextual foundations in areas like scriptural hermeneutics, the liturgical year, and the Lutheran metaphysical tradition in music theory. The other six chapters present interpretive analyses of ten cantatas, BWV 2 (Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh' darein, 9 (Es ist das Heil uns kommen hier), 18 (Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee), 21 (Ich hatte viel Bekummernis), 46 (Schauet doch und sehet ob irgen dein Schmerz sei), 60 (O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwart), 77 (Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben), 109 (Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben), 121 (Christum wir sollen loben schon), and 153 (Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine, Feind). They range in length from a few pages entire chapters (for 21 and 60) two very substantial chapters (for 77). Except for 21 and 60, Chafe's primary locus is on the modal chorales in these cantatas. His purpose is to reveal the depth of Bach's involvement with the question of modal harmonization and the influence of such chorales on the musical-theological designs of entire and show that a hermeneutic key some of the cantatas is an overall form that derives from parallels between music and theological context in their chorale melodies (p. xiii). Chafe is a thorough researcher and a keen analyst. His knowledge of baroque music theory is comprehensive and he is widely read in Lutheran theology. In other words, he brings a formidable array of knowledge and skill the task of interpreting Bach's cantatas. So it comes no surprise that Analyzing Bach Cantatas has much offer. Chafe's analyses are perceptive, and his interpretations are usually plausible and often convincing. That they will not be universally convincing is be expected. This is particularly true for interpretations based on how one hears-or how one thinks Bach and his audience might have heard-modal harmonies. And since the modal harmonies are central Chafe's interpretations, disagreements and alternative interpretations are inevitable. Beyond disagreement over any given interpretation, there will be some skepticism about Chafe's principal hermeneutic keytonal allegory. At times it seems that Chafe tugs too hard at the tonal allegory strand in the whole interpretive fabric, and when he does so his case becomes less, not mote, convincing. I find him most convincing when, in the chapter on Cantata 21, his hermeneutics are a rich combination of contextual background, explication of the libretto, and wide-ranging attention Bach's vast array of musical-rhetorical tools, including, of course, tonal allegory. It is hard doubt that harmony and tonal structure figure prominently in the musical rhetoric of a composer with Bach's incomparable harmonic imagination and great sensitivity text. Anyone who pays dose attention Bach's recitatives cannot fail recognize the important role harmony plays vis-a-vis the words. …