Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion ed. by Robin A. Leaver

Abstract

Reviewed by: Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion ed. by Robin A. Leaver Steven Wente Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion. Edited by Robin A. Leaver. Bach Perspectives, volume 12. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018. 157 pp. Bach Perspectives is a series of studies published, beginning in 1995, under the auspices of the American Bach Society. Each volume seeks to explore the music of Bach in light of recent research, and, as the title suggests, from a broad range of perspectives. While many of the previous volumes will be of interest primarily to musicians, the current volume contains studies that will interest many readers of church history, especially Lutherans, and those interested in the relationship of various Christian denominations with each other. The "counterpoint" of religion is here not Luther's "music next to theology," but rather how various religious or denominational [End Page 110] expressions play against each other (in musical terminology, counterpoint means literally "note against note"), all within the context of the time and influence of Johann Sebastian Bach. Three essays came out of a 2016 conference of the American Bach Society, while the other four are closely related to the theme. Mark Noll considers John Wesley's short visit to Leipzig, and the piety that, had he heard Bach's cantatas, he might have found familiar and comforting in their texts. Joyce Irwin writes on the issue of secular style (dance and dance rhythms) in Bach. Robin Leaver examines the hymnal prepared for the Catholic chapel in Leipzig, pointing out the hymns and chants that would have been common among Catholics and Lutherans. Leaver notes that more commonality existed between the songs of Lutherans and Catholics than popularly thought, mainly because many "Lutheran" hymns had Catholic beginnings. Lutherans and Catholics were singing a number of the same hymns and tunes (for example, Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr/ "All Glory Be to God on High"). The mysticism of Bernard of Clairvaux was popular in seventeenth-century Lutheran theology, and Markus Rathey connects these two theological streams as they are related in the text of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. Janice Stockigt treats a quick visit to Leipzig in 1733 by the new elector, Friedrich August II, who was himself Catholic but with responsibilities to the largely Lutheran population of Saxony. In "The Church under Persecution," Derek Stauff reviews three cantatas that were performed in different years on Epiphany 4 for their themes related to Lutheran confessionalism and its relationship to its Catholic neighbors. A final essay, by Rebecca Cypess, explores Bach reception in Berlin in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries through the lens of Sara Levy and her circle. Levy, a favorite keyboard student of Johann Sebastian's son Wilhelm Friedemann and a member of the Jewish Enlightenment, amassed a substantial collection of the music of J.S. Bach and others. Because of the variety of topics, each essay may hold a different level of appeal. Nonetheless, those who are curious to learn more about the church and its music in the time of Bach will find much of interest here. [End Page 111] Steven Wente Concordia University Chicago River Forest, Illinois Copyright © 2020 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.