Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner (review)

Abstract

90 Bach Review John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven . (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), 672 pages. The enigmatic tide of this eminendy readable book penned by one of the world's pre-eminent interpreters of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach prepares us at once to expect something unusual. The book is an outgrowth of John Eliot Gardiner's lifelong engagement with Bach's music - his sacred music in particular - that culminated in the conductor's celebrated Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in the year 2000. The project commemorated the 250th anniversary of the composer's death by performing, in proper liturgical sequence according to the Lutheran calendar of Bach's time, and recording, the entire surviving repertory of his church cantatas - some 200 compositions . The music contained in this extensive corpus constitutes fully half of Bach's extant oeuvre; but as Gardiner emphasizes, it remains considerably less well known than the composer's instrumental music. The experience of performing Bach's church cantatas in liturgical order within the space of a year equipped the conductor with a unique perspective on the design, purpose, and stylistic evolution of the music - one that may to some extent have mimicked the composer's own experience in its creation. Gardiner has now organized his insights into a large-scale study of the composer and his works that is at one and the same time a dispassionate scholarly inquiry and a passionate personal testament. Before the author finally spills the beans about the book's tide (on page 182), only dedicated Bach aficionados will recognize that "the Casde of Heaven" refers to the court chapel belonging to Bach's Weimar patron, Duke Wilhelm Ernst. The chapel, which rose some 20 meters above floor level and ended in a ceiling decoration depicting the open heavens, was dubbed the Weg %ur Himmelsburg, the "Way to the Casde of Heaven." The organ loft was located just below the ceiling. For nine years (from 1708 to 1717) Bach, as court Review 91 organist, regularly perf 1714, following his prom began as well to comp performing them from launched the ambitiou earlier to be his Endzw regular church music to ably drawn to his tide. clearly, is to account f genius" (p. xxv) of Joh The book contains fou insofar as the number f BACH (2+1+3+8), carrie The organization is top subject matter of the i immediately evident fro surprising is Chapter 1 realize is not biographica is John Eliot Gardiner chapter heading is meant subtitle. For it turns out an authentic original c poser - one executed by hung prominently in the its stare was something avoid. We learn all this Over the course of this early encounters not onl music - and its interpret sketches a brief, highly "Early Music Movement to recreate "authentic, (HIP) by learning about of the relevant times a historical instruments Gardiner frankly descri and those of others - th 92 Bach We gradually reali cences, which at tim is to set forth Gardi performance of Bac They can perhaps rhythmical elasticity Bach dance" (p. 3); music" (p. 6); resist instruments, of "ov in "sickly swells an players" (p. 10). Pe "concentrated care text - the declamatio out the rhetoric an ner's Bach perform degree to which they * * * Following the apologia the real work of the book en attempt to account for the "unfathomable genius" (p. xxv) o Sebastian Bach the man and his achievement. Chapters devot several historical and cultural contexts, along with t traditions, that shaped the composer's world view and understanding fill in the necessary background of the portr wide-ranging surveys are well researched, if largely con presentations of available material. Gardiner does, however, the prevailing view that Thuringia and Bach's native town o were on an economic and intellectual upswing by the time o He argues rather that this region was largely untouched by Enlightenment thought, still deeply rooted in its Luther and residual medieval thinking. In contrast to the historical overviews, Gardiner's bio discussions are often quite original, indeed - at times crossin the sensational. His claims about the pre-Enlightenment ness of Eisenach provide him with an opening to discu childhood...