J. S. Bach's Material and Spiritual Treasures: A Theological Perspective by Noelle M. Heber

Abstract

Reviewed by: J. S. Bach's Material and Spiritual Treasures: A Theological Perspective by Noelle M. Heber Mark A. Peters (bio) Noelle M. Heber. J. S. Bach's Material and Spiritual Treasures: A Theological Perspective. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2021. xxi, 264 pp. In J. S. Bach's Material and Spiritual Treasures: A Theological Perspective, Noelle M. Heber seeks to bring together two realms that modern readers may consider separate, but that J. S. Bach and his German Lutheran contemporaries would not: the "sacred" and the "secular." Her focus in this regard is "treasure," both Bach's own financial situation and conceptions of wealth and poverty in Lutheran theology and Bach's church compositions. Chapters 1 and 7 primarily address Bach's biography, while chapters 2–6 each address a particular theological theme related to wealth and poverty in Bach's church cantatas and the St. Matthew Passion. Heber indicates that the book's key word, "treasure," translates the German "Schatz," used in Luther's Bible translation for concepts such as "riches," "money," or "silver and gold," as well as metaphorically for spiritual riches (9). A key New Testament passage related to these concepts is Matthew 6:19–21, which recounts the words of Jesus contrasting "treasures upon earth" with "treasures in heaven." Heber further notes that in Lutheran theology this contrast of heavenly and earthly treasure was regularly paralleled with discussions of material and spiritual poverty (10). In chapter 1, "Bach's Material Treasures: Career, Salary, and Freelancing," Heber provides an invaluable account of Bach's relationship with finances. The chapter provides a comprehensive summary of Bach's financial situation throughout his life, with extensive reference to primary and secondary sources. It addresses Bach's salary at his various positions, with particular attention to the unstable nature of his Leipzig salary. Heber further details Bach's other sources of income, including payments from legacies and foundations, weddings and funerals, instrument maintenance and other church-related payments, freelance work, organ examinations, guest performances, private music lessons, publications, instrument sales and rentals, and direction of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum. Heber concludes that Bach's total income must have been higher than is often quoted and documents how Bach was regularly paid more than other musicians for doing the same job. Her final consideration of Anna Magdalena Bach's financial state after her husband's death should be read in [End Page 233] conjunction with David Yearsley's treatment of this topic in his Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks.1 In chapter 6, "A Widow's Song," Yearsley provides a detailed analysis of Anna Magdalena's finances after her husband's death, then contextualizes this with a study of contemporary devotional writings and songs (for both church and home) addressing widowhood. In chapters 2–6 of J. S. Bach's Material and Spiritual Treasures, Heber shifts to address Bach's church compositions in the context of Lutheran theology of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Each chapter addresses a different theological aspect related to wealth and poverty, focused on Bach's compositions for a particular liturgical occasion. Chapter 2 explores Jesus's suffering, servanthood, and poverty in relation to five Bach cantatas composed for the three days of Christmas (Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ BWV 91, Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe BWV 197a, part I of the Christmas Oratorio, Christum wir sollen loben schon BWV 121, and Süsser Trost, mein Jesus kömmt BWV 151). Chapter 3 focuses on the potential positive and negative uses of wealth as reflected in three of Bach's cantatas for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht BWV 105, Was frag ich nach der Welt BWV 94, and Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort BWV 168). In chapter 4, Heber then discusses Bach's cantatas for the First Sunday after Trinity (Die Elenden sollen essen BWV 75, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 20, Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot BWV 39), with its Gospel reading narrating Jesus's parable of the rich man and Lazarus and its implications of the eternal consequences of riches and poverty in earthly life. Chapter 5 examines Bach's cantatas related to the story...