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The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos / Michael Marissen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [1999]Copyright date: ©1995Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (168 p.) : 5 music examplesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691006864
  • 9781400821655
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 784.24092
LOC classification:
  • ML410 .B13 M27 2001
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- INTRODUCTION. Bach's Musical Contexts -- CHAPTER ONE. Relationships between Scoring and Structure in Individual Concertos -- CHAPTER TWO. The Six Concertos as a Set -- CHAPTER THREE. Lutheran Belief and Bach's Music -- Appendix 1. Text-Critical Notes on Early Copies of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto -- Appendix 2. Notes on Bach's Notation of the Gamba Parts in the Margrave of Brandenburg's Dedication Score -- Works Cited -- Index
Summary: This new investigation of the Brandenburg Concertos explores musical, social, and religious implications of Bach's treatment of eighteenth-century musical hierarchies. By reference to contemporary music theory, to alternate notions of the meaning of "concerto," and to various eighteenth-century conventions of form and instrumentation, the book argues that the Brandenburg Concertos are better understood not as an arbitrary collection of unrelated examples of "pure" instrumental music, but rather as a carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set. It shows how Bach's concertos challenge (as opposed to reflect) existing musical and social hierarchies. Careful consideration of Lutheran theology and Bach's documented understanding of it reveals, however, that his music should not be understood to call for progressive political action. One important message of Lutheranism, and, in this interpretation, of Bach's concertos, is that in the next world, the heavenly one, the hierarchies of the present world will no longer be necessary. Bach's music more likely instructs its listeners how to think about and spiritually cope with contemporary hierarchies than how to act upon them. In this sense, contrary to currently accepted views, Bach's concertos share with his extensive output of vocal music for the Lutheran liturgy an essentially religious character.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- INTRODUCTION. Bach's Musical Contexts -- CHAPTER ONE. Relationships between Scoring and Structure in Individual Concertos -- CHAPTER TWO. The Six Concertos as a Set -- CHAPTER THREE. Lutheran Belief and Bach's Music -- Appendix 1. Text-Critical Notes on Early Copies of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto -- Appendix 2. Notes on Bach's Notation of the Gamba Parts in the Margrave of Brandenburg's Dedication Score -- Works Cited -- Index

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This new investigation of the Brandenburg Concertos explores musical, social, and religious implications of Bach's treatment of eighteenth-century musical hierarchies. By reference to contemporary music theory, to alternate notions of the meaning of "concerto," and to various eighteenth-century conventions of form and instrumentation, the book argues that the Brandenburg Concertos are better understood not as an arbitrary collection of unrelated examples of "pure" instrumental music, but rather as a carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set. It shows how Bach's concertos challenge (as opposed to reflect) existing musical and social hierarchies. Careful consideration of Lutheran theology and Bach's documented understanding of it reveals, however, that his music should not be understood to call for progressive political action. One important message of Lutheranism, and, in this interpretation, of Bach's concertos, is that in the next world, the heavenly one, the hierarchies of the present world will no longer be necessary. Bach's music more likely instructs its listeners how to think about and spiritually cope with contemporary hierarchies than how to act upon them. In this sense, contrary to currently accepted views, Bach's concertos share with his extensive output of vocal music for the Lutheran liturgy an essentially religious character.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)