Markus Rathey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300217209
- eISBN:
- 9780300219517
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300217209.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Every year, Johann Sebastian Bach’s major vocal works are performed to mark liturgical milestones in the Christian calendar. Written by a renowned Bach scholar, this book provides an introduction to ...
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Every year, Johann Sebastian Bach’s major vocal works are performed to mark liturgical milestones in the Christian calendar. Written by a renowned Bach scholar, this book provides an introduction to the music and cultural contexts of the composer’s most beloved masterpieces, including the Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, and St John Passion. In addition to providing historical information, each chapter highlights significant aspects—such as the theology of love—of a particular piece. This book is the first to treat the vocal works as a whole, showing how the compositions were embedded in their original performative context within the liturgy as well as discussing Bach’s musical style, from the detailed level of individual movements to the overarching aspects of each work. The book will appeal to casual concertgoers and scholars alike.Less
Every year, Johann Sebastian Bach’s major vocal works are performed to mark liturgical milestones in the Christian calendar. Written by a renowned Bach scholar, this book provides an introduction to the music and cultural contexts of the composer’s most beloved masterpieces, including the Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, and St John Passion. In addition to providing historical information, each chapter highlights significant aspects—such as the theology of love—of a particular piece. This book is the first to treat the vocal works as a whole, showing how the compositions were embedded in their original performative context within the liturgy as well as discussing Bach’s musical style, from the detailed level of individual movements to the overarching aspects of each work. The book will appeal to casual concertgoers and scholars alike.
Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190200107
- eISBN:
- 9780190200138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190200107.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Franz Schubert died young, and therefore for him the witticism that all of his are ‘early works’ is an appropriate one. Still, can one really subject Schubert’s last works to the aesthetic discussion ...
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Franz Schubert died young, and therefore for him the witticism that all of his are ‘early works’ is an appropriate one. Still, can one really subject Schubert’s last works to the aesthetic discussion of late style? The last works of mature composers such as Bach, Haydn, Beethoven or Schoenberg evince a definable late style solely on chronological grounds, and whether that can be transferred to Schubert is uncertain. Nonetheless there is in Schubert’s work around 1824 a leap in quality, which has led to those features in style which, in the course of music history, have had a growing influence on composers, interpreters and recipients. They will be pursued in depth in the proposed essay, because more important than the question of the adequate naming of this formative style is the recognition that the instrumental and vocal works composed from 1824 onwards represent a turning point which, alongside Beethoven’s late style, belongs to the most historically powerful, compositionally paradigmatic changes of the nineteenth century.Less
Franz Schubert died young, and therefore for him the witticism that all of his are ‘early works’ is an appropriate one. Still, can one really subject Schubert’s last works to the aesthetic discussion of late style? The last works of mature composers such as Bach, Haydn, Beethoven or Schoenberg evince a definable late style solely on chronological grounds, and whether that can be transferred to Schubert is uncertain. Nonetheless there is in Schubert’s work around 1824 a leap in quality, which has led to those features in style which, in the course of music history, have had a growing influence on composers, interpreters and recipients. They will be pursued in depth in the proposed essay, because more important than the question of the adequate naming of this formative style is the recognition that the instrumental and vocal works composed from 1824 onwards represent a turning point which, alongside Beethoven’s late style, belongs to the most historically powerful, compositionally paradigmatic changes of the nineteenth century.
