Mystical Love in the German Baroque

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Publisher : Scarecrow Press
ISBN 13 : 0810861364
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Mystical Love in the German Baroque by : Isabella van Elferen

Download or read book Mystical Love in the German Baroque written by Isabella van Elferen and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mystical Love in the German Baroque: Theology, Poetry, Music identifies the cultural and devotional conventions underlying expressions of mystical love in poetry and music of the German baroque. It sheds new light on the seemingly erotic overtones in settings of the Song of Songs and dialogues between Christ and the faithful soul in late 17th- and early 18th-century cantatas by Heinrich Sch tz, Dieterich Buxtehude, and Johann Sebastian Bach. While these compositions have been interpreted solely as a secularizing tendency within devotional music of the baroque period, Isabella van Elferen demonstrates that they need to be viewed instead as intensifications of the sacred. Based on a wide selection of previously unedited or translated 17th- and 18th-century sources, van Elferen describes the history and development of baroque poetic and musical love discourses, from Sch tz's early works through Buxtehude's cantatas and Bach's cantatas and Passions. This long and multilayered discursive history of these compositions considers the love poetry of Petrarch, European reception of petrarchan imagery and traditions, its effect on the madrigal in Germany, and the role of Catholic medieval mystics in baroque Lutheranism. Van Elferen shows that Bach's compositional technique, based on the emotional characteristics of text and music rather than on the depiction of single words, allows the musical expression of mystical love to correspond closely to contemporary literary and theological conceptions of this affect.

J. S. Bach's 'Leipzig' Chorale Preludes

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Author :
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
ISBN 13 : 0810881829
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis J. S. Bach's 'Leipzig' Chorale Preludes by : Anne Leahy

Download or read book J. S. Bach's 'Leipzig' Chorale Preludes written by Anne Leahy and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2011-10-10 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007, the great Bach scholar Anne Leahy died at the age of 46. She was a leading light in Bach studies and lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Conservatory of Music and Drama. Posthumously edited by renowned Bach scholar Robin A. Leaver, Leahy's dissertation research forms the basis for this original study of the preludes to Bach's Leipzig chorales. Originally composed in Weimar and later revised in Leipzig, Bach's compositions have been a source of some puzzlement. As Leahy notes, "the original intentions of Bach and the possible purpose of this collection might be regarded as speculative." Working from available sources, however, she argues that through the careful examination of the links among the music, hymn texts, and theological sources some answers may be had. From Bach's personal and deep interest in Lutheran theology to his enormous musical passion, Leahy considers closely a series of critical questions: does the original manuscript for the chorales simply reflect a random gathering of compositions or is there a common theme in setting? How critical is the order of the chorales and what is the theological significance of that order? Were the chorales a unified collection, and if so, which parts were to be included and which not? Indeed, were the chorales themselves part of a possibly larger corpus? As Leahy makes evident, there are no simple answers, which is why she considers critical the relationship the texts of the hymns to the chorales and to one another, outlining a theological pattern that is vital to fully grasping the guiding philosophy of these compositions. J. S. Bach's "Leipzig" Chorale Preludes: Music, Text, Theology is ideally suited for Bach scholars and those with a general interest in the intricate connections between text and music in the composition of religious music.

Mary Magdalene in Medieval Culture

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135081921
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Mary Magdalene in Medieval Culture by : Peter Loewen

Download or read book Mary Magdalene in Medieval Culture written by Peter Loewen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative and multidisciplinary collection visits representations and interpretations of Mary Magdalene in the medieval and early modern periods, questioning major scholarly assumptions behind the examination of female saints and their depictions in medieval artworks, literature, and music. Mary Magdalene’s many and various characterizations from reformed prostitute to conversion-figure to devotee of Christ to "apostle to the apostles" to spiritual advisor to the Prince of Marseilles to hermit in the desert, to list just a few examples, mean that the many conflicted representations of Mary Magdalene apply to a staggering variety of cultural material, including art, liturgy, music, literature, theology, hagiography, and the historical record. Furthermore, Mary Magdalene has grown into an extremely popular and controversial figure due to recent books and movies concerning her, and due to a groundswell of general speculation concerning her relationship to Jesus: was she his acquaintance, follower, companion, wife, family-member, or lover? This volume employs a broad spectrum of theoretical methodologies in order to present poststructuralist, postcolonial, postmodernist, hagiographic, and feminist readings of the figure of Mary Magdalene, addressing and interrogating her conflicting roles and the precise relationship between her sacred and secular representations.

Bach Perspectives, Volume 12

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Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252050711
Total Pages : 167 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Bach Perspectives, Volume 12 by : Robin A. Leaver

Download or read book Bach Perspectives, Volume 12 written by Robin A. Leaver and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Johann Sebastian Bach was a Lutheran and much of his music was for Lutheran liturgical worship. As these insightful essays in the twelfth volume of Bach Perspectives demonstrate, he was also influenced by--and in turn influenced--different expressions of religious belief. The vocal music, especially the Christmas Oratorio, owes much to medieval Catholic mysticism, and the evolution of the B minor Mass has strong Catholic connections. In Leipzig, Catholic and Lutheran congregations sang many of the same vernacular hymns. Internal squabbles were rarely missing within Lutheranism, for example Pietists' dislike of concerted church music, especially if it employed specific dance forms. Also investigated here are broader issues such as the close affinity between Bach's cantata libretti and the hymns of Charles Wesley; and Bach's music in the context of the Jewish Enlightenment as shaped by Protestant Rationalism in Berlin. Contributors: Rebecca Cypess, Joyce L. Irwin, Robin A. Leaver, Mark Noll, Markus Rathey, Derek Stauff, and Janice B. Stockigt.

The Word in the Wilderness

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271092599
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis The Word in the Wilderness by : Alexander Lawrence Ames

Download or read book The Word in the Wilderness written by Alexander Lawrence Ames and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-05-13 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once a vibrant part of religious life for many Pennsylvania Germans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Fraktur manuscripts today are primarily studied for their decorative qualities. The Word in the Wilderness takes a different view, probing these documents for what they tell us about the lived religious experiences of the Protestant communities that made and used them and opening avenues for reinterpretation of this well-known, if little understood, set of cultural artifacts. The resplendent illuminated religious manuscripts commonly known as Fraktur have captivated collectors and scholars for generations. Yet fundamental questions about their cultural origins, purpose, and historical significance remain. Alexander Lawrence Ames addresses these by placing Fraktur manuscripts within a “Pietist paradigm,” grounded in an understanding of how their makers viewed “the Word,” or scripture. His analysis combines a sweeping overview of Protestant Christian religious movements in Europe and early America with close analysis of key Pennsylvania devotional manuscripts, revealing novel insights into the religious utility of calligraphy, manuscript illumination, and devotional reading as Protestant spiritual enterprises. Situating the manuscripts in the context of transatlantic religious history, early American spirituality, material culture studies, and the history of book and manuscript production, Ames challenges long-held approaches to Pennsylvania German studies and urges scholars to engage with these texts and with their makers and users on their own terms. Featuring dozens of illustrations, this lively, engaging book will appeal to Fraktur scholars and enthusiasts, historians of early America, and anyone interested in the material culture and spiritual practices of the German-speaking residents of Pennsylvania.

Popular Ghosts

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Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1441164014
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

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Book Synopsis Popular Ghosts by : Maria del Pilar Blanco

Download or read book Popular Ghosts written by Maria del Pilar Blanco and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Located in the ambivalent realm between life and death, ghosts have always inspired cultural fascination as well as theoretical consideration.

Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498554962
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach by : Mark A. Peters

Download or read book Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach written by Mark A. Peters and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-06 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach collects seventeen essays by leading Bach scholars. The authors each address in some way such questions of meaning in J. S. Bach’s vocal compositions—including his Passions, Masses, Magnificat, and cantatas—with particular attention to how such meaning arises out of the intentionality of Bach’s own compositional choices or (in Part IV in particular) how meaning is discovered, and created, through the reception of Bach’s vocal works. And the authors do not consider such compositional choices in a vacuum, but rather discuss Bach’s artistic intentions within the framework of broader cultural trends—social, historical, theological, musical, etc. Such questions of compositional choice and meaning frame the four primary approaches to Bach’s vocal music taken by the authors in this volume, as seen across the book’s four parts: Part I: How might the study of historical theology inform our understanding of Bach’s compositional choices in his music for the church (cantatas, Passions, masses)? Part II: How can we apply traditional analytical tools to understand better how Bach’s compositions were created and how they might have been heard by his contemporaries? Part III: What we can understand anew through the study of Bach’s self-borrowing (i.e., parody), which always changed the earlier meaning of a composition through changes in textual content, compositional characteristics, the work’s context within a larger composition, and often the performance context (from court to church, for example)? Part IV: What can the study of reception teach us about a work’s meaning(s) in Bach’s time, during the time of his immediate successors, and at various points since then (including our present)? The chapters in this volume thus reflect the breadth of current Bach research in its attention not only to source study and analysis, but also to meanings and contexts for understanding Bach’s compositions.

Bach Studies

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000343537
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis Bach Studies by : Robin A. Leaver

Download or read book Bach Studies written by Robin A. Leaver and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume draws together a collection of Robin A. Leaver’s essays on Bach’s sacred music, exploring the religious aspects of this repertoire through consideration of three core themes: liturgy, hymnology, and theology. Rooted in a rich understanding of the historical sources, the book illuminates the varied ways in which Bach’s sacred music was informed and shaped by the religious, ritual, and intellectual contexts of his time, placing these works in the wider history of Protestant church music during the Baroque era. Including research from across a span of forty years, the chapters in this volume have been significantly revised and expanded for this publication, with several pieces appearing in English for the first time. Together, they offer an essential compendium of the work of a leading scholar of theological Bach studies.

Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film

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Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786487240
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film by : Regina Hansen

Download or read book Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film written by Regina Hansen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intersection of religious practice and theatricality has long been a subject of interest to scholars. This collection of twenty-two critical essays addresses the relationship between Roman Catholicism and films of the fantastic, which includes the genres of fantasy, horror, science fiction and the supernatural. The collection covers a range of North American and European films from Dracula and other vampire movies to Miracle at Fatima, The Exorcist, Danny Boyle's Millions, The Others, Maurice Pialat's Sous le Soleil de Satan, the movies of Terry Gilliam and George Romero's zombie series. Collectively, these essays reveal the durability and thematic versality of what the authors term the "Catholic fantastic."

Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190275251
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio by : Markus Rathey

Download or read book Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio written by Markus Rathey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last decades of the 17th century, the feast of Christmas in Lutheran Germany underwent a major transformation when theologians and local governments waged an early modern "war on Christmas," discouraging riotous pageants and carnivalesque rituals in favor of more personal and internalized expressions of piety. Christmas rituals, such as the "Heilig Christ" plays and the rocking of the child (Kindelwiegen) were abolished, and Christian devotion focused increasingly on the metaphor of a birth of Christ in the human heart. John Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio, composed in 1734, both reflects this new piety and conveys the composer's experience living through this tumult during his own childhood and early career. Markus Rathey's book is the first thorough study of this popular masterpiece in English. While giving a comprehensive overview of the Christmas Oratorio as a whole, the book focuses on two themes in particular: the cultural and theological understanding of Christmas in Bach's time and the compositional process that led Bach from the earliest concepts to the completed piece. The cultural and religious context of the oratorio provides the backdrop for Rathey's detailed analysis of the composition, in which he explores Bach's compositional practices, for example, his reuse and parodies of movements that had originally been composed for secular cantatas. The book analyzes Bach's original score and sheds new light on the way Bach wrote the piece, how he shaped musical themes, and how he revised his initial ideas into the final composition.

Theology, Music, and Modernity

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192585703
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis Theology, Music, and Modernity by : Jeremy Begbie

Download or read book Theology, Music, and Modernity written by Jeremy Begbie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theology, Music, and Modernity addresses the question: how can the study of music contribute to a theological reading of modernity? It has grown out of the conviction that music has often been ignored in narrations of modernity's theological struggles. Featuring contributions from an international team of distinguished theologians, musicologists, and music theorists, the volume shows how music—and discourse about music—has remarkable powers to bring to light the theological currents that have shaped modern culture. It focuses on the concept of freedom, concentrating on the years 1740-1850, a period when freedom—especially religious and political freedom-became a burning matter of concern in virtually every stratum of Western society. The collection is divided into four sections, each section focusing on a key phenomenon of this period—the rise of the concept of 'revolutionary' freedom; the move of music from church to concert hall; the cry for eschatological justice in the work of black hymn-writer and church leader Richard Allen; and the often fierce tensions between music and language. There is a particular concern to draw on a distinctively 'Scriptural imagination' (especially the theme of New Creation) in order to elicit the key issues at stake, and to suggest constructive ways forward for a contemporary Christian theological engagement with the legacies of modernity today.

Bach's Major Vocal Works

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 030021720X
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Bach's Major Vocal Works by : Markus Rathey

Download or read book Bach's Major Vocal Works written by Markus Rathey and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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 concise and accessible 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 penetrating volume 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. Published in the approach to Easter when many of these vocal works are performed, this outstanding volume will appeal to casual concertgoers and scholars alike." -- Publisher's description

Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317092503
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond by : Mark Fitzgerald

Download or read book Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond written by Mark Fitzgerald and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond represents the first interdisciplinary volume of chapters on an intricate cultural field that can be experienced and interpreted in manifold ways, whether in Ireland (The Republic of Ireland and/or Northern Ireland), among its diaspora(s), or further afield. While each contributor addresses particular themes viewed from discrete perspectives, collectively the book contemplates whether ’music in Ireland’ can be regarded as one interrelated plane of cultural and/or national identity, given the various conceptions and contexts of both Ireland (geographical, political, diasporic, mythical) and Music (including a proliferation of practices and genres) that give rise to multiple sites of identification. Arranged in the relatively distinct yet interweaving parts of ’Historical Perspectives’, ’Recent and Contemporary Production’ and ’Cultural Explorations’, its various chapters act to juxtapose the socio-historical distinctions between the major style categories most typically associated with music in Ireland - traditional, classical and popular - and to explore a range of dialectical relationships between these musical styles in matters pertaining to national and cultural identity. The book includes a number of chapters that examine various movements (and ’moments’) of traditional music revival from the late eighteenth century to the present day, as well as chapters that tease out various issues of national identity pertaining to individual composers/performers (art music, popular music) and their audiences. Many chapters in the volume consider mediating influences (infrastructural, technological, political) and/or social categories (class, gender, religion, ethnicity, race, age) in the interpretation of music production and consumption. Performers and composers discussed include U2, Raymond Deane, Afro-Celt Sound System, E.J. Moeran, Séamus Ennis, Kevin O’Connell, Stiff Little Fingers, Frederick May, Arnold

Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond

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Author :
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1472409663
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (724 download)

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Book Synopsis Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond by : Dr Mark Fitzgerald

Download or read book Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond written by Dr Mark Fitzgerald and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-06-17 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary volume of essays contemplates whether ‘music in Ireland’ can be regarded as one interrelated plane of cultural and/or national identity, given the various conceptions and contexts of both Ireland and Music that give rise to multiple sites of identification. Arranged in interweaving sections of ‘Historical Perspectives’, ‘Recent and Contemporary Production’ and ‘Cultural Explorations’ its various chapters act to juxtapose the socio-historical distinctions between the major style categories - traditional, classical and popular - and to explore a range of dialectical relationship(s) between these musical styles in matters pertaining to national and cultural identity.

Music in the Flesh

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Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226826880
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Music in the Flesh by : Bettina Varwig

Download or read book Music in the Flesh written by Bettina Varwig and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-08-04 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Music in the Flesh reimagines the lived experiences of music-making subjects (composers, musicians, listeners) in the long European seventeenth century. There are countless historical testimonies of the powerful effects of music upon early-modern bodies, described as moving, ravishing, painful, dangerous, curative, miraculous, and encompassing "the circulation of the humors, purification of the blood, dilation of the vessels and pores. In asking what this all meant at the time, the author considers musical scores and their surrounding texts as "somatic scripts" that afford a range of somatic actions and reactions and can give us a glimpse into the historical embodied experience of organized sound. Starting from the Lutheran hymns and their accompanying intellectual traditions and ritual practices in German-speaking lands, the book moves with ease across repertories and regions, sacred and vernacular musics, domestic and public settings in order to sketch a "physiology of music" that is as historically illuminating as it is relevant for present-day performing practices and that sheds unprecedented light on how subjectivity was embodied through sound in early-modern Europe"--

Pro Ecclesia Vol 27-N4

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 153811402X
Total Pages : 129 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis Pro Ecclesia Vol 27-N4 by : Pro Ecclesia

Download or read book Pro Ecclesia Vol 27-N4 written by Pro Ecclesia and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-11-14 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pro Ecclesia is a quarterly journal of theology published by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.

Tears into Wine

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190272961
Total Pages : 632 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Tears into Wine by : Eric Chafe

Download or read book Tears into Wine written by Eric Chafe and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1714, the 29 year-old Johann Sebastian Bach was promoted to the position of concertmaster at the ducal court of Weimar. This post required him for the first time in his already established career to produce a regular stream of church cantatas-one cantata every four weeks. Among the most significant works of this period is Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis in meinem Herzen (Cantata 21). Generally known in English as "I had much affliction," Cantata 21 draws from several psalms and the Book of Revelations and offers a depiction of the spiritual ascent of the soul from intense tribulation to joy and exaltation. Although widely performed and loved by musicians, Cantata 21 has endured much criticism from scholars and critics who claim that the piece lacks organizational clarity and stylistic coherence. In Tears into Wine, renowned Bach scholar Eric Chafe challenges the scholarly consensus, arguing that Cantata 21 is an exceptionally carefully designed work, and that it displays a convergence of musical structure and theological purpose that is paradigmatic of Bach's sacred work as a whole. Drawing on a wide range of Lutheran theological writing, Chafe shows that Cantata 21 reaches beyond the scope of the individual liturgical occasion to voice a breadth of meaning that encompasses much of the core of Lutheran thought. Chafe artfully demonstrates that instead of simply presenting a musical depiction of the soul's journey from sorrow to bliss, Cantata 21 expresses the various stages of God's revelation and their impact on the believing soul. As a result, Chafe reveals that Cantata 21 has a formal design that mirrors Lutheran belief in unfolding revelation, with the final movement representing the work's "crown"--the goal toward which all of the earlier movements are directed. Complete with full text translations of the cantata and the liturgical readings that would have accompanied it at the first performance, Tears into Wine is a monumental book that is ideally suited for Bach scholars and students, as well as those generally interested in the relationship between theology and music.