Bach: The Conflict Between the Sacred and the Secular

by Leo Schrade

Reprinted from Journal of the History of Ideas, April 1946, Vol VII, n. 2 Dedica e firma autografe dell'Autore (Inscribed and signed by the Author). 8vo pp. da 151 a 194 Brossura (wrappers) Bruniture e macchie leggere in copertina (Some light browning and spotting) Buono (Good)

135 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1946

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating essay about the character of Bach's music. It explores how Bach was a very spiritual person and wrong an unbelievable volume of fantastic religious music (especially the unsurpassable Passion of Saint-John!) but also - especially when he was in Cöthen - lots of secular music. It is interesting to not that back then, musicians were really 3rd class citizens unless they got the BIG job of capelmeister (Chapel Master) for either a court (like Bach was at Cöthen) or for a cathedral (or cathedral/school as was the case at the Thomaskirk in Leipzig for the last period of his life) and the duties of a capelmeister left little time for personal expression because it was almost a 24/7 job composing music for court events (weddings, baptisms, name days, etc) or for church (services, feast days, holidays, major masses, etc). That is one of the most astonishing things about Bach is that despite all these limitations, he did achieve his goal of a "well-organised church music" but also created a canon of some of the greatest pieces of music for piano (Goldberg and Well-Tempered but also the French and English suites) and for Cello (the magnificent Cello Suites) but also incredibly complex pieces like The Musical Offering that was non-religious as well (it was "offered" to Frederick the Great (see the book Midnight at the Palace of Reason for the story). This is not the greatest book on Bach and is probably more for the specialist but nonetheless exposes a very interesting side of this greatest of all composers (IMHO of course).

[James Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prob gotta read this again