Bach: The Conflict Between the Sacred and the Secular

by Leo Schrade

Eminent musician and musical scholar Leo Schrade reflects on Bach and his music.

“UNDERSTANDING AND esteem for Bach’s music have developed in a way not altogether regular. The course of men’s appreciation of Bach has moved back and forth, like the tides. The causes that have set these tides in motion have changed from time to time. Hence we always think we are “discovering” Bach anew. If signs are not wholly deceptive, a new wave seems to be rising here and now. A new historical interpretation may therefore be worthwhile.

Whenever in the past historical explanation has claimed to reveal the most ultimate and profound secrets of Bach’s music, it has been only in the most general terms that the scholar, the historian, the philosophical interpreter have been able to fathom the depths of his work. Its sum and substance have been held to consist in the force of its religious quality, its spiritual power, its profundity of feeling, its abundance of humanity. We accept these terms as entirely appropriate. It seems that all who have a mind for his music draw upon such a terminology to express the ultimate and inexplicable. Such words are nebulous, and always exposed to danger; they are apt to be vague and empty. Their meaning as applied to Bach becomes clear in the light of his own historical context. Was religious quality or intensity of feeling in fact the historical import of Bach and his work? And if so, was it the real force that gave his work its form? If Bach spoke the language of religion, of human depth and feeling, we must learn to understand its significance in terms of his own situation and problems, or else it merely calls forth our subjective and uncontrolled imagination. This is the true task of historical interpretation.”-Introduction.

65 pages, Kindle Edition

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