Status Updates From Bach: Musik für die Himmels...

In September 1742 Bach, aged 57, bought a deluxe edition of Martin Luther’s complete works in seven volumes.

Bach wrote this for someone’s funeral while in his 20s…possibly right after writing Christ Lag.
Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit BWV 106
Gods time is the best of times

Put Christ Lag in Todes Banden BWV 4 on Bach favs

Handel Dixit Dominus mvmt 8. Wow.
De torrente in…

Page 139 and 140 worth reading again and again. Powerful stuff.

This book is really dense...

Christ lag in Todesbanden" is a seven-stanza Easter hymn written by Martin Luther in 1524, famously set as a chorale cantata (BWV 4) by J.S. Bach. The hymn focuses on Christ's victory over death and the liberation from sin, moving from the sorrow of death to the joy of resurrection.

Wartburg Castle and Johann Sebastian Bach are both iconic cultural treasures centered around the city of Eisenach, Germany. While the medieval Wartburg Castle is famous as Martin Luther's hiding place, Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685 and spent his early years there. Wiki

This book is dense.

John Eliot Gardiner - Bach - Music in the Castle of Heaven - 2014 Audible: 21:43 Hours - Narrator: Antony Ferguson
And Kindle: 599 Pages
Commenced: March 14, 2026
Heard: 05:02 Hours - Balance: 16:52 Hours - Read: 125 pages - 21%
Reading Kindle on iPad while listening to the audiobook, with gentle Bach music playing softly background, of course!

Wiki: Heinrich Schütz 1585[1] – 6 November 1672[2]) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He is credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque.

Recitar cantando ("speaking in song") is a 17th-century Italian singing style that blends dramatic speech with melody. Developed in Florence, this monody (single voice with accompaniment) prioritized emotional text delivery over complex polyphony, forming the foundation of early opera. It was perfected by composers like Claudio Monteverdi

Three musicians of immense future distinction turned 18 in 1703: Domenico Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel.