Bach and his secular cantatas: a case study.

At the age of seventeen Johann Sebastian Bach composed two keyboard pieces as tributes to people who were beloved by him in his comparatively young life. With one, the Capriccio on the Departure of the Beloved Brother. Bach likely intended to recognize a schoolmate by the name of Georg Erdmann, and with the other, Capriccio in Honor of Johann Christoph Bach, he acknowledged his elder brother who both fostered Sebastian in Ohrdruf and was his first keyboard teacher. (1)

These two pieces are some of the first, if not the first, musical gestures that come from the composer's pen. They are certainly not the last. Seventeen years before his death in 1733 Bach sent a letter of fealty with music for a newly written Missa (Kyrie and Gloria) to Elector Friedrich August II in Dresden, the successor of August I after the latter's death a few months earlier. In the letter Bach wrote:

To Your Royal Highness I submit in deepest devotion the present slight labor of that knowledge which I have achieved in musique, with the most wholly submissive prayer that Your Highness will look upon it with Most Gracious Eyes, according to Your Highness's World-Famous Clemency and not according to the poor composition; ... grant me the favor of conferring upon me a title of Your Highness's Court Capella. (2)

The title didn't arrive until three years later, and the Missa, composed to honor the Elector (and to prompt a longed-for title), turned out to be the core of the famous b-minor Mass that Bach assembled during the last few years of his life.

Learning how and when to attach the names of specific individuals to compositions seems to have been a part of the curriculum at the time for would-be composers. Dedications and the bestowal of musical tokens were common to Bach's generation even as they were expected from court composers of preceding generations. A newly minted composition was the perfect token of affection for one's patron, even as it might serve to observe a birthday, a wedding, a funeral, the election of new officials, the dedication of an organ, the consecration of a church, or, as in the case of Bach, the visit of the Elector to Leipzig. It is clear from Bach's own attempt that not all dedications derived from completely altruistic motives. In any event, the music as audible sign worked well in the culture to confer a sense of importance upon an individual or event.

Nor did the practice go out of style. Brahms gestured appreciation with his Academic Overture and Beethoven composed the three "Rasumovsky Quartets" in order to honor Count Rasumovsky, the Russian Ambassador to Vienna. To bring this closer to home, the 1989 hymn "So Much to Sing About," with text by Jaroslav Pelikan and tune by Paul Weber, honored Paul Manz on his 70th birthday, and the Te Deum of Daniel Kallman honored former LSTC president William Lesher.

Fragments, references, and actual scores indicate that Bach wrote at least fifty cantatalike pieces during his lifetime that utilize nonliturgical texts, about a fifth of his total extant cantata output. They fall into various categories: (1) Festival Music for courts, (2) Festival Music for the court at Cothen, (3) Italian solo cantatas, (4) Festival Music for the University of Leipzig and other school celebrations, (5) Wedding Music, (6) Works for common occasions, (7) Music of Homage, and (8) Festival Music for the Elector of Saxony. (3)

In most cases the individual or event being feted is either indicated or easily inferred. For a few of these works the identity of the person is elusive. One such piece is Cantata 36c (the c is explained below), Schwingtfreudig euch empor, written in 1725 for the birthday of a "dear teacher" presumably from the University or another school in Leipzig. There have been several attempts to identify this dear teacher, but the person honored remains unknown at this point. In the fourth movement of the cantata (4) the librettist--probably Christian Friedrich Henrici, also known as Picander--writes that the honoree is worthy to wear the "silver decoration," Presumably the gray hair that adorns his age.

Today's dear teachers or dear professors find various ways to let their hair signal the honor that comes with experience. Nevertheless, this nameless musical homage of Bach presents an opportunity to connect the cantata with my dear colleague Ralph Klein (without trying to time-machine him back to the eighteenth century!), both imagining an actual audible tribute while at the same time providing a chance here to contextualize the work and to address questions about Bach and his involvement with what many have called secular music.

Cantata 36--A work in progress

Cantata 36 is known in five different incarnations, an indication perhaps that Bach was very fond of this piece. The first of these (36c) consists of nine movements: three arias, each with its own preceding recitative, framed by two choruses, the last itself introduced with a brief recitative. In 1726 Bach had his librettist Picander redo the text slightly (36a, Steigt freudig in die Luft) in order to use the work for the birthday of Princess Charlotte Frederike Wilhelmine of Anhalt-Cothen. Then, about ten years later in 1735, the text was reworked again (36b, Die Freude reget sich) for the birthday of University professor Johann Florens Rivinus.

Sometime between 1726 and 1730 Bach used some of the musical material from these various versions in order to create a five-movement Advent cantata (36-Kirnberger). The title of this liturgical work remained the same as 36c, the unknown librettist easily drawing on the birthday themes to shape a text anticipating the birth of Christ. For this new Advent cantata the librettist chose from the 1725 version the first chorus (music is identical) and all three arias (without their accompanying recitatives) and added a closing chorale. Of course, except for the chorale the text was new, though clearly inspired by the older text. Still Bach was not done with the cantata. In 1731 he expanded it into a two-part work (36) by adding two more chorale stanzas, one of which is quite elaborate, and involving the use of an additional oboe d' amour.

It is worth noting that for each of these incarnations the composer kept the music of the first chorus almost intact. He did the same for two of the three arias, although some textual revisions occasioned by the new honoree necessitated here and there some related changes in musical phrasing. The second aria underwent more large-scale remodeling for the liturgical version of the work. Assuming that larger revisions reflect some deliberation, we will want to probe Bach's attention to this second aria.

Perceptions of parody in Cantata 36 and beyond

Tracing the evolution of the 1731 version of Cantata 36 brings one to Bach's use of a composing technique called parody. In the broad musical spectrum parody refers to three different practices. First, the term denotes the incorporation of a part of or an entire existing work (often a secular motet, madrigal, or chanson) into a new composition. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries this was a favorite way to construct a mass setting, requiring of the composer only the task of retexting older music. Those who employed this method had to be prepared for ecclesiastical criticism, especially if the incorporated piece was well known and distracting via its remembered original text.

Second, parody refers to the long-standing craft of adopting a musical style or piece for purposes of humor or satire. Rebecca Wagner Oettinger released an astonishing collection of parodied songs used as propaganda during the German Reformation. She cites the very popular Judaslied, itself based on a fourteenth-century Latin hymn used on Good Friday and then expanded to include stanzas addressed to Mary as well as Judas. Later still during the Reformation an anonymous author, using the Judaslied (O, du armer Judas) as model, constructed a twenty-four-stanza diatribe against Duke Moritz of Saxony titled O du armer Moritz. (5) More than four hundred years later parody of this kind inspired the popular 1950s London music concerts called the Hoffnung Festivals, during which the likes of virtuoso Dennis Brain, for instance, would play the Mozart Hoern Concerto on a piece of garden hose. Bach too employed this version of parody when he poked fun at the social status of various characters in his Peasant Cantata through the use of culture-bound musical styles.

Finally, parody designates the common eighteenth-century practice of constructing a new poem based on an existing model. Should that older poem be set to music, changes to the music made necessary by the new text are also considered to be parody. It is this final version of parody that fits the processes accompanying the evolution of Cantata 36.

Our birthday piece for a "dear professor" turns out to be one among many in this respect. Martin Geek has recently suggested that at least a quarter of all the vocal works of Bach are in one way or another a result of the parody process. (6) That suggests that any admirer of Bach needs to come to terms with the fact that beloved pieces such as the Easter Oratorio or the Christmas Oratorio contain large parodied sections. For the latter work it has been suggested that the three "secular" cantatas from which Bach used music were in fact conceived with the parody process in mind.

One example from Cantata 36 can serve to illustrate how the process works. In the second aria of 36c, the bass soloist sings:

Der Tag, der dich vordem gebar,

The day which gave birth to you in days past

Stellt sich vor uns so heilsam dar

Stands for us as salutary

Als jener, da der Schopfer spricht:

As the one on which the creator said:

Es werde Licht!

Let there be light!

In the parody, Cantata 36, the bass sings:

Willkommen, werter Schatz!

Welcome, worthy treasure!

Die Lieb und Glaube machet Platz

Love and faith make room

Vor dich in meinem Herzen rein,

For you in my pure heart.

Zieh bei mir ein!

Move in with me!

The syllabic scheme for 36c is 8 8 8 4, and that for 36 is 6 8 8 4. With the schematic alteration one might think the parody will create some major difficulties for the composer should he want to use the same music. Bach, demonstrating his talent, deftly connects notes of the melodic line in such a way that text and music for the parody seem to fit perfectly together. Further examination of the model and its parody reveals that the newer version has ten more measures than 36c. The extra measures occur in two places, both housing the second and third lines of text. A closer look at the extra measures reveals that he has rewritten the solo line to exclude a high F# (perhaps accommodating a different soloist) and, more significantly, that he has redesigned the figured bass (the compositional foundation) while adorning it with new material in all the parts. The revisions add additional interest compared with the model. In light of this cantata's other arias that he reused with very little alteration, this particular movement stands out as favored.

To see Bach at work revising his own material is instructive by itself, but even more interesting is to ask the question: What prompted the new material?

Any answer is conjecture, but surely the new text is, in comparison, far more significant to its home, the total libretto, than the aria of 36c is to its own home. Again and again in the Christmas works of Bach (in the first part of the Christmas Oratorio and in Cantata 91, for instance) the plea for the baby Jesus to reside in the believer's heart is the central message for the listener. In order for Bach to carry that theme into Cantata 36 he may have been moved to add a few measures for purposes of emphasis.

When Bach employed the parody technique he apparently acted out of deliberated principles. In the 1950s, scholars Georg von Dadelsen and Alfred Durr independently determined that the traditional chronology of the entire Bach output required revision. One of the ripples from this academic splash clarified the extent of the parody process for Bach and the directions it took. Not only did he retext nonliturgical music with poetry meant for churchly use, as was the case with Cantata 36, but he also found ways to use new "sacred" text for pieces that were from the first conceived as liturgical works. In the b-minor Mass, for instance. Bach uses the same music for the Gloria text Gratias agimus tibi and the Dona nobis pacem of the Agnus Dei.

Occurrences of parody in his works reveal some patterns. One of these is noteworthy: Bach felt free to borrow liberally from nonliturgical works for other nonliturgical works or for liturgical works, but there is no extant example of the opposite direction, that is, the use of liturgical music for nonliturgical music. Unlike his contemporary George Frederick Handel, who borrowed from himself regularly and who had no apparent problem with moving music in any direction. Bach seems to have had an unspoken hesitancy to construct a "secular" piece from his own liturgical output.

In his very recent biography of Bach, Peter Williams ventures several reasons for Bach's behavior in this respect. (7) Strongest among them are Bach's nod to existing convention (but then what about Handel?), a sense on Bach's part that some things simply were not appropriate, and recognition of the difference between one-time usage and the element of repetition endemic to the liturgical works. Williams seems to suggest that in the latter case parody and model would always be in people's memory generating a certain confusion with respect to both.

Bach and the secular

Parody process is a compositional issue; when questions are asked about motivations behind the process, the issue migrates to a theoretical level that becomes entangled with assumptions about the composer's psyche and sense of vocation, often mixed together with biographical valuations projected from other times and circumstances. Answers to questions concerning Bach's motivations behind his parody practice hover about two poles. The fields of each pole are energized by a late-nineteenth-century tendency toward distinguishing portions of his repertoire. His influential biographer Phillip Spitta was one of the first to spell out these inclinations. (8) In his widely read work he identified the nonliturgical cantatas as weltlich (worldly or secular) while the remaining cantatas he considered to be geistlich (sacred). (9) As we will see, the bifurcation that such a term introduces only serves to complicate the parody issue. But the appellations persist.

Those who are attracted to one or the other of the poles hold on to basic assumptions. To one side are those who hold Bach in high esteem, elevating him to a kind of patron saint for church musicians, attributing to him a near priestlike gift for dispensing sacred music at its best, romanticizing his life by dwelling on the anecdotes that showed genius in the face of great odds (such as copying music by moonlight) and by exaggerating his European superiority. From this exuberance came the notion of Bach as the Fifth Evangelist. Not as influential as Spitta but nevertheless one who felt himself pulled by Bach's churchly output was Wilhelm Rust, one of the editors of the first critical edition of Bach's works. Struggling midcentury with the two repertoires of cantatas, he solved the issue for himself by suggesting that Bach must have composed the nonliturgical cantatas merely as a step toward their finished sacred state. Spitta, who was more reasoned about the composer, nevertheless concluded similarly that the secular cantatas simply could not have been very successful since Bach's church work was "his own special province [and] pervaded all he undertook". (10) Feeling the necessity to choose between the sacred and the secular, both authors, typical of a powerful trend, sided with the churchly.

The other pole draws a more skeptical gathering that focuses on Bach's sense of vocation, or, rather, his seemingly conflicted sense of vocation. In 1963 Friedrich Blume (now famously) proposed that the fuss over Bach's faith, piety, and commitment to the church needed to be tempered by a more realistic understanding of his dedication to music in general, his apparent vocational crisis around 1730, and his persistent desire for acknowledgment and rank. (11) Subsequently Blume's specific conclusions were challenged, though recently there has been a new call for a more balanced view of Bach's commitments. In a study of politics in Bach's Leipzig, Ulrich Siegele has alerted us to Bach's official titles for his Leipzig position, suggesting that Bach was caught between factions among the city's elders. One group viewed him as more of a city Kappelmeister, or general head of all music in the city. (12) The other understood his vocation to be that of the Kantor, or church musician. Siegele cautions that Bach acted as if he desired to be the Kappelmeister. In the same vein, Martin Geck thinks Bach moved from a narrow Christian outlook toward a more humanistic posture during the last decades of his life. (13)

With that, the bystander who desires fairness is invited into a personality pictured as one who moves from one phase of life to another, and then to another, now invested in the sacred and then in the secular. Just as with the demigod makers, sacred/secular bifurcation results in a kind of schizophrenia that is not only uncomfortable but possibly oblivious to other factors.

Bach, the Lutheran

While at St. Michael's school in Luneburg Bach the mid-to late teen learned his Lutheran systematic theology from the Compendium Locorum of Leonhard Hutter. It was a popular book, used also in Leipzig while he was at St. Thomas. Article XXVII of this hefty catechism deals with civil authority and civil affairs. The fourth question in the section asks: "The Gospel, then, does not abolish civil constitutions?" Hutter the author responds:

No: for the Gospel treats of the kingdom of Christ, which is spiritual, and begets faith, piety, love, and patience in our hearts .... As long as this life lasts, it nevertheless permits us to make use of the laws, the order, and the classes of society, which exist in the world, according to every one's calling, just as it permits us to use medicine, to build and plant, to use air, water, etc. (14)

Presumably this embracing view of life shaped Bach's very being. At the heart of Lutheran teaching lies the sanctity of every person's vocation, a lesson Luther never tired of providing: "A cobbler, a smith, a peasant--each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops." (15) Within the Lutheran scheme of things one need not separate out the "sacred" from the "secular." Life should be experienced as a whole, faith propelling every facet.

Just as Bach moved freely between the stile antico (the earlier Renaissance style of polyphony) and the stile moderno (the Italian and French Baroque compositional style), showing his prowess in both, so he likely found no disparity between what was called by subsequent generations the sacred and secular. Instead his formation as a Lutheran asked of him to encircle every aspect of life as gift of God.

It is time, then, to jettison the notions of sacred and secular, because they come laden with time-bound baggage and emphasize the necessity of making choices between what is churchly and what is not. Reading such categories back into the life of Bach blur our understanding of him. More helpful would it be to imagine him joyfully embracing all kinds of music, trying his hand at every idiom available, and enjoying good fun along with the rest of the citizens gathered at the local coffee house for outdoor musical experiences. Chances are he understood also that to be a part of his vocation along with writing music for the liturgy.

In 1754, four years after Bach's death, Lorenz christoph Mizler published an obituary of the composer, known also as the Nekrolog, in which he quoted liberally from information provided by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, Sebastian's most famous son. Tabulating his father's works, Emmanuel sorted the compositions into two categories: items that had been published and items not published. In the latter division there are sixteen subcategories, the first of which is Funf Jahrgange von Kirchenstucken, auf alle Sonn-und Festtage (Five yearly cycles of church pieces for every Sunday and Feast Day); the second is Viele Oratorien, Messen, Magnificant, einzelne Sanctus, Dramata, Serenaden, Ge-burts-Nammenstags, and Tranermusiken. Braiitmessen, auch einigen komische Singstucke (Many oratorios, masses, a Magnificat, a single Sanctus, dramas, serenades, birthday and name-day [pieces], and music for mourning, weddings, and a comic piece for singing). (16)

Worth notice is Emmanuel's way of thinking about these diverse works. On the one hand he lumps together the five cycles of cantatas, probably recognizing a corpus of works that can be repeated on a regular basis. By contrast, a second subcategory includes all kinds of pieces (a Sanctus together with a comic piece for singing, for example) the unique character of which seems to be their occasional usage.

Would not this kind of differentiation be a better way to think about the total repertoire? Just as the church has a calendar that is designed to be repeated, just as it also has a series of occasions, lesser festivals, and commemorations that are available for intermittent use, so it will benefit us, perhaps instruct us, when we think of Bach as provider of music for regulated use and music for occasions. There is nothing sacred or secular about any of it. Instead the musical legacy of Bach is the product of a person who understood that all his music making was a singular vocation, even burdened as it was with the political dynamics of leading and managing musical organizations.

The extended happy birthday for a dear teacher, complete with its lightheartedness and levity, provided Bach and others an opportunity to hold up a friend and colleague as a gift from God. That was possible apart from the formality of liturgy, but certainly no less "holy."

Dear Professor Klein has elicited the laughter of his colleagues and students for many years. Humor, laughter, and levity are the play dough of his most serious and insightful building up of the Body of Christ. His vocation is singular. He wears the silver decoration of age with honor and acclaim. He is Bachian to the core.

Kantate 36c                                   Cantata 36c

Schwingt freudig euch empor           Soar Joyfully Upwards

1.Schwingt freudig euch empor    1. Soar joyfully upwards and press
und drangt bis an die Sternen.   on to the stars.

Ihr Wunsche, bis euch Gott vor   You desires, till God sees you
seinem Throne sieht!             before the throne.

Doch, haltet ein! Ein Herz darf  Yet, cease! A heart need not wander
sich nicht weit entfernen.       far

Der Dankbarkeit und Pflicht zu   To extend gratitude and duty to its
seinem Lehrer zieht.             professor.

2. Recitativo                    2. Recitative

Ein Herz, in zartlichem          A heart, with sweet sentiment
Empfinden,

So ihm viel tausend Lust         So awakens for itself desires a
erweckt,                         thousand-fold;

Kann sich fast nicht im sein     It can barely find itself amidst its
Vergnugen finden,                delight,

Da ihm die Hoffnung immer mehr   Since hope detects always more for
entdeckt.                        it.

Es steiget wie ein helles        The glow of devotion, as a bright light
Licht

Der Andacht Glut im Gottes       Rises to God's sanctuary;
Heiligtum;

Wiewohl, der teure Lehrerruhm    Though the fame of a dear professor

Ist sein Polar, dahin, als ein   Is his pole, to which, as to a
Magnet,                          magnet

Sein Wunschen, sein Verlangen    His wishes and desires are
geht.                            attracted.

3. Aria                          3. Aria

Die Liebe fuhrt mit sanften      Love leads with gentle steps
Schritten

Ein Herz, das seinem Lehrer      A heart that loves its professor,
liebt.

Wo andre auszusch weifen         Where others cultivate a dissolute
pflegen                          life

Wird dies behutsam sich          He will move about cautiously,
bewegen,

Weil ihm die Ehrfurcht Grenzen   Because respect provides boundaries
gibt.                            for him.

4. Recitativo                    4. Recitative

Du bist es ja, o hochverdienter  You are indeed the one, highly
Mann,                            deserving person

Der in unausgesetzten Lehren     Who by undistracted teaching

Mit hochsten Ehren               With highest honors

Den Silberschmuck des Alters     Can wear the silver decoration of
tragen Kann.                     age.

Dank, Ehrerbietung, Ruhm         Praise, veneration, fame

Kommt alles hier zusammen;       All come together here;

Und weil du unsre Brust          And because you our hearts and
                                 spirits

Als Licht und Fuhrer leiten      Must lead as light and leader,
muBt,

Wirst du dies freudige Bezeigen  You will not refuse this joyful
nicht verdammen.                 expression.

5. Aria                          5. Aria

Der Tag, der dich vordem         The day that gave birth to you in
gebar,                           days past

Stellt sich vor uns so heilsam   Stands as beneficial for us
dar

Als jener, da der Schopfer       As the day on which the Creator
spricht:                         said:

Es werde Licht!                  Let there be light!

6. Recitativo                    6. Recitative

Nur diese Einzge sorgen wir:     Only this one thing we worry about:

Dies Opfer sei zu                That this offering be too
unvollkommen;                    imperfect:

Doch, wird es nur von dir,       Yet might it only,

O teurer Lehrer, gutig           Dear professor, be kindly received
angenommen,                      by you.

So steigt der sonst so           So it ascends--that of so inferior
schlechte Wert                   worth--

So hoch, als unser treuer Sinn   So high, as our earnest intentions
begehrt.                         desire.

7. Aria                          7. Aria

Auch mit gedampften, schwaehen   Also with muted and weak voices
Stimmen

Verkundigt man der Lehrer        One can proclaim praise for the
Preis.                           professor.

Es schallei kraftig an der       It echoes mightily in one's heart,
Brust.

Ob man gleich die empfundne      Even though one knows not how to
Lust

Nichl vollig auszudrucken weiB   Fully express the experienced
                                 pleasure.

8. Recitativo                    8. Recitative

Bei solchen freudenvollen        In such joy-filled hours
Stunden

Wird unsers Wiinsches Ziel       Our desired goal is reached
gefunden.

Der sonst auf nichts             Which consists of nothing less

Als auf dein Leben geht.         Than (celebrating) your life.

9. Chorus/Recitativo             9. Chorus/Recitative

Wie die Jahre sich verneuen      As the years renew themselves

So verneue sich dein Ruhm!       So may your fame be renewed!

Tenor                            Tenor

Jedoch, was wiinschen wir,       Yet, what do we desire?

Da dieses von sich selbst        Since this happens all by itself,
geschieht,

Und da man deinen Preis,         And since one sees your praise--

Dem unser Helikon am besten      Which our Helicon * knows best--
weiB

Auch auBer dessen Grenzen        Also beyond these walls.
sieht.

Dein verdienst reeht             Your merit rightly reckoned
auszulegen,

Fordert mehr, als wir            Exacts more than we can offer.
vermogen.

BaB                              Bass

Drum schweigen wir               Therefore we grow silent,

Und zeigen dadurch dir,          And with thanks we sign for you

DaB unser Dank zwar tritt dem    That our gratitude comes not from
Munde nicht.                     our mouths

Doch desto mehr mit unsern       But much more from our hearts.
Herzen spricht.

Deines Lebens Heiligtum          The sanctuary of your life

Kann vollkommen uns erfreuen.    Can perfectly gladden us.

Sopran                           Soprano

So offnet sich der Mund zum      So our mouths open for thanksgiving
Danken

Denn jedes Glied nimmt an der    For every member takes part in the
Freude teil;                     joy;

Das Auge dringt aus den          The eye penetrates beyond its usual
gewohnten Schranken              limits

Und sieht dein kunftig Gluck     And seeks your future fortune and
und Heil.                        happiness.

Wie die Jahre sich verneuen.     As the years renew themselves

So verneue sich dein Ruhm!       So may your fame be renewed!

* A mountain of Boeotia. home of the Muses, here meant to refer to
Leipzig.

Translation: Mark P. Bangert

(1.) Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach the Learned Musician (New York: W. W. Norton. 2000), 74-75, explains the relationship of these two pieces and argues for Georg Erdmann and not Sebastian's brother Jacob as the recipient of the first Capriccio.

(2.) George B. Stauffer, Bach: The Mass in B Minor (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997), 33-34.

(3.) Christoph Wolff, "Bachs Weltliche Kantaten: Repertoire und Kontext," in Johann Sebastian Bachs weltliche Kantaten, vol. 2 of Die Welt der Bach Kantaten, ed. Christoph Wolff and Ton Koopman (kassel: Barenreiter, (1997), 19-27.

(4.) The full text and translation follows, on pp. 336-37.

(5.) Rebecca Wagner Oettinger, Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001), 112-14.

(6.) Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach Life and Work, trans. John Hargraves (Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 2006), 431.

(7.) Peter Williams, J. S. Bach A Life in Music (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 370.

(8.) Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, trans. Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller-Maitland (New York: Dover, 1951; reprint of the 1880 edition. 3 vols, in 2), 2:621--45. Wolff, "Bachs Weltliche," 13, contextualizes the importance of Spitta's observation.

(9.) The pervasiveness of Spitta's construct is apparent in the title Johann Sebastian Bachs weltliche Kautaten, see note 3 above. Williams, 369, thinks that better terms need to be found.

(10.) Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, 623.

(11.) Friedrich Blume, "Outlines of a New Picture of Bach," Music and Letters 44 (1963): 214-27.

(12.) Ulrich Siegele,''Bach and the domestic politics of Electoral Saxony," The Cambridge Companion to BACH, ed. John Butt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 22.

(13.) Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach, 418.

(14.) Leonard Hutter, "Compend of Lutheran Theology," trans. H. E. Jacobs and G.F. Spieker, in Compendium Locorum Theologicorum ex Scripturis sacris et Libro Concordiae. ed. Johann Anselm Steiger (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2006), 2:1086.

(15.) Martin Luther, "To The Christian Nobility of the German Nation," in The Christian in Society, ed. James Akinson, Luther's Works 44, American Edition, ed. Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966): 130.

(16.) Lorenz Christoph Mizler, "Denkmal dreyer verstorbenen Mitglieder der Societat der musikalischen Wissenschafften," Musikalische Bibliothek (Leipzig: Mizlerischen Bucher=Verlag, 1754), facsimile edition by Christoph Trautman as Der Nekrolog auf Johann Sebastian Bach (Leipzig: Neuen Bachgesellschaft, 1965), 168.

Mark P. Bangert

John H. Tietjen Professor of Pastoral Ministry: Worship and Church Music, Emeritus

For a Dear Teacher

"Wearing the silver decoration of age"

(Cantata 36c. 4)