Eric Chafe

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. 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.

"In honor of Christoph Wolff"

Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stand as representatives of European music of the eighteenth century, composers whose works reflect intellectual, religious, and aesthetic trends of the period. Research on their compositions continues in many ways to shape our broader understanding of eighteenth century musical thought and its contexts. This collection of essays offers a variety of perspectives on the two composers, as well as some of their important contemporaries, Haydn in particular. The book addresses topics such as the historiography of eighteenth-century music, concepts of time and musical form, the idea of the musical work and its relation to publishing practices, compositional process, and performance practice.--From publisher's description.

Part I. Eighteenth-century music in its intellectual contexts. The German eighteenth century : marking time / David Blackbourn. Fundamenta partiturae : thorough bass and foundations of eighteenth-century composition pedagogy / Thomas Christensen. Mishmash or synthesis? : on the psychagogic form of The creation / Hermann Danuse ; (translated by Nicolas Betson). Six of one : the opus concept in the eighteenth century / Elaine Sisman -- Part II. Composing and hearing music in the eighteenth century. Bach's passions and the textures of time / John Butt. Bach and hypocrisy : appearance and truth in Cantatas 136 and 179 / Eric Chafe. Tartini and his texts / Sergio Durate -- Part III. Sources and transmission. The evolution of "Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel wär" BWV 80/5 / Daniel R. Melamed. Bach and Mozart : from the perspective of different documentary evidence / Hans-Joachim Schulze. On Johann Sebastian Bach's creative process : observations from his drafts and sketches / Peter Wollny. One more time : Mozart and his cadenzas / Neal Zaslaw -- Part IV. Issues in historiography. On ancient languages : the historical idiom in the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Ulrich Konrad ; (translated by Thomas Irvine). Eighteenth-century music as a socio-political metaphor? / Reinhard Strohm. The century of Handel and Haydn / James Webster. Mozart's fantasy, Haydn's caprice : what's in a name? / Gretchen Wheelock -- Part V. Interpreting eighteenth-century music. The clavier speaks / Christopher Hogwood. Ten years of Bach cantatas / Ton Koopman. Mozart's working methods in the piano concertos / Robert Levin.