Bach's Changing World:: Voices in the Community(Eastman Studies in Music)

Bach's Changing World is a study of popular culture in the community in which Bach spent the last, the longest, and the most productive part of his life: the Leipzig middle-class. The Leipzig middle-class evolved with the cooperation and gratitude of an extravagant, greedy, and disinterested absolutist ruler. Bach's Changing World documents how this community and other German communities responded toa variety of religious, social, and political demands that emerged during the years of the composer's lifetime. An accepted, admired, and trusted member of this community, as evidenced by the commissions he received for secular celebrations from royalty and members of the middle-class alike -- in addition to functioning as church composer -- Bach shared its values. Contributors: Carol K. Baron, Susan H. Gillespie, Katherine Goodman, Joyce L. Irwin, Tanya Kevorkian, Ulrich Siegele, John Van Cleve, and Ruben Weltsch. Carol K. Baron is Fellow for Life in the Department of Music at Stony Brook University, where she was co-founder and administrator of the Bach Aria Festival and Institute.

Table of Contents:
Transitions, Transformations, Reversals: Rethinking Bach's World - Carol Baron Tumultuous Philosophers, Pious Rebels, Revolutionary Teachers, Pedanti Clerics, Vengeful Bureaucrats, Threatened Tyrants, - Carol Baron Family Values and Dysfunctional Families: Home Life in the Moral Weeklies and Comedies of Bach's Leipzig - John W. Van Cleve Bach in the Midst of Religious Transition - Joyce Louise Irwin Bach's Situation in the Cultural Politics of Contemporary Leipzig - Ulrich Siegele The Reception of the Cantata during Leipzig Church Services, 1700-1750 - Tanya Kevorkian From Salon to Kaffeekranz: Gender Wars and the Coffee Cantata in Bach's Lei - Katherine R. Goodman A Treatise on Liturgical Text Settings (1710), by Johann Kuhnau - Ruben Weltsch Random Thoughts About Church Music in Our Day (1721), by Gottfried Ephraim - Joyce Louise Irwin

About the Author :
Carol K. Baron is Fellow for Life in the Department of Music at Stony Brook University. Carol K. Baron is Fellow for Life in the Department of Music at Stony Brook University.

Review :
Offers much insight into the community in which Bach lived and worked. . . . [Katherine R.] Goodman artfully weaves methodologies from gender studies, literary history, and musicology. . . . The translations that end the volume will be useful for musicologists and church historians. . . . The volume is well-illustrated with engravings of everyting from gardens, to Prussian troops, to oil lamps, to the marble altar at St. Thomas' church. Excellent and thought-provoking. . . . [The] translators [of Siegele's important essay] have done English readers a great service. . . . The volume goes some way to combating romanticised notions of Bach. A marvellous account of the Leipzig . . . in which Bach lived and worked. . . . If you enjoy the Coffee Cantata, read the chapter by Katherine Goodman on coffee and women poets. . . . This [book] fascinated me. Written in an engaging style, Bach's Changing World is an informative and satisfying read that makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the era in which Bach lived and worked, whilst also simultaneously providing new or alternative insights into the life and occasionally the works of the man himself. --Elise Crean, Queen's University, Belfast, Bach Bibliography website Cogently introduced. . . . An important addition to musical and theological history. . . . Makes a significant contribution to the literature on German history and the 18th century. Visually elegant, with a generous selection of illustrations of Leipzig life [some of them rarely used in modern publications]. By viewing Bach within his intellectual context, Baron and her contribuors open an important and stimulating path. Carol Baron and her colleagues have done Bach studies a marvelous service. This volume should prove to be not only a signal contribution to the too-small bibliography on Bach's cultural contexts but also a ready resource for its desired growth. General readers and music lovers, too, will find this accessible book highly worthwhile. --Michael Marissen, Professor of Music, Swarthmore College, and author of The Social and Religious Designs of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and co-author of An Introduction to Bach Studies