Discussing Bach 4 (February 2022)

Published on 2 February 2022

Bach and the Corporeality of Emotions

Editors: Ruth Tatlow and Barbara M. Reul. Editorial assistant: Benton Froc

An edited live discussion, recorded on 15 July 2021, with Bettina Varwig, Ruth Tatlow, and John Butt, moderated by David Irving

Video with optional subtitles (CCs)

 

Editorial Introduction (full text)

Authorised Transcript (full text)

Further reading and listening

Discussing Bach 1 (October 2020), “Bach and Emotion: ‘Zur Recreation des Gemüths’”

John Butt, ‘Bach and the Dance of Humankind’, in Davinia Caddy and Maribeth Clark (eds.), Musicology and Dance (Cambridge University Press, 2020), 19–48.

Ruth Tatlow, Bach’s Numbers: Compositional Proportion and Significance (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Bettina Varwig, ‘Heartfelt Musicking: the Physiology of a Bach Cantata’, Representations 143, no. 1 (2018), 36–62.

Bettina Varwig, An Early Modern Musical Physiology (Chicago University Press, 2023), forthcoming.

Dagmar Glüxam, “Aus der Seele muß man spielen…”: Über die Affekttheorie in der Music des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts und ihre Auswirkung auf die Interpretation [“One has to play from the soul…”: On the theory of affects in 17^th– and 18^th-century music and its impact on interpretation] (Vienna: Hollitzer Verlag, 2020).

Performances referred to in the discussion

J. S. Bach, St Matthew Passion, Netherlands Bach Society, “All of Bach Project” recording project, dir. Jos van Veldhoven, April 2014.

J. S. Bach, St Matthew Passion, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, dir. Peter Schreier, Philips CD 4208482, 1985.

G. F. Handel, Messiah, Dunedin Consort, dir. John Butt, Linn Records CKD 285, 2006.

J. P. Rameau, Pigmalion, Dunedin Consort, dir. John Butt, online premiere 6 July 2021.

J. S. Bach, Ich habe genug, Cantatas 32, 82 & 106, Dunedin Consort, dir. John Butt, Linn Records CKD 672, October 2021.

N.B. Updates on the topic in the form of new publications by the four contributors will be posted here.