Discussing Bach 5 (November 2022)

Published on 5 November 2022

Bach Cantata Texts, Poetic Techniques, and Meanings

Editors: Ruth Tatlow,  Barbara M. Reul, Andrew Frampton, and Yo Tomita.
Editorial assistant: Benton Froc

An edited live discussion, recorded on 20 July 2022, with Michael Marissen, Ruth Tatlow, and Michael Maul, moderated by Lawrence Molinaro

Video with optional subtitles (CCs)

Editorial Introduction (full text)

Authorised Transcript (full text)

Further reading and listening

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

Michael Marissen, Bach against Modernity (Oxford University Press, 2023).

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

Ruth Tatlow, ‘The Use and Meaning of Symmetry in J. S. Bach’s Creative World’ in Aria Razfar and Samuel Zinner (eds.), Foundations and Applications of Language and Number: Religious and Spiritual Traditions (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming).

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

Performances referred to in the discussion

Johann Sebastian Bach, Das Kantatenwerk, vol. 17 (BWV 65–68), Concentus Musicus Wien, dir. Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Telefunken 6.35335, 1977.

J. S. Bach, Cantatas, vol. 17, Chorus and Orchestra of the J. S. Bach Foundation, dir. Rudolf Lutz, J. S. Bach-Stiftung BSSG-B485, 2017.

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