Bach against Modernity

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Notes

¹ See also, Michael Marissen, Bach and God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).

² See Richard Taruskin, “Facing Up, Finally, to Bach’s Dark Vision,” in Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 307–15. Marissen cites Taruskin’s review in Chapter 1 and recommends “the scathing 1988 recording” of the tenor aria from Cantata 178 with Kurt Equiluz and the Concentus Musicus Wien under Harnoncourt’s direction (12, n. 18). To be fair, Marissen also mentions several active Bach interpreters, including Masaaki Suzuki, director of the Bach Collegium Japan. In Chapter 4, Marissen recommends Suzuki’s recording of the tenor recitative from Cantata 23 with Gerd Türk (60, n. 8), and Chapter 5 was adapted from a preconcert lecture that Marissen delivered for a 2017 appearance of the Bach Collegium Japan at Lincoln Center. However, more detail could help clarify recent approaches toward theology in performance.

³ The resources are accessible at Michael Marissen and Daniel R. Melamed, Texts and Historically-Informed Translations for the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, http://bachcantatatexts.org.

⁴ Rebecca Cypess and the Raritan Players, In Sara Levy’s Salon (compact disc, Acis Productions, 2017).

⁵ See also, Michael Marissen, Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach’s St. John Passion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

⁶ See also, Michael Marissen, The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).

⁷ See also, Noelle M. Heber, A version of this chapter appeared as a “Foreword,” in J. S. Bach’s Material and Spiritual Treasures: A Theological Perspective (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2021).