- CC 115 Texts and Contexts IICC 201 EV - Christ College SymposiumCC 215 - The Christian TraditionCC 255 - Interpretation: Self, Culture & SocietyCC 270 - Interpretation in the Natural SciencesCC 300 AX - JS Bach: Music, Faith & ReasonCC 300 BX - Shakespeare & His World CC 300 CX - Faith & HistoryCC 300 DX - History of HomelessnessCC 300 EX - China's Cities in Literature & FilmCC 300 FX - Studies in Classical EpicCC 300 GX - Politics of EducationCC 300 HX - Faith and HealingCC 325 AX - Theology & LiteratureCC 325 BX - Narrative EthicsCC 325 CX - Children & Childhood: Jewish, Christian & Muslim PerspectivesCC 325 DX - Media & Culture in East AsiaCC 325 EX - KierkegaardCC 325 FX - Poetry of Social JusticeCC 499 - Senior Colloquium
- CC 300 AX - JS Bach: Music, Faith & Reason
3 Credits
Common readings will include:
MWF 11:50am-12:40pm - Professor Ferguson
(Cross-listed with MUS 390AX)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) lived and worked entirely within the region which now comprises Germany. Nevertheless, his output demonstrates broad assimilation of vastly diverse international musical practices. He composed in all the sacred and secular genres of his time---with the exception of opera---and his dramatic passion music and cantatas clearly reveal mastery of the contemporary operatic idioms as well. In his later years he was criticized as a reactionary composer, and yet his works manifest historic, recent, and completely contemporary styles, sometimes all integrated within a single composition. Considered the greatest musical voice of the Lutheran faith, Bach’s complex musical work resists simple accounting: Christoph Wolff has properly designated him “the learned musician.”
This seminar explores the music of J. S. Bach from a variety of perspectives, including historical, musical-analytical, sociological, and theological. Reception history and modern day interpretations., including attention to the anti-Semitic themes that have been associated with the St. John Passion, will also be considered.. Special emphasis will be placed on three large concert works: Passion According to Saint Matthew, Passion According to Saint John, and the Mass in B minor. In preparation for the campus performance of the complete Saint Matthew Passion (scheduled March 20, 2010), each class member will prepare a presentation on an aspect of this work.
- Boyd, Malcolm. Bach. (Master Musicians Series). 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.
- Gaines, James R. Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment. Fourth Estate, 2005.
- Melamed, Daniel R. Hearing Bach’s Passions, Oxford, 2005.
- The New Bach Reader; A Life of Johann Sebatian Bach in Letters and Documents. Edited by Hans T. David & Arthur Mendel; revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff. Norton, 1998.