Looking selectively at Bachs cantatas and Passions: how are Luthers Attitudes to music, worship and tradition revealed?

Martin Luther (1483-1546) 1600 dividing line of music history Luther holds on to the Polyphonic tradition, eg, Josquin, even when the Italians are focusing more on single-voice pieces. Bach ensures continuity. Luther strongly thought that the Catholic Church shouldnt have been taking as much money as they were. St. Augustine opposed the idea of music being used in services as he saw it as a distraction from prayer. Lutheran Tradition Music becomes like a sermon, making the musical director as important as the preacher. Humanism text expressed singularly so 5 people cant feel the same emotion while singing at different times. Luther did not accept the suggestion of Nicholas Hausmann for the formation of a council to establish liturgical uniformity in the concern about the confusion caused by the multiplicity of vernacular versions of the traditional mass. Luther wanted it to be something everybody could understand, and with more simplistic contents and arrangement, increase congregational participation. Luther insisted that each centre of the evangelical Church should have the freedom to create its own liturgy without the pressure of a forced uniformity borrow from others, or maintain the Latin Mass, at least partly. The Master Musicians Boyd, Malcolm. Bach was employed in German courts such as Weimar and Cthen, giving him a better chance of advancement than everywhere but the largest churches and most generous municipalities. Opera was the only important sphere of professional music making in which Thuringia was unable to compete with other parts of Germany in the early 18th century; some courts on a modest scale enjoyed it. (Weimar court) Bach and Luther went to the same school the Lateinschule Music according to Luther was a gift from God and next in importance to theology this opinion lingered around Thuringia even after his death. He had been knowledgeable enough to admire the works of Josquin, Heinrich Isaac and Ludwig Senfl, and enjoyed singing and playing the lute. He established the chorale (German hymn) - which was of fundamental importance to the formation and preservation of a distinctively German musical style; particularly in church music, during the Italian-dominated Baroque period. Music as a sounding number received its most powerful expression in the late music of Bach

Chapter 7 Leipzig (1723-30) Leipzig was the second most important city in Saxony and Dresden was the most important. Bach and his family took up residence there in 1723. Its university - established in 1409 was regarded as one of Germanys most important and progressive. The city was pre-eminent in publishing and as a centre for the book trade was widely acknowledged. Its principle churches, the Thomaskirche and the Nikolaikirche, and the schools attached to them ensured its prominence in the development of church music. Friction between the opera and the church, which had to compete for the services of the university students, caused difficulties for Bachs predecessor, Johann Kuhnau.

SUPPORT FROM STUDENTS WAS CRUCIAL TO SUCCESS. Bach was appointed Cantor (first of the singers) at St Thomas School not the Thomaskirche, which many English writers have stated. His professional duties resided at the Thomasschule, and as director musices they extended equally to the larger and senior Nikolaikirche Nikolaikirche: The official town church until 1755 Salomon Deyling preached Here that the annual service was held to mark the election of a new town council. Where some of Bachs greatest choral works were heard for the first time ST JOHNS PASSION, and about half of his CANTATAS.

Being a Kantor ranked you third in the hierarchy of the Thomasschule: 1. Rektor headmaster 2. Konrektor 3. Kanto 4. Tertius His duties were to teach music from the Ordnung, pub. 1723 and other subjects to the foundationers (boarders) of the coetus superior (upper school), and to give individual practical tuition when called for.