Bach the Capellmeister

Bach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 149-193
Author(s):  
David Schulenberg
Keyword(s):  
Religious Faith ◽  
Instrumental Ensemble ◽  
Keyboard Music ◽  
Vocal Works ◽  
Brandenburg Concertos

As Capellmeister, Bach was in charge of all musical matters at the court of Cöthen. Although the prince’s Reformed religious faith ruled out the performance of church cantatas, Bach did compose occasional vocal works for special occasions. His chief works of this period, however, were suites, sonatas, and concertos for the court instrumental ensemble, as well as keyboard music for his family and pupils. Among the famous compositions composed or completed at Cöthen and discussed in this chapter are the inventions, Well-Tempered Clavier, organ sonatas, cello suites, sonatas and partitas for violin and flute, and Brandenburg Concertos.

Bach the Humorist

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-226
Author(s):  
David Yearsley
Keyword(s):  
Church Music ◽  
Johann Sebastian Bach ◽  
Keyboard Music ◽  
Brandenburg Concertos

From chortling gags heard in his church music, to the off-beat physical humor enlivening his first published keyboard music, to the jesting chutzpah of his Brandenburg Concertos, Bach’s wittiest creations display the composer/performer’s irreverence for expectation and reflect his musical—and social—daring. While no composer’s image is sterner than that of Johann Sebastian Bach, his early admirers painted a more varied picture of the composer than did later commentators driven by the imperatives of Art and the rigors of unsmiling scholarship. Convivial, dramatic, domestic, and courtly contexts could spark Bach to indulge in droll escapades and jokes, but even beyond such occasions, the prankster lurks in the transgressions of genius.

Bach the Organist

Bach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 43-72
Author(s):  
David Schulenberg
Keyword(s):  
Chorale Preludes ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Keyboard Music ◽  
Preludes And Fugues ◽  
Vocal Works ◽  
Organ Technique

Bach’s duties as a Lutheran church organist included “preluding” on chorale (hymn) melodies and maintaining instruments. At Arnstadt Bach must also have been expected to accompany singers both at court and in church, and during these years he also carried out organ “tests.” It is unknown whether he wrote any vocal compositions at Arnstadt, but he doubtless wrote much keyboard music and developed his organ technique during these years. Compositions examined in this chapter include chorale preludes and praeludia (preludes and fugues), as well as the great Passacaglia for organ and several vocal works (cantatas) probably performed at Mühlhausen, including the so-called Actus tragicus.

Arnstadt, Mühlhausen (1703–1708)

Bach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
David Schulenberg
Keyword(s):  
First Marriage ◽  
Keyboard Music ◽  
Vocal Works

Bach’s first significant professional positions were as organist at Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The first was a courtly residence town, the second a larger free city. His years at both must have been pivotal for his development as both organist and composer. They also saw his first marriage, to Maria Barbara Bach, and an extended trip to Lübeck where he encountered the music of Buxtehude. If by then he was not already composing prolifically, with the works of the next few years he established himself as one of Germany’s most original young composers of keyboard music, and during his brief time at Mühlhausen he also produced several impressive vocal works. During the same period, however, a confrontation with the Arnstadt authorities left him unscathed but was a harbinger of future tensions with employers.

Religious Faith and Psychoanalysis

1990 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-370
Author(s):  
Paul C. Vitz
Keyword(s):  
Religious Faith

Charles Williams’s Arthuriad: Mythic Vision and the Possibilities of Belief

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46
Author(s):  
J. G. Bradbury
Keyword(s):  
Religious Faith ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Devotional Poetry ◽  
Religious Worldview ◽  
Intellectual Milieu ◽  
Charles Williams ◽  
Narrative Mode ◽  
Intellectual Environment

This essay explores Charles Williams’s use of the Arthurian myth to sustain a religious worldview in the aftermath of sustained attacks on the relevance and veracity of Christian belief in the early twentieth century. The premise to be explored is that key developments in science and philosophy made during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in a cultural and intellectual milieu in which assertions of religious faith became increasingly difficult. In literary terms this became evident in, amongst other things, the significant reduction in the production of devotional poetry. By the late 1930s the intellectual environment was such that Charles Williams, a man of profound religious belief who might otherwise have been expected to produce devotional work, turned to a much older mode, that of myth, that had taken on new relevance in the modern world. Williams’s use of this mode allowed him the possibility of expressing a singularly Christian vision to a world in which such vision was in danger of becoming anathema. This essay examines the way in which Williams’s lexis, verse structure, and narrative mode builds on his Arthurian source material to allow for an appreciation of religiously-informed ideas in the modern world.

Evaluating the return on religious capital in the Russian labor market

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 1671-1694
Author(s):  
R.M. Mel'nikov
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Religious Commitment ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Religious Capital ◽  
The Impact

Subject. The article addresses the impact of religious confession on wages and the likelihood of unemployment in Russia. Objectives. The aim is to test the hypothesis that religious faith and high church attendance are accompanied by an increase in employment earnings. Methods. Using the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey data, I estimate the Mincer's extended equation with variables that characterize the respondent’s religious commitment. To assess the impact of religious identity and the activity rate of attendance at religious services on the likelihood of unemployment and life satisfaction, I use probit models. Results. The estimates demonstrate that the Russian labor market rewards men with moderate and high degree of religious commitment; their wage growth reaches seventeen percent of the level of non-believers with comparable education and work experience. However, faithful Muslim women are employed in the lowest paid areas. Religious faith and regular church attendance have a positive effect on satisfaction with life (significant for Orthodox Christian women). Conclusions. Positive impact of religious capital on income and employment can be attributed to the development of business qualities that are rewarded in the labor market, the mutual support of religious network participants. Therefore, it possible to consider religious capital, along with educational capital and health capital, as a component of human capital and a factor of socio-economic development.

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