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Book details
  • Genre:MUSIC
  • SubGenre:Individual Composer & Musician
  • Language:English
  • Pages:304
  • Paperback ISBN:9798350978841

Bringing Bach's Music to Life:

Essays on Bach Cantatas

by Craig Smith

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Overview
24 essays on J.S. Bach's church cantatas, written by renowned conductor Craig Smith, founder of Emmanuel Music, the first American ensemble to complete a full cycle of Bach cantatas. The essays are accompanied by full libretti, numerous musical examples, the liturgical readings for the respective Sunday, and selected art works that illustrate the cantatas' themes. With a unique relationship to Bach's works and their liturgical function, Smith engages the cantatas as living works of art, exploring how they work musically, emotionally, and theologically. Integrating spiritual, psychological, and compositional analysis, these vivid essays reveal Bach's power to communicate complex messages of faith, doubt, and the human condition. In the Foreword, eminent composer and close friend of Smith, John Harbison, writes: "Craig's writing embraces, at times dissolves, never ignores, the distance – esoteric, temporal, linguistic, cultural – that the Bach cantatas carry. The paternalistic theology, the presentness of sin, the Devil, the rough proximity of Death is never evaded or finessed. That which should remain difficult is acknowledged. That which immediately attracts is gratefully received. What is constantly suggested is that this may be the finest music that the finest composer wrote, and that it is never too late to catch up to it."
Description

Bringing Bach's Music to Life compiles 24 of Craig Smith's most insightful and penetrating essays on the music he devoted his life and career to exploring: J.S. Bach's liturgical cantatas. Supplemented by full Biblical readings, libretti, and copious musical examples, each essay provides a full historical and theological context for the work as well as musical analysis that focuses on how these works can be understood and performed as "musical sermons". The book includes many great works of art that Smith regarded as analogues of the cantatas themselves. A Foreword by eminent composer John Harbison, also a longtime friend and colleague of Smith, is included, as well as a discography, glossary, and full index.

Contents

Table of Contents

Illustration: Portrait of Craig Smith

Introduction

Craig Smith and Emmanuel Music: a history

Foreword

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1.     Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75

Chapter 2.     Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76

Chapter 3.     Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, BWV 179

Chapter 4.     Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele, BWV 138

Chapter 5.     Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95

Chapter 6.     Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinen Unglauben, BWV 109

Chapter 7.     Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40

Illustration: della Francesca Resurrezione

Chapter 8.     Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ, BWV 67

Illustration: Petrus Comestor Bible: Dives and Lazarus

Chapter 9.     O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20

Illustration: Duccio: The Calling of Peter and Andrew

Chapter 10.   Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten, BWV 93

Chapter 11.   Was frag ich nach der Welt, BWV 94

Chapter 12.   Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101

Chapter 13.   Jesu der du meine Seele, BWV 78

Chapter 14.   Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben, BWV 8

Chapter 15.   Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 180

Chapter 16.   Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit, BWV 115

Chapter 17.   Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, BWV 126

Chapter 18.   Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott, BWV 127

Illustration: Fra Angelico: Annunciation

Chapter 19.   Wie schön leuchtet die Morgenstern, BWV 1

Illustration: Caravaggio: The Supper at Emmaus

Chapter 20.   Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6

Chapter 21.   Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats, BWV 42

Illustration: Blake: The Wise and Foolish Virgins

Chapter 22.   Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140

Chapter 23.   Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80

Chapter 24.   Aus der Tiefen schrei ich zu dir, BWV 131

Chronology of J.S. Bach’s life

Discography

Glossary of Terms

Acknowledgments

Illustration: Craig Smith conducting Emmanuel Music  

 

About the author
Craig Smith (1947-2007) was the founding music director of the Emmanuel Music orchestra and chorus in Boston and led the first complete cycle of Bach's cantatas in the United States as well as expansive explorations of works from the 16th century to the present day. Mr. Smith was born in Lewiston, Idaho, on Jan. 31, 1947. He began studying the piano at 4 and continued at Washington State University and the New England Conservatory, where he completed a bachelor's degree in 1969 and a master's in 1972. He founded Emmanuel Music, a group based at Emmanuel Church in Boston, in 1970. Its original goal was to present a season of Bach cantatas, but after a few performances, Mr. Smith decided to make his way through the entire collection of more than 200 works. That project occupied Mr. Smith and his ensemble for seven years, and he maintained the tradition of conducting a Bach cantata every Sunday as part of the church's worship service. But in the ensemble's own concerts, he found other composers to explore. He led most of the major sacred works of the 17th-century composer Heinrich Schütz, as well as the compete Schumann lieder and the chamber music and vocal works of Brahms and Debussy. Mr. Smith devoted 51 concerts, over seven years, to the chamber and vocal music of Schubert and performed several works by the contemporary composer John Harbison. Mr. Smith was best known internationally for his collaborations with the iconoclastic director Peter Sellars and the choreographer Mark Morris. Mr. Smith's work with Mr. Sellars included three Mozart operas, "Così Fan Tutte," "Don Giovanni" and "Nozze di Figaro," which were controversial for their urban 20th-century settings. He also conducted Mr. Sellars's production of Handel's "Giulio Cesare" and works by Weill, Gilbert and Sullivan and Gershwin, as well staged performances of Bach's Cantatas BWV 82 ("Ich habe genug") and BWV 199 ("Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut"). The soloist in those works was the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who began her career as a violist in the Emmanuel Music orchestra. Her recording of the works with Mr. Smith and the ensemble is regarded as one of the highlights of the current Bach discography. Mr. Smith's principal collaboration with Mr. Morris was a choreographed setting of the Handel work, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato," first performed at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, where Mr. Smith was principal conductor from 1988 to 1991. He conducted it at the Serious Fun festival at Lincoln Center in 1995. He taught at the New England Conservatory from 1993 to 2000 and also at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Juilliard and the Tanglewood Music Center. His discography includes the Peter Sellars Mozart trilogy on DVD and CDs devoted to the music of Bach, Schütz, Mozart and John Harbison.