Remembering Bach
Today is the commemoration of Johann Sabastian Bach. Not only the greatest composer in human history, Bach was a genius in wedding theological texts to music. It is a testimony to the power of Lutheran theology that it produced brilliance the likes of which will probably never be seen again this side of eternity.
Our Synod’s website says of this day:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) is acknowledged as one of the most famous and gifted of all composers past and present in the entire western world. Orphaned at the age of ten, Bach was mostly self-taught in music. His professional life as conductor, performer, composer, teacher, and organ consultant began at the age of 19 in the town of Arnstadt and ended in Leipzig, where for the last 27 years of his life he was responsible for all the music in the city’s four Lutheran churches. In addition to his being a superb keyboard artist, the genius and bulk of Bach’s vocal and instrumental compositions remain overwhelming. A devout and devoted Lutheran, he is especially honored in Christendom for his lifelong insistence that his music was written primarily for the liturgical life of the church to glorify God and edify his people.
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If I could take music by only one composer/musician to a desert island, his would be my choice. I can’t imagine what DS would be like without Bach’s music.
He was all right, I guess.
Any particular reason why in confessional circles Bach’s arrangement for the hymn Ein Feste Burg is neglected?
Aaron:
I’m certain it isn’t out of any antipathy for Bach. The problem is its use of a metric version (no syncopation) which alters the irregular rhythmic structure of Luther’s original. In modern hymnbooks such as LW, LBW, and LSB, the text used with the metric version is a very poor translation. Both of those things combined make for a general avoidance of the metric version.