About the Music

Bach's Missae Breves, BWV 233-236

Ever since Luther's publication of a Deutsche Messe in 1526 the Mass has assumed a place in the German Protestant service. By tradition the "Short Mass" -- the Credo, the Catholic creed being omitted -- was merely chanted in unison for the regular Sunday service at Bach's church. But on special occasions Bach set the text to music as a work for soloists, choir and orchestra. In total, Bach produced five of these short -- in the sense of truncated -- "Lutheran" masses, where the text of just the Kyrie and the Gloria was set, each work ending with the words Cum Sancto Spiritu. Amen. The five masses appear to date from the early 1730's -- around the time when Bach was concerned with recycling various other of his works in order to preserve them in a more permanent form. Apart from the masses, most notably three of the celebratory cantatas that Bach had previously written for one-time occasions, such as royal birthdays, were re-used to form what we know today as the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), which was completed and performed over six days at the end of 1734.

Click here to read the complete program notes by Peter Watchorn, included in the recording by Publick Musick of Bach's Lutheran Masses.

Bach's A Major Mass: A Nativity Mass?

Gerhard Herz's study of the Lombard rhythm in Bach's work has drawn fresh attention to a particular phase in Bach's creative career: the years after the turning point marked by the famous letter to Georg Erdmann of October 28, 1730. This period had gained new significance in modern Bach scholarship through Christoph Wolff's work and its critical point of departure, i.e. "the suggestion that Bach's special concern with the phenomenon of the stile antico arose after 1730 thus showing a particular connection with the style of his later years." In adopting the term stile antico for an aspect of Bach's SpŠtstil style, Wolff pointed out "the juxtaposition of heterogeneous trends so typical of a composer's personal style in the Baroque era." Wolff 's choice of Bach works in the stile antico and Herz's listing of works im lombardischen Geschmack are indicative of the wide range of the aging Bach's stylistic spectrum.

Click here to read the complete program notes by Alfred Mann, included in the recording by Publick Musick of Bach's Lutheran Masses.

Handel's Messiah

Handel's Messiah holds an extraordinary place, both among the composer's works and in the history of Western music. No other work has met with the same wide and enduring response. It also holds an extraordinary place in the history of performance: it is the only work of its time that has seen a continuous sequence of revivals-for almost two decades under the direction of the composer, for two further decades under conductors who had shared Handel's work on the London scene, for the following two centuries through the devotion of generation after generation,-and our warm wishes accompany today's performance for which these notes are written.

Click here to read the complete program notes by Alfred Mann.

The American Bach Society

The American Bach Society was founded in 1972 to support the study, performance, and appreciation of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in the United States and Canada.

Visit their website to learn more:
http://www.americanbachsociety.org/

The Global Bach Community

The Global Bach Community defines its mission as follows:

• To recognize and foster the common spirit that exists universally among Bach lovers.
• To facilitate Bach-centered endeavors worldwide - musical, educational, social and spiritual.
• To help the Bach community to flourish, in part through the ability to raise funds not ordinarily available to individual Bach organizations.

Visit their website to learn more:
http://www.bach-net.org/

The Bach Cantatas Website

The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) is a comprehensive site covering all aspects of J.S. Bach's cantatas and his other vocal works. The BCW contains discussions and detailed discographies of each cantata and other vocal works, performers and general topics. The BCW also contains texts and translations, scores, music examples, articles and interviews, and over 5,200 short biographies of performers of Bach's vocal works and players of his keyboard works, as well as of poets & composers associated with Bach. Visit the website to learn more:
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/

The Bach Cantatas Website also includes a "Links" page that is a great source of connections to other valuable resources:
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Links/Links-Org.htm