The blasphemy of talking politics during Bach Year

Abstract

Prominent scholars told that Bach had nothing to do with his time or place, that he was 'divinely inspired', that his music works in accordance with perfect, universal order and truth. This chapter examines the ways in which Bach's music can be said to bear the imprint of its social origins, to reconsider the place of Bach's music in present-day culture. It explores how and why music is treated differently than the other arts in our culture and examines the preconceptions and ideological uses of eighteenth-century music, Bach's in particular. The chapter illustrates Bach's social context and discuss two of his compositions in order to demonstrate the kinds of insights that can be gleaned from socially grounded interpretation. It considers what is to be gained by dealing with Bach in political terms, and addresses a cluster of issues that are engaged by Bach in the cantata: national identity, orthodoxy/Pietism, and gender construction.

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