Table of Contents

Introduction
1: The Hermeneutic Matrix
2: The Lutheran "Metaphysical" Tradition in Music and Music Theory
3: Cantata 21, "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis"
4: Modal Questions
5: Bach's Reflection on the Past: Moral Chorales in Cantata Designs
6: Two Chorale Cantatas
7: Cantata 77: The Theological Background
8: "Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben": An Analysis of Cantata 77
9: Epilogue: Cantata 60, "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort"
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Eric Chafe is the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Musicology at Brandeis University. His previous books include Monteverdi's Tonal Language (1992), which won both the American Musicological Society's Kinkeldey Award and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, and Tonal Allegory in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach (1991).

Reviews

Chafe is a formidable music theorist ... Inalyzing Bach Cantatas is a provocative and challenging book, an impressive blend of historical methodology and practical demonstration. Its author has done much to reinvigorate the search for meaning in Bach. Music and Letters Chafe is obligingly open to a wide range of readership, intending that the book should bring more music lovers to appreciate Bach and his music ... Chafe alerts us to a side to the historical Bach that we might otherwise miss. Early Music History In its densely packed, often densely argued, pages Analysing Bach's Cantatas presents a cogent, all-embracing method of inquiry into one of the richest legacies of the western European classical tradition. The book and its multi-disciplinary approach stand as a monument to modern Bach scholarship, with which Chafe opens many windows of understanding on the composer's music. Early Music Today Analyzing Bach Cantatas must be mandatory reading for anyone wishing to achieve an understanding of the importance of Lutheran theology and hermeneutics in Bach's cantatas, be they student, scholar or simply the listener seeking a better understanding of these unique works. Early Music Review