Christoph Wolff and Ton Koopman, Editors

The World of the Bach Cantatas

An illuminating discussion of the musical, literary, aesthetic, and theological aspects of Bach's early cantatas.

The cantatas of J. S. Bach are among the best known and most frequently performed musical works of the Baroque period. But Bach's world is no longer our world, so when we hear and perform the cantatas, questions arise that are difficult to answer because we are experiencing the works outside their historical context. Such questions concern the role of the cantatas in Bach's compositional development, musical models for the works, and performance practice during the composer's lifetime.

In The World of the Bach Cantatas, leading Bach scholars place the works in their historical and biographical context, guiding us through their literary, musical, aesthetic, and theological features. The book covers the sacred cantatas Bach wrote during the first twenty-eight years of his life, before his move to Leipzig in 1723.

Contributing authors include Andreas Glöckner, Ulrich Leisinger, Daniel R. Melamed, Claus Oefner, Martin Petzoldt, Hans-Joachim Schulze, George B. Stauffer, and Peter Wollny.

Designed as an accompaniment to Ton Koopman's complete set of cantatas now being recorded on the Erato label.

Christoph Wolff, professor of music and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, ranks as one of the world's most respected and productive Bach scholars, having published more than fifty articles and several books on the composer. Ton Koopman, internationally acclaimed as a harpsichordist, organist, and conductor, has published books on the theory and practice of Baroque music and on the harpsichord in Dutch art.