Bach-Kommentar: Theologisch-Musikwissenschaftliche Kommentierung der GeistlichenVokalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs. Band 1: Die Geistlichen Kantaten des 1. bis 27. Trinitatis-Sonntages by Martin PetzoldtReview by: Robin A. LeaverNotes, Second Series, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Jun., 2005), pp. 1008-1010Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4487496 .

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1008 NOTES, June 2005

performers. The book closes with a chapter on present day dhrupad, including revivals and musical changes in the genre.

In a foundational text such as this, defin- ing and analyzing the genre consumes a major part of the effort. To this end, Sanyal and Widdess use multiple sources and ap- proaches to discover and fill in historical and musical gaps for this lesser-known vocal genre. They rely on theoretical evi- dence from familiar historical sources such as the musical treatises of Sangi t- ratnakara and Natyasastra, for example, but additionally, include historical accounts of training and practice, anecdotal evidence from dozens of current day practitioners, performances, and recordings. The authors consistently and successfully integrate dis- parate but important strands of historical, theoretical, and practical knowledge throughout the narrative. For example, due to the syncretic nature of dhrupad, po- litical, historical, and religious issues make their way into the sections on musical analysis and performance. Fascinating de- tails include socio-political and patronage changes that affected the genre, such as those that occurred after the Mutiny of 1857 as the courts declined in stature (pp. 109-110), as well as descriptions of musicians' religious and social identities as they pursued their livelihoods in times of upheaval and social change (p. 112).

Any in-depth study of a historical music tradition presents challenges for researchers and readers. To illustrate some of the more complex and technical musical concepts, the authors skillfully incorporate a wide range of South Asian genres as examples (e.g., Sufi zikr). These well-placed analogies serve to clarify the examples as well as to demonstrate the underlying connectedness of seemingly disparate cultural forms.

The book's most significant contribution, and that of greatest interest to scholars in many fields, is the provocative theoretical and performance analyses that form the core of the text. The detailed and pain-

staking work in these sections open up pos- sibilities for deepening our understanding of musical perception, giving the reader a window not only into the composition- improvisational nature of this genre, but also the "inner-logic" of the re-creational processes of Indian classical musicians in general.

Abundant, clear, and illustrative exam- ples are found throughout the text, most of which combine western and Indian nota- tions. There are, however, several minor notational errors that appear. In chapter 3, the unalterable pitches of sa (ex. 3.1) and pa (ex. 3.3) are occasionally flattened, and the Ab in Rag Multani's "key signature" appears as a G6 (ex. 3.3). Other negligible edition problems concern citations (Sutton [1999], cited on p. 176 is missing from the bibliography), inconsistent spellings (Padmabhushan vs. Padma Bhushan), and missing phrase markings (appendix 3, pp. 330-331).

The accompanying CD is of high quality, and will satisfy the most critical listeners. Its clarity is due to the high quality recording equipment and controlled conditions avail- able to Sanyal the vocalist; one only wishes there were more examples recorded with a greater variety of performers.

Dhrupad: Tradition and Performance in Indian Music is a thorough and comprehen- sive study of a difficult genre. In addition to its meticulous historical research, the ex- tensive performance analysis emerges as its most significant contribution, setting it apart from other works. Despite centuries of musicological and ethnomusicological study of Indian music, much more work needs to be done. But like any excellent study, this one places a vital genre in clearer perspective. Scholars and devoted listeners of Indian classical music are fortu- nate the authors have done such an out- standing job on just such a difficult task.

NATALIE SARRAZIN

University of Virginia

COMPOSERS

Bach-Kommentar: Theologisch-Musikwissenschaftliche Kommentierung der Geistlichen Vokalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs. Band 1: Die Geist- lichen Kantaten des 1. bis 27. Trinitatis-Sonntages. By Martin Petzoldt.

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Book Reviews 1009

Kassel: BWrenreiter, 2004. (Schriftenreihe der Internationalen Bacha- kademie Stuttgart, Band 14.1.) [726 p. ISBN 3-7618-1741-X. C49.00.] Index.

This is the first of a series of three vol- umes covering the church cantatas, orato- rios, passions, motets and other sacred works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Volume 1 deals with the cantatas of the Trinity sea- son, which is something of a surprise, since one would have expected the first volume to cover the Sundays of the first part of the church year, from Advent 1 to Trinity Sunday-the substance of the second vol- ume, due for publication in 2005. The logic for beginning with the 1st Sunday after Trinity is that Bach began his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig on this Sunday, 30 May 1723. The second volume will also include commentary on the oratorios and cantatas for festivals, and the third volume, to be published in 2006, will cover the pas- sions, masses, Magnificat, and cantatas for other occasions.

The basic premise behind this project is that the religious/ecclesiastical worldview of the eighteenth century is far removed from our own. What was obvious and straightforward to Bach as composer, as well as to the members of the congrega- tions who first heard his music, is often ob- scure or totally unrecognized in the twenty- first century. Thus if we are to understand Bach's music, and especially his particular compositional choices, we need access to contemporary explanations of this theological/philosophical world. The au- thor, Martin Petzoldt-professor of system- atic theology, Leipzig University, and presi- dent of the Neue-Bach-Gesellschaft- presents a variety of biblical, exegetical, historical, and theological presuppositions that lie behind the concepts and vocabulary of the cantata librettos.

Under the heading for each Sunday of the Trinity season, Petzoldt first gives basic background information, such as the bibli- cal readings assigned to the day, the can- tatas Bach composed for the Sunday, their vocal and instrumental resources, together with references to recent literature on the respective cantatas. Much of this informa- tion is not new and can be found in other sources, but closer inspection reveals that there is more information recorded here

than is usually the case, such as the specific entrance psalm for each Sunday, the church in which the cantata was first heard -usually either the St. Nicholas or St. Thomas churches in Leipzig-and the name of the preacher who gave the sermon on this occasion.

Petzoldt then gives extended quotations -usually on the gospel but sometimes also on the epistle of the day--from the biblical commentary by Johann Olearius that is known to have been in Bach's personal li- brary: Biblische Erkliirung darinnen nechst dem

allgemeinen Haupt-Schliissel der gantzen heili-

gen Schrifft, 5 vols. (Leipzig: Tarnoven, 1678-81). These extended citations of "commentary" form the backbone of the project and clearly conditioned the choice of its title: Bach-Kommentar.

Bach owned another complete biblical commentary, Abraham Calov's Die deutsche Bibel, 6 vols. (Wittenberg: Schr6dter, 1681- 82), the only title from the inventory of Bach's library that has apparently survived, and now in the library of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. This Bible commentary has received considerable at- tention because of the marginalia in Bach's hand, together with various underlinings, that are scattered throughout these vol- umes. But each of the main title pages has Bach's monogram with the year "1733." If this indicates the year the volumes came into Bach's possession then they cannot have had direct influence on the cantatas since most had been composed by this date. The presupposition is that Bach ob- tained the Olearius volumes at a much ear- lier date and therefore it would have been this commentary that most likely influ- enced him in his compositional choices. Bach also had access to Luther's biblical commentaries in the Jena edition of the Reformer's writings in his own library, and

they are easily available in various editions and translations in a way that the Olearius commentary is not. For all of these reasons, Petzoldt focuses his attention on the Olearius commentary, and therefore makes available many passages from this impor- tant source known to Bach that is now

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1010 NOTES, June 2005

something of an inaccessible rarity-one of the most important contributions that Petzoldt makes with this book.

After this introductory material, a critical edition is given of each libretto for the can- tatas Bach composed for the respective Sunday, including those for which the music is lost and only the texts are known, which anthologies of cantata texts usually omit. Another difference from earlier an- thologies, which modernized the German texts, is that the librettos are given here in the orthography of Bach's manuscripts. If the libretto of a cantata differs from its published form, the two texts are given in parallel in order to demonstrate which movements were accepted, rejected, or modified; for example, Johann Oswald Knauer's 1720 libretto and Bach's adap- tation of it for Cantata no. 77 in 1723 (pp. 352-57).

In the margin, alongside each line of these texts is given the references of bibli- cal citations and allusions. This is most use- ful since the librettos are mosaics of words, phrases, and concepts from Scripture. Bible reading was an everyday exercise for Bach's generation and his congregations would have recognized these citations and allusions in a way that we do not. We there- fore need this kind of assistance in order to appreciate the connections being made. Two other fairly recent publications also include identifications of the biblical back- ground of the Bach cantata librettos, Melvin Unger, Handbook to Bach's Sacred Cantata Texts: An Interlinear Translation with Reference Guide to Biblical Quotations and Allusions (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996), and Ulrich Meyer, Biblical Quotation and Allusion in the Libretti of the Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach (Lanham, MD: Scare- crow Press, 1997). It is instructive to com- pare the biblical references for a specific cantata movement in all three sources. The obvious allusions are to be found refer- enced by all three, but in some cases it is surprising how different the references are from each other. This does not mean that any one is necessarily "wrong" but is rather a demonstration of how multilayered these biblical connections are in the cantata librettos.

Following each libretto is a discussion of every movement of the cantata. Here the structure of the libretto is outlined, the in- terconnections between the movements are

discussed, and the progression and devel- opment of the basic ideas throughout the libretto as a whole are explored. The em-

phasis is on the textual, although comment on the musical implications is usually included, and sometimes is quite detailed. Although this textual stress might be thought a weakness, considering the fact that this is the first of three volumes, which itself runs to more than 700 pages, to have included more discussion of musical mat- ters would have inflated the project dispro- portionately. The enormous value of the volume is that it provides a wealth of mate- rial for others to use in their analyses of the musical decisions Bach made when

composing the music for these texts. This first volume has already caused

some controversy in Germany. Professor Lothar Steiger and Dr. Renate Steiger have criticized the author's translations of Latin into German, questioned the validity of the underlying methodology, and made their views public via the Internet: http://www .palatina-verlag.de/bibliothek/bach.html (accessed 23 February 2005). There is some substance to the criticisms of the transla- tions, but such specific use of Latin is not easy to render accurately into another language. In my view, the tone of these criti- cisms is unwarranted, unfair, and rather my- opic, concentrating on minutiae and miss-

ing the point of the whole. What Martin Petzoldt has provided for Bach studies is an extremely valuable assemblage of vital ma- terial that hitherto has been inaccessible. These volumes will clearly be the starting point for research and discussion of Bach's sacred vocal works for the foreseeable fu- ture. I for one have begun to use this vol- ume with profit, and eagerly await the two further volumes that have been promised.

ROBIN A. LEAVER Westminster Choir College of Rider University

Beethoven After Napoleon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works. By Stephen Rumph. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. [ix, 295 p. ISBN 0-520-23855-9. $45.] Index.

Stephen Rumph's Beethoven After Napo- leon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works tackles a vitally important topic: the rela- tion of the music to its political context. The pieces that come under consideration

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