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This new investigation of the Brandenburg Concertos explores musical, social, and religious implications of Bach's treatment of eighteenth-century musical hierarchies. By reference to contemporary music theory, to alternate notions of the meaning of \"concerto,\" and to various eighteenth-century conventions of form and instrumentation, the book argues that the Brandenburg Concertos are better understood not as an arbitrary collection of unrelated examples of \"pure\" instrumental music, but rather as a carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set. It shows how Bach's concertos challenge (as opposed to reflect) existing musical and social hierarchies. Careful consideration of Lutheran theology and Bach's documented understanding of it reveals, however, that his music should not be understood to call for progressive political action. One important message of Lutheranism, and, in this interpretation, of Bach's concertos, is that in the next world, the heavenly one, the hierarchies of the present world will no longer be necessary. Bach's music more likely instructs its listeners how to think about and spiritually cope with contemporary hierarchies than how to act upon them. In this sense, contrary to currently accepted views, Bach's concertos share with his extensive output of vocal music for the Lutheran liturgy an essentially religious character.

MERCADANTE Arias and Duets Nelly Miricioiu, Majella Cullagh, Yvonne Kenny (sopranos), Bruce Ford, William Matteuzzi (tenors), Anthony Michaels-Moore (baritone), Alastair Miles (bass), David Harper (piano) Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Philharmonia/ Parry (Opera Rara ORR226) Fans of Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), the most important Italian composer when Verdi was coming of age, should book now for a rare (concert) performance of his opera Emma d'Antiocha at the Royal Festival Hall on 22 October. If the name means nothing, this CD will make you want to hear more. Opera Rara has assembled a superb cast of soloists in extracts from several of Mercadante's operas, from Emma to the touching Virginia and the rousing Orazi e Curiazi , plus his poignant song cycle Les Soirees Italiennes . No wonder his contemporaries considered him in the same league as Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti.

(In those days, one belonged simply by renting a pew, thus one could be a \"member\" of multiple congregations simultaneously.) The constitutional convention of the Episcopal Church was held in this building in 1789. William White served simultaneously as ninth rector of the parish, chaplain of the Continental Congress, first bishop of Pennsylvania, and first presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; for that, he was buried in the chancel of the church. Before the service proper, the choir offers prelude music at 8:30 p.m. The historic 1836 organ case is being restored and will soon receive a new Fisk organ, and this means that the musicians' gallery is under construction and closed. [...]members of the choir have taken over the small chancel, offering a unique view of the otherwise invisible performers. The assisting minister proclaims the Eucharistic Prayer, which is a free adaptation of Prayer B. (Remember, gentle reader, this was before General Convention authorized inclusive-language adaptations to the prayer book.) What is printed in the service leaflet, however, is mostly the prayer book version-so the adaptations are noticeable and clumsy.

The celebration of Christmas in Early Modern Europe underwent a significant transformation in the second half of the seventeenth century. Even after the Protestant Reformation, European Christmas traditions maintained numerous features of their medieval practices, such as carnivalesque celebrations, processions, masks, and riotous behaviour. This changed during the seventeenth century. Popular carnivalesque Christmas plays were prohibited and replaced with a more internalized devotion that emphasized the individual’s relationship with the newborn Child. This transformation was part of a larger paradigm shift in seventeenth-century religiosity, which replaced external and physical displays of piety with internalized devotional practices. These shifts also included new theologies of corporeality and gender, which likewise had an impact on the ways in which Christmas was celebrated. The theological shifts correlate with the rejection of the carnivalesque in the Early Modern period, as it was analysed by Mikhail Bakhtin. Most of these changes took place in the 1670s and 1680s. Schütz’s Christmas Historia – which was composed before 1664 – represents a transitional phase and retains some earlier views of Christmas. The most obvious example is the Kindelwiegen (rocking of the child), the physicality of which was highly suspicious to theologians in the later seventeenth century. Schütz not only refers to this practice but incorporates it in the texture of his music.

Commentators have long sought models for the decision by Bach and his anonymous librettist to spread the Christmas Oratorio's narration over twelve days. None of the most commonly proposed models can be shown with certainty to have been performed over more than two days; it appears that the supposed tradition of multi-day Christmas oratorios is invented. In fact there were models for this feature of the Christmas Oratorio: Passion settings designed for or adapted to presentation over Holy Week or all of Lent. The practice is documented in five places concentrated in Saxony and Thuringia and involved both newly composed and older works in both liturgical and devotional contexts. A new source reveals a previously unrecognized performance of this kind, of Reinhard Keiser's Brockes setting in Erfurt. Bach is likely to have known of this performance and others of the type, and they were probably a significant influence on the organization and conception of his Christmas piece performed ‘die Heilige Weyhnacht über’ in 1734/1735.