Derek L Stauff

This chapter sets out the book’s major focus, issues, and challenges. Concentrating on Electoral Saxony during the 1620s and 1630s allows us to treat a well-documented but previously neglected period when intense religious tension divided the main warring parties. Although most Lutheran sacred music from this era is now divorced from its original contexts, a layer of political and confessional significance can often be restored by adopting a two-pronged approach: first, starting with the music by itself, investigating its scriptural texts, showing how Lutheran writers of the era interpreted these texts in ways that could become political, and asking whether the composers themselves helped to encourage similar interpretations; and second, the view from outside, that is, examining the music’s larger historical setting, where it was performed or published, and how this context shaped the music’s meaning. The results work to show the meaning of specific pieces and collections of Lutheran music, which frequently resonated on multiple levels within a single performance, simultaneously addressing Imperial and local politics. Yet, against a strong theory of confessionalization, which might see this repertoire as an agent dividing Lutherans from rivals, this book’s findings rather support the more modest idea that listeners were at least positioned to recognize the political and confessional significance in this music, even if we can never measure its direct effects on their political thinking and action.

At key points in the liturgical year, early modern Lutheran worshipers heard confessional polemics and warnings about persecution, past and present. Lutherans of Bach’s age worried about persecution from rival confessions. Although Luther’s Reformation had met with early successes, by 1600 Catholic Reform had begun to reverse many Protestant gains in central Europe. Persecution against Protestants, as Thomas A. Brady Jr. has noted, “became far more systematic and purposeful among the Catholics,” in part because Catholics had a uniform program of reform and the advantages of better political and ecclesiastical organization.¹ Even during Bach’s lifetime, Lutherans still feared that their

Author Derek L. Stauff offers a new look German Lutheran music of the 1620s and 1630s, showing how its composers carefully set biblical texts that resonated with the war and performed them in politically meaningful contexts. This book reveals to readers how their music became a representation of the Lutheran church, stoking fears about Catholic religious persecution, celebrating political alignments, critiquing controversial decrees, or lamenting the brutality of war.

Since the late nineteenth century, scholars have formulated theories about the role and placement of organs in the St. Matthew Passion , using them to interpret the work’s theological message and anchor broader ideas about how Bach positioned his other players and singers for performances in the Thomaskirche . The church housed two permanently fixed organs: a large one in the west gallery and the misleadingly labeled swallow’s nest organ in a gallery on the east wall. The latter, smaller organ has become the central point in debates about the Passion, leading to a variety of interpretations. The current evidence, reviewed here in substantial detail, does not unequivocally prove any of the main theories. Yet not all are equally strong. By examining the history of scholarship on the St. Matthew Passion and by carefully reexamining the evidence, we can grow more aware of weaknesses stemming from the enduring influence of older scholarship, based on questionable premises, outdated information, or seemingly unintentional misreading. The results argue strongly against one of the most common theories, which posits a small auxiliary role for the east gallery organ, along with a “third choir,” for most of Bach’s performances. Proponents of this theory have sometimes harnessed it to add another layer of theological symbolism to Bach’s music. This too is questionable. Musical evidence may also argue against it. Bach’s changing approach to scoring the chorale “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig” in the opening movement shows that the melody does not work in dialectic opposition to the two main choruses, as sometimes claimed, but emerges from within the group. In place of this theory, two alternatives stand out: either the full separation of the two choirs between the two galleries of the Thomaskirche or the positioning of all performers in the west gallery, with no role for the east gallery or its organ for any of Bach’s Passion performances. Though neither fully accounts for every detail in the evidence nor answers all possible objections, they do offer more satisfying explanations than the alternatives.

This past summer marked a very successful launch of the Ruth Monte Memorial Bach Competition. Designed for pianists ages 12 to 18 living in North America, the competition's final round gathered six performers and their families from across the US to play at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend IN on June 9 & 10. The results far exceeded the expectations of the organizers, participants, and families. Across two days, they heard not just technically exceptional and thoughtful playing but also saw a cohort of young musicians growing in their interest and knowledge of Bach. All this certainly can be attributed, first, to the generosity of the competition's sponsor, the Ruth and Noel Monte Fund, as well as to the diligence of the competition organizers, Andrew Talle and Paul Walker. The ABS also enjoyed the support of their host, the University of Notre Dame, and especially Erin Taylor, a graduate student in the sacred music program. And finally, this year's competition owed its success to the goodwill of the contestants and their parents.

The Leipzig Convention (spring 1631), convened by the elector of Saxony to address pressing issues of the escalating Thirty Years War, offered Schütz and the Dresden court chapel many opportunities to perform. Wolfram Steude hypothesized that Schütz's concerto on Psalm 85, Herr, der du bist vormals gnädig gewest (SWV 461), was performed then. This essay questions his argument and proposes instead three settings of Psalm 83 (concertos by Tobias Michael and Samuel Scheidt plus an anonymous motet) that date from this time. Even if not performed specifically at the convention, these pieces are more strongly associated with its politics.

Two sets of manuscript parts reveal the priorities and practices of musicians from Breslau (Wrocław) when transforming Italian madrigals into Lutheran spiritual madrigals in the waning years of the Thirty Years War (ca. 1640s). One is a previously unrecognized contrafactum of Monteverdi's Hor che'l ciel et la terra (Eighth Book of Madrigals) by cantor Michael Büttner, the other a set of contrafacta of Marco Scacchi's Madrigali a cinque by Ambrosius Profe. Both sets likely served as preliminary stages for selections published in Profe's anthologies. Many of the retexted madrigals vividly evoke the political and religious conflicts then plaguing war-torn Silesia.