The newest book about Johann Sebastian Bach is a remarkable work, if only for its treatment of the most discussed compositions: the cantatas that Bach wrote during his first years in Leipzig (1723-1727). One of Bach's duties in Leipzig was to compose music weekly for Sunday services, resulting in more than 100 cantatas. Michael Maul, a German Bach scholar who has previously published an extensive illustrated biography, addresses these works concisely and clearly, covering the theological and liturgical backgrounds, the librettists, the practical matters involved in their creation, and the relationship between text and music. He understands the importance of all these aspects: although the order of compositional phases was and remains fixed, he fortunately recognizes that each phase can illuminate the preceding one in a new light. Librettists can interpret crucial biblical texts with a certain freedom, a composer can do the same with the text, a musician with the score, and we in 2024 with material three centuries old. Maul does this on a small scale (as an exhaustive discussion of all cantatas in this manner would make the book five times thicker), but he acknowledges the importance of interaction and continuous interpretation of existing material, and has an eye for telling details. Music is both illustration and intensification of the text as well as interpretation and entry into a new spiritual domain – and especially the interplay between them.

If one must place Maul despite this pleasing breadth, he is likely more a man of words than of music, although he discusses extensively the fact that Bach became somewhat weary of his position in Leipzig after a few years and looked for employment elsewhere. Instrumental works are certainly not forgotten, but Maul is more thorough in his discussion of major vocal works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. On one hand, he discusses the religious aspects of both pieces extensively; on the other, he acknowledges that Bach employs the same compositional techniques in them as characterize his instrumental compositions. Without stating it explicitly, Maul answers the much-asked question of what Bach was more: a believer or a craftsman. The sympathetic answer: both, one cannot exist without the other, the question of priority is irrelevant. That Bach does not fit into the pigeonhole of one-sided admirers, Maul also illustrates through his discussion of influences on Bach.

Very little is known about Bach. Personal documents are virtually nonexistent, the known portraits are questioned, and various compositions have been lost. Attempts to better understand the work or the person by bringing in context are understandable (Christoph Wolff in his major biography is fond of using this method), but they distract from the fact that Bach was also a headstrong individual who did what he wanted regardless of context, at least within his art—otherwise one cannot understand why his superiors were sometimes very critical of his work, even called him to account, and some did not mourn his death at all. Maul also has questions about various compositions and situations and poses them to Bach, in passages with unusual typography. Of course, he receives no answer, but his conjectures set us thinking about Bach's motives and invite further investigation by which these questions might eventually be answered, although I suspect those answers will come more from documents still unknown than from a new perspective on documents now known, though in this matter one can never be sure. Maul knows the Bach documentation inside and out and can explain it well. He does not write entirely for beginners and therefore does not explain everything, but he knows how to engage both lay people and enthusiasts. The many illustrations enliven the text, the chronology and list of works are very useful, the discussed pieces can be heard via QR code, and the translation by Clemens Romijn makes the argument a pleasure to read. The whole is entirely consistent with the subtitle: A Declaration of Love. After reading the book, one wants above all to listen and admire. Mystery or not, love grows.

© Emanuel Overbeeke

____________
By Michael Maul also appearedBach – Eine Bildbiographie/Pictorial Biography (click herefor the review).