On the Cantatas of J.S. Bach: Trinity I-VII

This is a personal exploration. It is written for those who seek the same.

Bach is regarded as the greatest composer of Western music. From his music flows his ethical interpretations and, importantly, his awareness of the human condition, the heart that is the mirror of the soul. It is upon the thought of Bach, both philosophical and didactic, his enabling artistry, and the continuing relevance of that thought that pertains or is illuminated, that these commentaries are concerned with.

The prescriptive texts, on which the Baroque cantata and, still now, the contemporary liturgy are based, derive from the Sunday or feast-day readings from the epistle and from the gospel. The epistle is from the Apostolic letters of the Christian Bible. The gospel is concerned with the life and teachings of Christ.

The epistle is essentially didactic. The gospel is essentially expository of an individual application of action. The over-reaching principles are philosophical and ethical; and how they apply is determined, ultimately, by the individual. It goes beyond dogma.

Trinity I through VII, the first third of the Trinity Sundays and feast days, occurs in June and July of the Lutheran liturgical year. This part of the ecclesiastical year also includes the Feast of St. John the Baptist and the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Because of the latter I also include a chapter on the Magnificat.

The five topics of the human condition that these Trinity cantatas principally dwell upon encompass first, the relationship of money to morality; second, the linkage between compassion and individual salvation; third, the influence of condemnation upon the sense of redemption; fourth, the correlation of identity and the need to understand otherness; and fifth, how the sacred is invested in the secular and are, thus, identical.