July 29, 2002
Bach's faith resonates in his Bible notations
___By Adelle Banks
___Religion News Service
___ST. LOUIS (RNS)--Tucked away in a rare books room of a Lutheran seminary sit three historic volumes that reveal the religious interests of one of the world's most famous composers.
___Known simply as "The Bach Bible," the volumes feature the biblical text, a commentary by Lutheran theologian Abraham Calov and notations and underlinings by Johann Sebastian Bach.
___"Bach was a theologian," said David Berger, director of library services at Concordia Seminary and a bass soloist, in a recent interview. "His vocal works and choral works show that he was very text-oriented. He knew the literature."
THE TITLE PAGE of the first volume of a Bible owned by composer Johann Sebastian Bach includes the signature of Bach and the date 1733. (RNS Photo)
___Thomas Rossin, a Minnesota conductor who did his dissertation on the volumes that feature Bach's signature and the date 1733--which could be the year the musician acquired the Bible commentary--said they verify that Bach's interest in church music was more than just a function of his job as an organist and choir director in Germany.
___"Finally we have proof in his own hand, not meant for anyone else to see, saying things like, 'This chapter is the true foundation of all God-pleasing church music,'" Rossin said.
___That note in Bach's handwriting was next to the 25th chapter of 1 Chronicles, which, in the 6th verse, speaks of "song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psalteries and harps for the service of the house of God."
___Rossin's dissertation categorized the notations in the volumes as definitely Bach's, possibly Bach's and definitely not Bach's. He determined that most of the markings were Bach's, but only 3 percent of them related to music.
___"It was clear that we were looking at his faith, not his music," said Rossin, who conducts the professional musical group Exultate in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. "The two obviously connected. He really was writing this stuff because he believed in it and not just because he was made to do so."
___The pages, browned with age but quite well-preserved, feature Bible verses in large, bold letters in the common Fraktur type, followed immediately by Calov's commentary in smaller and lighter type. Stacked atop one another, the editions dating to the 1680s are more than a foot high.
___The passage in 2 Chronicles 5:12-13 about cymbals, trumpets and singers drew this comment from the Lutheran composer: "In devotional music, God is always present with His Grace."
___Rossin said many of the markings related to the word "authority," which he thinks was due to Bach's trouble with the church and city councils that oversaw the music in Leipzig, Germany, where he was a church's musical director. He suspects that around the time of the date placed in the commentary Bible, Bach decided to continue his job but began to write secular orchestral music due to disputes over his church compositions.
___"We have at least 200 ... church cantatas," he said. "How many more would we have, had that not occurred?"
___Other aspects of Bach's personality, including his precision and his fascination with numbers, are clear in the margins of the Bible.
___Berger pointed out one of his favorite pages in the third volume, in the fifth chapter of Mark. There, Bach noticed a printer's error where several words were dropped. In his own hand, Bach added them in the margin.
___Next to Exodus 38, the composer added up the amount of gold used to build the Tabernacle--almost eight tons--and recorded its sum.
___Rossin said study of Bach's Bible has prompted him to encourage performing the musician's work in new ways.
___"It should be done in churches and not in concert halls and not by huge, massive orchestras," he said. "It should be done more intimately and from a faith perspective."
___
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