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The Calov bible — Bach's markings

• Abraham Calov – biblical hermeneutics
  From the ‘foreword’ in the Deutsche Bibel , the ‘most humble dedication'(‘Unterthänigste Zueignungs-Schrifft’. 1 Partly in German, more leng…
• Abraham Calov – works
  Abraham Calovius (also Abraham Calov or Abraham Kalau; 16 April 1612 – 25 February 1686) was a Lutheran theologian, and one of the champions…
• Bach on Ecclesiastes (Luther/Calov) – marked texts
  Nearly every page of this small Bible book contains markings made by Bach. We may therefore assume that Bach studied this part of the Calov …
• Bach on Exodus and Leviticus (Calov) – marked texts
  In the book of Exodus there are several interesting markings. The most prominent are the famous annotation on Exodus 15:20 (Miriam’s musical…
• Bach on Genesis (Calov) – markings
  Coincidence, certainly, but Bach’s first annotation in Volume 1 does highlight commentary on the biblical text itself–it unpacks (in the mar…
• Bach on Job and the Psalms (Calov)
  Many people expected to find quite a lot of markings in the Book of Psalms, but that is not the case. This does not imply he failed to read …
• Bach on ‘Numbers’ and ‘Deuteronomy’ (Calov)
  In this section, we notice that Aaron’s blessing is abundantly marked by Bach, with underlinings and a lot of obliques in the margin, emphas…
• Bach on the Books of Joshua, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles (Calov)
  Quantatively not so many markings by Bach, but qualitatively very interesting ones. Immediately in Joshua: twice an NB !… and of course the …
• Bach on the New Testament (Calov) – markings
  In contrast with the first volume, this volume (III - NT) shows only few traces of Bach reading it. Only two NB’s ( Mt 5:16 : how to deal wi…
• Bach on the Prophets (Calov) – marked texts
  With the Prophets, the second volume opens. Bach will have read is, but the number of markings is small, and often only corrections. Intrigu…
• Bach’s annotations in Calov’s Bible commentary
  If we don’t count the minor corrections Bach made in this 6-part Bible Commentary, some 400 marked passages remain (not Bible verses, but Lu…
• Bach’s copy of Calov’s Bible commentary (Cox)
  abridged from Howard H. Cox , ‘The Scholarly Detective: Investigating Bach’s Personal Bible’ (in ‘Bach’ 25/1, 1994, pp. 28-45)
• Reading the Bible through Luther’s lens.
  Abraham Calov’s Die Deutsche Bibel (3-volume Bible commentary drawn from Luther’s writings) and Johann Olearius ‘ Biblische Erklärung , also…
• The 6 title pages of Calov’s Bible Commentary
  The titles of the 6 books (bound in 3 in-folio volumes, together the “Calov Bible Commentary”) are all different, and contain a lot of infor…
• The Calov bible – Bach’s markings
  The Calov Bible Commentary (3 volumes) from the library of J. S. Bach (now in Concordia Seminary Library in St. Louis, Missouri.)

The Passions

• A vesper with Bach’s Passion: how to imagine it?
  Well, let’s try. The premieres: the St John Passion in 1724, the St Matthew Passion in 1727.
• Am Abend da es kühle war…
  Let me take you to one of the most affecting scenes in the St Matthew Passion: the moment after the deposition from the cross. Evening has f…
• Come, ye daughters, help me lament…
  On the Daughter of Zion and the wedding of the Lamb.
• Erbarme dich
  Say Good Friday and most people think of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. It is no longer performed as part of the liturgy, as it was in Bach’s da…
• Good Friday, Leipzig 1724
  The first performance of the St John Passion – a reconstruction of that afternoon.
• Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod
  German text: https://www.deutsches-textarchiv.de/book/view/zeitz_gebetbuch_1690?p=445 (Leipziger hymnbook from 1690).
• Jesus looks at Peter – Peter’s tears
  Background to the aria Erbarme dich : Heinrich Müller, Hertzens-Spiegel , fourth Passion sermon – the repentance of Peter. The complete serm…
• Johann Christoph Rost – the Passion in Leipzig
  The most important ( only ) information about how and where the Leipzig Passion (recited first, music later) was performed comes from a regi…
• Johannespassie (BWV 245) – kort
  Een beknopte bespreking van de verschillen vindt u hieronder. Voor een uitgebreide bespreking verwijs ik naar de website van (wijlen) Eduard…
• Johannespassie (BWV 245) – versies
  The Dutch original of this page has moved to https://bach.wursten.be/johannespassie-bwv-245-versies/ . An English version is in preparation.
• O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross
  In the version found on bach-cantatas.com (translated by Francis Browne and William Hoffman), some stanzas are missing, and there are errors…
• Petri Thränen (Buß und Reu) – Heinrich Müller
  The Dutch original of this page has moved to https://bach.wursten.be/petri-thranen-bus-und-reu-heinrich-muller/ . An English version is in p…
• Salve caput cruentatum
  Part 7 of Salve mundi salutare … (meditation on Jesus wounds, organised per body part: membra Jesu Christi . The entire text and with Gerhar…
• Sehet, Jesus hat die Hand…
  And at last the moment has come. The via dolorosa leads Jesus to Golgotha. The approach was long, and the crucifixion itself is told without…
• The St Matthew Passion
  This page takes up a simple question: what kind of piece is this, actually? How should we picture its liturgical setting? How was it perform…
• Three clues for understanding Bach’s Saint Matthew’s Passion
  Three classic typologies one has to know to understand the role of the dramatis personae in Bach’s SMP: Lamb, Isaac, Bride/Bridegroom.

Bach in his 'milieu' (sources)

• Advent 1 – Predigt Heinrich Müller (1732)
  Heinrich Müller’s Evangelischer Herzens-Spiegel. Geist-reiche Erklärung und Betrachtung der Sonn- und Fest-täglichen Evangelien 1732
• Bach Dokumente Bd II, nr. 179
  Den 3 .Aprilis 1724. Herrn Johann Sebastian Bachen Cantori bey der Thomas Schule
• Bach Dokumente, Band II, nr. 180
  Aö. 1721. ward am CharFreytag in der vesper, die Passion zum 1sten mahl Musiciret, np. I. Viertel auf 2. wurde gelautet mit dem gantzen gela…
• BWV 191 - gloria in excelsis - and the Rector's Christmas programma of 1742
  The text of the Academic Programma , published on 24 December 1742: Transcription (Latin) and summative translation into English.
• Christoph Birkmann
  Mathematician, and librettist of Bach cantatas, 1726-1727.
• Christoph Birkmann (wiskundige en librettist van cantates 1726-1727)
  The Dutch original of this page has moved to https://bach.wursten.be/christoph-birkmann-librettist-van-cantates-1725-1727/ . An English vers…
• Fanmail in disguise: J.A. Gesner on Bach as performer (Lat-Eng) 1738
  Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, De Institutione Oratoria , ed. Johann Matthias Gesner (Gottingen: Abram Vandenhoeck, 1738).
• Hausen and Birkmann, 1726: sunspots and the tilt of the sun’s axis
  Dissertation, 14 August 1726, Leipzig, faculty of philosophy. 1 – Professor Christian August Hausen: praeses 2 – Christoph Bürckmann (or Bir…
• „Fait pour les Anglois” — how the English Suites got their name
  How the English Suites got their name – a hypothesis by Bernd Koska

Essays

• From Bach, with ♡
  In Part IV of the Christmas Oratorio, Bach four times replaces the word Hertz (heart) with a small drawing of a heart. The passages are repr…
• Going to Church with J.S. Bach
  The opening choir of Bachs Saint-Matthews Passion ( Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen ) read against the background of common 17-18th cen…
• The chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (movie 1968)
  Below are three fragments from a 1968 movie (well: hardly anything ‘moves’, it’s more a ‘statement’), The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach ,…
• The fiction of Bach’s Christmas-oratorio
  Every year Bach wrote cantatas for all Christmas celebrations in Leipzig, i.e. six cantatas: three for the ‘three Christmas days’, and then …
• The Song of Songs (das Hohelied) and BWV 140
  Some necessary background for understanding Bachs religious works in general, with examples from BWV 140: Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme . T…
• This page has moved
  ‘From Bach, with ♡’ – on the heart Bach drew in the score of Part IV of the Christmas Oratorio instead of writing the word Hertz – is now av…
• Vor deinem Thron… Bach’s final words (or not?)
  Few composers have attracted as many legends as Johann Sebastian Bach. One of the most persistent tells how the blind composer, sensing that…