Religion and Politics in the Baroque

April 19, 2007

Sovereigns, Servants, Sermons, and Song: Religion and Politics in the Baroque”

From the first half of the sixteenth century on, the Reformation, or the splitting of the Church, places in question the subordination of state to church, leading to the exact reversal of this formula: the subordination of church to state. How are the various branches of Christianity and the relations between secular and sacred expressed in the music of the Baroque? How did the turmoil within the Christian religio-political world affect the relations between Christianity and Judaism, and how did this influence the musical scene? What role does ethics play here?

Speakers in two sessions will explore these and related cultural-historical dimensions of Baroque culture in order to help us understand and appreciate more fully the music and art from this period that we still enjoy today.

The symposium, a joint effort between the University of Oregon’s Department of German and Scandinavian and the Oregon Bach Festival, will conclude with a festive Friday evening organ concert by David Yearsley.

All events are free, and take place on the University of Oregon campus. The organ recital takes place at Central Lutheran Church in Eugene, with a donation to Food for Lane County accepted as admission.

Symposium
May 24, 2007, 3:00-5:00 PM
EMU, University of Oregon campus
Fir Room

“Princes of Peace and War and their Most Humble, Most Obedient Court Composer”
David Yearsley, Cornell University

J. S. Bach took many of his own vocal works conceived as tributes to earthly sovereigns and transformed them into glorifications of the heavenly King. Yet in contrast to the implications of some aspects of Luther’s theology, these transformations leave undisturbed an underlying commitment to temporal authority and social obedience. Indeed, many of Bach’s sacred works not only rely on rhetorical and musical topics associated with court life and the pervasive culture of war, but amplify these images in order to dramatize more vividly their message for contemporary congregations.

“Anti-Judaism and the Lutheran Cantata: the Cantatas for Judica Sunday of Georg Philipp Telemann”
Jeanne Swack, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Building on the inherent anti-Judaism of the Gospel reading for Easter, the texts of Telemann’s cantatas and the music itself function as an intensification of the anti-Judaism of the Gospel reading, dramatizing it to the congregation using devices borrowed from opera seria. These work hand in hand with the sermons for the day, which were often viciously anti-Semitic.

Works-in-progress University Colloquium
May 25, 2007, 9:30 AM – Noon
EMU, University of Oregon campus
Rogue Room

David Yearsley (Cornell University): “Bach’s Feet”
Steven Shankman (University of Oregon): “Neohumanism, the Arts, and the Eruption of the Ethical Baroque”

Organ Recital
May 25th, 2007 7:30 pm
Central Lutheran Church
1857 Potter Street, Eugene
David Yearsley
(Free with donation to Food for Lane County)

University of Oregon Department of German and Scandinavian