Text, the Number Alphabet and Numerical Ordering in Bach's Church Cantatas

• Did Bach draw up a detailed ground plan when composing church cantatas, stipulating the number of bars in the work, and did it bear any relationship to the numerical value of the biblical text? In Bach and the Riddle of the Number Alphabet (Cambridge, 1991) I was able to show that the German natural order number alphabet (A=1—Z=24) was used by poets in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century for generating ideas. Did Bach adapt the technique to music and use the number alphabet as a source of invention? Did he use it systematically in his works? The central purpose of Bach’s church cantatas was to express in music the biblical text expounded in the sermon. Of his 200 extant church cantatas, 78 quote a biblical verse verbatim. Did he base these church cantatas literally on the biblical text? Given the fundamental significance of the biblical verse, the analyst has unusually clear conditions within which to examine any numerical correlation that might indicate Bach’s pre-compositional choices. Whether positive or negative, the results of this experiment provide important evidence towards the solution of the riddle of the number alphabet.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musikvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Musicology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Bach

compositional procedure

experimental musicology

Music

Musikvetenskap

Musikvetenskap

Musicology

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