Sunday, March 23, 2014
Third Sunday in Lent
Three Johanns
Organists love to play the music of Johann Sebastian
Bach. The contrapuntal complexity, the
harmonic inventiveness, the melodic beauty – these are all things about the
music that are endlessly captivating. (Not
to mention the technical challenges!)
Church musicians love to engage the great man’s music for choir and
other instruments, too, because of the rich theological and symbolic language
Bach employs. His fervent and confident
faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ emerges with passion and depth in all of
his music for the church. His own
spiritual discipline is revealed by the brief caption he placed on many of his
compositions: SDG, or Soli Deo
Gloria. To God Alone Glory. Bach’s
humble acknowledgment and dedication of his creative efforts to the One who
Creates has earned him the distinction of “The Fifth Evangelist” (attributed to
Albert Schweitzer). This Sunday, join me
in celebrating the 329th birthday of this most incredible musician
(born March 21, 1685) as I play three pieces for organ by Bach. (For an interesting summary of Bach and his
life as a musical theologian, see this article: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/julyweb-only/52.0c.html )
Two other Johanns play an important part in the network of
musicians, poets, and artists that comprise the diverse body of creative and
faithful evangelists who give artistic expression to the Good News throughout
the ages. Johann Crüger and Johann
Franck united often as a hymn writing team in the seventeenth century, creating
some of the most endearing and familiar Lutheran Chorales we still sing today.
As a genre, the Chorale – a type of hymn associated with the
evangelical German Lutheran church of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries –
can be considered one of the most uniquely “Lutheran” contributions to the
corpus of church music. The sturdy
tunes, often in Bar form (two
repetitions of an A section, followed
by one statement of the B section) evoke
images of enthusiastic four-part singing with grand organ accompaniment. Sometimes the poetic language of the Chorale
can be objective, didactic, or proclamatory, as in A Mighty Fortress, or the language can be more pietistic, and
inwardly reflective, as in Jesus,
Priceless Treasure.
Franck and Crüger created chorales of the latter type, including Jesus, Priceless Treasure and Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness. The texts of Franck contain a rich language
of emotion and inner devotion that remains focused upon Christ, rather than the
self. The melodies of Crüger represent the best of the Chorale, with stepwise
motion, simple yet interesting rhythms, and harmonic elegance. The efforts of these two hymnists have
provided comfort, inspiration, and a language of faith for generations of
musicians and worshipers. Two of J. S.
Bach’s most beloved compositions, the chorale prelude Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele (this morning’s prelude) and the
chorale motet Jesu, meine Freude owe
their genesis to Franck and Crüger. Thanks be to God for the efforts of all
three Johanns!
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