Overview

Drawing upon a rich array of sources from archives in Leipzig, Dresden and Halle, Tanya Kevorkian illuminates culture in Leipzig before and during J.S. Bach's time in the city. Working with these sources, she has been able to reconstruct the contexts of Baroque and Pietist cultures at key periods in their development much more specifically than has been done previously. Kevorkian shows that high Baroque culture emerged through a combination of traditional frameworks and practices, and an infusion of change that set in after 1680. Among other forms of change, new secular arenas appeared, influencing church music and provoking reactions from Pietists, who developed alternative meeting, networking and liturgical styles. The book focuses on the everyday practices and active roles of audiences in public religious life. It examines music performance and reception from the perspectives of both 'ordinary' people and elites. Church services are studied in detail, providing a broad sense of how people behaved and listened to the music. Kevorkian also reconstructs the world of patronage and power of city councillors and clerics as they interacted with other Leipzig inhabitants, thereby illuminating the working environment of J.S. Bach, Telemann and other musicians. In addition, Kevorkian reconstructs the social history of Pietists in Leipzig from 1688 to the 1730s.

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9780754654902

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Reviews

Prize: Winner of the 2008 William H. Scheide Prize of the American Bach Society Shortlisted for the AMS Lewis Lockwood Award 2008. 'Through personal accounts, Kevorkian paints a detailed and intimate picture of religious activity across the strata of civic society. The story of Leipzig's public religious culture to 1750 emerges as one of great diversity and flux in a period of relative peace and economic prosperity.... Readers from social, political, and religious history should not be put off by the prominence of music in the title, and indeed, this review. ...a valuable social history. Music, in Kevorkian's book, as it was in Leipzig society, is but one thread in the rich fabric of public pious culture.' H-German 'In sum, Kevorkian has done important research in specific areas such as pewholding, consistory and city council records, and Pietist correspondence that enrich our understanding of religious affairs in Leipzig in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries... it is a significant addition to the scholarly literature in the field.' Journal of the American Musicological Society '... this book provides a highly stimulating historical resource that will undoubtedly inflect many musical studies of Bach and his predecessors over the coming years.' Early Music 'A valuable contribution to Ashgate's growing catalogue of interdisciplinary studies... Baroque Piety provides new insight into how we consider the religious arena in early modern Europe.' Renaissance Quarterly 'Music forms only one strand of Kevorkian's interdisciplinary study, yet by considering Bach's work within the religious life of Leipzig, she offers a model of how music can be integrated within social history. ... [Kevorkian's] book is not only a sure-footed account of the religious sphere in which Bach worked, it should also stimulate new directions in research on eighteenth-century German music.' Eighteenth-Century Music 'Having a broad sweep of Kevorkian

Prize: Winner of the 2008 William H. Scheide Prize of the American Bach Society Shortlisted for the AMS Lewis Lockwood Award 2008. 'Through personal accounts, Kevorkian paints a detailed and intimate picture of religious activity across the strata of civic society. The story of Leipzig's public religious culture to 1750 emerges as one of great diversity and flux in a period of relative peace and economic prosperity... Readers from social, political, and religious history should not be put off by the prominence of music in the title, and indeed, this review. ...a valuable social history. Music, in Kevorkian's book, as it was in Leipzig society, is but one thread in the rich fabric of public pious culture.' H-German 'In sum, Kevorkian has done important research in specific areas such as pewholding, consistory and city council records, and Pietist correspondence that enrich our understanding of religious affairs in Leipzig in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries... it is a significant addition to the scholarly literature in the field.' Journal of the American Musicological Society '... this book provides a highly stimulating historical resource that will undoubtedly inflect many musical studies of Bach and his predecessors over the coming years.' Early Music 'A valuable contribution to Ashgate's growing catalogue of interdisciplinary studies... Baroque Piety provides new insight into how we consider the religious arena in early modern Europe.' Renaissance Quarterly 'Music forms only one strand of Kevorkian's interdisciplinary study, yet by considering Bach's work within the religious life of Leipzig, she offers a model of how music can be integrated within social history. ... [Kevorkian's] book is not only a sure-footed account of the religious sphere in which Bach worked, it should also stimulate new directions in research on eighteenth-century German music.' Eighteenth-Century Music 'Having a broad sweep of Kevorkian's research gathered in one place reveals the multidisciplinary reach and rich detail of the work. ... Baroque Piety begins to explore the interplay between the Orthodox and Pietistic factions on both a personal and institutional level, but more importantly, the delineation of the institutional structures (formal and informal) of Saxon religious society is illuminating.' Sixteenth Century Journal 'Kevorkian's work is interdisciplinary, drawing on history (particularly of Pietism, a puritanical religious sect of the period with strong roots in Leipzig), sociology (especially of religion) and music... the focus on religion given in this volume clearly has great potential for future musicological studies.' The Consort 'Kevorkian's study of religion, society and music in Leipzig's in 1650-1750 is of considerable interest to organists, if only for giving a great deal of non-musical context to the situation in which Bach worked. In addition to the study of pietism promised in the title, there is an illuminating discussion on the social and economic activity in Leipzig, and how this in turn effected church attenance and seating, the patterns of church going and how this determined who would hear the performance of the cantata each week.' Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies 'Baroque Piety helps us understand Bach's period with renewed insight... Historians, musicologists, musicians, clergy, and any interested persons who want to learn about this period for any number of reasons will find it an engaging work.' Lutheran Quarterly 'For the Bach scholar, Baroque Piety provides some interesting perspectives into the composer's immediate environment and position, but its primary significance is in its substantial contribution to our knowledge of the broader religious and social context in which Bach lived and worked.' Bach Bibliography 'The Lutheran church musician of the twenty-first century curious about the social and religious context in which Bach's Leipzig sacred music was heard will find Kevorkian's book endlessly fascinating. Her command of the primary sourced documents permits her to unlock previously unknown details of religious and musical life in Leipzig before and during Bach's time there, thus providing us a deeper understanding of church and musical life in this important center of Lutheranism.' Cross Accent, Journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians 'Especially impressive is Kevorkian's incorporation of new archival sources that enable her to push beyond the work of her predecessors such as Hans Leube and Ryoko Mori. ... The result is a richly textured study of Leipzig congregational life that illuminates in equal measure the worlds of secular and church authorities, of ordinary congregants, and of the students and commoners who supported the Pietist collegia and networks during this crucial period. ... This stimulating and richly documented study deserves a wide and attentive reading among early modern scholars. The book is enhanced by an index, illustrations, footnotes and extensive bibliography.' German History '...one of Kevorkian's great achievements is to help us understand the [Bach's] religious and social milieu in a far more holistic and sensitive manner than has been the case previously. This alone will make Baroque Piety valuable to musicologists, but historians will also benefit from the book's expert treatment of urban religion in a time of expansion and change.' European History Quarterly '... offers the reader a comprehensive, yet concise, view of religious life during Leipzig's period of greatest prosperity. ... Particularly skillful is Kevorkian's examination of the social dimensions of religious life in Leipzig... Kevorkian broadens our view of Leipzig's church music to encompass the simpler fare offered at smaller churches... While keeping Bach in the center of her narrative, Kevorkian succeeds in conveying a more holistic sense of his religious and social milieu.' Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 'This book makes an important contribution to Baroque studies by singling out and scrutinizing all of the social groups that had some influence on the production of music and the evolution of church life in Leipzig. The author provides new information about a number of interesting topics...' Church History

Prize: Winner of the 2008 William H. Scheide Prize of the American Bach Society Shortlisted for the AMS Lewis Lockwood Award 2008. ’Through personal accounts, Kevorkian paints a detailed and intimate picture of religious activity across the strata of civic society. The story of Leipzig's public religious culture to 1750 emerges as one of great diversity and flux in a period of relative peace and economic prosperity.... Readers from social, political, and religious history should not be put off by the prominence of music in the title, and indeed, this review. ...a valuable social history. Music, in Kevorkian's book, as it was in Leipzig society, is but one thread in the rich fabric of public pious culture.’ H-German ’In sum, Kevorkian has done important research in specific areas such as pewholding, consistory and city council records, and Pietist correspondence that enrich our understanding of religious affairs in Leipzig in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries... it is a significant addition to the scholarly literature in the field.’ Journal of the American Musicological Society ’... this book provides a highly stimulating historical resource that will undoubtedly inflect many musical studies of Bach and his predecessors over the coming years.’ Early Music ’A valuable contribution to Ashgate's growing catalogue of interdisciplinary studies... Baroque Piety provides new insight into how we consider the religious arena in early modern Europe.’ Renaissance Quarterly ’Music forms only one strand of Kevorkian’s interdisciplinary study, yet by considering Bach’s work within the religious life of Leipzig, she offers a model of how music can be integrated within social history. ... [Kevorkian's] book is not only a sure-footed account of the religious sphere in which Bach worked, it should also stimulate new directions in research on eighteenth-century German music.’ Eighteenth-Century Music ’Having a broad sweep of Kevorkian

Author Information

Tanya Kevorkian is Associate Professor of History at Millersville University, USA.

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