Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship

Piety and Moral Values in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Oratorios

Markus Rathey, Yale University

When Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach took over the position of cantor in Hamburg from his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann in 1768 he also inherited a long musical tradition, shaped significantly by his predecessor. One facet of this tradition was the composition of music for civic ceremonies like the annual meetings of the captains of the militia. Telemann had composed more than twenty oratorios for this occasion and Bach would write at least two more pieces for these meetings during his tenure.

Bach’s oratorios are sacred compositions; however, the function and understanding of religion are significantly different from the oratorios by his father Johann Sebastian. While the older Bach’s works were deeply rooted in the traditions of Lutheran theology (with some influences by contemporary pietism), Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s oratorios exhibit a strong influence of the Natural Theology of the second half of the 18th century, a strain of theology he got to know both in Berlin and in Hamburg. Transcendental and soteriological aspects are excluded from reflection and religion is dissolved into morality. The main function of religion is to lead to appropriate action.

Based on this theological background the oratorios have a clear pedagogical purpose: religion supports the moral values that help to secure the political and social status quo. Eventually, patriotism and religion become the same.

The paper will examine the librettos of the two oratorios on the background of the religious discourse in the second half of the 18th century and show how Bach’s compositions contribute to this understanding of religion.

Is Music in Heaven Real, and Why did Johann Mattheson Care?

Joyce Irwin, independent scholar (Syracuse, NY)

In 1747, Johann Mattheson wrote Assertion of Heavenly Music (Behauptung der himmlischen Musik) in order to demonstrate through the authority of reason, tradition and scripture that the resurrected and glorified bodies of the redeemed will be able to hear, sing and play music. Over against those who regarded heavenly music as metaphorical, Mattheson argued vehemently that heaven is not a realm of pure spirit but of renewed matter. Musical instruments will be played by glorified hands and mouths, and glorified ears will hear by means of glorified air.

For Mattheson, the endurance of music beyond this life was a corollary to its existence before creation. It was not simply a gift of God in creation, as many others would have said, but an eternal reality. To say this was, in spite of all his biblical and historical citations, to move beyond the Lutheran theology that he claimed to espouse. By appealing to reason, Mattheson hoped to address the misgivings of philosophers, and, by claiming the pre-existence of music, he hoped to counter philosophers’ assertions of the primacy of their discipline.

Mattheson was a complex person who worked in the service of a diplomat, performed and composed music and, most notably, commented profusely on music theory. Little attention has been paid to the extensive role theology plays in his writings. The paper, by examining his biblical interpretation and his theological argumentation, will contribute to our understanding not only of Mattheson’s relationship to the theological and philosophical movements of the time but also to the role of church music in the time of the Enlightenment.