The Hermeneutic Matrix

Abstract J.S. Bach’s interaction with tradition, embodied in countless aspects of his oeuvr—his settings of the modal chorale melodies of the Lutheran church, to name but one—is one of the most interesting sides of his work. Bach’s capacity to evoke and revitalize past musical styles often involves specific religious contexts for which a sense of temporal distinctions is central. Thus, many cantatas become the meeting ground for archaic and modern styles whose relationship, were it not for closely parallel textual qualities, might be judged inexplicable. In such works heterogeneity of style often mirrors the variegated layers of the verbal texts and their diverse origins (Old Testament, New Testament, chorale, and “madrigal” poetry). The various organizing principles provided both by those texts and by certain large-scale musical devices such as tonality reflect the ways in which Lutheran hermeneutics, sometimes very learnedly, sometimes very simply, articulated the essential unity of theological meaning. Within such a belief system, stylistic heterogeneity is secondary to the overarching unity of scripture and its spiritual working on the believer.