2011/01/01 by Eckart David Schmidt · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Linguistic research and analysis #Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies #Historical Influence and Diplomacy #Philosophy #Art #Humanities
paper · doi:10.1515/ijpt.2011.034
openalex publication_date 2011/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
J.S. Bach's motet „Jesu, meine Freude“ (BWV 227) combines three textual layers: two language texts (verses from Paul's letter to the Romans, and Franck's sacred hymn from the 17th century) and Bach's musical „text“. This essay investigates the relation between these three „texts“. An introductory chapter (I.) considers the historical background of the composition of the motet. Then (II.), both literary layers are analysed through a comparison of the texts. The (significant) differences between them are highlighted and it is shown how they relate to each other in combination, sometimes even resulting in a shift of their original meaning. In the next chapter (III.) the layer of Bach's music is added to the hermeneutical analysis by exploring its structural function and how the music can support, or even reshape, the meaning of the words. The last chapter (IV.) begins by investigating possibilities of a theological hermeneutics of „mere“ music independently from words. Unlike hermeneutical approaches that too quickly identify musical experiences with „religious“ experiences, the thesis suggested here is that musical experience may indeed be understood as analogous to legitimate religious experience, but is called to accountability before the „Logos“ to remain theologically responsible. Just as Franck's poem individualizes and emotionalizes Paul's dogmatics, so does Bach's music individualize and emotionalize both texts, instigating or even necessitating a combination of an aesthetics of work and reception.