It springs from the depths of the human psyche and not from some topical or local creed. It carries a universal message of hope that can touch anybody regardless of culture, religious denomination or musical knowledge. Statements like these appear periodically throughout the book:īach’s Lutheran faith is encapsulated in this extraordinary music.

While Gardiner never reveals his own religious commitments, judging by his writing he can perhaps best be described as a humanist, whose theistic perspective is agnostic at best. While Gardiner’s insights into these works are fascinating, one wishes that greater attention had been given to Bach’s keyboard works Bach was one of the greatest organists of his day, and his music for organ and for other keyboard instruments is of tremendous significance.įor the purposes of this review, it is to Gardiner’s treatment of Bach the man-more specifically, Bach the Christian man-to which I would like to direct the reader’s attention.

The author’s expertise in Bach’s choral works is evident, with special attention given in Bach: Music in the Castle of Heavento the composer’s cantatas, Passion settings, Christmas Oratorio, and B minor Mass. A want of reliable firsthand biographical information about the composer has not helped matters, with competing biographies appearing periodically, some commending Bach’s piety, others viewing him anachronistically through an Enlightenment lens.īach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot GardinerĮnter John Eliot Gardiner, one of the most widely acclaimed conductors of Baroque music and a recognized authority on Bach’s choral music in particular. The rigorous Lutheran orthodoxy expressed in his sacred compositions has led him to be dubbed the “Fifth Evangelist,” and over the years a picture of Bach as a man of extraordinary piety has developed in the minds of some.

While Lutherans can most legitimately claim Bach as their own-the composer was a part of that tradition both as a result of his location as well as by personal conviction-Protestant musicians of all stripes look to him as an model, both for the quality of his output as well as the theological conviction with which that output is imbued. In the minds of Christians who appreciate art music, whether as performers or simply as listeners, perhaps no figure so fully epitomizes what it means to be a “Christian composer” or a “Christian musician” as does Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

Bach by john eliot gardiner