Seminar in 18th Century Music (453-0-1)

Topic

Bach Cantatas

Instructors

Andrew J. Talle
847/491-7228
RCMA 4-133
Office Hours: by appointment
Coordinator, musicology program. Andrew Talle '95 studied at Northwestern from 1990-1995, earning a bachelor’s degree in cello performance as a student of Hans Jørgen Jensen, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in linguistics. From 1995-2003, he was a PhD student at Harvard University, earning master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology. Dr. Talle spent one year lecturing at Harvard before moving to Baltimore in 2004 to join the musicology faculty at the Peabody Conservatory. In 2011, he was named a Gilman Scholar of the Johns Hopkins University, a distinction reserved for fewer than 20 faculty members across all nine divisions. He joined the Northwestern faculty in 2017.

Meeting Info

RCMA Lower Level 111: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

No music is performed more frequently at the Bienen School than that of J. S. Bach. A recent survey of student recital programs over a five-year period found that works by Bach were performed a total of 267 times, considerably more than works by his closest competitors: Brahms (160), Mozart (155), Beethoven (145), Schubert (133) and Robert Schumann (110). Bach is also one of the most intensively studied musicians of the past two hundred years. This course serves as an introduction to recent research. We begin with a survey of the composer's biography followed by close readings of influential articles and books, and analysis of his music. We will focus in this iteration of the course on the cantatas Bach wrote for Sunday church services throughout his career.