The name Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) surely rings a bell with most of us. Even if you never studied music professionally, I would venture to guess that you are aware of his music. Johann Sebastian had many children that went on to write and publish their own musical compositions, creating varied musical styles based on where those children lived in adulthood. This article will focus on the elder Bach, the one who arguably gave the Church its highest level of music in the Western world.
For a little background, J. S. Bach lived his entire life in Germany immediately after the Protestant Reformation. Bach lived during the Baroque time period, with George Frideric Handel (Messiah) and Antonio Vivaldi (The Four Seasons) overlapping his life span. In the art world, this is the same time period as the great painter Caravaggio (The Indredulity of Saint Thomas, The Calling of Saint Matthew), as well as the master sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (St. Peter’s Square, Apollo and Daphne, and David). Take a moment to look up a few of these treasures of art and you will find the music to be highly ornamental, the paintings to be dramatic, and the sculptures to be intense.
The Baroque themes mentioned above are especially seen in architecture and cathedrals from that time. Across the expanse of the Baroque time period (1600-1750) the breathtaking and exquisite Baroque elements are seen in St. Peter’s Basilica (Vatican City, Rome, Italy), Palace of Versailles (France), and the well-known Chatsworth House (Derbyshire, England). When examining these extravagant art specimens, one could conclude that beauty was important during the Baroque time period. Artists, no matter their medium, challenged themselves to create the highest level of beauty their minds could comprehend. And in the case of Bach, he did this because he created out of his Christian worldview. Literary theologian Leland Ryken suggests that an artist’s “whole canon is the best barometer of what he or she believes about reality,” and for Bach, his entire canon reflected a high view of Scripture and a desire to bring God glory in all of his writings.1
Whereas many people are familiar with Bach writing the Latin phrase “Soli deo gloria,” or “To God alone be the glory” at the end of his manuscripts, a lesser known fact is that he also wrote “Jesu Juva” or “Jesus, help me” at the beginning. Bach was a church music director in Protestant churches (namely Lutheran) almost his entire adult life. This meant that he composed for the church, but he also composed many secular pieces (Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, to name a couple).
One of Bach’s greatest masterpieces is his Magnificat (1723), which contains Jesu Juva and Soli deo gloria at the beginning and end. If you take time to listen to this tour de force, you will hear sung Scripture. That’s it. But it is in the beauty of the soaring melodic lines and the creative harmonic structure that you will sense the glorious music that once was church music.
American philosopher and theologian Nicholas Wolterstorff comments on Bach’s Magnificat:
When Bach composed his work, it belonged to the art of the tribe; for, aesthetically glorious as it is, it was then a humble servant of the Lutheran liturgy. Now it sadly belongs almost entirely to the art of our cultural elite, who listen to it in concert halls, taking note only of its aesthetic qualities. Is it too much to hope that some day the church will once again find composers who are willing to turn their backs, for a time, on the institution of high art to compose works which are of aesthetic magnificence and yet of humble service to the liturgy?2
The last two elements cause me to stop and think: church music that is aesthetically magnificent and of humble service to the weekly liturgy. That is what Bach’s music was. But sadly, our American evangelical churches have diminished beauty in worship in favor of the ever-changing popular culture, and have sacrificed the liturgy on the altar of pragmatism. One critic of the current state of church and culture writes that there is a difference between entertainment and art. He states, “Entertainment reaches out to us where we are, puts on its show, and then leaves us essentially unchanged . . . It does not (and usually does not claim to) offer us any new perspective on our lives or on other matters in creation.” Great art, on the other hand, “reveals something about human nature because it is forced to conform to created reality.”3
This contrast between art and entertainment is seen easily in church music today. Rather than throw our hands in the air in frustration, or resign ourselves to apathy, I believe Bach can still teach us today. This is part of the beauty of studying the great composers/artists/writers/thinkers of the Western world; their impact continues past their time on earth.
Jesu Juva.
Jesus, help me.
If church musicians want to create beautiful soaring melodies with creative harmonic structure (that are singable in the congregation), then they need to feed their imaginations with the best that we have, or have ever had, in church music. Study the hymns of Ambrose. What was happening in early church history that caused him to write those hymns, and why would we still sing them today? Study chants from the Middle Ages. Spend much time with Bach and Handel. Their compositions widely consist of sung Scripture. There is nothing better than sung scripture in church music! Examine why American Lowell Mason thought it was important to take two European tours in the nineteenth century to examine the state of church music in Europe. What was happening with church music in America and Europe during those years?
Additionally, the charge for modern day poets remains the same as it has always been: if you want to write good poetry, you need to read good poetry. Read the best English poets: William Cowper, William Keats, George Herbert, Charles Wesley, Anne Bradstreet, John Milton, Anne Steele…the list could go on but you get the idea. Crafting beautiful words takes patience and practice. Everything you write will not be good. It’s through the refining of your craft that beauty will come.
NOW the bright morning-star, Day’s harbinger,
Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire!
Woods and groves are of thy dressing;
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.John Milton, Song on May Morning (1632-33)
Through all of the study and preparation, ask God to open your mind to new ideas – Jesu Juva. Ask him to fill and fuel your sanctified imagination. Humbly seek the best forms of art for your medium. Ryken notes, “Simply to put Christian ideas into verse will not make one a Christian poet.” Rather, “Christian artists must be assured that meaning is conveyed through form (emphasis mine).”4 In other words, can the form carry the weight of the content? So often in church music, there is a disconnect between text and tune. The tune may be very simple but the text is weighty; while at other times the text is simple while the melody is too complex. I agree that “the Christian artist’s mission is to add to the beauty, truth, and joy of the world, not its hopelessness.”5
Finally, after much prayer and practice, when the finale has been reached: soli deo gloria.
The humility of the great J.S. Bach to remove himself from the manuscript as much as possible is a signal to our prideful hearts today. Do we want to receive the glory? Are we seeking instant gratification by hearing others tell us what a great piece of art we produced? No. We should allow Bach’s humility to influence us today, knowing that our compositions will probably not find their placement among the Bachs or Handels of the world. If Bach composed in humility, so can we.
In the Protestant Reformation, soli deo gloria is the fifth and final sola, signaling another reformational thought that all of our lives are lived coram deo, “before the face of God.” All believers are theologians, not just pastors and seminary professors. With this truth, engineers, electricians, politicians, mothers, fathers, and children all live coram deo. Do we rise in the morning with Jesu Juva on our lips, and put our heads on our pillows at night with soli deo gloria in our hearts? Since salvation is accomplished by God alone, then it is for God’s glory that we glorify him for it.
In closing, I have chosen to end with the Gloria Patri from the fourth century. It’s trinitarian declaration has been sung to many tunes throughout the centuries, but its truth remains unchanged. Before Bach, Christians sang the Gloria Patri.
And in the Baroque time, Bach used it at the end of his Magnificat.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
- Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1989), 169-170.
- Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman’s, 1996), 189.
- Kenneth Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture, 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 80-81.
- Ryken, The Liberated Imagination, 208-209.
- Ryken, The Liberated Imagination, 213.
