J. S. Bach, Volume II
Albert Schweitzer, translated by Ernest Newman
From the first English printing, 1911
The second volume of Schweitzer’s Bach, from “Bach and Aesthetics” through the cantatas, the Passions and the Masses: the chapters where he shows how Bach’s music paints the words it sets.
From Chapter XXVI, The Magnificat and the St. John Passion
On the great Feast days the Magnificat was given in figurate music at the evening service in Leipzig. It followed the sermon.
An example from the book
In the bass and in the cadences to the soprano air Et exsultavit we hear the characteristic Bach motive of joy, as though a blinding ray of sunlight suddenly vibrated through the gentle Advent twilight —
As printed in 1911
Engraved again, and played
Listen
The opening of Chapter XXVI, The Magnificat and the St. John Passion
Read by an AI voice (Kokoro), with names and Latin and German words checked by ear. The musical examples play where the text introduces them.