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Rating: 
Summary: The skinny on Bach
Review: And make no mistake, skinny it is! A mere 66 pages. This pamphlet is directed primarily to music directors and singers. I am neither, have no musical training, and cannot read music (so subtract 11 pages of coloratura exercises...which reduces it to only 55 pages of actual text). Since my church performs Bach cantatas frequently, I was looking for something that could give me a little background information on Bach and the musical forms he chose to work in. This book doesn't really provide that, but the carefully compiled Annotated Bibliography (of mostly English works) lists a number of titles that seem quite promising. Since I am primarily interested in Bach's choral works from the perspective of how they fit into the liturgy, I found Father Martin Shannon's chapter "Soli Deo Gloria" to be the most rewarding. That chapter alone was worth the price of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Singing Johann Sebastian made easy
Review: This slender volume stands at the opposite end of the spectrum from Christof Wolff's monumental "Bach, the Learned Musician," which I recently completed reading. The latter deals with learned and fascinating detail every aspect of Bach's life and work. Dr Butt's purpose, to "present an opportunity to learn many of the basics of Bach performance (for) those who direct choirs, and those who sing and play," is much more narrow in scope. As one who has sung Bach's B Minor Mass with a community chorus and orchestra, as well as having played in a (very) amateur way some of his works on piano and recorder in my younger days, I can testify that Dr Butt achieves his purpose very well. He is the editor of the volume, and contributes an article on ornamentation. Dr James E. Jordan Jr. has one on the Lutheran Chorale, the heart of Bach's sacred choral music; and Fr. Martin Shannon one entitled "Soli Deo Gloria," which stresses Bach's oft repeated, and oft reported, determination that all of his music, whether for church or court, be written for the Glory of God. My copy of the book is already heavily underlined, showing that even after a lifetime of enjoying (and that is much too tepid a word) Bach's music there is always something new to be learned. For instance Fr Shannon explication of the "tension" in Bach's choral works between Lutheran orthodoxy and Pietism, wherein he uses the example of the differenc betwen "Christ for us" or "Christ in us." Or Dr Butt's comments on ornamentation, which are particularly pertinent to me at present because lately I have been listening, with score in hand, and in open-mouthed astonishment, to Andras Schiff playing the English Suites. The lightness of Schiff's touch as he seamlessly fits each perfectly apt ornament into the melody line is beyond comprehension to one who once struggled to tack them on any old way, and Dr Butt explains the whys and wherefores. Dr Timberlake's article on singing Bach is perhaps the most technical, and includes several pages of musical examples from Bach's work for vocal exercises, but even that provided some appreciation of what is involved when an artist "effortlessly" glides thru a maze of notes. This is not a first book for someone just making Bach's acquaintance (unless of course they are singing it for the first time in choir or chorus), Malcon Boyd's "Bach" from Vintage Books makes a wonderful introduction, but it can take someone already familiar with it down a little explored pathway. My favorite quote in the book, from Albert Schweitzer referring to the duet in the Credo of the B Minor, "Thus Bach proves that dogma can be expressed much more clearly and satisfactorily in music than in verbal formulae." Amen
Rating:
Summary: Singing Johann Sebastian made easy
Review: This slender volume stands at the opposite end of the spectrum from Christof Wolff's monumental "Bach, the Learned Musician," which I recently completed reading. The latter deals with learned and fascinating detail every aspect of Bach's life and work. Dr Butt's purpose, to "present an opportunity to learn many of the basics of Bach performance (for) those who direct choirs, and those who sing and play," is much more narrow in scope. As one who has sung Bach's B Minor Mass with a community chorus and orchestra, as well as having played in a (very) amateur way some of his works on piano and recorder in my younger days, I can testify that Dr Butt achieves his purpose very well. He is the editor of the volume, and contributes an article on ornamentation. Dr James E. Jordan Jr. has one on the Lutheran Chorale, the heart of Bach's sacred choral music; and Fr. Martin Shannon one entitled "Soli Deo Gloria," which stresses Bach's oft repeated, and oft reported, determination that all of his music, whether for church or court, be written for the Glory of God. My copy of the book is already heavily underlined, showing that even after a lifetime of enjoying (and that is much too tepid a word) Bach's music there is always something new to be learned. For instance Fr Shannon explication of the "tension" in Bach's choral works between Lutheran orthodoxy and Pietism, wherein he uses the example of the differenc betwen "Christ for us" or "Christ in us." Or Dr Butt's comments on ornamentation, which are particularly pertinent to me at present because lately I have been listening, with score in hand, and in open-mouthed astonishment, to Andras Schiff playing the English Suites. The lightness of Schiff's touch as he seamlessly fits each perfectly apt ornament into the melody line is beyond comprehension to one who once struggled to tack them on any old way, and Dr Butt explains the whys and wherefores. Dr Timberlake's article on singing Bach is perhaps the most technical, and includes several pages of musical examples from Bach's work for vocal exercises, but even that provided some appreciation of what is involved when an artist "effortlessly" glides thru a maze of notes. This is not a first book for someone just making Bach's acquaintance (unless of course they are singing it for the first time in choir or chorus), Malcon Boyd's "Bach" from Vintage Books makes a wonderful introduction, but it can take someone already familiar with it down a little explored pathway. My favorite quote in the book, from Albert Schweitzer referring to the duet in the Credo of the B Minor, "Thus Bach proves that dogma can be expressed much more clearly and satisfactorily in music than in verbal formulae." Amen
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