Explicatio Textus or Dramma per Musica?: the function of the church cantatas by Georg Friedrich Kauffmann

Date

2018-06-28

Authors

Janson, Peter

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Abstract

Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679-1735), a contemporary of J. S. Bach, was a prolific composer who wrote about 150 organ chorales, a theoretical treatise, an Ascension Oratorio, and a great number of church cantatas. Most of his choral works, however, are lost, and only the Ascension Oratorio and four cantatas are extant. That J. S. Bach is thought to have performed three of Kauffmann's church cantatas is testimony to the high quality of these works. The dissertation provides a modern edition of Kauffmann's cantatas, two of which are written for Whitsuntide, one for the feast of the Visitation, and one, a solo cantata, for the 11th Sunday after Trinity. Biographical information on the composer is meagre indeed, but drawing on information about his teachers, his music positions, and his publications, the musical perspective of Kauffmann is reconstructed in Chapter II. The church cantata is placed in historical perspective in Chapter III and in the following chapters the question as to whether Kauffmann's church cantatas should be considered as explicatio textus or dramma per musica is explored. Since Kauffmann's church music has not yet been published, the modern edition itself enriches the current cantata repertoire of the German Baroque, thus providing a broader understanding of the history of the Lutheran church cantata. The study of what function these cantatas served in the Lutheran liturgy allows for a greater appreciation of Georg Friedrich Kauffmann who for centuries has stood in Bach's shadow, but whose compositions nevertheless deserve wider dissemination.

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Keywords

Cantatas, Germany, history and criticism, 18th century, Cantatas, Sacred, Scores

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