Music and Theology - Scarecrow Press

Music and Theology
Essays in Honor
of Robin A. Leaver
THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Oxford
2006
Edited by
Daniel Zager

Preface v
1 “The Soul Is Symphonic”: Meditation on Luke 15:25
and Hildegard of Bingen’s Letter 23 1
William T. Flynn
2 Early Lutheran Hymnals and Other Musical Sources in the
Kessler Reformation Collection at Emory University 9
Stephen A. Crist
3 Tradition with Variations: Chorale Settings per omnes versus
by Buxtehude and Bach 31
Kerala J. Snyder
4 Bach’s Preluding for a Leipzig Academic Ceremony 51
Gregory Butler
5 Bach’s Setting of the Hymn Tune “Nun komm, der Heiden
Heiland” in His Cantatas and Organ Works 69
Anne Leahy
6 Historically Informed Rendering of the Librettos from
Bach’s Church Cantatas 103
Michael Marissen
iii
Contents

iv Contents
7 The Role of the “Actus Structure” in the Libretto of
J. S. Bach’s Matthew Passion 121
Don O. Franklin
8 Two Unusual Cues in J. S. Bach’s Performing Parts 141
Daniel R. Melamed
9 Johann Sebastian Bach and the Praise of God: Some
Thoughts on the Canon Triplex (BWV 1076) 147
Albert Clement
10 Bach and Dresden: A New Hypothesis on the Origin of
the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) 169
Yo Tomita
11 A Is for Apple: The Search for an American Church Music;
or The ABCs of American Church Music: A Is for Apple,
B Is for Billings, and C Is for Chapman 193
Steve Pilkington
12 Beauty and Terror: What Have We to Sing; What Has
Worship to Pray? 213
D. E. Saliers
13 Robin A. Leaver: A Bibliography of His Writings 229
Sherry L. Vellucci
Index 000
About the Contributors 000

Music and theology: in his scholarly work and in his teaching Robin A.
Leaver has spent much of his life bringing these two disciplines together. His
work as a musicologist consistently places sacred music in its various liturgical
contexts, thereby enriching our understanding of why these repertories
were created, how they functioned, and what they signified to those who listened.
As a theologian, Robin has written cogently about music as theology—
about church music playing its part in theological proclamation. Thus, he
brings to the study of sacred music repertories, and indeed to the practice of
church music, a connection to theology that grounds this music in its larger
contexts.
Robin was trained in theology at Trinity College, Bristol, graduating in
1964 and being ordained into the ministry of the Church of England in the
same year. He served various parishes in England for the next twenty years.
By 1971 he was publishing articles and reviews on a wide variety of music
and church historical topics, and in that same year, supported by a Winston
Churchill Fellowship, he was able to travel to the United States in order to investigate
Johann Sebastian Bach’s own copy of the Abraham Calov Deutsche
Bibel, held by the library of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. This work would
lead eventually to Robin’s 1983 monograph Bachs theologische Bibliothek
(Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hänssler-Verlag), a foundational work in theological
Bach studies. But Robin’s first monograph was a theological treatise published
eight years earlier, Luther on Justification (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1975). Thus, relatively early in his career Robin had begun his
work on Luther and on Bach, topics that continue to absorb his scholarly attention
today (with a major monograph, Luther’s Liturgical Music: Principles
v
Preface

vi Preface
and Implications, forthcoming in 2006). Luther, of course, was a brilliant theologian
but also an informed musician, a person who loved music and considered
it a gift of God. Similarly, Bach, the extraordinary composer and consummate
Lutheran cantor, who went to considerable effort and expense to
build a personal library of Orthodox Lutheran theological writings, was well
informed as a theologian, his musical work being shaped in part by his understanding
of Lutheran theology. It is, of course, no coincidence that
Robin—theologian and musician—has devoted much of his scholarly energy
to investigating the work of these two towering figures, who were themselves
each immersed in theology and music.
In 1977 Robin was appointed to a position at Latimer House, Oxford, in
which he was expected to “research, write, lecture, and publish in the crossdisciplinary
areas of theology, liturgy, hymnology, and church music.” A
glance at the chronological list of his writings in this volume reveals that he
has been doing precisely that ever since. Ten years later—in 1987—he earned
the doctorate in theology at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands.
His dissertation, “‘Goostly Psalmes and Spirituall Songes’: English and
Dutch Metrical Psalms from Coverdale to Utenhove 1535–1566” was subsequently
revised for publication as a monograph by Clarendon Press (1991), a
work that illustrates yet another strain of Robin’s work—the history of
psalmody and hymnody, including that of his native country.
As a teacher of church music at Westminster Choir College (since 1984),
as a faculty member of the Liturgical Studies program of the Graduate School
of Drew University, and as a member of the graduate faculty at The Juilliard
School, Robin has trained numerous church musicians and liturgical scholars,
providing them a rich background in theology, liturgy, hymnology, and the
history and practice of church music. He has also served as president of two
organizations that, each in their own way, focus on music and theology—the
Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Hymnologie and the American Bach
Society. Robin has invested considerable time in founding and editing three
monographic series devoted to theology, liturgy, and music: Studies in Liturgical
Musicology, Drew Studies in Liturgy, and Contextual Bach Studies (all
three series published by Scarecrow Press). While some of these monographs
relate to Robin’s teaching in the Liturgical Studies program at Drew University,
others come from his knowledge of research in progress and his encouragement
of scholars who share his love for the study of music and theology.
Characteristic of Robin is his generosity in sharing his time and in providing
encouragement and sound advice to other scholars. I think it safe to say
that everyone connected with this volume has benefited at one time or another
from Robin’s scholarly assistance and encouragement, and that we all relish

Preface vii
those conversations with Robin that invariably clarify a line of inquiry, confirm
a hypothesis, or provide fresh insights into a particular problem. Robin
is a cherished colleague, and it is a privilege to present this volume to him—
with thanks, and with every good wish for more productive years as a teacher,
mentor, editor, and scholar of music and theology.