Worship Weblog
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Gospel According to Bach
From the new issue of Christian History & Biography:
For the Glory of God Alone
Fueled by his Lutheran faith, J. S. Bach devoted his life to creating music for refreshment, proclamation, and praise.
By Calvin R. StapertJohann Sebastian Bach was arguably the greatest composer in the history of Western music and a man whose staunch Lutheran faith informed his life, his career, and his view of music. He believed that music was a “refreshment of spirit,” as some of the title pages of his works stated. He believed that music was a powerful tool for the proclamation of the gospel, as his cantatas, Passions, organ chorales, and other compositions clearly show. And ultimately, he believed that music brought glory to God, as the initials SDG (Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone be glory") at the end of most of his scores bear witness.
Related Publication
My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach
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