Ein stilles Credo J.S. Bachs

Who does not know and love Bach's Mass in B minor, the core of which consists of the Symbolum Nicenum, the creed common to all Christian churches? The Credo of the B minor Mass is surprisingly accompanied by a sister work of lesser dimension in the A major fugue from the first part of the Well-Tempered Clavier, which reproduces its entire content in a highly concentrated and coded form. The present book is about this fugue and the corresponding prelude. The reader gradually penetrates their secrets, with the help of specific perspectives on Bach's work, and at the end is able to recognize the entire Latin text in Bach's composition. How does Bach present, solely in musical notes, that God is the Creator of the world and Jesus Christ is His Son, that the Son was crucified "even" and that this happened "for us" and under "Pontius Pilate"? How is baptism shown, how that it leads to the "forgiveness of sins"? How that the Holy Spirit is worshipped and glorified "with the Father and the Son at the same time," how that the Church is an "apostolic" one? By understanding the A major fugue, we gain access to a small compendium of Bach's tonal language and "translator's activity," and also a valuable document for a very personal confession of faith that was written outside of his work for church worship. Despite its small size of only 54 measures, which, by the way, in conjunction with the three-beat 9/8 meter corresponds exactly to the 162 words of the Latin Credo, this fugue is a jewel in Bach's oeuvre. The book is aimed primarily at a thinking lay audience. It therefore features many musical examples and is designed to be enjoyable to read. Not least for this reason, it is divided into many small sections, which should make it possible to pick out individual statements and reflect on them oneself.