Bach in the World: Music, Society, and Representation in Bach's Cantatas

Johann Sebastian Bach's works are often classified as either sacred or secular. While this distinction is fraught, it seems to provide a useful way to distinguish between Bach's vocal works for the liturgy and those he wrote to honor courts and members of the nobility. But even so, the lines cannot be drawn clearly. The political and social systems of the time relied on religion as an ideological foundation, and public displays of political power almost always included religious rituals and...