Editor's Preface

This public lecture was presented on the afternoon of October 17, 1995, at Cannon Chapel (Emory University) as part of festivities preceding the eighth annual Kessler Reformation Concert. These events have been sponsored by the Candler School of Theology and the Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection of the Pitts Theology Library and celebrate the musical holdings of the Kessler Reformation Collection. The 1995 concert used two pieces from the so-called Achtliederbuch (Etlich Cristlich lider [Nuremberg, 1524]): Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein, and Aus tiefer Notschrei ich zu dir. In addition to his afternoon lecture, Professor Marshall provided the commentary for the concert.

Professor Robert L. Marshall is the Louis, Frances, and Jeffrey Sachar Professor of Music at Brandeis University. Trained at Columbia and Princeton Universities, Marshall is an authority on the life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He is the author of the award-winning studies The Compositional Process of J. S. Bach (Princeton, 1972) and The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach: The Sources, the Style, the Significance (Schirmer Books, 1989), the chorale-related articles in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and the highly praised Mozart Speaks: Views on Music, Musicians, and the World (Schirmer Books,1991 ). Marshall’s most recent book publication is Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music (Schirmer Books, 1994). Professor Marshall has also served as vice president of the American Musicological Society, as chair of the American Bach Society, and as the first Harold Spivacke consultant to the Music Division of the Library of Congress. Some of the ideas explored in the present study will be developed more fully in his forthcoming J. S. Bach: His Artistic Development. It was both an honor and a pleasure to welcome him as the 1995 lecturer for the Kessler Reformation Concert.

Finally, I want to express appreciation to Professor Stephen A. Crist for his editorial assistance with the present essay and to G. Gordon Boice (Emory University Publications) for his work on the design of this pamphlet and the 1995 concert program and poster. It is indeed a privilege to work with such talented colleagues.

M. Patrick Graham
Margaret A. Pitts Associate Professor of Theological Bibliography
Candler School of Theology
Emory University