Bach and Numbers: Analysis of His Church Cantatas through Biblical Numerology

Min-ho Jeong

About this exposition

Many years of singing religious texts, especially that of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), as a counter tenor made me question if there were other methods of interpreting Bach’s music beyond focusing only on musical affects or harmonies. Among the many interpretative methods, I became interested in biblical numerology, interpreting numerical values with religious symbolisms, and was motivated to research the relationship between biblical and musical numeric symbolisms in Bach’s church cantatas. As many of his writings show, Bach’s music is deeply rooted in the Lutheran faith and Protestant traditions and, a detailed biblical approach would serve as one of the many good ways for the performer to deepen his or her understanding of Bach’s music and to enrich the interpretation in performance. The discovery of numeric insights in Bach’s church cantatas helped me better understand and interpret his emotional expressions and depth of faith. I believe this knowledge will be useful for other performers in making a musical interpretation more compelling and communicative. The objective of this research exposition is to suggest biblical numerology as a method to analyze and understand J.S. Bach’s church cantatas and to reveal Bach’s theological intentions by analyzing the correlation between the biblical and musical numeric values found in his solo cantatas for alto (BWV 82, 169) and how they apply in our understanding of the biblical symbolism in the text and the music.

type	research exposition
date	18/06/2018
published	21/10/2019
last modified	21/10/2019
status	limited publication
share status	private
license	All rights reserved
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/481188/589827
published in	KC Research Portal
portal issue	3. Internal publication

name	Bibiliograpgy
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Conclusion
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Audio 3. BWV 82-1 mm.1-2
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 4. BWV 82-2 mm.149-176
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 5. BWV 82-3 mm.7-8
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 6. BWV 82-4 mm.9-13
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 7. BWV 82-5 mm.1-7 Ver. 1
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 8. BWV 82-6
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	BWW 169 1-1 mm.1-5 (Kammerorchester Basel)
copyright	2011 Decca Music Group Limited
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	BWW 169 1-2 mm.33-35 (Kammerorchester Basel)
copyright	2011 Decca Music Group Limited
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 11 BWV 169 2-1 mm.27
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 13 BWV 169 2-3 mm.18
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 13 BWV 169 2-4 mm.22
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 14 BWV 169 2-5 mm.37
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 15 BWV 169 3-1 mm.38
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 16 BWV 169 4-1 mm.1
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 17 BWV 169 4-2 mm.7
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 18 BWV 169 4-3 mm.5-6
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 19 BWV 169 5-1 (1) Erbarme dich
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 20 BWV 169 5-1 mm.1
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Audio 22 BWV 169 5-3 mm.36-38
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Work Anylasis BWV 82 & 169
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	BWV 244 6 Buss und Reu
copyright	Harmonia Mundi Fr.
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	BWV 232 4-5
copyright	BIS
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Selected Numbers in the Bible which Apply to the Musi of Bach
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Introduction
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Contents
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Title
copyright	Minho Jeong
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

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Bach and Numbers: Analysis of His Church Cantatas through Biblical Numerology (2019)

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