2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Lutheran Music! Buy It!, October 30, 2007
This review is from: Bach: The Six Motets (Audio CD)
The texts of Bach's six motets reveal him to be a true Lutheran more than any of his other works, as four out of the six are based on Luther's favorite sources. Two are from the Psalms and two are from Paul's epistle to the Romans. As I am almost totally uneducated as a musicologist, I have to wonder why, after writing what seems like hundreds of cantatas (instrumental music plus choral parts), Bach wrote but 6 motets. There is certainly no lack of scriptural sources, as we have the Psalms plus the prophets. More than enough to keep the good Kapellemeister busy. I have to guess that his patrons at Leipzig and elsewhere had these chamber orchestras they had to keep busy with new material, but that's just a guess. At any rate, these six pieces are actually more enjoyable to me than most of the cantatas, due, in part, to their great similarity in sound to the famous Russian liturgical choral tradition, except that they are even better, especially as realized by 'The Sixteen Harry Christophers'.
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