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Analyzing Bach Cantatas.

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Analyzing Bach Cantatas. By Eric Chafe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. [xvii, 286 p. ISBN 0-19-512099-x. $55 (hbk.); ISBN 0-19-516182-3. $29.95 (pbk.).] Music examples, bibliography, index.

In Analyzing Bach Cantatas, Eric Chafe continues down the road he began in two of his previous books, Tonal Allegory in the Vocal Works of J. S. Bach (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) and Monteverdi's Tonal Language (New York: Schirmer Books, 1992). As in Tonal Allegory, the repertory on which he focuses is the vocal works of Bach, and as in both previous books the principal lens through which he views the works is tonal structure. The audience Chafe hopes to address is "as wide a range as possible of scholars, professional musicians, students, and Bach lovers" whom he hopes "to stimulate ... to become deeply involved with the Bach cantatas" (p. ix). The principal type of involvement the book aims at is hermeneutic, for although the title might suggest otherwise, Chafe does not employ analysis simply as a revealer of "purely musical" structure. He always employs it in the service of interpretation.

Three chapters lay musical and contextual foundations in areas like scriptural hermeneutics, the liturgical year, and the Lutheran "metaphysical" tradition in music theory. The other six chapters present interpretive analyses of ten cantatas. BWV 2 (Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh' darein), 9 (Es ist das Heil uns kommen hier), 18 (Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee), 21 (Ich...

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