A Guide to the music of J. S. Bach being played in our Services this Lent

From the start of Lent to Easter Day, all the organ music played for our services and several of the hymns we shall sing were composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). 

Bach's music is some of the greatest art ever created, combining absolute technical mastery and inventiveness with emotional immediacy, all infused with Bach’s own deep theological reflection and profound insight into the nature of humanity.  His music distills the musical styles of his predecessors and contemporaries, both locally and internationally, and stands at the pinnacle of the Baroque.

Bach spent most of his working life as a church organist and director of music; much of his music is religious in content, most obviously his church cantatas and Passion settings.  His chorale preludes for organ stand as some of the most profound expressions of Lutheran liturgical music.  Those written for Lent and Passiontide duly convey themes of prayer, suffering and penitence,

Our Music Director, Adrian Mumford, has written a guide to the pieces that will be played here in St Mary's. You can read or download a copy by clicking here:

202602 JSB26 Full text.pdf

Download PDF • 1.10MB

In summary, Bach’s compositions for Lent and Passiontide are among his most moving works, offering a musical meditation on the themes of sacrifice and redemption... 

...and one final plea for this penitential season: please help us all to appreciate and be moved by these masterpieces by keeping silence before and after the services while the works are being played.