Faith and the arts are natural partners. Both aspire to the fusion of order with a creative leap of the imagination, connecting the ideal with what we experience and perceive. In this regard, music has a special role to play, speaking directly to our emotions through melody and harmony, while connecting with our physical being via rhythm and tempo. What might not seem so obvious is its ability to evoke pictures in sound.
Word-setting provides the perfect opportunity for this, and Bach’s sacred cantatas are a case in point. These works combine soaring faith with a personal immediacy; wherever he could, Bach composed in a pictorial way to bring before our eyes the scenes, events and characters that populate these dramas-cum-musical sermons. The weekly cantata performances that he had to supply were akin to small-scale operas, with the day’s Gospel reading the basis for the libretto. As a church was no place for a stage set, the music needed to help the congregation picture inwardly the story of the text.
