Musical Figure as Rhetoric in J.S. Bach’s Chorale Harmonizations

Before Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) in the later 16th century, the term choral which had traditionally referred to the Latin plainchant repertory, gradually was applied to the vernacular church hymn. In Baroque period, new chorales were usually conceived not as monophonic tunes like plainchant but as the top part of four-part harmonic settings and chorale’s text and harmonization were increasingly written by professional poets and musicians, amongst them J.S. Bach’s harmonic style stands out insofar as his chorale harmonizations could be the most important event in the history of chorale since the Reformation. In the music theories from J.S. Bach’s time, the harmonic quality directly links to affective-symbolic expression and in practice, the melodic and rhythmic traits of the four-part chorale settings, the vertically oriented nature, also the tonal movement strongly suggest the harmonic quality as the basis of J.S. Bach’s text-interpretive designs, and lead to a symbolic manner historically named musical figure by Joachim Burmeister. Finding symbolic manner of J.S. Bach in his choral harmonizations could lead to comprehensive knowledge about the compositional discipline of a well-known master of Baroque music for making connection between music and rhetoric.

Keywords:

Musical Figure , Choral Harmonizations , Rhetoric , Johann Sebastian Bach , J.S. Bach