J S Bach taught at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where music was not just a practical exercise but part of the Liberal Arts canon, consisting of the ‘trivium’ (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the ‘quadrivium’ (astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music). Music in this curriculum was an extension of calculating mathematical proportions but also built on skills-training […]

Leipzig in 1720s was an intellectual hub, with the local university, organised in ‘collegia’ and learned societies. Especially formative for J S Bach was the open house kept by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, one of the earliest forerunners of what became known as Enlightenment’s “Salonkultur”. Here the members of the ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft’, a literary society, […]

Bach Toccata Series: Bach in Context 24 May at 2:30pm St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford Talk: Bach at Home – Professor Henrike Lähnemann Curated by Anhad Arora (harpsichord) With Henrik Persson (viola da gamba), Davina Clarke (violin), and Dónal McCann (harpsichord) The first event in this new chamber series includes a talk by Professor […]