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Bach lecture, Mass in B Minor performance available as audiostream through IU School of Music
Feb. 7, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- An audiostream is now available of the Indiana University School of Music lecture by pre-eminent J.S. Bach scholar Christoph Wolff on the development of Bach's Mass in B Minor and the performance of this piece by IU's premier choral group.
The lecture and performance can be accessed by using RealPlayer 8 Basic through the IU Web site http://broadcast.iu.edu
Wolff is the William Powell Mason Professor of Music and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at Harvard University. He presented the program last fall as a visiting lecturer to help the IU School of Music honor the 250th anniversary of the famous composer's death. Wolff has authored several books on Bach and was recently selected as the first American to head the Bach Archive in Bach's home city of Leipzig, Germany.
The lecture is approximately one hour and includes several photos, charts and other audio and visual aids to help explain how Bach developed the historic Mass in B Minor. The performance of the Mass is sung by the Indiana University Singers, the oldest continuing choral ensemble in the School of Music. IU Professor of Music Jan Harrington conducted the 32-voice ensemble in the Bach masterpiece, the culminating event of a semester-long celebration of Bach's works.
The streaming of this event continues IU's technological leadership in making quality musical programs available through university Web sites. A similar project in 1999 was the Janos Starker 75th birthday anniversary concert featuring Starker and legendary colleague Mstislav Rostropovich.
Wolff, whose lecture includes singing demonstrations of the development of the Mass, was born in Germany and educated at the universities of Berlin, Erlangen, and Freiburg. He taught at Erlangen, Toronto, Princeton and Columbia universities before joining the Harvard faculty in 1976. His duties there have included chair of the Department of Music and acting director of the Harvard University Library. He has written extensively on the history of music from the 15th to the 20th century. His latest book on Bach was published recently and is titled Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician.
(Maria Talbert, 812-856-5719, mtalbert@indiana.edu or Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)