Conducting the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach can be a challenge of sizeable proportions. A significant part of the challenge arises from interpreting and synthesizing several key elements. These elements must be addressed by the conductor if she or he is to produce an informed performance of the work. Before conducting J.S. Bach's Cantata 150, a conductor must have specific knowledge of the various issues that directly impact the performance of the cantata. These issues include appropriate tempi, performing pitch, dynamics, phrasing and articulation, ornamentation, continuo issues, size and sonority of ensemble, historical background, text painting and period instrument factors. This dissertation provides the conductor with a practical and functional guide that addresses the many interpretative elements and provides answers to several specific questions about Cantata 150, aiding the conductor in making critical decisions about preparing and performing this cantata. Divided into three main sections, including a performance practice chapter, a theoretical analysis chapter and a synthesis chapter, this practical manual analyzes and examines the cantata from a performer's point of view. A selected Discography is included. / School of Music

For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues by Bach??? It is a sort of benediction on the house??? It is a rediscovery of the wonder of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day it is something new, fantastic, and unbelievable. That is Bach??? a miracle! A whole radiance of space and poetry pours forth from them! They are the very essence of Bach, and Bach is the essence of music. (Casals:1974:17 & 47). Such comments, common among musicians, are usually ignored by the disciplines that study music. This thesis, however, is the result of a decision to take these comments seriously. This thesis addresses the issues of creativity, order and discipline, through the perspective of a sociology and phenomenology of everyday life. The main issues of this thesis are first introduced through Bachelard???s phenomenological study of poetry and Heidegger???s approach to art. Embodied modes of knowing are introduced through Buber???s dialogic I-Thou concept. This is followed by Winnicott???s discussion of creativity and Bohm and Peat???s discussion of order. Discipline is introduced through a counter-analysis of some central sociological theorists on authority and power: Lukes, Foucault and Durkheim. Among other writers influential for the thesis are Eliade on origins, sacred temporality and ???eternal return???, Simmel and Douglas on space, Levinas, Merton, Herrigel and Stendl- Rast on ethics and discipline. Hegel and Sartre on identity-logic and Serres on relational modes of knowing. The main issues are drawn from experiences with music and particularly with the music of J. S. Bach. These experiences raise ontological, cosmological and epistemological questions that are examined in this thesis. The material used in the analysis is drawn from musicians??? experiences and from a variety of sources non-academic and academic.

Thesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-151).

Thesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [55]-58).

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2722. Adviser: John Walter Hill. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-193) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Treatise (D.M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss.--Philosophie--Durham, N.C.--Duke Univ., 1998. / Bibliogr. p. 702-726.

Diss.--Literaturwissenschaft--Stuttgart, 1980. / Bibliogr. p. 324-335.

The Master thesis named "Model situations and ornamental counterpoint in The Well Tempered Clavier, book 1, by J. S. Bach" deals with the musical language of composers, specially one like J. S. Bach. The first chapters shows historical facts about when the work was written, explains facts about the instrument and tuning. The second chapter explains the method of analysis, which is based on German musical theorists. Thethird chapter explains, what model situations are and their importance for a musician. In the fourth chapter I speak about ornaments in general and which importance they have for a musician, who is specialized on Baroque music. the fifth chapter deals with the prelude and his history, the sixth chapter deals with the fugue, and explains the process of composing. In the seventh chapter I analýze a fex compositions from the Well Tempered Clavier, book 1, to show different kinds of preludes and fugues in detail.

Master's graduatinon thesis Harpsichord-Basso continuo and obligate instrument in chamber music by J.S.Bach (focusing on sonatas for violin and harpsichord) deals mainly with 17th and 18th century. The content of the thesis is divided into three main chapters, which are further divided into sub-chapters, accompanied by footnotes and the note annexex at the end of the thesis. The first chapter outlines the role of the harpsichord in the play basso continuo. The second chapter deals with the transformation of basso continuo parts to obbligato parts from German authors of the 18th century. The third chapter analyzes the topic of the harpsichord concerto as instruments in the violin sonatas by Bach and explains the Bach Sonata in E Major for obbligato harpsichord and violin (BWV 1016) which I played at the master´s concert. The final chapter is a summary of the previous chapters.