For Immediate Release: March 24, 1998
Please contact:
Kevin McCaffrey
[email protected]
or, Catherine Melhorn
[email protected]
Performance, lecture, and symposium at Mount Holyoke to explore Anti-Judaic elements in Bach's St. John Passion
Modern performances of J. S. Bach's St. John Passion--an acknowledged masterpiece of Western music--are inevitably controversial. In large part, this is because of the combination of powerful, highly emotional music, and a text that includes passages from a gospel marked by vehement anti-Judaic sentiments. To provide the Mount Holyoke community an opportunity for informed and sensitive discussion of the many issues raised by this beautiful yet troubling work, a committee of faculty and students at Mount Holyoke College has scheduled two symposium events on April 1 to precede a Sunday, April 26 performance of the piece.
On Wednesday, April 1, from 2:30 to 3:50 pm in the Warbeke Room, Pratt Hall, Professor Michael Marissen, a musicologist from Swarthmore College and author of "Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's St. John Passion," will provide a substantive introduction to the piece itself for an open class of Music 101.
Later that same day, at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium in the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, a panel of scholars will discuss a range of issues stemming from this work by Bach. Panel members will include Professor Michael Marissen, a musicologist at Swarthmore College; Professor Lydia Goehr, Wagner scholar and authority on the philosophy of music, Columbia University; and Professor David Berger, specialist in medieval Jewish-Christian polemics, Brooklyn College. This distinguished panel will explore various issues such as: Have the gospels and artistic depictions of the gospels served to create and perpetuate a cultural climate which denigrates or marginalizes Jews? Is there a difference between professing and performing? What should we do about art that offends? These questions are intended to stimulate other questions and responses from the audience. Mount Holyoke's Penny Gill, Mary Lyon Professor of Humanities, will serve as panel moderator.
J. S. Bach's Passion according to St. John will be performed in Abbey Memorial Chapel at Mount Holyoke College on Sunday, April 26 at 2:30 pm.
Performers will include the Glee Clubs of Mount Holyoke College and Cornell University, Scott Tucker, Director; Arcadia Players Baroque Orchestra, Margaret Irwin-Brandon, Director; Soloists: Jon Humphrey as Evangelist; Richard Lalli as Jesus; Wayne Duncan as Pilate; Lucy Shelton, Jane Dutton, Christopher Paul Aspaas, and Robert Honeysucker; and Robert Eisenstein on Viola da Gamba.
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