CHRIST LAG IN TODESBANDEN. EGY KORÁL ÚTJA A KÖZÉPKORTÓL LUTHER MÁRTONON ÁT JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHIG
CHRIST LAG IN TODESBANDEN (CHRIST LAY IN THE BONDS OF DEATH). A CHORALE’S JOURNEY FROM THE MIDDLE AGES THROUGH MARTIN LUTHER TO JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Summary/Abstract: One of the focal points of Martin Luther’s work as a reformer can still be discovered in his compositions. He wrote several lyrics in which he formulated essential dogmatic insights. These include the Easter song Christ lag in Todesbanden [Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death] based on the mediaeval Gregorian chant Victimae paschali laudes and its later version Christ ist erstanden, in which not only the joy over Easter and the resurrection of Christ can be found, but it also gives a picture of the reformer’s theological insights into the death of death and sin. After nearly two hundred years, Johann Sebastian Bach processes all seven verses of Luther’s song in his cantata of the same title (BWV 4), shortly after the death of his first wife. The Lutheran hymn of the resurrection will thus become a personal creed, an ars poetica, but at the same time we can find an exciting musical representation of Luther’s theological view of death in Bach’s composition.

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