Through the intensive course “Bach-Church Cantatas” by Dr. Peter Wollny, the director of Bach Archiv, I was able to learn a lot of things.

Focusing on the Chorale Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach as a theme, this course offered detailed discussions with broad perspectives — not only analyses of the musical composition (needless to say, I was impressed by a the keen observations) but also meaning of chorale, its position in the Liturgical Calendar , and what is more, relationship with traditions of church music in central Germany, which is the theme of Dr. Wollny’s thesis that will be published this year. As a result, my view of J.S. Bach- Cantatas had been broadened. Most part of the course was proceeded by Dr. Wollny, however, he asked students some questions occasionally to make students involved in the course. We had discussions between students too. It was also meaningful for me to experience how people conduct discussions in Germany.

Furthermore, the day the course was given at the library of Bach Archiv was extremely impressive. This is because I had a chance to see valuable things such as sheet music used by the Thomanerchor, handwritten Bach’s musical notes and a letter of recommendation written by him. It was a good opportunity to deeply understand some ambiguous things that I only knew from books.

I was able to gather information that I was planning to get from three libraries in Leipzig (the city library, the university library and the library at Bach Archiv), and make copies of them during my stay, as originally planned. Even though comprehending these references may be a challenging task, I would like to continue my research making full use of these precious documents that I would not be able to obtain in Japan.