Professor of Music to Receive Grant to Research Bach

Dr. Mark Peters, associate professor of music, has received a grant from the American Bach Society for travel to Germany to research the Magnificat cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries.

The American Bach Society, founded in 1972, is designed to “support the study, performance, and appreciation” of Bach’s music in the United States and Canada, according to the Society’s website. Peters currently serves as the secretary-treasurer for the Society.

The William H. Scheide Research Grant is awarded once every two years to a Society member wanting to research Bach or others in his circle. Peters, and Markus Rathey, an associate professor of music history at Yale University’s School of Music, are the 2011 grant recipients.

Peters will spend three weeks in Berlin, where he plans to focus his current research on the settings of the Magnificat text in German. His submitted abstract states he will be “exploring the textual, liturgical, theological, and musical aspects of the ‘Meine Seele’ from Luther’s liturgical reforms to the cantatas of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries.”

The final goal of this research is a monograph titled “The German Magnificat from Martin Luther to J.S. Bach.”

Learn more about Dr. Peters.