New take on old master

Ensemble composes a strategy for building an audience for Bach

By Judy Woodward

Bach's Cantata No. 39 begins with a two-note motif that is repeated in succession by recorders, oboes, and violins. The choir then enters, singing Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot. Taken from the Bible's Book of Isaiah 58:7, the German verse translates as "Break bread for the hungry."

Some musicologists think the repetition of notes was Bach's way of describing the breaking of bread. To Paul Boehnke, the new artistic director of the Bach Society of Minnesota, the musical phrasing is "like pleading from all quarters of the world to break bread. What I find engaging about Bach is the emotional range – the way he's able to shape the feelings of listeners."

The Bach Society will perform Cantata No. 39 on Saturday, January 26, in the opening concert of its 2008 season. Another cantata and motet by Bach as well as his Brandenburg Concerto IV are included in the program, which will begin at 8:00 p.m. at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, 797 Summit Ave.

The theme of hunger will run throughout the concert as a tribute to the good works of the emergency food shelves in the Twin Cities. The audience is being encouraged to bring a donation of nonperishable food.

Boehnke's plan is to have the Bach Society partner with charitable organizations in several future endeavors as well. "The idea is to connect the art world to the rest of the world," he said. He would also like to enhance the Bach Society's connections to amateur musicians. "The main problems for any arts organization are funding and (finding) and audience," he said. "Building a community for amateur musicians will help create an audience for professional concerts."

Boehnke's plan is to devote one arm of the Bach Society to the impeccable artistry that audiences have come to expect from the 76-year-old institution. The other arm, which is still in the planning stage will be aimed at the "many people who want to play and sing music but are not professional," he said. "We might sponsor a day-long workshop where amateurs learn a Bach cantata and then perform it. To share a music stand with a professional might be a great experience. But it's not even about the the music. It's about doing things together. The goal is to build a community."

The Bach Society was founded in 1932 by University of Minnesota music professor Donald Ferguson. By the mid-1950s, the ensemble had become a veritable "Bach and brew" club with a membership in the hundreds. However, Minnesotans' musical tastes changed and interest in the society steadily declined. Early this decade, the group all but disbanded, but it was revived in 2005 by Thomas Lancaster, University of Minnesota professor emeritus of music and the choirmaster at House of Hope.

Lancaster pared the choral society down to an elite group of professionals who concentrated on the sacred works of the Baroque era sung to the accompaniment of period instruments. Upon Lancaster's retirement in 2007, Boehnke was tapped to lead the organization.

A resident of St. Paul's West End, Boehnke, 48, is the music director at Olivet Congregational Church in Merriam Park. As the Bach Society's harpsichordist for the past three seasons, he knows the challenges of interpreting Bach. "It's daunting," he said. Though he has no intention of "making a big break" from the society's direction the past three years, he does have a few innovations in mind, including a greater emphasis on Bach's instrumental works and an occasional departure from the sacred repertoire.

"Anything by Bach is fair game," Boehnke said, noting that one of the society's three concerts this season will feature songs by the maestro on such secular topics as smoking a pipe and having an affair.

Another innovation involves program notes written by Mary Burke, 46, a Macalester-Groveland writer and musician who composes program notes for several other local classical music groups. For the Bach Society's upcoming performance, Burke will not just write the program notes, she will recite them.

"(Boehnke) thought it up," she said. "His idea is that listening to the program notes will help people know more about the music they're going to hear."

Burke's notes will delve into the nature of hunger in the Baroque era. Bach wrote near the end of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), a devastating conflict that pitted Protestants against Catholics and led to widespread famine and disease throughout Central Europe.

Boehnke hopes Burkes' recitation of the program notes will help break the ice for the audience. Classical musical performances can be intimidating for the uninitiated. "People sometimes feel uncomfortable at classical concerts today," he said. "Audiences in Bach's time behaved very differently."

Bach's audiences were generally church congregations who heard the music as an integral part of their Sunday services. However, other audiences of the 17th and 18th centuries behaved more like rock fans.

"At the Paris Opera, they used armed guards to break up fights," Boehnke said. "When people like the music, they'd sing along with the performers. It would be great to get back to that comfort level."

Artistic Director Paul Boehnke leads the Bach Society in rehearsal.

Bach Society oboist Stanley King.

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