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Bach Society of Minnesota

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Scan of the cover of a 1985 calendar commemorating the 300th birthday of J. S. Bach

1985 calendar commemorating the 300th birthday of J. S. Bach. Produced and sold by the Bach Society of Minnesota. From the Bach Society of Minnesota records, 1933–2001 (bulk 1959–1991), Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

The Bach Society of Minnesota was founded in 1933 by students at the University of Minnesota who wanted to perform music of the great Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. One of the oldest Bach societies in the United States, the ensemble features the timeless music of both Bach and those he inspired.

Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig, Germany, in 1750, after a remarkable career. He composed sacred choral music, organ and keyboard music, and other instrumental works, and served as cantor and music director at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig. He wrote hundreds of church cantatas and performed during Lutheran Sunday services. He also composed longer, larger-scale choral works. These include the Saint Matthew and Saint John Passions, Mass in B minor, Magnificat, and Christmas and Easter Oratorios.

Bach choirs, festivals, and societies emerged in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when scholars and singers renewed an interest in the composer’s artistry. His works were catalogued and published, inspiring a greater appreciation of the Bach corpus.

Professional as well as amateur singers have loved the intricacy, timeless beauty, and profound meaning in Bach’s music and have gathered to perform it for generations. In 2018, several hundred Bach societies, choirs, and festivals exist around the world. They range from Brisbane (Australia) to Budapest (Hungary), and from Pretoria (South Africa) to Palo Alto (California).

In 1933, University of Minnesota (U of M) music students of Professor Donald Ferguson suggested that members of two music fraternities, Phi Mu Alpha and Sigma Alpha Iota, prepare a Bach cantata under Ferguson’s direction. They then formed a society and rehearsed before performing at the university for the first time. Prior to Ferguson’s efforts, there had been since 1898 only one major Bach choir in the United States: the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The Bach Society, under Ferguson’s direction, met each week for rehearsal. Then, near the end of the year, it held an "open rehearsal" to which the public was invited. During April of its first year (1934) the society performed the Mass in B minor. This great work would be repeated many times throughout the history of the Bach Society. A fifty-three-member choir sang that first concert at Northrop Auditorium.

Six years later, the society organized a four-evening Bach Festival. The event included a night of instrumental music, an evening organ recital, and two nights of choral works featuring Bach’s Saint John Passion and Mass in B minor. In 1950, nearing age seventy, Ferguson reached the mandatory retirement age for the U of M and retired from the Bach Society. (At the October 1983 ground breaking for a new School of Music building, Ferguson, age 101, was present. The new building was christened Ferguson Hall.)

During the 1950s various attempts were made to revive the festivals during a period of transition. In 1959 Dr. David LaBerge, an associate professor of psychology at the university, reorganized the Bach Society into a large chorus of 100 singers and reinstated the annual festivals. Unlike Ferguson, LaBerge performed more than just the music of Bach. In the 1960s and 70s choruses grew even larger when the group performed regularly with the Minnesota Orchestra in Northrop Auditorium. At the time, the venue could seat nearly 5,000 people.

When LaBerge retired in 1980, Henry Charles Smith became music director of the Bach Society in addition to serving as resident conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. During the 1980s both organizations collaborated on annual concerts of Handel’s Messiah. In 1985 the society celebrated the 300th anniversary of Bach’s birth.

At the urging of more recent artistic directors, the society reduced the number of singers in keeping with the performance practices of Bach’s time. As a result, only three or four performers sang per voice group of a SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) choir.

Subsequent artistic directors include Paul Oakley, who succeeded H. C. Smith in 1987; Roderick Kettlewell, 1997; Myles Hernandez, 2000; Thomas Lancaster, 2004; Paul Boehnke, 2007; and Matthias Maute, 2016. Under Maute’s direction the society shares its mission to communicate “the depths and passions of Bach’s compositions through period instruments and historic practices.”

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Bach Society records, 1933–2001
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00375.xml
Description: Minutes, financial records, reports, programs, press clipping, photographs, and other materials documenting the performances and other activities of a Twin Cities-based choral ensemble formed in the 1930s to hear, perform, and promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Laudon, Robert Tallant. Donald N. Ferguson, Musician-Scholar and the Elements of Music Expression. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2003.
https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/44897.

Temperley, Nicholas, and Peter Wollny. “Bach Revival.” Grove Music Online.
http://oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/01708

Weber, Laura. “If Walls Could Talk: A History of Northrop.” Northrop Auditorium, University of Minnesota.
http://www.northrop.umn.edu/sites/default/files/public/downloads/northrop_grand_reopening_abt_program_history_revitalize_pages.pdf

Related Images

Scan of the cover of a 1985 calendar commemorating the 300th birthday of J. S. Bach
Scan of the cover of a 1985 calendar commemorating the 300th birthday of J. S. Bach
1946 Bach Society of Minnesota program cover
1946 Bach Society of Minnesota program cover
scan of 1988 Bach Society Program cover
scan of 1988 Bach Society Program cover

Turning Point

After years of association with the University of Minnesota, the Bach Society becomes independent in 1966 when it is incorporated as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization in Minnesota.

Chronology

1933

The Bach Society of Minnesota is formed at the University of Minnesota, with Professor Donald Ferguson as its first conductor.

1950

Ferguson retires from the University of Minnesota.

1959

David LaBerge, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, becomes the society’s director and resumes its festival traditions.

1966

The Bach Society of Minnesota is incorporated as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization in Minneapolis.

1980

Henry Charles Smith, resident conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, begins his tenure as artistic director.

1985

J. S. Bach’s 300th birthday is celebrated. The society plans a cantata cycle in which a Bach cantata is performed in a Minnesota church each week.

1987

Paul Oakley becomes the society’s artistic director after the retirement of H. C. Smith.

1991

Under Oakley’s direction, Bach Society singers perform in concert for the American Choral Director’s Association National Convention in Phoenix.

1994

The Bach Society issues its first recording, “Music Fit for a Queen: Cathedral Music of Great Britain.”

1997

Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell becomes director after Oakley’s retirement.

2000

Myles Hernandez is appointed director.

2004

Thomas Lancaster, long-time director of choral activities at the University of Minnesota, assumes duties as artistic director.

2016

Matthias Maute, composer and virtuoso recorder performer, begins his tenure as artistic director.