Christiana Mariana von Ziegler - Edition
Female Enlightenment: Christiana Mariana von Ziegler as Librettist for Bach
Workshop, University of Oxford, 6–8 May 2025
In 1725, Johann Sebastian Bach faced a dilemma: he had run out of texts for the weekly offering of cantatas to be performed in the main churches of Leipzig, and there were still nine Sundays to fill for the prime festive season of the year, from Jubilate Sunday (the third after Easter) via Ascension and Whitsun to Trinity Sunday, the feast that still gives its name to Oxford’s third term. To his rescue came a young woman, Christiana Mariana von Ziegler (1695–1760). She provided, with a remarkably quick turn-around, the libretti for the Sundays that Bach was still missing in order to complete his second choral cantata cycle, among them the Ascension Day cantata ‘Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein’ which became BWV 128, the autograph manuscript of which is now held in the Bodleian Library. It was acquired in 2024. This coincides with the start of a major new edition project at the Institute for Technology Karlsruhe (funded by the DFG) which will highlight the feminist and enlightenment aspects of Ziegler’s work. In our workshop musicologists, theologians, and philologists from Germany, Switzerland and Britain will discuss Zieglers texts after listening to Bach’s setting of her cantata text in the glorious surroundings of the Sheldonian Theatre on Ascension Day.
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Download the flyer with programme here.
Preliminary Programme
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Tuesday, 6 May
German delegation arrives
Wednesday, 7 May
St Edmund Hall, Old Library
10 am
Welcome by Henrike Lähnemann
– Astrid Dröse/Marisa Irawan: CMZ – an Early Feminist of the Enlightenment
– Oliver Bach: Leipzig as a Centre of Enlightenment Thought: Protagonists, Ideas, Institutions
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11.15 am: Break
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11.30 am
Inga Mai Groote: CMZ as Librettist for Bach – Towards an Understanding of BWV 128
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12.30 Lunch in St Edmund Hall
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Bodleian Library/Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street
2.30–5 pm
Open rehearsal with John Butt in the Sheldonian Theatre
and/or​​
Print Workshop with Richard Lawrence in the Schola Musicae
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6.15 pm
Manuscript viewing in the Weston Library
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6.30 pm
Pre-concert talk with John Butt and Robert Quinney
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7.30 pm
Concert: Bach 1725 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / New College Choir
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Thursday, 8 May
Taylor Institution Library / Ashmolean Museum
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Workshop: Female Enlightenment. Christiana Mariana von Ziegler as Librettist for Bach
9:30 am
Introduction to the Workshop by Henrike Lähnemann in Room 2 of the Taylorian
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10 am
Guided tour of the Ashmolean
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10.30/11.45am (with group switch)
Group 1: Session in the Print Room in the Ashmolean with Caroline Palmer & Jim Harris
Group 2: Group work on creative translations of texts by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler
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1–2pm
Presentation of the groups in the Main Hall of the Taylorian
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3 pm
Guided tour of Oxford with Henrike Lähnemann
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St Edmund Hall
5.15 pm
Her Story. A Celebration of Women at Teddy Hall. Panel discussion in Doctorow Hall
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7 pm
Dinner in St Edmund Hall
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8.30 pm
Rehearsal for the Compline
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9.30 pm
Compline in the Crypt of St Peter-in-the-East with the St Edmund Consort
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Delegation
PD Dr. Oliver Bach (Tübingen)
Prof. Dr. Astrid Dröse (Karlsruhe)
Prof. Dr. Inga Mai Groote (Zürich)
Dr. Rebecca Hirt (Karlsruhe)
Alicia Huber, B.A. (Karlsruhe)
Dr. Marisa Irawan (Karlsruhe)
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Contact
Prof. Henrike Lähnemann. Co-Director Oxford Medieval Studies. Office: 41 Wellington Square,
2nd floor, +44-1865-270498. Please send letters to St Edmund Hall * Queen’s Lane * UK – OX1
4AR Oxford, e-mail: henrike.laehnemann@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk
Prof. Dr. Astrid Dröse, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Institut für Germanistik:
Literatur – Sprache – Medien, Karlsstr. 12, * D - 76131 Karlsruhe, e-mail: astrid.droese@kit.edu