In 1725, Johann Sebastian Bach partnered with poet Christiana Mariana von Ziegler for a series of nine cantatas. Bach’s compositions combine choral and instrumental music, and were crafted to enhance the religious services of the Lutheran church throughout the liturgical year.

Christiana Mariana von Ziegler assisted Bach as his librettist – she provided the words to be used alongside his music. This International Women’s Day, we’re uncovering a lesser-known chapter in the history of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata for Ascension Day: ‘Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein’ (BWV 128), Kohn manuscript, which was acquired by the Bodleian Library in 2024.

Ahead of the Bach 1725 celebration this spring, marking 300 years since the first performance of Bach’s cantata for Ascension Day, join Professor Henrike Lähnemann as she explores the life, legacy, and contributions of one of Bach’s key collaborators.

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. Who was this woman who could so readily produce singable verse which would be very publicly performed in the city space?

Christiana Mariana von Ziegler held an unusual position in Leipzig at the time. Having already been widowed twice and having lost the children from both marriages, she returned to her mother’s house in Leipzig in 1722 and turned it into a literary and musical salon – one of the few artistic meeting places Leipzig had to offer, and Bach, who took the position as Thomaskantor (musical director) in 1723, was a regular visitor, as well as Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700–1766), the heavy-weight critic of his age who arrived in Leipzig in 1724.

The cantata collaboration of Ziegler and Bach is a product of this artistic networking in the Leipzig circle. Particularly fascinating is that the cantata text shows an ongoing debate about the nature of religious poetry. Ziegler’s secular texts tended to display enlightenment characteristics: critical, satirical, formally balanced and full of learned references. Bach, on the other side, usually chose libretto writers close to the Pietist movement of his time and kept his distance to the rationalist style of poetry of the Gottsched circle.

Ziegler’s cantata texts show that she tried to accommodate Bach’s wishes and completely dispensed with the unusual comparisons and playful allegories that she otherwise loved. For the cantatas, she, like Bach’s other lyricists, drew from the sermon literature of the time and incorporated traditional exegetical material. The argumentation structure of the cantata BWV 128 depends on the popular sermon cycle Evangelischer Hertzens-Spiegel (‘Gospel-based Mirror for the Heart’, 1679) by the theologian and poet Heinrich Müller (1631–1675), which was continuously reprinted until in the 18th and 19th centuries and formed part of both von Ziegler’s and Bach’s library. Still, Bach intervened more heavily with her libretti than with any other text he set, emphasizing biblical quotations and adding a warning against trying to intellectually grasp God’s secret. Reading his autograph manuscript against her published version of the cantata text opens up a glimpse into the intellectual debates about religion and human understanding which must have been going on in the meetings at Ziegler’s house.

What became of Ziegler after this collaboration with Bach? She published the cantata texts four years later, joined with other devotional poems to form a cycle ( ‘Andächtige Gedichte’) in the second volume of her ‘Versuch in gebundener Schreib-Art’ (‘attempt in the art of verse writing’), which earned her as first and only woman a membership of Gottsched’s ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft’. This ‘German Literary Society’ was part of the early enlightenment movement and publicly active to promote German literature and language. This in turn made Ziegler eligible for the society’s annual poetry prize which she won twice, in 1732 and 1734. On 17 October 1733, she was made Poet Laureate by the University of Wittenberg – the Baroque equivalent of the Noble Prize for Literature. Her early collaboration with Bach was clearly an indication of great things to come!

When I grew up in the 70s and 80s, the two pink paperback volumes of Alfred Dürr’s edition of Bach cantata texts had their permanent place next to the radio on the bookshelf in the vicarage of my grandparents, to be perused on Sunday mornings to follow the text of the weekly broadcast of the Bach cantata for the day. It was a cultural practice in many households around Germany and the common sentiment was: ‘wonderful music, pity about the text’ – the emotional piety focussing on the wounds of Christ and Baroque exuberance of images sat uneasily with post-war sober and minimalist aesthetics.

When Elke Axmacher, a young lecturer at the Kirchliche Hochschule Berlin, a theological college then part of the Freie Universität, offered a seminar in the summer term of 1991 focussing on the theology, imagery and rhetoric of the cantata texts, I was intrigued. I borrowed my grandparents’ by now faded pink volumes and set out to read my way through it from the perspective as literature. I was most struck by the aesthetic sense and well-crafted poetics of the Ascension Cantata by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler. And I was also fascinated when I realised that it was the cantata text with which Bach had probably most heavily intervened and wrote my essay for the course on this cantata. Imagine my delight when 33 years after this seminar I learned that the Bodleian Library had acquired the autograph manuscript of this particular cantata – and that this coincides with the start of a major new edition project at the University of Karlsruhe which will highlight the feminist and enlightenment aspects of Ziegler’s work.

I am looking forward to a workshop with musicologists, theologians, and philologists in May from Germany, Switzerland and Britain to discuss Ziegler’s texts after listening to Bach’s setting of her cantata text in the glorious surroundings of the Sheldonian Theatre!

Tickets for the Bach 1725 celebration on Wednesday 7 May, including a manuscript viewing and evening performance by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Choir of New College Oxford, are available now.

On Friday 28th February we followed Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective for a day dedicated to exploring the powerful connections between music and wellbeing. Join us as we reflect on this thought-provoking and transformative event.

We started the morning with a rejuvenating early morning yoga session in Blackwell Hall, led by Kaleidoscope performer and yoga teacher Elena Urioste. Aimed at musicians and performers, but open to all, the class set the stage for an uplifting and inspiring day ahead.

Our mid-morning coffee was accompanied by beautiful music in Blackwell Hall, with a pop up preview performance from two members of the Collective.

This was followed by a thought-provoking ‘Thriving in the Spotlight’ panel discussion in the Sheldonian Theatre. Professor Eric Clarke, Emeritus Professor of Music, spoke with Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective about the physical and mental pressures faced by musicians, often hidden behind the music. The panel shared their own experiences with the audience, and ways they work to overcome challenging feelings before, during, and after performing.

The day concluded with an immersive evening concert in which guests were encouraged to enjoy a truly individual listening experience, with moments of personal reflection, and a celebration of the audience’s shared connection. At the start of the performance, Elena Urioste led the audience in a breathing exercise. Some guests opted to relax on beanbags in the round, inspiring a fresh take on the traditional concert experience. Guests were taken on a journey of musical discovery, with a repertoire exploring themes of dreams, hope, and spirituality.

The evening began with a stunning atmospheric solo performance by Jonathan Leibovitz, who played a Chinese folk song, Xiǎo hé tǎng shuǐ (Flowing River), from the top of the Sheldonian. Many audience members, still immersed in the calm of the earlier breathing exercises, kept their eyes closed, enhancing the meditative atmosphere.

This tranquil moment was followed by an energetic duo performance on violins from Elena Urioste and Savitri Grier, who performed Jessie Montgomery’s vibrant composition, Musings for two violins. Rosalind Ventris (viola) joined the stage for a beautiful rendition of Persian folk songs, Agar yār-ī-manī and Bodo bodo bodo, newly arranged by Kaleidoscope founder Tom Poster.

The mood shifted to a more reflective tone as Laura van der Heijden (cello) joined for Beethoven’s emotional String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132. Composed as a gesture of gratitude following a period of serious illness, the piece conveyed deep emotions of relief, and appreciation for health and for life.

The concert concluded with a captivating quintet performance of The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, a work that traces the history of Judaism and explores themes of language, memory, and identity. The piece, a moving exploration of cultural and spiritual history, brought the evening to a powerful close.

On Saturday 5 July 2025 we will come together again for food, stalls, music, dance, sports, arts, crafts, fashion, theatre, and spoken word as part of the Leys Festival. It will be a celebration of our community, and an important event in Oxford’s calendar. The Leys Festival was planned and made last summer (2024) by a group of residents of Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys working with a team from the Cultural Programme at the University of Oxford. Watch highlights from last year’s festival:

This year the Festival will return to Blackbird Leys Park on Saturday 5 July. The planning group (Residents and University) have already started dreaming up an even bigger and better event and are looking for anyone who would like to get involved.

The theme will be One People One Place, and we will celebrate all the bridges we build in our community. There will be food, stalls, music, dance, sport, arts, crafts, fashion, exhibitions, spoken word and theatre, all from The Leys.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We want to make sure that as many voices as possible are included in the Festival and we’d love to hear your ideas, we also need plenty of volunteers to make the Festival happen. We promise you’ll have fun!

There are three ways to get involved:

1. Help plan the festival

Come along to the monthly planning meetings; they are fun, sociable, everyone gets a chance to contribute and there is always good food.

The next one is on Thursday 6 March at Activate Learning, Cuddesdon Way, Oxford, OX4 6HN from 6-8pm.

Join a working group – small groups of volunteers who meet online looking at the following areas:

• The Food Festival and Stalls
• Schools and youth groups
• Music/Dance/Stage programme
• Fundraising
• Mentoring and skills
• Stories of the Leys

2. Get Creative

Let us know you would like to perform, or host a stall or an activity at the Festival.  Everyone welcome so let us know what you’d like to do and we will try to fit you in.

OR

Share a story about The Leys, about the history or the future of this place or about a person who has made a difference or just something funny or interesting about this community. We’re going to make a piece of theatre about our community or come along to a story workshop, next one on Thursday 13 March in the afternoon – details tbc.

OR

Join a singing workshop to create a song for The Leys.

3. Volunteer on the day

We’ll need loads of people to help make the event welcoming, safe and fun. You could:

Volunteer to run a workshop in a school or community group to get people involved (this could be music, art, craft, exercise, collecting memories, building bridges).

OR

Volunteer to share your skills or experience – if you have ever delivered an event, produced a gig, raised money, done a risk assessment, and would like to help, let us know.

If you are interested please email members of the Leys community at leyscommunityevent@gmail.com with your name, contact details and just tell us what you would like to do. 

Ahead of a special evening performance this March, in which Oxford schoolchildren will bring their visions of an ideal town to life through original music and theatre, Giles Masters (Fellow, Magdalen College) delves into the inspiration behind the project and highlights the essential role of play in learning and development. This behind-the-scenes look at the collaboration between researchers and primary school students explores the influence of music and theatre experiment, Wir Bauen Eine Stadt (1930), and its relevance for children today.

---

Red light! Green light! Motorway! Four eight-year-olds are telling me how you play a game called ‘Cars’. (Initially, there’s some debate about whether the name is actually ‘Beans’, but on reflection we decide this is unlikely.) Folded into a tiny red plastic chair – an adult guest in their primary school classroom – I learn that the game, which they play in PE, involves responding to verbal prompts from a leader or teacher. ‘Green light!’ means go; ‘red light!’ means stop. ‘Tow truck!’ means find a partner and hold their hand. ‘Mini car!’ means shuffle along with your knees bent in a kind of squat. (Children find this easier than grown-ups.) And if you hear ‘motorway!’, run as fast as you can. The game ends with ‘park!’: everyone sits down. For the children, recalling and demonstrating each of these actions quickly becomes its own kind of game: a game about the power of memory, about the satisfaction of communicating something important to an ignorant adult (who doesn’t know ‘Cars’?), and about the almost unbearable question of how long they’ll have to wait before they play the real thing again.  

This isn’t what I usually get up to in my job. As a music historian, I’m most often to be found in an archive or library somewhere or teaching young adults and marking their essays. In the project that brought me into this primary school classroom, those familiar ways of thinking about knowledge and learning in a university humanities department remain essential. But the aim is to put them to more creative, experimental ends, involving a much bigger, more varied team of collaborators and a lot more running around pretending to be cars. 

The project, Let’s Build a Town!, began in summer 2023, when I took the initial germ of an idea to Felicity Newby-Smith, who runs the Learning and Participation programme for Music at Oxford, a local arts organisation. The starting point was my research into Wir bauen eine Stadt (Let’s Build a Town) by the German composer Paul Hindemith. In summer 1931, this short, recently composed experiment in music theatre was performed by British schoolchildren in Oxford’s Holywell Music Room. This fascinating, basically unknown historical event sparked us to think about how the piece might be revived and reimagined in Oxford today.  

We found two aspects of Wir bauen eine Stadt especially inspiring. First, the work invites children to imagine a city where there are no adults and they are in charge. This classic scenario (explored most famously, and disturbingly, in English-language literature in William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies) is presented optimistically here as a kind of urban utopia. During the piece, the children think about the different kinds of infrastructure that make up a city, such as transport. They imagine what kinds of roles they might take up in this new society. (We’ll still need a dentist.) And they teach us about the importance of working together to get things done. Today, in Oxford and across the country, debates around urban planning, citizenship, and belonging are urgent and often highly divisive. In this context, Wir bauen eine Stadt offers rich opportunities for young people to develop and express their views on local history, geography, and politics, and to foreground their voices, so easily ignored, in renewed and less polarised public discussions on these themes. How do children in twenty-first-century Oxford think about their city, we wondered, and if they were in charge, what kind of place and community would they want to live in? After all, they are the ones who will have to live with the decisions we make today. 

Second, Wir bauen eine Stadt is suffused with the belief, widespread among progressive-minded artists and teachers of Hindemith’s generation, that games and play are essential to fostering children’s learning, social development, and enjoyment of the arts. That belief makes a refreshing contrast with the narrow views of education that have squeezed the space for creativity and performance in UK school curricula over the past decade or so. Hindemith’s main collaborator, a writer called Robert Seitz, came up with material for Wir bauen eine Stadt by observing playground games that early twentieth-century German children played of their own accord and translating these into corresponding dramatic situations (so we get, for example, a night-time caper involving cops and robbers). Felicity and I wanted to explore what might happen if we took this ethos one step further: that is, if instead of simply harvesting ideas from children’s games (and then retreating to the risk-averse territory of getting children to learn words and music written by adults), we made play a more integral part of the creative process and performance. With this aim in mind, we devised a project in which young people would be empowered to build and perform a new, more genuinely playful, version of Hindemith’s ‘town’, in which scenes from the original work would be interwoven with new co-created music and theatre exploring the same themes from the twenty-first-century perspectives of the children taking part.  

In late 2023, the project was awarded incubation funding from the Cultural Programme. This support enabled us to organise two developmental workshop days in July and September 2024 at St Francis CofE Primary School in east Oxford. (St Francis, our main partner school, has an existing link with the Outreach and Access Team at Magdalen College, where I am a Fellow by Examination.)

We were lucky to have a brilliant team of artists and workshop leaders: Emma-Jane Greig (movement), Oliver Grant (theatre), Tabitha Grove (design), Tim Keasley (music lead), Rose Martin (music/singing coach), Anna Pool (director), Lauren Spiceley (music/instrumentalist), and Natalie Wong (movement). The team was completed by Dr Lucy Hunt, who led evaluation of the incubation period, with support from Erin Townsend (a third-year undergraduate music student).

During the workshop days, we split our time between developing ideas as a project team and working directly with young people in Years 4 and 5 (aged 8–10). We focused especially on collecting different kinds of games, drawing on the collective knowledge of the children and grown-ups, and thinking about how they might be used or adapted for the project. We also worked with some of the children to try out new games we had just invented and to draw a big collective map of their ideal town. In July we led a whole-school singing assembly, and in September we taught both classes we’re working with one of the songs by Hindemith. At the end of the assembly, the St Francis community gave us a very special surprise, singing ‘The Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands’, one of their favourite songs, just for us.

 

Working with games and play raised a host of fascinating questions, philosophical and practical. What do these terms actually mean? Can we draw a clear boundary between them? And how might we categorise the myriad activities they refer to? One helpful parameter was structure: how much what an individual does is governed by rules. At one end of this scale, we might put organised sports and certain board games. At the other, there are freer activities that rely more on the imagination (such as ‘Playing House’). Many games fall between these extremes. Other parameters and categories that seemed important included the number of players, the presence or absence of a leader figure (like in ‘Cars’), and the amount of energy and physical exertion required (an important consideration when planning workshops with primary school children!). We also tracked the continuities and changes between the games the young people talked about enjoying, the ones we remembered from our own childhoods, and the ones that feature in Hindemith’s piece. We learnt, for instance, that these children still play ‘Grandmother’s Footsteps’ – but, disconcertingly, they call it ‘Squid Game’. In the playground, word-of-mouth knowledge and popular culture are constantly colliding in new ways.  

What has been most rewarding, after many months of planning, has been to start collaborating with the children in meaningful and even inspiring ways. As the Year 4 class teacher wrote to us after the September workshop, ‘The children’s engagement has been incredibly high due to the wealth of skills and enthusiasm of the adults involved as well as the carefully thought-out activities. The sessions have been accessible for all children, and it has been great to see positive engagement from those who may not usually see performing or music as “their thing”. Children were left with an excited buzz about the project.’ A town worth living in can’t be built in a day. But during this first phase of the project, we’ve worked hard to lay down the best foundations we can. We look forward to sharing more updates with you, and we hope you can join us for the final performance in March!  

---

‘Let’s Build a Town’ is produced by Music at Oxford in collaboration with The University of Oxford’s Cultural Programme, and with the support of the Faculty of Music, Magdalen College, RETUNE Festival and the Marchus Trust.

Join Giles Masters and members of the artistic team on 5th March for a unique opportunity to explore the research and creative work behind the project at a pre-concert discussion and workshop. Tickets are free and available now from Florence Park Talks.

Enjoy original music and theatre created as part of the project on 14th March – a new town will be imagined and built before your eyes and ears! Find out more about the ‘Let’s Build a Town‘ evening concert. – tickets are available now.

We are looking for an experienced and confident Freelance Associate Producer to work with us on The Leys Festival, taking place in Blackbird Leys on 5^th July 2025.   

THE LEYS FESTIVAL is a festival of creativity, culture, and community, created and planned by over 60 residents and community organisers from The Leys (Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys) alongside a small team from Oxford University’s Cultural Programme.  Routed in the principles of Cultural Democracy, the festival reflects the people, stories, and creativity of Blackbird Leys.  

Relaunched last year, the 2024 Leys Festival welcomed over 4,000 visitors to Blackbird Leys Park.  Watch a video about the day here:

About the role: 

Working alongside lead facilitator Erica Whyman (Royal Shakespeare Company), the Producer will understand and embed co-creation within their practice, supporting community-led decision making to ensure that the festival is accessible, inclusive, and shaped by the people it is for.  The role will require close collaboration with residents, local organisations, artists, funders, and businesses alongside the University. 

The Producer will need to: 

• Work with the community to co-create the festival programme, ensuring residents, artists, and organisations are meaningfully involved in shaping and delivering events. 
• Work closely with Erica Whyman to ensure co-creation remains at the heart of the festival. 
• Oversee festival logistics and delivery, including booking venues, hiring equipment, and managing suppliers and contracts (in line with university processes and requirements) 
• Develop and manage the festival budget, working with the finance team to track spending and secure additional funding where needed 
• Manage fundraising and sponsorship, including identifying and applying for grants, securing local sponsorship, and exploring in-kind support 
• Work with the Marketing and Comms team to ensure the website is updated and festival promotion aligns with the co-creative approach 
• Coordinate volunteers and event staff, ensuring they are well-supported and integrated into the festival’s planning and delivery 
• Ensure all health & safety, risk assessments, and legal requirements are met, including licences and insurance 
• Lead on festival subgroups shaped by the community, ensuring they have clear objectives and are effectively contributing to the festival’s development 
• Co-ordinate the steering group meetings leading up to the festival, ensuring key stakeholders remain engaged and informed 
• Evaluate the festival’s impact, gathering feedback and insights to inform future years.  

We anticipate that this will be in the region of 60 days’ work between March – July 2025, with increasing commitment closer to the festival. 

If you are interested in this role and have the relevant experience, please send your CV and a brief cover note to – culturalprogramme@humanities.ox.ac.uk by 5pm on Tuesday 4th March. 

Please indicate your day rate / total fee in the cover note and include “Leys Festival Associate Producer” in the subject line. 

---

Cultural Programme, Humanities Division, University of Oxford  

The Cultural Programme brings together university, local and global cultural communities in a physical and digital arts centre, powered by the University of Oxford’s research. We promote broad engagement with the riches of the humanities by working with outstanding artists, writers and thinkers from around the world to create and present world-class arts and culture. Innovative and diverse, and delivered across music, theatre, dance, film and visual arts our programmes will be delivered in collaboration with university, local, national and international partners.  

At the heart of our vision lies our commitment to:  

• Creativity – unlocking new forms of digital authorship, imagination and participation  
• People – empowering individuals and communities to generate and explore new forms of knowledge and experience and to become leaders in their own fields and disciplines  
• Planet — we want to be connected locally, regionally and globally, in the most environmentally sustainable ways possible  
• Innovation – advancing cutting-edge research methodologies in the arts and humanities at the interface of new technologies and digital media 

Currently working offsite, from 2026, the Cultural Programme will be located within the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. The Schwarzman Centre will bring together seven of the faculties in the Humanities Division, an Institute for Ethics in AI and a multi-disciplinary cultural centre containing Oxford’s first purpose-built concert hall as well as further spaces for music, theatre, spoken word, literature, digital, film and exhibitions.  As well as working in the new spaces of the Schwarzman Centre, the Cultural Programme will continue to deliver an offsite programme. 

The Schwarzman Centre is a unique proposition bringing together a broad spectrum of academic and artistic disciplines teaching, research and public engagement including through arts and culture. The humanities embrace all the academic and artistic disciplines which together help us to develop our understanding of what it means to be human. 

For more information, please visit https://oxfordculturalprogramme.org.uk.