About the program:

From July 1 to July 27, Hilde Binford and colleagues will present “Johann Sebastian Bach: Currents and Cross-Currents in the Baroque Era and in Our Time,” a National Endowment for the Humanities project whose purpose is to provide an understanding of the intellectual and musical worlds of J. S. Bach. School teachers from a wide variety of disciplines will travel with Dr. Binford, Louise Forsyth, and other experts to Eisenach, Leipzig, and Potsdam, Germany, for an intensive experience of lectures, performances, discussions and field trips. Follow along as the group explores the life and works one of the great geniuses of Western music.

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Day Two In Eisenach - Wartburg

Tuesday, July 1, 2008


After a wonderful breakfast we all assembled at the lobby for the bus ride to Wartburg Castle. It was a short ride up the hill through beautiful thick woods. Upon arrival we proceeded to walk up the steps to the castle which were quite steep and well over 200 of them. The castle tour was interesting and touched upon several highlights of St. Elizabeth. They claim she had the power to turn bread into roses. She had a short but full life and became a saint shortly after she died at the age of 24.

One of the rooms most remembered is where Luther spent 10 months and translated the New Testament into German. The picture is of Luther's room. He was said to have "fought the Devil with ink." For decades, people have assumed that Luther actually threw ink at the devils in the room, and many visitors have looked for the ink stains. Apparently, in the 19th century, the castle owners added ink blots to the wall. Now, it seems that Luther was writing metaphorically, in the sense that he was defeating the Devil by translating the Bible into the vernacular.

Faculty: Drs. Hilde Binford and Diane Husic   /   0 comments