Michael Marissen

Michael Marissen (born July 31, 1960, Hamilton, Ontario) is professor of music at Swarthmore College, where he joined the faculty in 1989. Marissen studied music history at Calvin College and received his PhD from Brandeis University. He has guest taught on the graduate faculty at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Marissen's books, centered on the issue of music and religion, include The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (Princeton, 1995), Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's St. John Passion: With an Annotated Literal Translation of the Libretto (Oxford, 1998), An Introduction to Bach Studies (Oxford, 1998) with Daniel R. Melamed, and Bach's Oratorios: The Parallel German-English Texts with Annotations (Oxford, 2008).

Marissen's most controversial work so far is a short-form essay published in The New York Times on Easter Sunday, 8 April 2007, entitled “Unsettling History of That Joyous ‘Hallelujah’", which is the basis for his forthcoming monograph entitled, Handel's Messiah and Christian Triumphalism.

The article received a long series of spirited responses, including a follow-up news story in the Times, many letters to the editor, follow-up responses in a wide variety of publications ^[1][2][3] (including from Watergate-figure Chuck Colson^[4] and from the religion author Martin E. Marty), along with extensive blog and internet newsgroup discussions.

His younger brother is Mark Marissen, a prominent political consultant for the Liberal Party of British Columbia and the Liberal Party of Canada.

External links

• Publication listing
• Classical Music Review of Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism and Bach's 'St. John Passion'
• Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's St. John Passion: With an Annotated Literal Translation of the Libretto
• The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
• Bach's Oratorios: The Parallel German-English Texts with Annotations

References

1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/arts/24iht-web-0425handelA.5418042.html?scp=5&sq=michael%20marissen&st=cse
2. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/arts/music/23smith.html?sq=michael%20marissen%20ruth%20smith&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1282709641-ta3GxisQGIxbGp+ks+B8Mg
3. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/you-cant-handel-the-truth_b_45688.html
4. ^ http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070512/handel-s-messiah-and-anti-semitism/index.html

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Name	Marissen, Michael
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Date of birth	July 31, 1960
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