Douglas Cowling wrote (August 3, 2006):
I finally got a chance to look at "Bach's Changing World: Voices in the Community" (ed. Carol Baron), University of Rochester Press, 2006.

It's a collection of essays, and there are two that are well worth looking at:

U. Siegele, "Bach's Situation in the Cultural Politics of the Contemporary Leipzig"

T. Kevorkian, "The Reception of the Cantata during Leipzig Church Services, 1700 - 1750"

Both essays provide excellent background to some of our more tumultuous discussion this past year. The Keborkian article is especially good as it paints a vivid picture of what it was like to attend a service with the
music of Bach.

Bradley Lehman wrote (August 3, 2006):
< I finally got a chance to look at "Bach's Changing World: Voices in the Community" (ed. Carol Baron), University of Rochester Press, 2006.
(...)[including the essay:]
U. Siegele, "Bach's Situation in the Cultural Politics of the Contemporary Leipzig" >
Thanks for the recommendation, and I'll want to read that book too.

Apparently that Siegele article is a follow-up to his "Bach and the domestic politics of Electoral Saxony", which I found to be fascinating concerning the slings of partisanship in Bach's appointment to Leipzig. There's also a bit in there about the controversy of music scholarships for students at the Thomasschule.

That's in another book of 15 excellent essays: The Cambridge Companion to Bach, 1997, ed. John Butt. This one: http://www.qub.ac.uk/music-cgi/bach2.pl?22=13641
Contents: http://www.qub.ac.uk/music-cgi/bach1c.pl?4=CambridgeCompanion_Bach&5=&7=1997