Bachfest Leipzig 1723: Sessions, Thomaskantor and Protestant Church Cantatas

William L. Hoffman wrote (June 23, 2023):
The Bachfest Leipzig conference, Wissenschaftliche Konferenz: Zur Neubesetzung des Thomaskantors im Jahr 1723 und die Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenkantate um 1720 (Scientific Conference: On the replacement of the Thomaskantor in 1723 and the history of the Protestant church cantatas around 1720) agenda is found at Bach Archiv Leipzig with a concert on June 14 and 21 related papers, June 15-17, including six embracing Telemann, whose connections with and influences on Bach are still being revealed. There is a new recording, Leipzig 1723: Telemann, Graupner, Bach, featuring five probe pieces, two of Bach, two of Graupner, and one of Telemann.¹ Michael Maul provides commentary and liner notes: Kim Patrick Clow wrote (February 27, 2023):
Michael Maul gives some commentary for Telemann's Leipzig audition cantata, with some of the recording as well. YouTube, and the five probe pieces.

The June 15-17 conference focuses on the Leipzig cantorat competition and the Protestant church cantata c.1720.

The agenda for Thursday, June 13 is as follows:
Keynote. Peter Wollny, "Musical strategies in J. S. Bach's first Leipzig cantatas". <<From the very first day of his cantorship, Bach put his stamp on the cultivation of music in Leipzig with great commitment and an almost ludicrous expenditure of energy, just as the city of Leipzig had a decisive influence on him as an artist. In addition, the change of cantorship in Leipzig in 1723 also stands paradigmatically for an important turning point in the history of Protestant church cantatas that has so far hardly been considered. In comparison with the competitors and other contemporaries, Bach's musical strategies in his Leipzig cantatas will be explained.>>

Session 1, Thursday, June 15. This initial morning session examines the influences of Johann Kuhnau, Bach's predecessor; cantorship probe tests varied, depending on "professional and historical criteria," candidate Graupner and the influences of compositional technique; and the two Leipzig Town Council factions, the progressive music director group with allegiance to the governing Saxon Court in Dresden, and the cantor group of conservatives favoring local interests.
1. David Erler, "Johann Kuhnau - predecessor and pioneer of the Thomaskantor Johann Sebastian Bach." <<Kuhnau . . . was regarded as a universal scholar, was a writer, successful lawyer, teacher, composer, organist - and finally Thomaskantor for 21 years. . . . he was an influential personality, for example by beginning to compose thematic cantatas for the services of the Leipzig churches and having text booklets printed for them, by initiating the tradition of figural passion music for Good Friday, and by leading the development of the cantata genre decisively influenced the "Bachian pattern".>>
2. Joachim Kremer, "What Qualifies a Musician for the Cantorship? Thoughts on a comparative cantorship research." Public cantorship rehearsals (probe tests) varied in different regions and depended on the professional and historical criteria brought to the selection process.
3. Ursula Kramer, "Kuhnau, Graupner und das Thomaskantorat." The relationship between student and teacher is examined and <<Striking coincidences in 1722 shed their own light on Graupner's application for the Leipzig office. The question is to what extent these can also be underpinned in terms of compositional technique.>>
4. Michael Maul, “Mr. Syndikus Job continued the protocol. Reflections on some oddities in Bach's appointment to the Thomaskantorate." << Bach got caught between the fronts of a local education-political debate that had already begun in the late 17th century - and which he absolutely had to bear the brunt of. . . . Discussions about the role of the Thomasschule in the Leipzig school landscape, which was the root of Bach's massive conflicts with his 'freakish authorities', also explains some oddities in connection with Bach's appointment in the spring of 1723.>>

Session 2, Thursday, June 15. This afternoon session focuses on the probe works of Bach, Graupner, and Telemann; among the connections of Bach and Telemann are the Passion and Feast Day oratorios; Bach's Easter Cantata 4 and its dating place in his work; and the impact of congregational singing in church music.
1. Guido Erdmann, "Connections between the Leipzig application pieces by Bach, Graupner and Telemann? – Practical performance, philological and stylistic reflections in 2023."
2. Steven Zohn, "Bach, Telemann, and the Oratorio-Cantata, 1725–1740." Telemann expert Zohn finds that Telemann's annual oratorio cycles of the 1730s, preceding Bach's Christmas Oratorio, show that <<Despite a number of conceptual differences between Telemann’s and Bach’s oratorios, there are enough points of contact to suggest that the near-simultaneous cultivation of such works in Hamburg and Leipzig may have been more than coincidental.>>
3. Daniel Melamed, "Bach’s Weimar Easter Cantata 'Christ lag in Todes Banden' BWV 4 and its Leipzig performance." <<BWV 4 is thus significant not as an old-fashioned work but rather as a retrospective one. It is best regarded as a composition from Bach’s time in Weimar that takes a modern view of something old.>> The increasingly prevailing view is that Cantata 4 dates to Mühlhausen 1707 or Arnstadt 1706 (BCW).
4. Irmgard Scheitler, "Congregational Participation in Cantatas? Thoughts on the chorale."
<<Today the chorale is no longer the beacon and title of nobility per se in church music, but the choral singing of the congregation still has an extremely important, even fundamental, liturgical function according to today's conception.>>

Session 3, Friday, June 16. The morning session (Telemann *presenters from Zentrum für Telemann-Pflege und -Forschung Magdeburg) explores Telemann's mini-cycles of festive music; Neumeister's influence on Telemann; special Telemann cantata cycles; and Telemann's Leipzig probe.
1. Ralph-Jürgen Reipsch*, "Telemann's concepts for festive vintages." <<As is well known, the majority of Georg Philipp Telemann's regular church music was written in years covering all Sundays and feast days of the church year. In addition, since the 1720s at the latest, there has also been evidence of concepts for purely festive vintages. Ralph-Jürgen Reipsch, Telemann's concepts for festive vintages. Telemann's plans for such cycles, which were primarily related to planned printing projects, can be traced back to the late 1750s. On the one hand, Telemann may have reacted to the need of musical practice for festival music, on the other hand, the smaller-sized festival cycles promised to be more practicable for printing than complete volumes. Even if none of these plans were realized, but several complete volumes appeared in print, a search for traces of these projects by Telemann should be undertaken.>> Allegorical figures appear in Telemann's massive 1716 serenade, “Germany Greening and Blooming in Peace” (BCW); Bach also presented special concerts
2. Ute Poetzsch*, "Georg Philipp Telemann and Erdmann Neumeister - a formative collaboration." <<In the first decade of the 18th century, the discussion about and the practical elaboration of emotional texts containing operatic recitatives for church music seems to have reached a climax. Telemann and Neumeister achieved their breakthrough with the [cantata cycle] Spiritual Singing and Playing (1710/11), which was performed in Eisenach. The collaboration between Telemann and Neumeister was far from over. Their works were widely received, but above all the first year together had a major impact on the development of church music in the 18th century.>> An accounting of Bach's Telemann cantata and Passion performances as well as Neumeister's cycles and links to Bach Cantatas isfound at BCW.
3. Brit Reipsch*, "Plurality of an Established Genus. Georg Philipp Telemann's Sunday and festive church music at the beginning of the 1720s." In his early years in Hamburg, having composed six church year cycles to Neumann texts, Telemann transitioned from the established ordinary church pieces of aria, recitative, biblical verse and chorale to a great variety of forms as well as specialized cycles of cantatas emphasizing madrigalian arias and recitatives. These cycles are J. F. Helbig's Sicilianischer Jahrgang, Auffmunterung zur Andacht (Sicilian Cycle, Encouragement for Prayer), 1719-20; Helbig and Benjamin Neukirch, Jahrgang ohne Recitative (Cycle without Recitatives), 1724-25; M. A. Wilkens etc, Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst, oder geistlichen Cantaten (Harmonious divine service, or spiritual cantatas), 1725-27; the Oratorischer Jahrgang (oratorio cycle) texts by Albrecht Jacob Zell with allegoric allegorical and biblical figures, was heard in 1730–31. "All of these works bear witness to the plurality of church music," says Reipsch. Telemann's oratorios are discussed at BCW: "Hamburg: Keiser, Mattheson, Telemann." Bach also created mini-cycles (BCW).
4. Wolfgang Hirschmann, "Telemann's application cantatas for Leipzig - an analytical attempt." On 31 August 1722, for the 10th Sunday after Trinity at the Thomas Church, Telemann presented "Ich muß auf den Bergen weinen und heulen," TVWN 1:851 (I must weep and howl on the mountains, Jer. 9:10, google trans.; text George Philipp Telemann Univesitätatsbibliothek), TVWV 1:851 (music, YouTube). A comparison of this and Telemann's first performances in Hamburg in September 1721 in the Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst (no probe was required) offers "a spectrum of his church music work," says Hirschmann.

Session 4, Friday, June 16. The afternoon session deals with connections among cantorship applicants; Fasch's learned relationship with Kuhnau; Bachian connections to Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel; and Telemann cantatas spread to Catholic Germany.
1. Rashid-S. Pegah, "Friendships? – On the internal relationship of some cantorship applicants." Before the Hamburg Opera attracted noted German composers by 1705, Leipzig around 1700 had drawn Telemann, Johann Friedrich Fasch, and Christoph Graupner with its Thomas School, University, and opera. While Bach had no early Leipzig connections, he cultivated relationships with all three as well as other composers such as Johann David Heinichen and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel.
2. Barbara Reul, "Was I in Anno 1701 the first one he hit the local Thomas School took – Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758) and Johann Kuhnau (1660–1722)." <<This article attempts to shed more light on Fasch's personal relationship with J. S. Bach's predecessor in office>> (Kuhnau). Fasch expert Reul has two related articles on-line in the Bach Network: ‘Dream Job: Next Exit?’: A Comparative Examination of Selected Career Choices by J. S. Bach and J. F. Fasch" (Bach Network [PDF]) and "‘It was impossible for me to leave’ – Johann Friedrich Fasch and the Thomaskantorat in 1722" (Bach Network [PDF]: 31-44).²
3. Bert Siegmund, "Connections of the sacred vocal works of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel to Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach." Both Bachs knew and appreciated the vocal works of Gotha Kapellmeister Stölzel, performing them in various contexts; Sebastian performed Stölzel's Passion Oratorio Ein Lämmlein geht und trät die Schuld, in Leipzig on Good Friday April 23, 1734, and Stölzel's Complete String Music cantata cycle from 1^st Sunday after Trinity 1735 to Trinity Sunday 1736 (BCW), source, BCW.
4. Gregor Richter, "Telemann cantatas in Nürtingen and the sheet music inventory there from 1722." The Neumesiter madrigal cantata cycles also spread to Catholic southern Germany, notably the Duchy of Württemberg.

Session 5, Saturday, June 17. The final, morning session covers possible literary connections
1. Bernd Koska, "Christian Wahrmuth - A Leipzig poet of (Bach's?) Cantatas." Christian Wahrmuth (1697-1779, Bach Digital) was a Lutheran pastor who attended the Thomas School (1718) and Leipzig University (1719), associated with the Liederfreund of Johann Martin Schamelius, pietist theologian and author of hymnbooks, and in 1723/24 recorded as a cantata poet in Leipzig and possibly "one of the long-sought but still unidentified text suppliers for Bach's first two cantatas," says Koska. The possible librettist for Cantatas 22 and 23 could be progressive Mayor Gottfried Lange, who contacted the probe candidates with dates and possible texts. "Musicologists consider him [Lange] a possible librettist for all the trial cantatas that the candidates seeking Kuhnau's succession performed," says Maul in "Leipzig 1723: Telemann, Graupner, Bach," liner notes (Ibid.: 29, trans. Erik Dorset; JPC). Another possible librettist was Christian Wei
2. Christine Blanken, "Magister Brummer - Further assumptions about a poet of (Bach's) cantatas texts 1724-1726." Bach student and 3^rd cantata cycle lyricist Christoph Birkmann replaced two lyricists, “Magister Brummer” and “Herr Engelhardt" and "and in what connection did they stand by Bach?," asks Blanken. "In addition, the question of who could have taken on the role of an intermediary between Bach and the theologically and poetically trained students of the University of Leipzig and who ensured that Bach did not have to be constantly searching for texts in the first four years will be investigated" (sources, Bach Network [PDF], BCW).
3. Andreas Glöckner, "Johann Sebastian Bach and the Leipzig University Music." "On Pentecost Sunday 1723, Bach's first church music was heard in the so-called 'Old Service' in the [Leipzig University] Paulinerkirche. We do not know whether he managed it himself or had someone represent him," says Glöckner. It was the beginning of a conflict with organist Johann Gottlieb Görner (BCW), who had just been appointed Director musices by Leipzig University. At the 14 April 1733 Paulinerkirche memorial service for Friedrich August 1, Görner presented a two-part funeral ode commissioned by Leipzig University. Asks Blanken: "Did Bach just accept this without doing anything, or did he feel compelled to present a similar work to the churchgoers in Leipzig that afternoon?" The Fealty Service of Allegiance to August III was held on April 21, 1733, at the Nikolai Church, possibly with the Missa (Kyrie-Gloria).^* It also is possible that the Missa was presented instead later, on July 27, 1733 to the Saxon Court in Dresden at the Sophiekirche (YouTube). *George B. Stauffer, The Mass in B-Minor: The Great Catholic Mass (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2003: 34).
4. Marc-Roderich Pfau, "Christoph Graupner's rehearsal music for the Thomaskantorat and its re-performances in Zerbst." Cantorat specialist Pfau finds that the Graupner probe pieces became part of his "Dresden year" cycle, "intended for Zerbst, from 1727 onwards, along with other cantatas by Graupner, the Leipzig rehearsal music was heard several times at this Anhalt residence, presumablywithout the knowledge of the composer," says Pfau (Bach Bibliography, Bach-Bibliographie.

ENDNOTES

¹ William L. Hoffman wrote (March 2, 2023): The recording, "Leipzig 1723, Telemann, Graupner, and Bach" (JPC) features five of the six audition pieces of these composers: Telemann, "Ich muß auf den Bergen weinen und heulen," TVWV 1:851 ( 9 August 1722, 10th Sunday after Trinity); Graupner, "Aus der Tiefen rufen wir," GWV 1113/23a, and "Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden," GWV 1113/23b (17 January 1723, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany); and Bach, Cantata 22, "Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe," Cantata 23, “Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn.” Only Telemann's Cantata, "Wenn du es wüsstest so würdest du auch bedenken, TVWV 1:deest, is not extant, with text only, no music. There are sources for some of these works: Carus Verlag publishes Graupner's "Aus der Tiefen rufen wir" Carus-Verlag) and Bach's Cantata BWV 23.3 ( Carus-Verlag), Cantata 22 (Carus-Verlag). Telemann's Cantata "Ich muß auf den Bergen weinen und heulen," which "has now been rediscovered and has not yet been published, was recorded in 2022 together with the application cantatas by Christoph Graupner and Johann Sebastian Bach and will be released by Accentus Music in spring 2023. A film provides insights into the recordings with interviews by the musicians from Ælbgut and Capella Jenensis and the musicologist Michael Maul (YouTube). The recording of the five auditions can be found at JPC). Kim Patrick Clow wrote (March 4, 2023): Leipzig 1723, That entire album is also now available to listen via Spotify. The Bach cantatas have been recorded several times now, so I was really looking forward to these world premiere recordings. Enjoy! Open Spotify
² Part of Bach Network, Discussing Bach 3 (October 2021), "Bach and the Thomaskantorat," Bach Network; Bach Network in Dialogue was held 14 at the Bachfest Leipzig, Bachfest Leipzig.

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To Come: The anatomy and genesis of Bach's first Leipzig cantata cycle and other compositional activities