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William L. Hoffman wrote (December 14, 2022):
The World of the Bach Chorale Settings is an amazing, unique experience. It began with the early, concise instrumental organ chorale preludes found in the Orgelbüchlein and Neumeister collections and vocally in chorale canto tropes sung within arias in cantatas as well as mixed chorale treatment in his first liturgical Easter Cantata 4, "Christ lag in Todesbanden" (Christ lies in death's bondage), whose premier performance date is still debatable. This was during his apprentice time in Ohrdruf, Arnstadt, and Mühlhausen when he mastered contrapuntal and harmonic elaboration. In Weimar during his exploration period, Bach began to experiment in extended chorale forms, both independently in the extended "Great 18" Organ Chorales, while composing chorale fantasia choruses (see Cantata 61, "Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Savior of the heathens, Wikipedia) to open and four-voice chorales to close almost all his church year cantatas. In his final period of perfection in Leipzig (1723-50), Bach created increasingly complex chorale settings, most notably in his chorale cantata cycle and Passion as oratorio with both extended chorale choruses and chorale tropes in various forms, as well as special Passion pasticcio adaptations in the 1740s. The chronological and contextual trajectories in Bach's hymn settings are found in Robin A. Leaver's Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology (London: Routledge, 2021) the five chapters in Part II, Hymnology are: Chapter 6, "Bach and Johann Christoph Olearius" in Arnstadt, the foundations of the Lutheran hymn in Bach's sacred music; Chapter 7, "Bach's Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4): hymnology and chronology," Bach's first, early chorale cantata, possibly for Easter Sunday 1707; Chapter 8, Bach's Orgelbüchlein organ chorale prelude collection for the church year (Weimar 1708-15), possibly also originating in Arnstadt; Chapter 9, "Bach and the hymnic aria," emphasis in chorale aria devotional settings of Paul Gerhardt; and Chapter 10; "Bach and the letter codes of the Schemelli Gesangbuch," Bach's knowledge and use of pitch and key by letter codes in the hymns of the omnibus 1736 hymn collection.
Youthful Apprentice Period
In his youthful period, Bach explored organ composition such as the free-form1 polyphonic preludes and fugues and chorale-based preludes2 using four-part harmony (Complete List of Bach's Organ Works, BCW, BCW).3 The free-form organ works, BWV 525-597, were composed for pedagogical and recital purposes, as well performance during main service communion, while the organ chorales, BWV 599-771 etc. were intended to introduce chorales during the main and vesper services as well as during communion. The organ works origins date to the beginning of the Reformation.4 The early organ chorale settings found in the Rinck collection cover various genres that Bach explored.5 An organ transcription of his early Cantata 4 (YouTube, Free-Scores.com), shows Bach's mastery of the chorale prelude forms for each of the seven-verse movements with an instrumental sinfonia (1), chorale motet fantasia (2), 1-voice chorale trio (3), basso unison trio chorale (4), 4-part fughetta continuo chorale (5); chorale aria (6), figured duet continuo chorale (7), 4-part harmonization (8, added 1723). While the young Bach explored various compositional settings, he retained the original, unaltered hymn text, per omnes versus, in the vocal concerto manner of his Leipzig cantor predecessors Johann Kuhnau and Johann Schelle, before the later Erdmann Neumeister-type poetic internal cantatas which Bach would commission to set in the internal movements in his Leipzig chorale cantatas with paraphrased internal stanzas (see Wikipedia). The new Bach Works Catalogue BWV3 Breitkopf lists the possible premiere of BWV 4.1 on Easter Sunday, 24 April 1707, as does Bach Digital (Baach Digital), as Bach's Mühlhausen probe piece (Ibid.: 28). The Cantata 4 origin perspectives6 are supported by Robin A. Leaver but this year disputed by Daniel R. Melamed. Bach's works legacy by genre were transmitted and received in various ways: vocal music to his family, chorales to publisher Breitkopt and Berlin Bach circle, motets to the Thomas School, organ music primarily copied by teachers and students in Thuringia, keyboard music in manuscript collections and publication, and instrumental music to the Leipzig Collegium musicum. Unlike Bach's other works, the transmission of his organ works was initiated primarily by his students in Thuringia in various collections (see Organ Transcriptions, Part 2, 1750-1800, Transmission, Reception, BCW).
Weimar Exploration Period
Bach in Weimar in 1714 began presenting church service cantatas monthly (BCW), with closing chorales as well as increasingly varied, complex organ chorale preludes. In this formative time, Bach also began presenting and composing music of sorrow (BCW), primarily in the motet and Passion genres. He also pursued the longer vocal form of the extended funeral cantata with four chorales, “Was ist, das wir Leben nennen?” (What is this that we call life?), BWV 1142 (Bach Digital); the Weimar-Gotha poetic oratorio Passion, BWV deest (Wikipedia) with chorale choruses; and eight-voice motets with chorales. About 1712/13, he composed motet “Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, Mein Jesu" (I will not leave you before you bless me [after Genesis 32:26b], my Jesus), BWV 1164=Anh. 159, with the 1560 hymn, “Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz” (YouTube). About 1715 he composed the motet "Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir" (Do not fear, I am with you, Isaiah 41:10), BWV 228, with Paul Gerhardt's 1653, "Warum sollt ich mich den grämen?," stanzas 11 and 12 (BCW, YouTube: 550). Most significant in Weimar was the compilation of the Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644, organ chorale preludes, setting 45 of 164 hymns as a template for church year services.7 Another important collection begun in Weimar are the so-called "Great 18," BWV 651-669, extended organ chorale preludes, which were revised in the 1740s, possibly for publication, and may be unfinished8
Leipzig Perfection
When Bach began his tenure in Leipzig in 1723 he fashioned major vocal music of increasing complexity and diversity, where the chorale played a major role. In his first five years, he created three church-year cantata cycles, the most notable and unique being the second cycle of chorale cantatas (Wikipedia), which, like the Orgelbüchlein, was left unfinished. Other notable accomplishments included two major liturgical Passion oratorio settings of the gospels of John, BWV 245, and Matthew, BWV 244, as well as his initial Latin Church Music, Magnificat, BWV 243, for the Marian Feast of Visitation (2 July 1723) and Christmas Day 1723, as well as motet music of sorrow, BWV 225-230, and his first feast day oratorio for Easter S, BWV 249, in 1725. Of special note are Bach's Passion settings for the annual Good Friday Vespers, alternating between the St. Thomas and St.Niklaus churches. Bach also fashioned the parody St. Mark Passion, BWV 247, with 16 chorales but only eight arias, presented in 1731, 1740, and 1744. In addition to the customary liturgical setting of three Passion oratorios, Bach later sought unity through diversity with three other types of Passion music (BCW). He gave performances of poetic oratorio Passions of Telemann's Seliges Erwagen (Blissful consideration), in 1728 and 1735; Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld" (A little lamb goes and takes the blame), in 1734; Handel's "Brockes Passion," score in Bach's hand in his Music Library dates to c1746-47 and after August 1748; and possibly Telemann's poetic "Brockes Passion," TVWV 5:1, on March 27, 1739 (source, BCW. A third type of Passion in oratorio style is the hybrid Anonymous St. Luke Passion, BWV 246, which Bach presented in 1732 and 1743 or 1745, as confirmed in the new BWV3 Works catalogue (xxiv). It is a liturgical Passion oratorio with a multiplicity of simple pietist chorales which Bach and son Emanuel copied out in score. A fourth type of Passion is the patchwork pasticcio Passion when Bach in the 1740s fashioned and presented two. The hybrid version of the "Kaiser" narrative St. Mark Passion, BWV 1166.2, added seven arias from Handel's poetic "Brockes Passion," BWV 1166.3, BNB I/H/1, c1747 ("Kaiser" Markus-Passion (Carus-Verlag) [PDF, YouTube), similar to Bach's St. John Passion with biblical narrative and poetic arias from the Brockes Passion oratorio libretto. The other was a patchwork poetic Graun Pasticcio Oratorio Passion as a veritable encyclopedia of Passion music emphasizing the popular literary and musical styles that came to dominate German music at mid-18th century (description, Wikipedia; music, MusicWeb; discussion; BCW; manuscript, Bach Digital).
Personal, Devotional Sacred Songs
By the time Bach had completed his three church-year cantata cycles and first two Passion oratorios as well as ceasing to present cantatas weekly in 1729, he turned his vocal music attention from the church congregational chorale to the personal, devotional, pietistic song (hymnic aria) most appropriate for the home but increasingly found in church services, says Leaver in his study of this still-neglected spiritual song genre. This long and intense tradition had begun with the works of Michael Weisse and his Bohemian Martyrs and Bretheren (Wiki Bible Portal), just prior to Luther's Reformation. Following the 30-years War (1619-49) was the flowering of personal literary hymn-writing poet-pastors Paul Gerhardt and Adam Rist, as well as "the mysticism of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and the love poetry from the biblical Song of Songs," says Leaver (Ibid.: 189).9 At the end of the 17th century came new, versatile hymn books such as the 1694 Dresden hymnal in two parts with contrasting hymns and songs, followed by the Pietist omnibus hymnal edited by Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen in 1704. These were the forerunner of the omnibus Schemelli Musicalisches Gesangbuch" of 1736. "Bach had moved away from a strong commitment to the old congregational chorale in favor of the more intimate and individualistic spiritual aria," says Leaver (Ibid.; 193f). As music editor of the Schemelli, "Bach was intimately involved at various levels," composing or adapting with new thorough bass 69 new or less familiar sacred songs, assigning familiar melodies to all 954 Schemelli chorale and progressive sacred song texts, with 19 new melodies associated with texts that had been written during his lifetime in the three decades of the 18th century. Bach also prepared some 200 more melodies for a second edition (never printed, not extant), which Leaver finds are indicated in the 1736 edition found in the hymn incipits with the melodic key listed next to the incipit and number (see Leaver, Bach Studies, Hymnology, "Bach and the letter codes of the Schemelli Gesangbuch," BCW: scroll down to "Leaver: Hymnology, Schemelli Gesangbuch, More").
Bach's Leipzig Passion Trajectory: Chorale Varieties
Following Bach's two great Passion oratorios of John and Matthew, his Leipzig Passion trajectory proceeded in various directions, while often exploring varied chorale settings: 1728, introduction to the poetic oratorio Passion with Telemann's Seliges Erwagen; 1729-32, the four Gospel accounts in Passion oratorio settings of Matthew (BWV 244),10 John (BWV 245),11 Mark (BWV 247),12 and Luke, BWV 246,13 all of which Bach repeated;14 1734, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel Passion oratorio, "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld”;15 and 1740s, Pasticcio Passions, Graun Pasticcio (1748, 1750).16
Postscript: BWV3 Catalogue, BCW Chorale Resources.
<<The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW, BCW) is a veritable treasure-trove or repository of research materials on Bach's chorale (hymn) sacred song settings. The BCW resources include articles on chorale topics, themes, sources, and usages, as well as unique compilations of translations of chorale texts in various languages and chorale melodies with their various usages in Bach's vocal and instrumental works. These ranged from vocal two- (hymn-book cantional) and four-part harmonizations (Wikipedia) to four-part chorale fantasias that opened his chorale cantata cycle and extended chorale choruses as well as chorale canto tropes both vocal and instrumental in choruses, arias, and accompanied recitatives, and chant psalm tones in Latin church music to various purely instrumental adaptations of the canto in organ chorale preludes and partitas, both brief and extended (Wikipedia). The chorale settings are found in the new Bach Works Catalogue, Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, BWV3.1 Topics below involve "Bach Chorale Resource Publications, Manuscript," "Church Year, Thematic Chorales," "Chorales by Church Year Seasons, Times," "BCW Chorale Texts, Melodies," "Organ Chorale Preludes," and "Chorale History, Breitkopf; Chorale Texts, Melodies; Sources">>, BCW.
ENDNOTES
1 Free-form organ works, BWV 525-597 (Wikipedia , copy & Google paste.
2 Chorale preludes, BWV 599-771 etc, Wikipedia.
3 For an introduction to Bach's organ music, see BCW.
4 Organ work origins: "In (Johann) Walther's work one can see early intimations of the two directions in which Lutheran church music would proceed in the coming decades," says Carl Schalk in Johann Walther: First Cantor of the Lutheran Church (St. Louis MO: Concordia, 1992: 13). "These two developments were the polyphonic motet style and, simultaneously, the development of the simpler homophonic cantional style. setting Lutheran Church music on these two paths, both of them closely tied to the chorale, Walther provided a bearing which was to guide the work of those Lutheran composers who were to follow him."
5 Early organ chorales, Gerhard Walterskirtchen liner notes, "Organ Chorales from the Rinck and Rudorff Collections," organist Franz Haselböck, Hänssler 71087, All Masic (Holzgerlingen: 1992); genres: chorale motet fantasia ("Erhalt uns, Herr, bei denem Wort," BWV 1103; YouTube), fughetta ("Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland, BWV 599; YouTube), figured chorale ("Kommt Herr zu mir, spricht Gottes Sohn, BWV deest; YouTube), chorale trio ("Herr Christ, der einig Gottes Sohn, BWV deest; YouTube), chorale aria (BWV 693), and congregational chorale ("Komm, Heiliger Geist," BWV deest; YouTube)); literature/sources, Google Books, Bach Digital.
6 Cantata 4 origin perspectives: Robin A. Leaver, "Christ Lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4): hymnology and chronology," in Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology (137-49), BCW; Daniel R. Melamed, “‘Christ lag in Todes Banden’” BWV 4, a Weimar Easter Cantata”; "Bach and Authority," American Bach Society Biennial Meeting, 7 October 2022; abstract, American Bach Society.
7 Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Orgelbüchlein_(Little_Organ_Book,_BWV_599–644), copy & Google paste); article (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-NonVocal-BIG/Lippincott-J-R10c[Gothic-CD-booklet].pdf, copy & Google paste); BCW discussion, BCW: scroll down to "Leaver: Hymnology, Bach's Orgelbüchlein (Chapter 8)"; template, BML; music, YouTube.
8 "Great 18," BWV 651-669, (Wikipedia), copy & Google paste), article, Wikipedia; music, YouTube.
9 Robin A. Leaver, "Bach and the hymnic aria," in Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology, Amazon.com; synopsis, BCW.
10 St. Matthew Passion, "Spiritual Sources of Bach's St. Matthew Passion," BCW; Leipzig Good Friday Vespers organ chorale preludes: Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund', BWV 621; Christus, der uns selig macht, BWV 620; O Lamm Gottes unschuldig, BWV 618; Nun danket alle Gott, BWV 657; Jacob Handl Gallus: Ecce quomodo moritur.
11 St. John Passion (1725): BCW: "St. John Passion Chorales," "Chorale Usages in Passions."
12 St. Mark Passion, BCW: sections
"Summary of Chorales," "Chorale Sources, Importance of Chorales in Passions,"
13 St. Luke Passion, BCW: Introduction: sections "Chorale Influences," "Other Early Chorale Influences," "Chorale Settings."
14 Bach Gospel Passion Oratorios, BWV 244-47: Leipzig Passion calendar, "Works Catalogue BWV3: Passion Settings," BCW: scroll down to "Bach's Leipzig Passion Performance Calendar."
15 Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel Passion oratorio, "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld” (A lambkin goes and bears our guilt), BCW; 1734.
16 Graun pasticcio cantata BCW, BWV 1088, Passion Pasticcio: Intro., Pastiches, Fugitive Notes, Etc". Luther's German text, No. 39, "Der Gerechte kömmt um" (The righteous perisheth), to the Jacob Händle Gallus (1550-91) SATB motet, "Ecce quando moritur justus" (Behold how the righteous man dies, Isaiah 57:1-2), NLGB 85a; "Graun Passion Chorales," "Other Graun Passion Chorales." |
