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Bach Books
Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work
Discussions - Part 5 |
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Continue from Part 4 |
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Wolff Polyphony: Art of Fugue |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (July 16, 2020):
"The beginning of the Art of Fugue in the late 1730s overlapped with the genesis of the last two published parts of the Clavier-Übung and the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier" (WTC), says Christoph Wolff in the eighth and final chapter of his new Bach musical biography.1 Subsequently, in his final decade of the 1740s, Bach undertook two major polyphonic projects: scholarly studies of unified collections of instrumental music, culminating in the monumental Art of Fugue, as well as the completion of the Missa tota, Mass in B Minor, with "its large number of choral fugues," says Wolff (Ibid.: 284). Most notable are the late instrumental opus works cast in the form of the self-theme with variations principle, a concept just coming to the fore in the Late Baroque that would be explored in the music of Mozart and perfected in the music of Beethoven and the Romantic era (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variation_(music)). Bach's theme-and-variation works were his most learned music forged within the framework of polyphonic writing, most often embedded with canons of exact imitation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_(music)), the simplest yet most challenging of musical statements. The process of imitative polyphony, of multiple voices sounding simultaneously, had greatly appealed to the young Bach when followed the North German tradition of composing fugues, meaning "one voice chases another."
By 1742, Bach had completed his first version of the Art of Fugue (still untitled), BWV 1080, in an autograph fair copy (Bach Digital 1266). The seed was planted but would not germinate until after Bach had first explored the theme and variations with his final Clavier-Übung IV, the Goldberg Variations in 1741, which interspersed variations set as canons. In June 1746, he became a member of the distinguished Mizler Corresponding Society of Musical Sciences, which included other distinguished composers such as Telemann, Stölzel, Handel, and C. H. Graun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_Christoph_Mizler). The society required that each member each year present "a composition with a scientific content," says Alberto Basso.2 Published annually were three Bach works that utilized canons as variations "based on a single theme and designed as a cycle of variations," says Basso: the Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch," BWV 769 in 1747; The Musical Offering, BWV 1079 in 1748; and The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, originally planned for 1749 but published posthumously in 1751 by son Emanuel with a preface that acknowledged that the work was incomplete and would launch various Romantic myths. The Art of Fugue "appears as the final result of a long process of composition, dominated by the art of variation, to which belong such works as the Goldberg Variations and the second part" of the WTC, which "can be looked upon as a series of variations per tonos," says Basso (Ibid.: 5).
Genesis of Canons, Fugues
|In 1739, Bach had created music for the Reformation Jubilee Bicentenary of the area's acceptance of the Lutheran confession, most notably the Clavier-Übung III, German Organ Mass and Catechism, with its "Palestrina-style settings and canonic elaborations," says Wolff (Ibid.: 285), and in the closing enigmatic addendum, the canonic Four Duets, BWV 802-805 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV669-689-Gen1.htm: "Duetti"). The purpose of the two-part Duetti settings in this collection seems an enigma with little practical explanation (description, see BCW Details & Discography, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV802-805.htm, and recording, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFW9wU8Ht3U. The duo or bicinium was a popular musical form of imitation, canon and (later) fugue in Germany beginning in the Reformation, representing the teacher-pupil relationship as a didactic symbol, says David Humphreys’ monograph.3 The Duet settings of the ascending four triadic thirds (E minor, F Major, G Major, and A minor) form the Dorian mode, which is “most suited to producing the required moral qualities in the young citizen,” observes Humphreys (Ibid.: 8). The four Duetti represent Luther’s Catechism teaching rules: 1. maintain the form of the essential teaching text, BWV 802 as a straightforward 3/8 two-part invention; 2. maintain the form of the commentary for better understanding, BWV 803, a 2/4 strict fugue; 3. enhance the pupil’s understanding of religious texts through the Greater Catechism, BWV 804, a 12/8 siciliano style simple fugue; and 4. apply the teachings through devotional, periodic use of the communion sacrament, BWV 804, a regular, two-part fugue in 4/4 that in its melody, harmony, and rhythm expresses errancy and then conformity.
Bach expanded and expounded on the musical canon with his first substantial exploration of self theme and variations, known as the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, interspersed with canons, which was his fourth and final Clavier-Übung, keyboard exercise publication in the autumn of 1741. It had been preceded by the published genre studies of the partita dance suites (1731), the Italian concerto and French overture (1735), and the chorale prelude (1739). Much earlier, Bach had composed the theme and variations in the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor for organ, BWV 582 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passacaglia_and_Fugue_in_C_minor,_BWV_582, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie52xH8V2L4), with opening Passacaglia ostinato and 20 variations, and the "Violin Chaconne" closing the Partita No 2 in D Minor for Solo Violin, BWV 1003, with 64 variations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2UyC2VcOj0). In the Goldberg Variations, "Every third variation in the series of 30 is a canon," says Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldberg_Variations). Following the publication of the four Clavier-Übung (1731-41, http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Music-Mature.htm), Bach in 1746 published the Six Schübler Chorales, BWV 645-50, for organ, possibly an addendum to the Clavier-Übung III.
Art of Fugue: Impetus
As a member of the Mizler Society, Bach also was required to have his portrait painted. The ostinato figure in Bach's Triple "portrait" canon, BWV 1076, Wolff calls Bach's "Business Card" (Prologue 7ff), and which originated in Bach's Goldberg canonic theme in the Anna Magdalena Notebook (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ezpwCHtJs) and found in his E. G. Haussmann society portrait ( https://www.bach-cantatas.com/thefaceofbach/QCL07.htm). This identifies Bach as the composer of the recent Goldberg Variations and the Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hms_PF_CKV4), says Wolff (Ibid.: 7ff), and the master of "all-embracing polyphony" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Counterpoint), with "the most hidden secrets of harmony," "unusual melodies: and "ingenious ideas." Dating back to 1739, Bach also had begun emphasizing learned activiwith "academically inclined students," Lorenz Christoph Mizler, Johann Friedrich Agricola, and Johann Philipp Kirnberger (future son-in-law), "all three of whom would emerge as leading musical theorists," says Wolff (Ibid.: 285). Between 1739 and 1742 Bach also had prepared teaching notes that "corroborate his focus on techniques of double counterpoint and canonic writing," says Wolff (Ibid.: 287).5 "Knowledge of Bach's expertise in such matters must certainly have spread in Leipzig intellectual circles" and also "Bach apparently liked to engage his oldest son," Friedemann, in counterpoint studies, BWV 1132. Meanwhile, about 1740-42, Bach prepared performing materials for stile antico Latin Church Music of Palestrina and Francesco Gasparini, "vivid testimony for his preference to combining study and performance," says Wolff (Ibid.). Bach had always been interested in "sophisticated elaborations of musical ideas," he says (Ibid.: 288), such as preexisting chorale tunes or self-devised fugues in close association to variation principles (Ibid. 290).
Wolff (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Wolff-Christoph.htm) traces his interest in Bach to his early studies in Germany emphasizing the medieval period and Bach's organ works while having an interdisciplinary background in the humanities, with research in Bach's musical library (http://bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Concerts-3.htm: "Re: Bach Network Dialogue Meeting"). Wolff's reputation was built on his PhD studies of stile antico in Bach's late works, a fundamental discipline previously neglected by most Bach scholars, Der stile antico in der Musik Johann Sebastian Bachs: Studien zu Bachs Spätwerk, (Wiesbaden, 1968). This interest continues at the beginning of Wolff's current Bach musical study, Prologue, "On the Primacy and Pervasiveness of Polyphony: The Composer's Business Card" (Ibid.: 1ff). Bach lacked a university degree but more than compensated in his collected works which are musical treatises instead of the writings of theorists becoming popular in the 18th century Baroque period (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_theorists#18th_century).
Art of Fugue: Compositional Method
Recent scholarly research has dispelled various Romantic myths, such as the Art of Fugue being at the beginning of Bach's development of polyphony in a mono-thematic series of works rather than the last, beginning in the study with Friedemann in the late 1730s, at the time of the Clavier-Übung III and the WTC II, says Wolff (Ibid.: 291). "Bach based the cycle of fugues on a number of premises that contribute to its unique character," he says (Ibid.: 291f), notably the use of a single theme instead of a variety as found in both books of the WTC, as well as the principle of variation in three manifestations: single principle theme "in progressive melodic-rhythmic iterations," variations of scoring and style in two- to four-part writing, and variations of contrapuntal techniques such as theme imitation, inversion, varied speeds, and with new countersubjects with increasing complexity. The earliest version of the Art of Fugue, BWV 1080,6 with no title or the 14 movement titles but each movement numbered has the following plan in six sections: 1. (nos. I-IIII) simple counterpoint; 2. (nos. IV-VII) double counterpoint modified and (nos. IX-XIV) varied (with variations); 3. (nos. VII, VIII), diminution, augmentation; 4. and 5. (no. IX) two-part canon, (no. X) triple fugue and (no. XI) quadruple fugue), (no. XII) two-part canon; and 6. Fugues and mirror counterparts (no. XIII) simple and (no. XIV) double, and (no. XV), augmentation canon). The introduction of canons with strictest imitative counterpoint accompanying fugues was a technique Bach savored first in the Orgel-Büchlein and later at the same time as the Clavier-Übung III Duetti (1739) and IV (1741) and the complex opening chorus of Reformation Cantata 80 (1739, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTq3gszPsIQ), observes Wolff (Ibid.: 298).
In the late 1730s, Bach had "turned to an extended and systematic exploration of canonic art," Wolff says (Ibid.: 299), with the Fourteen Canons to the "Goldberg" Aria, BWV 1087 (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV1087.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h6AabkLvEE). While working on the 14 Goldberg Canons, Bach would have noticed that the eight fundamental ostinato notes resemble the melody of the Lutheran Christmas song, "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" (From Heaven High I come), suggesting an elaborate set of five chorale variations, says Wolff (Ibid.: 302), published as the Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch," BWV 769.7 The Goldberg Variations with their own 14 canons were published in 1741 while the Canonic Variations were published in June 1747 when Bach joined the Mizler Society. Subsequently, Bach published "a similar combination of abbreviated and complete notation in the Musical Offering, BWV 1079,8 a cyclical work comprising three distinct components: two keyboard fugues [ricercare], a trio sonata, and ten canons, all based on one and the same 'royal theme'," says Wolff (Ibid.: 305f). "The trio sonata was meant as a special contribution by the Saxon capellmeister to the chamber repertoire of the acclaimed Prussian court ensemble, which included his own son [Emanuel] and several former students," he says (Ibid.: 309). The Musical Offering was a seminal work that inspired Bach to "pour into it all his skill as an illustrator, orator, storyteller, and poet, with an amazing series of canons, counterpoints and finally the expressive slow movements of the trio sonata," observes Rinaldo Alessandrini is his liner recording commentary.9 "The synthesis of the profoundly rational and the ineffable and the unmeasureable is faultless, the balance between them is wrought to perfection." In the resulting Art of Fugue, which is a large structure with a single idea, "the end result is music, nothing more, nothing less," he finds. "Following a series of extensive canonic experiments, that year [1747] saw the beginnings of his preoccupation with preparing the Art of Fugue for publication," Wolff comments (Ibid.: 307).
Art of Fugue: Unfinished, Published
About the time of the Musical Offering in 1747, Bach had student copyist Altnnikol enter the title, "Die Kunst Der Fuga" "onto the first blank page of the autograph fair copy" (Bach Digital 3090), says Wolff (Ibid.: 310). Bach numbered the movements in quasi-vocal style as "contrapunctus" (counterpoint), and they were rearranged in sequence for printing in 1751 by Emanuel, its posthumous editor, as a treatise or "practisches Fugenwerk" (practical work of fugue). The new organization "in terms of logical units and according to progressive difficulty," says Wolff (Ibid.: 311), involves these elements: simple fugues, counter-fugues, fugues on multiple subjects, mirror fugues, strict canons, and a finale quadruple fugue (unfinished). New movements were "Contrapunctus 4" using syncopations and suspensions, concluding Canons at the 10th and 12th intervals, and the unfinished quadruple fugue with the last section based on the letters B-A-C-H. The material "radiates as one theme, an arbor, a basic trunk which then gives birth to a series of ramifications" around an organized development plan, "always linked to the point of departure" yet "always bound into a tight relationship with each successive episode so that the labyrinth is relatively easy to make one's way through," observes Basso (Ibid.: 5). "It designates a system of rules, a system of theoretical knowledge, a discipline and a 'manner' which endows a particular activity with a perfect form," he adds.
As late his final weeks in mid 1750, Bach considered further expansion of the extended chorale prelude, "Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein" (When we are in utmost need), now renamed (same melody) “Vor/Für deinen Thron tret ich hiermit” (Before thy throne I now appear). It was originally set in the Orgel-Büchlein, BWV 641 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPMeBNU9fes), and later in the "Great 18" organ chorales, BWV 668 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52RdshARXdg). It is widely known as Bach's "death-bed chorale (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Z394.htm), although the myth of Bach's final dictation "is actually unlikely" "since it already existed," says Wolff (Ibid.: 256). Bach champion Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Marpurg-Friedrich-Wilhelm.htm), wrote the preface to the second printing in 1752 and published the first treatise on the fugue in 1753.
Further Thoughts
"Although it is the work in which the theoretical component of his thinking is most overtly expressed, the results never congeal into recondite theory," Wolff concludes (Ibid.: 316), instead representing "the most substantial and also the most personal instrumental opus ever to issue from Bach's pen." Although considered by some to be an ironic anachronism since contrapuntal music had become obsolete by 1750 when the Baroque era ended and the Age of Rationalism began, the Art of Fugue represented for Bach a "wonderful pastime" and a bequeathed legacy, he says. "Never even remotely popular in any era," he acknowledges, the Art of Fugue began to be performed and entered public consciousness in 1927 with an intimate orchestration by Wolfgang Graeser in the first of a plethora of such adaptations continuing to this day (see https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV1080.htm: "Recordings"). Since this rediscovery, the work has been scored for a wide range of instrumental ensembles, from string quartet and viola da gamba consort to an Anton Webern orchestration, to brass quintet. The actual music on four staves, without instrumental designation, "offers no idiomatic keyboard features," says Hans Eppstein's liner notes,10 while the preferred instrument today is the keyboard. "The early twentieth century view that the Art of Fugue is best presented by instrumental ensemble has been largely abandoned," says David Schulenberg in his study of Bach keyboard music,11 while a "tradition of keyboard performance goes back at least to the beginning of the nineteenth century."
The motive for the Art of Fugue, "a treatise in the form of concrete examples," as Emanuel described it in 1751, may have been Johann Mattheson's "challenging Bach to publish such a work" in 1737, says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 396), at a time when others were publishing studies of fugues, such as Johann Joseph Fux, Handel, and Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch, "Given its unique character, it was perhaps inevitable that the Art of Fugue would be interpreted as an expression of various philosophical, theological, and even autobiographical ideas" such as "B-A-C-H," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 397), while its "organization makes it clear that it was intended to serve pedagogic and theoretical ends." The music is both "a treatise on fugue in the form of practical examples" with "its artistic and expressive potential" "of the universal character of his work," says Eppstein (Ibid.: 22). The varied sonorities of the various instrumentations of the Art of Fugue in the past 60 years is justified by Bach's "great number of his works which he transcribed," especially concertos, organ trios, and sonatas, with the use of "an ensemble of melody instruments [that] highlights the real transparency of writing and makes the formal structure more evident," he says (Ibid.: 23). One of the most recent recordings is harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani's 2016 arrangement for chamber orchestra (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Esfahani-M.htm: A-1) and the Academy of Ancient Music, which "aims to present the work in a performance by the sort of ensemble that the composer would himself have played with on a regular basis," says Julian Haylock.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 Christoph Wolff, Chapter 8, "Instrumental and Vocal Polyphony at Its Peak: Art of Fugue and B-Minor Mass," in Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2020: 284ff), Amazon.com.
2 Alberto Basso, liner notes to Der Kunst der Fuge, Eng. trans. John Sidgewick, Rinaldo Alessenadrini (Paris: Opus iii, 1999: 4), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NonVocal/AOF-Alessandrini.htm, Amazon.com.
3 David Humphreys “The Esoteric Structure of Bach’s Clavierübung III” (Cardiff GB: University College Cardiff Press, 1983: 8); Jstor.
4 These theoretical studies are found in the new Bach Works Catalogue, BWV3, due to be published this year: Musical/ Theoretical Works (not for performance): BWV 1129 Fünfstimmger Satz: Regula Joh. Seb. Bachii (Composing in five parts: Johann Sebastian Bach's model); BWV 1130, Canones aliquot per Josephum Zarlinum (Several canons by Gioseffo Zarlino); BWV 1131, Regeln Zum Gebrach von Synkopen im dopppelten Kontrapunkt (Rules for the use of syncopations in double counterpoint); BWV 1132, Kontrapunktstudien mit W.F. Bach (Counterpoint studies with W. F. Bach [discovered 1999], before end of 1738); BWV 1133, Regeln vom Generalbass (Rules of thorough bass; AM 1); and BWV 1134, Vorschriften und Grundsätz zum vietstimmigen Spielen das Generalbasses (Precepts for playing the thorough bass or accompanying in four parts); Wikipedia, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/BWVSystem-4.htm: "Bach Werke Verzeichnis 3": BWV 1135-1163); later additions to the main catalogue (above BWV 1128, BWV3). See the edition in "Beitrage zur Generalbass- , und Satzlehre, Kontrapunkstudien . . . " in the NBA Supplement: Bach Documents (Peter Wollny, 2011, BA 5291-01: 41-62); Bärenriter (Wolff, Ibid: 360, FN 3).
5 See stile antico extract, Chapter 8, "Bach and the Tradition of the Palestrina Style." In BACH: Essays on his Life and Music (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991: 84ff), Google Books.
6 Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: description, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Fugue; study, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/AOF-Golomb.pdf; music, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXQY2dS1Srk; print, Bach Digital 3454.
7 Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch," BWV 769: description, Wikipedia; study, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-Arran/BWV769Discussion.pdf; music, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4saAbmVSjI; print, Bach Digital 3134.
8 Musical Offering, BWV 1079: description, Wikipedia; music, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23yNGer9Wqs; print, Bach Digital 3455.
9 Rinaldo Alessandrini, "The Art of Fugue — music to listen to," Eng. trans. Peter Hicks, liner notes in the Concerto Italiano recording for wind, strings, and harpsichord (Paris: Opus iii, 1999: 7 — Ibid.).
10 Hans Eppstein, liner notes, Eng. trans. Jacqueline Minett, Jordi Savall recording (Austria: Alia Vox, 1986: 20), Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk.
11 David Schulenberg, "The Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue," in The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2006: 402), Amazon.com: Look inside."
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To Come: Wolff on the Mass in B-Minor and Epilogue, "Praxis cum theoria: Maxim of the Learned Musician." |
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Mass in B Minor: Importance, Genesis, Legacy |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (July 24, 2020):
"It was no mere coincidence that after Bach's death [in 1750] his son Carl Philipp Emanuel ended up being entrusted with the manuscript and printing plates of the unfinished Art of Fugue and the barely completed autograph score of the B-Minor Mass," says Christoph Wolff in his new Bach musical biography.1 The Bach family and particularly oldest son Friedemann as estate executor "realized that his younger brother was the one best suited to carry out the responsible stewardship of the two major musical projects that had preoccupied the composer up until his demise," Wolff emphasizes (Ibid.: 317). Thus, Emanuel wrote his father's Obituary with the summary list of works, published the Art of Fugue in 1751, and had an introductory essay published in Berlin where Emanuel was a member of the court Cappella of Friedrich the Great. Meanwhile, Emanuel began the process of preserving and bringing the score of what he would called "the great Catholic Mass" to the public through a series of professional manuscript copies "prepared for Bach students and other Bach enthusiasts in Berlin," notably Baron Gottfried von Swieten."who would eventually make the Mass available to Haydn and Mozart," says Wolff (Ibid.: 317f). Eventually, three decades later, Emanuel was able to present the Credo section of the Mass at a benefit concert in Hamburg on Palm Sunday 1786 (http://accentus.com/discs/320/), his last public performance.
The impetus of the B-Minor Mass began when Bach first explored settings of individual Mass Ordinary sections, beginning with the Kyrie, and in Weimar presenting music of Dresden composers found in the Saxe-Weissenfels library, followed by music in the Dresden Court library in 1717 when Bach first visited the city. His interest in Latin church music was two-fold: finding Mass Ordinary sections to perform as part of a "well-regulated church music" and mastering the art of composition, particularly the primary practice stile antico. Bach's first original setting was the Kyrie in F Major, BWV 233a, using an ingenious bilingual trope of the German Agnus Dei chorale, "Christe du Lamm Gottes" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BwPSI6P_zs), possibly for a Good Friday Service of Confession at Mühlhausen, 6 April 1708.
Bach's Missa tota: Genesis
As Bach was preparing the Art of Fugue for publication as required annually by the Mizler Scientific Society in 1746, he had turned to his projected Missa tota, the Mass in B-Minor, to create the central Credo section of the Latin Mass Ordinary, followed by the movements of Sanctus-Benedictus-Osanna and the concluding Agnus Dei-Dona nobis pacem. In this cantata-format of various vocal movements, Bach planned key tutti statements in the form of chorus fugues for many of the multiple voice parts from four (SATB) to double chorus in the Osanna.
The Mass displays palindrome (mirror) rhetorical symmetry as a form of engaging music of joy and sorrow while being a synthesis of Lutheran and Catholic confessions. Its five sections initially were considered within their original liturgical contexts: the opening, tri-partite litany Greek supplication, "Kyrie eleison" (Lord have mercy); the succeeding "Gloria," canticle hymn of praise in imitation of the psalms; the central "Credo" (I believe), trinitarian profession of faith; the communal "Sanctus" symbolic elevation of the host fusing the Hebrew vision of God (Isaiah 6:30), and Christian acclamation of Jesus Christ's sovereignty (Matthew 21:9) in the added "Osanna" and "Benedictus"; and the closing "Agnus Dei" (Lamb of God) succinct supplication at the breaking of the bread and the closing petition, "Dona nobis pacem" (Grant us peace).
Bach had spent a significant portion of his previous activity beginning about 1739 with studies of various Mass movements from Palestrina, Johann Caspar Kerll and Giovanni Battista Bassini to contemporary colleagues, Antonio Lotti, Marco Gioseppe Peranda, Johann Christoph Pez, Francesco Durante and Hugo Wilderer (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Latin-Church-Music.htm), primarily music found in the archives of the Catholic Dresden Capella, where Bach was an honorary capellmeister, beginning in 1736, and in the Catholic Habsburg Court in Vienna.
About 1736-1740, Bach called upon pupil Bernhard Dieterich Ludewig (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Ludewig-Bernhard-Dieterich.htm), to copy the entire contents of Bassani's Acroama missale (Augsburg, 1709), which consisted of six Missae tota, each with Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and Sanctus. About 1740, while he was composing the Art of Fugue, Bach presented the following Missae tota: Palestrina Missa sine nomine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgZXvg5Tsrw) and Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D86QkOmw-_w), and more recent Antonio Lotti Missa Sapientiae (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRR6epgJ8gQ) and Francesco Gasparini Missa canonica (Carus-Verlag).
Later, in 1747-1748, J. S. Bach himself composed ex novo the intonation (Credo in unum Deum) for the fifth of these. This brief composition (16 bars in length) in F major for four voices (SATB) and continuo (BWV 1081)2 follows the style of the collection and introduces the same plainchant intonation that J. S. Bach used in the Symbolum Nicenum of his Mass in B minor (BWV 232). About 1747/48 Bach had followed the Missa Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233.1 of 1733 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach%27s_Missa_of_1733,) with the first, manuscript version of the opening chorus in the central Credo of his projected Missa tota with the "Credo in G Major, BWV 232II/1 (SSATB) in stile antico.3 The full central credal statement of Christian belief, called tSymbolium Nicenum (Nicene Creed), is unique with nine expository sections (https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~wfb/cantatas/232.html) involving seven choruses and two solo arias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_in_B_minor#II._Credo_("Symbolum_Nicenum")). While the earlier Missa: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233.1 (Bach Digital 0290), had included retrospective polyphony in the second "Kyrie" and the "Gratias" in the Gloria, the Credo movement" elevated the old style to an even higher level," says Wolff in his subsection, "A wide spectrum of styles for a timeless genre" (Ibid.: 320). The five Credo fugal chorus (all SSATB) are the opening 13. Credo in unum Deum, 14. Patrem omnipotentem, 18. Et resurrexit (SSATB), 20. Confiteor, and 21. Et expecto.4
Mass Parts and Whole
One of Bach's final tasks in compiling the score of the B-Minor Mass "was to prepare and number the title wrappers for the four individual parts [sections] of the work," says Wolff in the section, "The parts and the whole" (Ibid.: 323): I. Missa (Kyrie-Gloria); II. Symbolium Nicenum (Credo); III. Sanctus; IV Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei et Dona nobius pacem (Bach Digital 0289). Each of the four Mass parts had specific choir parts: I and II have five (SSATB) and four (SATB), III has six (SSAATB), and IV features eight (SATBSATB). Throughout, "Bach mingled newly composed settings with carefully chosen extant music," he says (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_in_B_minor_structure). "The original movements were carefully selected from the cantatas, and corresponded closely in content and character to the destination movements in the Mass," such as the Gratias agimus tibi (We give thanks to thee, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Belbi3tSQw) originated as the Town Council Cantata 29, "Wir danken dir Gott" (We thank thee God, Ps. 75:2, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojtRw8w0__Y); "(though the reworked versions generally incorporated additional compositional refinement and often evinced enhance expressive rhetoric)." "Bach responded by offering a remarkable survey of retrospective and current choral styles," says Wolff (Ibid.: 324): 3. second "Kyrie" (retrospective fugue, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5XGDvfe_q4), 4. "Gloria" (concerto) and 5. "Et in Terra pax (modern concertante fugue, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p16wOPrX7Rk), 7. "Gratias" (motet), 13. "Credo" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUkTi9K4RVs), 16. "Et incarnatus est" (freely expressive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPY0CkAsyI), and 20. "Confiteor" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwda71H3VE4), both cantus firmus.
"In terms of their exemplary function, much can be said of the great variety of the solo movements, with "the full range of aria and duet types" using "differentiated and colorful orchestral accompaniments and instrumental obbligatos that avoid any repetition," he says (Ibid.: 325), such as the duet 2. "Christe eleison" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPAer3mvn2M) and the solo 24. Benedictus" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzIk-Qix_xg). Where no original musical source is found, it is possible to find models such as the opening Kyrie chorus in modern style with an independent orchestra, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS2biN257sQ, beginning with its original tutti introduction and 24-measure instrumental introduction ritornello, modeled after the Johann Hugo von Wilderer (1670-1724) Mass in G Minor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJcb2avvvn8), as discovered by Wolff in another article.5
The impetus for creating the Missa tota began when Bach composed the Missa: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 232.1 in early 1733 and submitted the parts to the Dresden Court, seeking an honorary title of Capellemeister, on 27 July 1733, finally granted on 19 November 1736. The "uncommon overall dimensions of the work," says Wolff (Ibid.: 325), are found in "its five-part vocal sections, the large and diverse instrumental ensemble (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232.htm: "Scoring"), the highly varied movement sequence, and the unusual degree of compositional elaboration."
A summary of the sections in palindrome (mirror) form are, says Wolff (Ibid.: 326): 1. Kyrie (Lord have mercy), a Trinitarian plea, as is the entire Mass with the middle Christe Eleison (Christ have mercy) that "underscores the Christological core"; the Gloria hymn of praise with "four exemplary solo movements" (nos. 6, 8, 10, 11; Bach Digital 0289); the collective central statement of the Credo with solemn "choral scoring prevails throughout"; a celebratory Sanctus (Holy); double chorus Osanna, reflective trio-setting Benedictus aria, and closing Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) and Dona nobis pacem (grants us peace) pleas. To give the foundational Credo even more significance, Bach added a newly composed ands inserted chorus, "Et incarnatus est" (no. 15, And was incarnate; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPY0CkAsyI), "Bach's very last composition, turned out also to be his most modern," says Wolff (Ibid.: 328). The entire section now has "a more meaningful axial scheme of 2-1-3-1-2," with the "Crucifixus" no. 16 as the centerpiece. The "Et incarnatus est" probably was based on another progressive model from the Saxon Court, perhaps from Jan Dismas Zelenka's Missa votiva (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB8RH4W5Vnw). "Bach's sense of overarching structural design is particularly evident at the conclusion of the work," says Wolff (Ibid.: 329). The "Agnus Dei" in G minor is the only movement in a flat key while the sending "Dona nobis pacem" (Grant us peace) uses another Baroque convention of thematic recapitulation, the music of the Gratias agimus tibi set to the new text, also found in Vivaldi's "Gloria" opening (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X84F4HyZsf8) and repeated in the closing "Quoniam tu solus sanctus" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwUyBCDDuu8). Its "reiteration at the very end of the Mass was particularly appropriate and provided a definitive conclusion for this monumental cyclical structure," he concludes (Ibid.: 330).
Chant Intonation as Recitative
The one musical form lacking in Bach's Latin Church Music settings is the recitative of narrative or proclamation. Yet here, sections of the Mass Ordinary could begin with a chant intonation, notably in the services in the closed periods of Advent and Lent with the "Credo" and "Agnus Dei" substituted for Martin Luther's chorale settings of his vernacular German Mass chorale settings of the Deutsche Messe, a combination of chant and hymnody (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Luther-Deutsche-Mass.htm), in Bach's chorale settings, BWV 371, 260, 437, 325, 401, and 126/6, as well as in the Clavier-Übung III, German Organ Mass. Further, Bach was able to use the Latin cantus as a ctrope "pattern of invention" in his B-Minor Mass setting, selectively and diversely in the paraphrased "Kyrie I" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6wdRVqoXQ), straightforwardly stated at the beginning of the "Credo" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugRzKCErep4), while direct and canonic in the Confiteor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwda71H3VE4), where "the accompanying Gregorian melody is woven as a cantus firmus," says Peter Wollny.6 Also, the Mass musical sections could begin with the intonation of the cantus, as for example the "Gloria" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeqbA4MTzoQ). While the Missae, Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233/1-233-326, and the Sanctus settings were appropriate at Lutheran festival services, the Credo could be sung during main service communion and at the feast of Trinity Sunday, the joyous Sanctus complex with the Osanna and Benedictus also could immediately precede the institution of communion, while the Agnus Dei could be presented at the breaking of the bread, and the Dona nobis pacem, could be presented at the end of communion or just before the closing benediction.
Contrafaction Parody Sources
During the 19th century eight initial movements of the B-Minor Mass total of 27 were found to be based on contrafaction parody settings from mostly sacred cantatas: No. 7, Gratias agimus tibi, BWV 29/2; 9. Qui tollis, BWV 46/1; 14. Patrem omnipotentem, BWV 171/1; 17. Crucifixus, BWV 12/2a; 21. "Et expecto, BWV 120/2; 23. Osanna, BWV 215/1=1157/1; 26, Agnus Dei, BWV 11/4=1163/3; and 27. Dona nobis pacem, BWV 29/2 (repeat). Subsequently, five other movements were traced to models or exemplars (some still disputed): 4. Gloria in excelsis Deo, lost Cöthen instrumental concerto; 8. Domine Deus, BWV 193a/5(?); 12. Cum sancto spiritu, lost Cöthen instrumental concerto; 15. Et in unum Dominum, BWV 213/11; 18. Et resurrexit, BWV 1156/1=Anh. 9/1.7 Most recently, other remaining movements which may be based on parody or models (not accepted) are: 1. Kryie eleison I, Wilderer Mass in G Minor; 2. Christe Eleison,BWV 1156/8; 3. Kyrie Eleison II, BWV 1143/8=244a (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232-Gen19.htm), 4. Gloria, BWV 1147/1=Anh.5/1 (Bach Digital 1313), or 190/1; 6. Laudamus te, BWV 1144/1=Anh. 14; 10, Qui sedes ad dexterum patris, BWV 1156/11 (text, Bach Digital 1317); 11. Quoniam tu solus sanctus, BWV 1l44/2; 12. Cum sancto spiritu, BWV 1140/1=Anh. 3 (text Bach Digital 1310); 13. Credo in unum Deum, original or unknown model; 16. Et incarnatus est. possible model Jan Dismas Zelenka Missa votiva; 19. Et in spiritum sanctus, BWV 1144/6; 20, Confiteor unum baptisma, original or unknown model; and 24. Benediuctus qui venit, BWV 1142/4.
Legacy: B-Minor Mass, Art of Fugue
The most intriguing facet of the B-Minor Mass is its purpose or motive, particularly given its tremendous impact on audiences, whether viewed as "church music" or "pure music," or perhaps both at the same time. Previously, scholars such as Friedrich Smend viewed the work as a strictly Lutheran composition, despite Emanuel's naming it the "Great Catholic Mass," yet it didn't seem to fit well into the Lutheran liturgical practice while the Vatican in Rome until recently could not find a place for its monumentality in Roman practice. Recent research into contextual connections and reception history generates numerous and varied perspectives as well as possibly opening a Box of Pandoras. Each generation has its own special views and any search begins — or ends — with the concept of the music taken at face value. Completed in his final months, Bach's "High Mass" was a summation of his art as well as "satisfying his creative urge and widening his horizons beyond Leipzig," says Peter Williams in his third and last Bach biography.8 "What a substantial Mass could offer to the Dresden Court — if that was one of his purposes — was a rich survey of choral writing (some 70 percent of the music is for chorus), plus appropriate opportunities to use liturgical chant and a large instrumentarium fit for a King." Although not source-documented, the two-hour work could have been copied and performed for a special St. Cecilia's Day Mass on 22 November or for the new Catholic Court Church under construction in Dresden although "there is no reliable link between Bach's Mass and any patron in Dresden, Prague, Vienna or anywhere else," Williams comments (Ibid.: 449). The term "Great Catholic Mass" in Emmanuel's 1790 estate catalogue may refer more to a Trinitarian concept or "Catholic" as "Universal."
Since there is no documentation to confirm the specific liturgical purpose, it is quite possible that Bach composed the B-Minor Mass simply to fulfill his calling of a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God" under the Obituary rubric of no. 2 unpublished occasional music in manuscript, both sacred and secular, of sorrow and joy, where he could have consider the Leipzig public Grosses Concert, established in 1743, "for a concert presentation of his Mass," suggests Wolff (Ibid.: 331). "In due course the work came to be viewed — surely as its composer must have wished — as a superlative musical legacy, as did its instrumental counterpart, the Art of Fugue," with a text "that transcended confessional boundaries." Although Bach "had already satisfied the practical needs of the Leipzig churches, his devotion to sacred music never ceased. But whatever improvements he chose to make were carried out in response to his own musical priorities and aesthetic values." While the almost finished Art of Fugue constituted "the highest and most personal ideals of the art of instrumental counterpoint," says Wolff (Ibid.: 332), the "finished score of the B-Minor Mass, with its similar exceptional cycle of twenty-seven movements" (13 of them choral fugues: nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, 27), "surpasses all his other large-scale vocal compositions." The extended Christological works include three Passion (BWV 244, 245, 247) and three feast-day oratorios (BWV 11, 248, 249), a Latin Magnificat (BWV 243), the Deutsche Messe chorale settings (see above, "Chant Intonation as Recitative") various extended cantatas for feast days (BWV 7, 10, 30, 80, 125, 147, 149, 194, 248VIa), his cyclic sacred cantatas based on chorales (BWV 75, 76) and two-part sacred cantatas BWV 21, 22-23, 36, 70, 186, 195-30a), as well as three extended funeral cantatas (BWV 198, 1142, 1143).
"With a profusion of compositional techniques and stylistic approaches, the Art of Fugue and the B-Minor Mass represent pinnacles of masterly craftsmanship," says Wolff (Ibid.: 332), "evincing extraordinary intellectual penetration of the material. Bach himself must have been fully aware of what he had achieved, in these two works, which so brilliantly enshrined his artistic credo." Beyond his profound and exemplary compositions, Bach through his teaching, conducting, performing and other musical activities, as well as his service at the courts of Weimar, Cöthen, and Dresden and the community of Leipzig and surroundings and the family legacy of wife Anna Magdalena and sons Friedemann, Emanuel, Johann Christoph, and Johann Christian — these secured his legacy while ensuring that the common practice period (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_practice_period), of which he had been an essential part in its technical features of harmony, rhythm and duration, flourished in the Classical Era.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 Christoph Wolff, Chapter 8, "Instrumental and VocPolyphony at Its Peak: Art of Fugue and B-Minor Mass," in Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2020: 317), Amazon.com.
2 Bassani Credo Intonation, BWV 1081: manuscript, Bach Digital 1267; score, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sG3zqyscCc; music, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh0V3yhFAIk.
3Bach Credo in G Major, BWV 232II/1: manuscript, (Bach Digital 3007); described in Marcus Rathey, "Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor: The Greatest Artwork of All Times and All People" (2003), Yale Institute of Sacred Music: Example 7.
4 The B-Minor Mass numbering system is found in the Bach Cantatas Website, BWV 232 Details, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232.htm.
5 Christoph Wolff, "Origins of the Kyrie of the B Minor Mass," in BACH: Essays on His Life and Music (Cambridge MS: Harvard University Press, 1991), 141ff).
6 Peter Wollny, "Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach — Charity Concert 1786," liner notes, eng. trans. John Patrick Thomas and W. Richard Rieves (Germany: Accentus Music, 2014: 5), http://accentus.com/discs/320/.
7 Sources: Alberto Basso, Frau Musika: La vita e le opere di J. S. Bach; Volume II, Lipsia e le opere de la maturita, 1723-1750 (Turin, EDT, 1983: 510f); Google Books; other details are found at https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232-Gen19.htm; BWV 1144 text, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWVAnh14-Ger5.htm; for a contemporary perspective to the B-Minor Mass, especially the more "modern movements," see https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232-Gen19.htm: "B-Minor Mass: Contemporary Perspective," in Daniel Melamed, Listening to Bach: the Mass in B Minor and the Christmas Oratorio (Oxford University Press, 2018: xviiif).
8 Peter Williams, Chapter 7, "Leipzig, the final years: a concentration on the language of music," in Bach: A Musical Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2016), 447); Amazon.com: "Look inside," Contents: v).
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To Come: Christoph Wolff's Epilogue, "Praxis cum theoria," Maxim of the Learned Musician. |
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Maxim of Learned Musician: Practice Through Imagination, Genius |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (July 29, 2020):
Bach, the "Learned Musician," despite having no university education, was thoroughly trained and self-taught not only in music but in the related fields such as Latin, theology, rhetoric, basic science, and musical temperament and counterpoint, with which his responsibilities and career as Leipzig cantor and music director attest, particularly the rigorous findings of Christoph Wolff throughout his 2000 biography, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician.1 All of this learning and experience Bach intentionally applied to his compositions, as revealed in Wolff's new, companion Bach musical biography, Bach's Musical Universe,2 focusing on his collections of works as the core of his legacy, acquired through the concept in Wolff's Epilogue, "Maxim of the Learned Musician": Praxis cum theoria (Ibid.: 333), meaning practical application based upon rigorous science-based research, a reversal of the famous dictum about the empirical method of the natural sciences of philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, theoria cum praxis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz).
Bach's mastery of composition using this principle of practical application based upon theoretical research occurred in several pronounced stages, as explained in Wolff's section, "'Musical Thinking': The Making of a Composer," in his Bach biography (Ibid.: 169-174). The most formative and formidable period occurred in Weimar (1708-1717) when Bach particulalry mastered the art of Italian instrumental form with the ritornello or "return" thematic-motivic concept bringing new structural designs like the sonata and da-capo repeat forms, particularly the concerto forms of Vivaldi about 1714. Bach's musical thinking involved "order, coherence, and proportion" "brought to bear on the treatment and setting of musical ideas," says Wolff (Ibid.: 173). It was this "meticulous rationalization of the creative act," he says in the Bach musical biography (Ibid.: 335), "beyond the rudimentary ingredients of counterpoint, harmony, melody, meter, and rhythm, as well as thorough-bass, voice leading, and instrumentation," he says in the Bach biography (Ibid.: 171). Using hierarchical organization, Bach simultaneously pursued the "two aesthetic premises of simplicity (implying a broad spectrum from purity, clarity, and directness to graceful and natural elegance) and complexity (implying intellectual analysis, sophisticated elaboration, and rational control), with Bach moving toward complexity. He applied "modular" construction to all types of composition, having available the performing vehicles (media) of new pipe organs, the latest harpsichords and the Weimar Cappella of vocalists and instrumentalists. Bach utilized a well-spring of opportunity as the concertmeister in 1714 to present instrumental concerti and modern, operatic-infkuenced church year cantatas which he systematically developed and deployed as "musical sermons," embracing instrumental devices such as the sinfonia. These as well as his free organ and chorale music and other keyboard works "show conclusive evidence of an increasingly abstract approach away from the keyboard to the writing table," says Wolff (Ibid.: 174), producing "the coupling of Italianism with complex yet elegant counterpoint, marked by animates inter-weavings of the inner voices as well as harmonic depth and finesse."
Weimar: Beginning To Create a Musical Universe
The period from Weimar to Cöthen (1717-23) saw Bach's development of two distinct, mostly keyboard work groups that overlapped, as described in two of Wolff's Bach musical biography chapters. Chapter 2 is the "Transformative Approaches to Composition and Performance: Three Unique Keyboard Works" composition and performance pedagogy (the Orgel-Büchlein chorale preludes in harmony and counterpoint; the Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC) Book 1, 24 concise preludes and fugues, and the Aufrichtige Anleitung (Faithful Guide) of Inventions and Sinfonias, comprising two-part preludes and three-part fantasias. Chapter 3 is titled "In Search of autonomous Instrumental Design: Toccata, Suite, Sonata, Concerto," with two sets of French and English Suites for harpsichord, two books of unaccompanied solos for violin and cello, and the six Brandenburg Concertos for diverse instruments, as well as the "Early Leipzig Reverberations" of six sonatas for violin and harpsichord, and six trio sonatas transcribed for organ. Beginning in 1723 in Leipzig, Bach initially pursued two genres: Chapter 4, "The Most Ambitious of All Projects," the cycle of chorale cantatas for the church year (left incomplete), and Chapter 5, "Proclaiming the Sate of the Art of Keyboard Music with the four Clavier-Übung (keyboard exercises), I, Six partitas for harpsichord (1725-31), II. Italian Concerto and French Overture for pedal harpsichord (1735), III. TGerman Organ Mass and Catechism preludes and fugues (1735-39); and IV. The Goldberg Variations for harpsichord (1742).
Leipzig Advanced Learning: Bose, Winckler
There were two expressions of advanced learning in Leipzig, says Wolff (Ibid.), as the Age of Enlightenment flowered in 18th century Leipzig where Bach was the center of musical activities in a community prospering from spiritual reawakening, intellectual stimulation at the Leipzig University, and material wealth. The first were electrical experiments in the late 1730s in one of the stately mansions that bordered the St. Thomas Square, in the large music room of wealthy merchant Georg Heinrich Bose, father of philosophy and physics professor Georg Matthias Bose of the University of Wittenberg, and a friend and patron of Bach, whose family was part of a veritable compendium of the Bach circle in Leipzig. The second was Johann Heinrich Winckler (1703-1770, member of another distinguished local family and noted philosophy and physics professor at the university, beginning in 1729 at age 26, and faculty member at the St. Thomas School, appointed by the new rector, Johann Matthias Gesner (1691-1761, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Matthias_Gesner), in 1731. Undoubtedly, Winckler would have attended the scientific studies at the Bose home and the Bachs attended musical events, while both men were close colleagues at the Thomas School. Three Bose daughters were godparents to the Bach's children, no. 15, Christiana Dorothea (3/18/31-8/31/32); no. 18, Johann Christian (1735-82); no. 19, Johanna Carolina (1737-81); and no. 20, Regina Susanna (1742-1809).3 The families were next door neighbors and daughter Christiana Sybilla Bose and Anna Magdalena were bosom friends, notes Wolff (Ibid.).
Winckler and Bach collaborated once, on Cantata "Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden" (Happy day, long hoped-for hours), BWV 1162=Anh. 18), dedication and consecration of the renovated St. Thomas School, on 5 June 1732.4 The music was part of a series of six homage works Bach composed as academic events from 1729 to 1734 at the school and Leipzig University.5 Winckler was the author of the traditional, hybrid (secular-sacred) text (Eng. trans. Z. Philip Ambrose, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/III.html). It was performed in front of the large, multi-story building, next to the Thomas Church, at the beginning of the new school year.5 This celebratory two-part, 10-movement mixed secular-sacred work provided materials for Bach to do multiple parody in both secular and sacred music. Its madrigalian three choruses and three arias were parodied in Cantata BWV 1158=Anh. 12, Frohes Volk, Vergnügte Sachsen (Happy folk, contented Saxons) for the name day of the new Saxon Elector, Augusts III, on August 3, 1733 at Zimmermann’s Garden. Its festive opening chorus also was parodied at the opening chorus in the Ascension Oratorio, BCW 11, of 1738 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJeqUaqfkYk). It’s sixth movement, “Geist und Herz sind begierig” (Heart and spirit are most eager), opening Part 2, “after the speeches,” also may have been parodied in the bass aria, “Domine Deus, Rex coelestis” (Lord God, heavenly King), of the 1738 Missa Kyrie-Gloria in F Major, BWV 233/3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMPkP5ka5CU). It's third movement aria, "Väter unsrer Linden-Stad" (Fathers of our linden-town) may be a multiple parody also found in 1737 homage Cantata 30a/5 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrLS3Xe56ig, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV30-D5.htm) and in an early version of Cantata 195/6 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV195-D4.htm).
School Rector Gesner
Bach's tenure as Leipzig cantor had reached its low point in 1730 as he chafed under the restrictive rules and conditions of the decrepit Thomas School but it soon began to change dramatically that year with the appointment of the new rector, Gesner, who freed Bach from onerous conditions and included the unhealthy cantor's residence as part of the general renovation. In 1725 Bach had begun to broaden his horizons in contacts with the progressive Dresden Court faction on the Town Council and at the Leipzig University, starting to secure extended, profane observant commissions (https://unichor.uni-leipzig.de/index.php?page=festmusiken),6 which grew in the 1730s and helped produce parodied sacred feast day oratorios, what Wolff calls part of a "A Grand Liturgical Messiah Cycle" (Ibid.: 192ff, http://bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0221-4.htm). At that same time, Bach developed extensive extramusical relationships with a wide range of personages while balancing these with musical and theological pursuits and influences. By the end of the 1730s, Bach had completed virtually all of his works for a sacred calling of "a well-regulated church music to the glory of God," 7 save for the "Great Catholic" Mass in B Minor, and was poised for his active pursuit of the art of polyphony, the highest expression of a learned musician. The Mass may have been performed outside the framework of a church service, says Wolff (Ibid.: 331), at the Grosses Concert, established in 1743.
1740s Compositional Shift to Polyphony
As the 1730s came to a close, Bach planned another major compositional shift, having produced the collection of the five Missae" Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233a, 234-236; the feast-day oratorios for Christmas, Easter and Ascension(1735-38), and revisions of the three oratorio Passions of John, Matthew, and Mark, as well as the Clavier-Übung III — all most appropriate for the festive, watershed 1739 Reformation Bicentenary Jubilee of the area's acceptance of the Lutheran confession. As his final decade dawned, Bach had increasingly spent time teaching his best students the art of composition at its most studied — counterpoint. In 1739, Bach had begun emphasizing learned activities with "academically inclined students," Lorenz Christoph Mizler, Johann Friedrich Agricola, and Johann Philipp Kirnberger (future son-in-law), "all three of whom would emerge as leading musical theorists," says Wolff (Ibid.: 285). Between 1739 and 1742 Bach also had prepared teaching notes that "corroborate his focus on techniques of double counterpoint and canonic writing," says Wolff (Ibid.: 287).8 "Yet he clearly had neither the interest in nor the patience and literary talent for emulating his treatise-writing composer colleagues Johann David Heinichen and Jean-Philipp Rameau," he says (Ibid.: 335f).
"The closest he came to a treatise-like work was the Art of Fugue, a tract with a bookish title but completely without a verbal component," says Wolff (Ibid.). "Though less obvious, the B-minor Mass similarly functioned as a serious essay expanding the art of vocal polyphony." Bach's own musical language was unique and exemplary, his melodies "unusual but always varied, rich in invention and resembling those of no other composer," says student Agricola as cited in Wolff (Ibid.: 336). Bach's music in general is "incomparable harder and more intricate" than other composers, Bach is quoted as saying. "He was fortunate to find appreciation and encouragement from his audiences for his virtuosic and learned approach," says Wolff. Predominately connoisseurs, the audiences at the Weimar and Cöthen courts "were led by art-loving nobility, and in Leipzig were spearheaded by an academic and mercantile elite. Moreover, all three venues offered him vocal and instrumental ensembles and collaborating musicians of a professional caliber second to none." Particularly in his musical sermon cantatas in Leipzig, Bach "tailored his music to the taste of a largely erudite andwell-educated cohort."
1747 Events Bolster Bach
Two milestone events in the 1747 bolstered Bach's reputation and strengthened his legacy: his admission to the Mizler Scientific Musical Society (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_Christoph_Mizler) with the Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1IBKnOMzhY) and his visit to the Prussian Court of Frederick the Great later that year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdmcabpiGYU) leading to the Musical Offering (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23yNGer9Wqs).9 These works were reflective of Bach's musical motto, "Everything must be possible," says Kirnberger, requiring "dint of effort and patience" (Ibid.: 337). One "of the most remarkable features of Bach's musical art [is] the natural, uncontrived and truly effortless handling of polyphony in whatever musical context, from simple dance to strict canon, from two-part to multiple-voice counterpoint, from instrumental and vocal to mixed scores," says Wolff (Ibid.: 338). His musical universe reveals "a surprisingly coherent narrative of Bach's artistic evolution" while "the works in question exhibit remarkable individuality."
Of special note is Bach's development of the fugue from the earliest Six Toccatas, BWV 910-915 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTtnScn5j-U), "exuberant yet sophisticated virtuoso fugues," to the Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlXDJhLeShg), "the refined advancement of multiple individualized fugue types and styles," concluding "with the profound and thoroughly systematized mono-thematic cycle contained in the Art of Fugue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXQY2dS1Srk). The instrumentally-driven vocal field of the chorale prelude, beginning with the unfinished Orgel-Buchlein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whnTkKiXqM0), Bach's first template of a de tempore well-regulated church music, the complementary, stylistically varied omnes tempore of Clavier-Übung III (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFW9wU8Ht3U) and the unfinished chorale cantata cycle (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0221-2.htm), "all combine contrapuntal logic with highly differentiated and expressive musical language in small and large instrumental and vocal formats," he says (Ibid.: 339). "This comprehensive approach was applied across an array of genres: suites, partitas, variations, sonatas, and concertos as well as choruses, chorales, recitatives, and arias of cantatas and oratorios."
Bach's Retrospective Reassessment
While composing an array of fugal works in the 1740s (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0221-5.htm), "Bach was also casting a retrospective eye over much of his compositional output," says Wolff (Ibid.: 340). Of particular note, "around 1744/45, he carefully reassessed his entire cycle of chorale cantatas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorale_cantata_cycle), noting in several scores that they had been 'completely reviewed'." "In a further project of fine-tuning, he turned to another opus also dating back twenty years," the six harpsichord-violin sonatas, BWV 1014-19 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwB6_wmH2BE), In 1744, "Bach asked student and son-in-law Altnikol to prepare fair copies of several other major works that he had recently reviewed: the WTC (both books, Bach Digital 1076, Bach Digital 1380), the Missae: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-236 (Bach Digital 0832), and parts of the "Great Eighteen" chorales, BWV 651-668 (Bach Digital 1203).
"This remarkable round of activity strongly suggests an increasing desire on the composer's part to prepare an appropriate and carefully curated musical legacy, Wolff says (Ibid.), often achieving simplicity through complexity. Beyond the Mass and the Art of Fugue, his last major works, Bach "had firm plans extending beyond them and was eager and ready to move on, as is clearly indicated by his decision to undergo eye surgery," says Wolff (Ibid.). Further, Bach's son Emanuel and other learned students Marpurg and Kirnberger published treatises on clavier playing and fugues and could have assisted Bach in the publication of other works, most notably the WTC,10 the Missae: Kyrie-Gloria, and the six harpsichord-violin sonatas. Further, Bach left unfinished the following collections: the Orgel-Buchlein project, the chorale cantata cycle, and the Harpsichord concerto volumes. Had Bach survived his eye surgery, he may have continued providing annual presentations of the Passions at Good Friday vespers and Town Council installation cantatas in late August. He could have taken advantaged of the Grosse Concert public concerts established in 1743, successor to his Leipzig Collegium musicum and forerunner of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. He could have participated in the further dissemination of his keyboard works by his students as well as performances of his Christological Cycle of Mass movements and feast day oratorios, assisted by prefects at the Thomas School, and the realization of performances in various media of his late polyphonic collections, possibly assisted by musically-talented sons Emanuel, Friedemann, Johannn Christoph Friedrich, and Johann Christian.
"In the end, it was Bach's highly personal and unorthodox approach to composition that resulted in music so exemplary, superlative, and transcendent," concludes Wolff (Ibid.: 3341). "His voracious appetite for musical knowledge and his inquisitive and resourceful mind allowed the act of composition to become 'praxis sine theoria,' practice not governed and directed by abstract rules, but instead inspired and guided by artistic imagination and inaugural musical genius. In Bach's musical universe, philosophy, theory, composition, and performance were merged into a quite incomparable whole."
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, updated ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013); Amazon.com: Audible Sample.
2 Christoph Wolff, Epilogue, "'Praxis cum theoria', Maxim of the Learned Musician," in Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2020: 317), Amazon.com.
3 See Bach children baptismal records, Table 11.1 Johann Sebastian Bach's Children, Wolff, JSB (Ibid.: 398).
4 See details at BCW http://bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh18.htm. Following the presentation of BWV 1162, Bach may have presented the entire chorale cantata second church-year cycle, beginning the next Sunday, June 8, 1732, the first Sunday after Trinity and the beginning of the new school year at the Thomas School. Wolff also observes in his Winckler biographical sketch (JSB Ibid: 323), of a Winckler discussion on acoustical phenomenon with a "musiconnoisseur" and cited the Gesner comment on Bach (https://theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/js-bach-performing-by-jm-gesner-1738/).
5 See Bach Cantatas Website, "Homage Works for Thomas School Rectors, Renovation" (1729-34), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Homage-Thomas-Rector.htm.
6 Bach experiences primarily in the profane realm are examined in the following: George B. Stauffer, "Leipzig: A Cosmopolitan Trade Center," in The Late Baroque Era: From the 1680s to the 1740s, Music and Society, ed. George J. Buelow (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993: 254-295; and Carol K. Baron, Bach’s Changing World: Voices in the Community (University of Rochester (NY) Press, 2006), Google Books; Zoltan Goncz, Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Contextual Bach Studies 4, ed. Robin A. Leaver (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011), Amazon.com: "Look inside"); and Szymon Paczowski, Polish Style in the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach (Lanham MD: Roman and Littlefield, 2017), Amazon.com: Look inside").
7 Bach's experiences in the sacred realm are examined in the following: Joyce L. Irwin, Neither Voice nor Heart Alone: German Lutheran Theology of Music in the Age of the Baroque (Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock, 1917 (orig. Pater Lang 1993); Tanya Kavorkian, Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650-1750 (London: Routledge, 2007); Michael Maul, Bach's Famous Choir: The Saint Thomas School in Leipzig, 1212-1804, Eng. trans. Richard Howe (Woodbridge GB: Boydell Press, 2018), Amazon.com, https://boydellandbrewer.com/bach-s-famous-choir.html; and Jeffrey S. Sposato, Leipzig after Bach: Church and Concert Life in a German City (1750-1847) (Oxford University Press, 2018), Amazon.com).
8 These theoretical studies are found in the new Bach Works Catalogue, BWV3, due to be published this year: Musical/ Theoretical Works (not for performance): BWV 1129 Fünfstimmger Satz: Regula Joh. Seb. Bachii (Composing in five parts: Johann Sebastian Bach's model); BWV 1130, Canones aliquot per Josephum Zarlinum (Several canons by Gioseffo Zarlino); BWV 1131, Regeln Zum Gebrach von Synkopen im dopppelten Kontrapunkt (Rules for the use of syncopations in double counterpoint); BWV 1132, Kontrapunktstudien mit W.F. Bach (Counterpoint studies with W. F. Bach [discovered 1999], before end of 1738); BWV 1133, Regeln vom Generalbass (Rules of thorough bass; AM 1); and BWV 1134, Vorschriften und Grundsätz zum vietstimmigen Spielen das Generalbasses (Precepts for playing the thorough bass or accompanying in four parts); Wikipedia, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/BWVSystem-4.htm: "Bach Werke Verzeichnis 3."
9 See James R. Gaines, Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), Amazon.com: "Look inside").
10 The WTC Book II is the most complex of Bach collections still being studied, led by Yo Tomita. His three-decade pursuit suggests that there is extant no definitive version of the collection of preludes and fugues and that Bach may have left the work incomplete or subject to further changes; see Tomita and Richard Rastall, The Genesis and Early History of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: Volume I: Genesis, Compilation, Revisions and Volume II: Aspects of Afterlife (Lanham MD: Routledge, 2021), Amazon.com).
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To Come: Reflections on the Influences of the Thomas School and Leipzig after Bach. |
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Christoph Wolff : Short Biography
Piano Transcriptions: Works | Recordings
Books: The Bach Reader / The New Bach Reader | The World of the Bach Cantatas | Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician | Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work: Details & Discussions Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |
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