Discussions - Part 1

Schulenburg New Bach Biography: Early Years

William L. Hoffman wrote (August 25, 2020):
The vigorous pursuit of Bach scholarship from the tercentenary of 1985 to the 250th anniversary of Bach's death in 2000 yielded many discoveries and findings which bore the fruit of reconstructions, realizations, increased understanding of such interests as transformation (also known variously as transcription, revision, or parody) and reception history, as well as new biographies shaped from varied perspectives. Following the significant findings of the previous century, the new biographies went far beyond the typical historical-biographical and mythical to explore the collateral evidence of Bach's motive, method, and opportunity, since the historical documentary record is scant and often based on subjective heresy.¹ As with the works of Shakespeare, much about Bach's endeavors has been acquired from the works themselves — their contexts, geneses, and applications, going far beyond the traditional interlinear, synoptic blend of composer life and corresponding works. The old Romantic notion of struggling genius in ultimate triumph has been displaced by a myriad of perspectives based upon rigorous thought and imaginative conjecture. Using the cliche of "What goes around comes around," the neo-traditional approach of the Oxford University Press' The Master Musicians Series has just published the new Bach biography of scholar David Schulenberg.² It still carries the format and content of the initial Bach biography of the late Malcolm Boyd (1932-2001)³ from 1983 with updated editions to 2000, the series edited by the Stanley Sadie (1930-2005, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Sadie). Much of the old original factual material found in the original appendices have been preserved and updated, based upon findings in the past two decades

Matters previously considered secondary, tertiary, or incidental to the fundamental biography are now explored by another Bach scholar with versatile author credentials. Schulenberg previously produced three singular studies of Bach's keyboard music and biographies of Bach sons Friedemann and Emanuel, as well as Schulenberg's musical history of the Baroque and accompanying Anthology of Scores.⁴ Schulenberg in this new Bach biography brings to bare materials from his Baroque study and Bach's keyboard music, particularly in the early chapters, such as describing the roles of the German town organist and cantor and their music, as well as concise descriptions of Baroque practices and Bach's works. A special feature is the on-line Appendices: D, Brief Guide to Sources, and E, an extensive Glossary of technical terms, available at <www.oup.com/us/bach> and becoming an increasing feature in on-line publications, such as the Leipzig-Bach Archiv (www.bach-leipzig.de) and the Bach Digital manuscripts (www.bach-digital.net).⁵

How Bach Became Bach

Schulenberg's Bach could be subtitled "How Bach Became Bach," as he explores Bach's various musical and personal activities in the world of German towns, courts, and cities. Of special note are Schulenberg's thoughts on "how Bach incorporated his contemporary environment into his work: he responded to music by other composers, to his audiences and employment conditions, and to developments in poetry, theology, and even the sciences" (jacket leaf). Schulenberg begins with a concise overview of "Bach in History," emphasizing geography, society, and culture," with a map of Bach's lands and an updated Bach Family tree. Some of the most iconic illustrations of places, people, and music are found throughout (although there is no separate illustration guide), with significant new documentary material such as the front page of Bach's autograph of BWV 71 and the facing title page of the print edition (40f), replacing the opening of the printed soprano part (center illustrations), with fewer facsimile illustrations but more footnotes than the earlier Boyd Bach biography. As is befitting of the practices of the New Historical Musicology (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Historical-Musicology-New.htm), Schulenberg probes social, cultural, and economic influences as well as "other areas of investigation [that] have been opened up by scholars and are now seen to be relevant to the lifeand music of a 'master' such as Bach," he says (Ibid.: Preface: vii). These include broad new perspectives on Bach's compositions related to "study, performance, and teaching," he suggests (Ibid.: viii).

In the early chapters, Schulenberg blends various mythical anecdotes such as activities related to Bach's apprentice time in Arnstadt (1703-7, 34f), with fresh materials of Schulenberg's own regarding Baroque musical practices and conventions, especially regarding keyboard music. Meanwhile, he mines nuggets of recently uncovered information across a broad spectrum of Bach studies. "That diverse portrayals of Bach are possible reflects how little we know for certain about him," Schulenberg emphasizes (Ibid.: 2), and Bach the person "therefore is a mystery," he says (Ibid.: 3). Perhaps Bach was simply born to the right place time, responding most accordingly. The music is the "most important source of information," Schulenberg says, both what he knew and his own works, as well as "how it emerged will be our central concern." Schulenberg plods the same ground as earlier Bach biographers in the preliminary sections of "Germany, Europe and the Empire" and "City, court and family" (Ibid.: 4-8), while asking provocative questions such as how Bach could "produce a body of work so diverse, drawing on so many up-to-date musical trends?," he asks (Ibid.: 4). He learned from others and worked hard. "How could one individual integrate so many innovations in musical design with new approaches to poetry, expression, and religious exegesis, in such a broad variety of compositions?" Genius takes its full measure. Bach stood at the cusp of several historical developments such as the emergence of musicians as an important part of the middle-class cultural fabric in a land of increasing prosperity and education while serving various masters and exploiting numerous opportunities, Schulenberg recounts. Bach took full advantage of his surroundings and persevered — aspiring, enterprising, diligent, resourceful.

Bach Family, Lutheran Infuences

The tradition of the Bach Family of musicians and Bach growing up in Martin Luther country of Thuringia were two influences that he seems to have exploited to the fullest. Yet, the record of his exact musical training is non-existent (other than generalities), while Schulenberg entertains the possible influences of Bach's father Ambrosius (Eisenach instrumental player), older brother Christoph (Ohrdruf organist), who took him under wing in 1695 as an orphan, and the specific musical influences of the older Christoph and Michael Bach, father of first wife Maria Barbara, from Eisenach. Again, little is known of Bach's time in Lüneberg at St. Michael's School (1700-1702) before the formative four years at Arnstadt.⁶ Schulenberg does offer new insights (15f) into Bach's brief (January to August 1703) transitional, bridging stay in Weimar as a "lackey" court musician in possible "hands-on" musical experiences such as working with keyboard instruments and learning the violin. In Arnstadt, Bach began his "mastery of compositional technique," analogous to the learning of the older Isaac Newton in the sciences, suggests Schuleberg (Ibid.: 18), as well as acquiring learned facility in languages and theology, which enabled him to compose sacred vocal music, grounded in the German chorale.

Meanwhile, Bach's "formal schooling ended before his eighteenth birthday," notes Schulenberg, and little is known about his actual humanist education traditionally steeped in Latin and rhetoric, although it can be induced.⁷ He lacked community respect in Leipzig because he had no university degree to enable him to properly teach as cantor at the St. Thomas School, unlike his predecessors. Although he was essentially self-taught in music, as Schulenberg observes (Ibid.: 19), Bach engaged in life-long learning and ensured that his musical sons had a university education. He taught students music using his keyboard works and chorale settings (http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Music-Scholar.htm), suggesting that he observed the Greco-biblical precept, "I seek counsel and I give counsel." Meanwhile, Bach in Leipzig courted the Saxon Court progressive wing and its treasured institution of the Leipzig University where Bach produced numerous commissions for celebratory events for both parties (https://unichor.uni-leipzig.de/index.php?page=festmusiken) and directed the university-based Collegium musicum from 1729 to 1742 and possibly later. Meanwhile, Bach "allowed others better equipped for polemic writing to defend him in print when he and his music were criticized" in the Scheibe Affair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Adolf_Scheibe: see "Commentary on his contemporaries"). Instead of writing learned musical treatises as his son Emanuel and later students did, Bach published four editions of Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Exercises, 1725-42) with only concise author introductions.

Early Musical Influences

Various early musical influences are described at length in Schulenberg's chapter on "Bach the Student" (Ibid.: 17ff). These include members of the Bach musical family in "solid but conservative types of music that comprise the Old Bach Archive," he says (Ibid.: 23, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altbachisches_Archiv) and one of Bach's earliest vocal compositions, the "Quodlibet," BWV 524 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV524-Gen2.htm). Frequent travel had a major impact on Bach, who "before he was twenty Bach had journeyed far from his region," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 28).⁸ "This greatly expanded the range of musical experiences available to him through contact with various local musical styles, practices and instruments," as with his colleague Telemann. Bach's earlier encounters with the Hamburg opera before 1706 "would have provided more up-to-date examples of vocal music" and writing for orchestra, as well as pan-European styles.⁹

Bach's musical apprenticeship in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen (1703-08) showed considerable "development of his mastery of the organ" and the formative establishment of occasional church pieces during his year in Mühlhausen, says Schulenberg in the fourth chapter of his new Bach biography (Ibid.: 32ff). The actual development and composition dating in Arnstadt is problematic, clouded with personal and social conflicts which are described extensively by earlier writers. Some of these were related to late-adolescent encounters or duties, while Bach found selective support from his extended family, civic and church officials. Like the eight-month stint in Weimar in 1703, Bach found opportunities in his year at Mühlhausen (1207-08) to mature personally and musically as he established a family home and began systematically to compose chorale settings (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Chorales-8.htmand) and occasional vocal concertos, forerunners of cantatas, for special church services. Bach in his resignation letter to the Mühlhausen Town Council stated his Lutheran calling of a "well-regulated" (well-ordered) church music," which may have entailed assuring a roster of performing musicians, suggests Schulenberg (Ibid.: 42), leaving to reto Weimar. Bach was in good standing in Mühlhausen, since he provided two more "cantatas" for the Town Council in 1709, catalogued as BWV 1138.1=Anh. 192, possibly BWV 143,¹⁰ which Schulenberg questions (Ibid.: 71), and in 1710, BWV 1138.2 (Bach Digital).

Keyboard Music, Vocal Works

Bach's early keyboard music and vocal works are studied in Schulenberg, Chapter 5, "Bach the Organist (ibid.: 43ff), with his caveat about the keyboard music: "We lack original composing manuscripts for most of this music, and most of the surviving compositions were revised, often several times," particularly the toccatas and preludes and fugues. Schulenberg discusses topics such as the duties of organists, the order of service, favored court music, and the beginnings of the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) chorale prelude collection. His chapter topics are "Instruments and Organ 'Tests'," "Early Works for Keyboard Instruments," "Keyboard Chorales," "Fugues and Other 'Free' Pieces," and "Early Vocal Works." Among his enterprising findings are the church organs in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, organ tests, and recital programs, as well as Bach's experiences with string keyboard instruments. "Bach must have amassed a substantial collection of diverse [keyboard] pieces by an early point in his career," he says (Ibid.: 56), and shared these with his brother Christoph who compiled two manuscripts that included Bach works in the two manuscript compilations in the Andreas Bach and Möller collections of diverse German repertory (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Keyboard-Music-Early.htm) of chorale settings and "free" pieces "without pre-existing melodies," he says (Ibid.: 57f). Bach's idiomatic writing for keyboard can easily be played on the organ or stringed keyboard instruments such as the clavichord or harpsichord while pushing the limits of what was playable.

One category of keyboard chorales of congregational hymns was "initially more central to Bach's work than the fugues for which he later became known," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 58). The smaller liturgical settings in the Orgelbüchlein and miscellaneous chorales¹¹ were service essays which also were models for the extended elaborations known as fantasias particularly found in sets of variations (BWV 766-71,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Chorale_partitas_(BWV_766–768)). The liturgical chorale settings for the church year were models influenced by annual cycles of sermons, bible commentaries and poetry for cantatas, he says (Ibid.: 59). The chorale settings "range from straightforward harmonizations and archaic chorale motets to fughettas, embellished melodies with accompaniment, and miniature fantasias," as well as canons, he says (Ibid.: 59). In the other category of fugues and "free" pieces are a range of non-fugal praeludia, suites, toccatas, and sonatas, Schulenberg points out (Ibid.: 60). Fugues are Bach's calling card and he began with essays using themes of other composers Legrenzi (BWV 574) and Albinoni (BWV 951) with influences from Frescobaldi and Froberger, he says (Ibid.: 61). Bach fugal works well-known and discussed include the iconic "Toccata and Fugue in D minor," BWV 565; "Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother," BWV 992; Prelude, BWV 566; and the Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582.

The early vocal works have several distinguishing features: influences from Italian court theater cantatas, "collected and performed at Weimar and Cöthen," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 64); the new type of simple recitative found in sacred cantatas (BWV 71/4, 208/1, as well as instrumental works; the Mühlhausen "Cantatas" BWV 4, 71, 31, 150, and 106 with biblical and chorale verses; "ingenuous examples of text painting" (Ibid.: 65) in the added use of madrigalian poetry for choruses, arias, and ariosi; and the use of musical rhetoric from speech — "the effective setting of text to music," he says (Ibid.: 68), such as symmetry, contrast, and repetition. The two contrasting vocal works he discusses in detail are the pure-hymn chorale Cantata 4 for Easter and the madrigalian memorial Cantata 106 (Ibid.: 70-72).

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

¹ See Bach Biography Discussions: "History, Topics; Recent, New Perspectives," "Addendum," and "Christoph Wolff, John Eliot Gardiner, Music Studies," Bach Cantatas Website, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Bach-Biography.htm.
² David Schulenberg, Bach, The Master Musicians Series, ed. R. Larry Todd (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), Amazon.com: "Look inside." R. Larry Todd bibliography, Bach-Bibliographie.
³ Malcolm Boyd Bach, Amazon.com; bibliography, Bach-Bibliographie.
⁴ David Schulenberg publications: Amazon.com; Emanuel Bach biography, Amazon.com; Music of the Baroque, Amazon.com; Anthology of Scores Amazon.com.
⁵ Schulenberg Bach, On-Line Appendices: Appendix D, Brief Guide to Sources (Oxford University Press ), Appendix E, Glossary (Oxford University Press. with an Addenda to Appendix B, List of Works (Oxford University Press[PDF]): church cantatas by alpha title; chorales by BWV, Orgelbüchlein, Miscellaneous organ, and "Neumeister"; and an alphabetical list of Bach’s chorales for organ and keyboard, listed by title.
⁶ Bach's musical learning is described in Bach Cantatas Website 2019 discussion, "Bach Family Organ Music, Student Compositions Misattributed," http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/Organ-Music-Family.htm.
⁷ See Marcus Rathey, Chapter 7, "Schools," in The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Robin A. Leaver (London Routledge, 2017), Amazon.com: "Look inside," 116ff).
⁸ See Bach travel, American Bach Society: Robert L. and Traute M. Marshall, Exploring the Worlds of J. S. Bach: A Traveler's Guide (Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2016), Amazon.com: "Look inside," and review https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0217.htm; and Christoph Wolff and Marrcus Zepf, The Organ of J. S. Bach: A Handbook, trans. Lynn Edwards Butler (Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2012), Amazon.com, "Look inside" and Jstor; and review University of California Press.
⁹ See William L. Hoffman, "Northern Germany: Abendmusiken and Passion-Oratorio," in Bach’s Dramatic Music: Serenades, Drammi per Musica, Oratorios (Bach Cantatas Website, 2008, http://bach-cantatas.com/Articles/HoffmanBachDramaII.htm.
¹⁰ Three recent studies affirm the authenticity of Bach's Cantata BWV 143: 1. Andreas Glöckner's 2012 NBA Rev. Ed., Vol.2, critical report with Eng. trans. (Bärenreiter), based on a new, posthumous source (Bach Digital), with the presumed original version in C Major as an appendix (119-150), Bach Weimarer Kantaten (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2012; BA 5936). 2. Don Smithers, Trumpets, Horns, and Bach «Abschriften» at the time of Christian Friedrich Penzel: Probing the Pedigree of «BWV» 143 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Academic Research, 2015), Amazon.com: "Look inside"); Smithers bibliography, Bach-Bibliographie). 3. Marcus Rathey, "Printing, politics and ‘a well-regulated church music’: a new perspective on J. S. Bach’s Mühlhausen cantatas," in Early Music 44: 449-60), Oxfgord Academic: Early Music.
¹¹ These early chorale settings are listed in the Schulenberg book on-line Appendix B of Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644; Miscellaneous organ chorales, BWV 690-765, and "Neumeister," BWV 1090-1120; (Oxford University Press)

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To Come: Schuenberg's formative "Weimar (1708-1717)," and music of "Bach the Concertmaster" at Weimar — chorales, cantatas, and keyboard music.

Schulenberg New Bach Biography: Weimar Transition and Maturity.

William L. Hoffman wrote (September 2, 2020):
From 1708 to 1723, Bach was engaged in creating music based on significant, formative influences and perspectives at two Saxon minor court duchies with ambitious music programs, first in Weimar as organist and then as concertmaster beginning in 1714, and subsequently as Capellmeister at Anhalt-Cöthen at the end of 1717 to his final service as Leipzig cantor and music director beginning in 1723, as well as honorary Capellmeister for the Saxon Court beginning in 1736. These experiences followed two creative trajectories: instrumental music for keyboard and chamber ensemble as well as sacred vocal music involving a "well-ordered church music," his Lutheran calling.

Beginning in Weimar in 1708, Bach pursued Mass movements to understand how early Palestrina settings evolved into progressive interpretations most notably at the Saxon court. Another major influence was Italian opera seria with its alternating narrative recitatives and interpretive arias written in poetic madrigalian style. He studied Italian instrumental music of Correlli concerti grossi and Vivaldi concertos, paying close attention to the thematic ritornello or return with its potential for expansive, increasingly varied guises, while applying the repetitive form of repeat, that is ABA, in arias as well as instrumental movements. Bach also began to essay partitas with various national dance forms. Thus, by 1714, he was poised to create full-length sacred cantatas as musical sermons with an infusion of poetic texts blocked by opening choruses using biblical passages and closing four-part chorales, and supported by a chamber orchestra. He also added to the apparatus introductory orchestral sinfonias which eventually became movements of concertos and suites transcribed with textual overlay into choruses and arias in sacred cantatas.

German scholars, using the concept of Geschichte (scientific history), had conveniently divided Bach's composition history into categories based upon stylistic periods producing certain types of works at certain locations, as well as the convenient perspective of early, middle, and late periods, first applied to Beethoven. Only in more recent years have Bach scholars gone far beyond these generalized distinctions with in-depth pursuits of concepts such as compositional history and process, contextual influence, source-critical evaluation, historically-stuudied interpretation, and musical and liturgical realization. Meanwhile, since virtually no significant new source-critical documentation has been discovered, Bach biographical scholars have had to resort to "filling in the blanks" and "connecting the dots." Much of this involves building on the physical evidence through the examination of collateral evidence, that is subordinate or secondary. Given the lack of original documents, scholars can only conjecture as to the original music with putative reconstructions based on similar music created at that time.

Weimar: Organist, Teacher, Concertmaster

In both places, Weimar and Cöthen, Bach, like his colleague Telemann in other communities, came in the midst of musical renaissance and helped to bolster these courtly cultures with significant and challenging music, says the new Bach historical-musical biography of David Schulenberg.¹ By this time, Bach had achieved notoriety as an outstanding keyboard performed and organ builder. He also was beginning to develop a reputation as the leading member of the Bach Family who as a composer was both a pedagogue with a developing legacy of students, leader of various ensembles, and innovator of diverse new music, lacking only the composition of opera which too often failed to be established for long in central Germany. Weimar "was a significant step up for a former municipal organist" and "would be participating in the 'duly ordered' church music Mühlhausen had lacked," says Schulenberg in Chapter 6 (Ibid.: 73), "Weimar (1708-1717)." Weimar was in the midst of a literal musical renaissance as the interior of the court chapel, known as Himmelsburg (Heaven's Castle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Weimar), under ruling Duke Wilhelm Ernst, had a renovation of the organ and expansion of the performing gallery 65 feet above the floor, completed in 1714, when Bach was appointed concertmaster to present church year sacred cantatas every fourth Sunday. The community possessed other cultural amenities such as painters and architects and would become the literary home of Goethe and Schiller "from the late eighteenth century onward," Schulenberg observes (Ibid.: 74).

Bach was in the right place at the right time, having spent his first years six years (1708-13) in Weimar learning his compositional cas it also was developing in Germany. As a member of the court Capelle professional musical ensemble, he created a favorable impression that extended to nearby communities at Weissenfels, Halle, and Gotha. Besides Erdmann Neumeiser-texted cantatas, he was influenced by the religious poetry of Countess Aemile Juliane, wife of the ruler of Schwartzburg Rudolsdadt, as well as Duke Ernest Ludwig I of Sachsen-Meiningen, says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 115f) with annual church cantata cycles pre-dating Neumeister,² and the Weimar court poet Salomo Franck (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Franck.htm, a "skillful if not great poet, capable of imaginative diction and vivid late-Baroque rhetoric," he says (Ibid.: 78). At Cöthen, Bach would have the luxury of famed court poet Menantes (Christian Friedrich Hunold, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Hunold.htm) for the text of his initial birthday serenades (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/HoffmanBachDramaII.htm#P3)

Home Life, Challenges

Little is known of Bach family life in Weimar while Schuleberg surmises that Bach wife Mara Barbara and her unmarried older sister Friedelena Margaretha as housekeeper "would therefore have been prepared to give [music] lessons to her children," he says (Ibid.: 79). The growing Bach household included children and students Johann Martin Schubart, Johann Caspar Volger, nephew Johann Bernard Bach, cousin Johann Lorenz Bach, Philipp David Kräuter, and Johann Tobias Krebs, according to Schulenberg (Ibid.: 80f). A special relationship developed in 1714 between Bach and Prince Johann Ernst, son and heir of junior Duke Ernst August (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Johann_Ernst_of_Saxe-Weimar), talented composer, "some of whose concertos were arranged for harpsichord or organ" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_concerto_transcriptions_(Bach)), says Wikipedia. Bach composed an extended memorial cantata, BWV 1142 (Bach Digital) on 2 April 1716. The year 1713 saw Bach on 21 February produce his first modern cantata, BWV 208 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV208-D5.htm) at Weissenfels and on 3 or 10 December a trial cantata (? BWV 21) in Halle (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV21-D7.htm). That year (1713) Bach also composed sacred cantatas BWV 199 (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV199-D5.htm) and BWV 18 (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV18-D4.htm). On 6 November 1713, for the dedication of Weimar's second church, St. Jacob's, Bach may have presented the apocryphal Missa in G, BWV Anh.167 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrie–Gloria_Mass_for_double_choir,_BWV_Anh._167, YouTube) and for Weimar Duke Wilhelm Ernst's birthday, 30 October 1713, strophic ode, BWV 1127 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alles_mit_Gott_und_nichts_ohn%27_ihn,_BWV_1127). But by 1716 Bach was caught in the "the minefields of politics at a divided court," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 84). Bach also may have set Franck’s texts to two court cantatas, he says (Ibid.: 83f), for the wedding of Duke Ernst August, 24 January 1716, titled “Diana, Amor, Apollo, Ilmene,” and a birthday cantata for his new Duchess Eleonore from Köthen, on 18 May 1716, titled “Amor, die Treue und die Beständigkeit,”

Other Opportunities

With the death of Weimar Capellmeister Johann Samuel Dresse on 1 December 1716, Bach began to produce an annual sacred cantata cycle to new Advent texts of Franck (BWV 70a, 186a, assuming that he would be the successor when, instead, the Dresse son, Johann Wilhelm, became the new Capellmeister, and Bach ceased composing monthly cantatas. The situation in 1717 involved "Bach during his last twelve months at Weimar, when his position, or at least his relationship with the ruling duke [Wilhelm Ernst), seems to have sharply deteriorated," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 86). Bach began traveling and seeking other opportunities. His colleague Telemann in Frankfurt visited another Thuringian Saxon duchy, Gotha, with its ailing Capellmeister, Christian Friedrich Witt, and Bach presented a Weimar-Gotha oratorio Passion on Good Friday, 12 April, BWV deest (Bach Digital), while Telemann was offered the "general Capellmeister" for all the Thuringian Saxon duchy courts, says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 86f), but remained at municipal Frankfurt. The Cöthen capellmeister position came open and on 1 August Bach accepted the offer of Prince Leopold. Bach visited Dresden in late summer and challenged Louis Marchand to a keyboard contest, but probably was not involved in the Weimar Jubilee Festival of the 200th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, October 31. He was detained for a month in November before being released, traveling to Leipzig for an organ inspection on 16 December, and then taking up residence in Cöthen.

Bach probably spent his first five years in Weimar learning composition, especially instrumental music involving organ chorales, keyboard works, and solo string studies, participating in the court orchestra, giving keyboard recitals, and looking for vocal music opportunities while studying modern-style cantatas lead by Telemann, as well as Latin church music and Passion oratorios. Bach had significant musical resources available in Weimar: court Capelle musicians ensemble, court library and access to other resources at neighboring duchies, the remodeled Himmelsburg court chapel with new organ, and talented Prince Johann Ernst who had new Italian publications from Amsterdam. Bach also turned to studying and teaching the latest Italian-style music and producing and performing keyboard solo concertos transcriptions with Prince Johann Ernst. On 2 March 1714, Bach was appointed concertmaster and began producing monthly cantatas to texts of Franck, showing mastery of the new, modern form and only taking breaks during closed court three-month periods of mourning in late 1714 and early 1716.³ It was a major advancement in Bach's calling of a "well-ordered church music," as described in Schulenberg's Chapter 7, "Bach the Concert Master: Chorales and Cantatas," as well as "a very substantial amount if keyboard music composed at Weimar," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 92). Bach also began to explore other instrumental music such as solo string partitas, sonatas, keyboard and orchestral suites and concertos — music completed in Cöthen.

Church, Organ Music

As Weimar court concertmaster, Bach used his talents both on the keyboard and violin to lead and strengthen the ensemble, "introducing repertory in new styles that required greater virtuosity and unanimity," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 95), such as his string concerto transcriptions as well as other music including Lully ballet pieces Vivaldi concertos. "He must also have performed in and perhaps directed sacred vocal music by other composers," he says (Ibid.: 96), notably Latin church music⁴ (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Latin-Church-Music.htm: "Missa: Kyrie-Gloria Genesis"), possibly from the Weissenfels court library and the Saxon Court Library in Dresden. Still, "the five year gap between" 1708 and 1713 "leaves us in the dark as to how Bach was evolving as a composer," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 99f). "Plenty of Bach's organ music is likely to date from this period," notably keyboard chorales in the Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644, and the more old-fashioned chorale settings of the "Great 18," BWV 651-666,"as well as the more retrospective of the ["free" keyboard] preludes and fugues" (BWV 538, 540-43, 545-46, 572; from Ibid.: Table 7.1, "Works Probably Completed at Weimar": 102). The "great achievement in these Weimar compositions was the merging of elements of music in the current Italian style with older principles that Bach had mastered in his early works," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 102). These include "an insistence on rigorous counterpoint, constant searching for inventive harmony and modulation, and the obsessive development of a limited number of motivic patterns in any one piece."

"New elements from Italian — especially Venetian — vocal and instrumental music include certain large-scale formal patterns or designs, as well as specific types of melodic writing that proved useful for filling out and articulating the new musical forms," Schulenberg says (Ibid.: 102f). Bach also sought "a challenging type of expressivity," he says (Ibid.: 103), involving intense chromaticism and "musical rhetoric in the sacred works," especially in the new da-capo arias. Among the works Schulenberg singles out is the "Little Fugue" in G minor, BWV 578 (YouTube), a transitional work using the new, extended principles of "tonal design" of modulating to remote keys and returning to the tonic and "recapitulation" of a "transposed statement of a previously heard passage." In his "free" keyboard works are "an increase in virtuosity as well as a trend toward greater monumentality," he observes (Ibid.: 104). The most important of the "transitional" works are the seven harpsichord toccatas, BWV 910-16 (YouTube), he says (Ibid.: 104f), especially idiomatic features for the clavier, alternating between free, contrasting figuration and substantial fugue sections in a "unique overall shape" fusing old and new styles. Keyboard preludes and fugues and other "free" keyboard works are given considerable attention in Schulenberg (Ibid; 107-12). Here Bach shows "stylistic affinities to the newer Italian types of instrumental music" in "their textures, motivic ideas, and allusions to the alternation between ritornellos for the 'tutti' and episodes for one or more soloists." Another transitional, forward-looking work is the "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue," BWV 903 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHTMq-5B9Co), with its virtuoso display of reflective, recitative-like passages. Of Bach's large Weimar preludes and fugues for organ, the "Dorian" in D minor, BWV 538 (YouTube), has an expansive prelude mixing older toccata and newer concerto elements while the fugue is an austere, uncompromising, precise canonic imitation. Another Bach "calling card" is the Toccata and Fugue in F Major, BWV 540 (YouTube) with its toccata quoting the motive, B-A-C-H, in the bass — another imposing feature found in Bach's works of the last decade.

The two keyboard chorale collections composed in Weimar, the Orgelbüchlein and the "Great 18," are "the single largest group of his works, in terms of sheer numbers," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 112), but are less known than his other major works and their specific purposes in Weimar are unknown. The Little Organ Book of short chorale preludes in various forms was composed for the church year to teach organists to play chorales in various ways and to study pedaling. Only 45 of the planned 182 Little Organ Book chorales were composed (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV599-644.htm), almost entirely for the de tempore first half of the church year on the life of Jesus Christ (See http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0221.htm: "Orgel-Büchlein: Chorale Preludes"), the remainder only in incipits in Bach's hand. The "Great 18" are extended settings also in varied formats for some of the best known chorales (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV651-668.htm), completed and collected in Leipzig in 1742 (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0221-4.htm: "Great 18" Organ Chorales Revisited). "Both sets are diverse in style and expressive character," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 114), "ranging from strict canons among the chorale preludes (YouTube) and austere chorale "motets" in the 'Great Eighteen' to exuberant free settings inspired by the latest Italian concertos and trio sonatas (YouTube)."

Weimar Vocal Works

The influences of Italian opera seria on vocal music form and the new madrigalian cantata libretto influenced by Italian secular cantatas, from Neumeister and Ernst-Ludwig of Saxe-Meinengen initially impacted on Bach's colleagues Telemann and Johann Ludwig Bach, respectively, the latter setting the Meinengen-Rudolstadt cycle in 1715-16 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/Bach-JL-Gen1.htm, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Ludwig.htm). Telemann's Neumeister settings also could have been performed in Weimar "during the second decade of the century" when Capellmeister Drese Sr. was incapacitated, also "serving as models for Bach's church pieces," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 116). "That Telemann was not only a musical influence but also an inspiration, mentor and rival of Bach during the latter's Weimar years could all be deduced from what we know about their careers during the second decade of the century," he says (Ibid.: 117). Telemann's concertos also influenced Bach's instrumental music. The some 21 church cantatas Bach composed in Weimar, all of which he utilized again in Leipzig, include two early works set to texts of Darmstadt court poet Georg Christian Lehms (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Lehms.htm), Cantata 199 for soprano solo and Cantata 54 for alto solo, neither with closing plain chorale settings. Cantata 199, "Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut"
(My heart swims in blood) is a substantial, dramatic work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydCKpBxdB8w), ranging from a mournful opening accompanied recitative to a joyous concluding aria in gigue rhythm https://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV199-D5.htm). The same text was set in 1712 by Christoph Graupner at Darmstadt.⁵ "It is apparent from the distinctive crafting of almost every movement in these Weimar compositions that Bach was striving urgto demonstrate both originality and zeal in projecting the rhetoric pof their texts," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 128). Bach's Weimar cantatas demonstrate a great range of form and mood,⁶ from the joyous Easter and Pentecost Cantatas BWV 31 (YouTube) and BWV 172 (YouTube) to the Advent Cantatas 61 (YouTube) and 70a (YouTube). Bach's use of opening orchestral sinfonias in his cantatas is extensive and varied in Weimar (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV1045-D2.htm, following the German sacred tradition, observes Schulenberg (Ibid.: 128).

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

¹ David Schulenberg, Bach, The Master Musicians Series, ed. R. Larry Todd (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), Amazon.com: "Look inside." R. Larry Todd bibliography, Bach-Bibliographie.
² See Peter Wollny, "Johann Ludwig Bach Trauermusik," trans. Janet and Michael Berridge, liner notes Capriccio (Frechen: Delta Music, 1998); Presto Music; further information (Arkiv Music
³ "The precise chronology of Bach's Weimar Church pieces remains uncertain," says Schulenberg in a footnote (Ibid.: 92), citing studies of Andreas Glöckner, Klaus Hofmann, and Yoshitake Kobayashi. An accounting is found in the Bach Cantatas Website, Thomas Braatz summary (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Weimar-Cantatas.htm).
⁴ See "Latin Mass Settings," "Datable copies made by Bach" of Palestrina Masses, 1708-17, in Jeffrey Sposato, Leipzig After Bach: Churches and Concert Life in a German City (1750-1847) (Oxford University Press, 2018), Amaszon.com: "Look inside": 99f).
⁵ In "Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut," the aria (No.2), “Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen" (Silent sighs, quiet moans) invites comparison: Bach with embellished oboe (YouTube), and Graupner with heartbeats in the accompanying strings (YouTube); recordings of both Bach and Graupner are found at YouTube; influences between the two composers overlap, as Bach imitates Jesus knocking at the door in 1714 Advent Cantata 61, in the arioso (No. 4) "Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür und klopfe an" (See, I stand before the door and knock; YouTube), says Schulenberg, citing Evan Cortens comparison, "Durch die Music gleichsam lebendig vorgestellet": Graupner, Bach, and "Mein Herz schwimmt im Blut," in BACH Journal 46/1: 74-110, Jstor.
⁶ Bach's Weimar cantatas: summary, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_cantata_(Bach); study, Eric Chafe, Tears Into Wine: J. S. Bach's Cantata 21 in its Musical and Theological Contexts and the 1714 cantatas (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), Amazon.com: "Look inside"; and The World of the Bach Cantatas: Early Sacred Cantatas, essays ed. Christoph Wolff (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), Amazon.com: Look inside," Contents).

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To Come: Schulenberg's Bach in Cöthen, Capellmeister, Traveler

Continue on Part 2