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Lute Works BWV 995-1000, BWV 1006a
General Discussions - Part 2 |
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Continue from Part 1 |
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Lute Suites, Harpsichord Pieces: House Music |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (November 13, 2019):
In contrast to Bach's Six Solo Cellos Suites which may have been composed as early as Weimar but primarily between 1720 in Cöthen and the mid 1720s in Leipzig, Bach's solo works for lute involve only four suites and several non-dance movements composed over a 30-year period (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV995-1000.htm). The "lute suites were conceived as independent compositions at various times in his career," says guitarist Franz Halász.1 "To put it briefly and in slightly clichéd terms, they range from youthful elan (BWV 996) by way of the zenith of his artistic creativity (BWV 995, 1006a) to serene maturity (BWV 997)." "The question of whether all the so-called lute works were originally composed for a plucked instrument has always been contentious and has given rise to many hypotheses. Such discussions have, however, never stood in the way of a convincing performance on the guitar." In addition, Bach also used the lute as an obbligato or basso continuo instrument in arias or choruses in his three Passion oratorio settings of John, Matthew, and Mark (see Thomas Braatz's "Bach's Lute Compositions & Provenance," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Ref/BWV995-1000-Ref.htm). Recent research has found various spiritual qualities in some of Bach's lute works.
Bach continually explored the use of old instruments such as the viola da gamba, recorder and lute, as well as new instruments such as transverse flute, oboe and viola d'amore, and violoncello piccolo. He also substituted instruments in various compositions and wrote numerous transcriptions. The four lute suites are in the standard dance suite format of prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande, bourrée, and gigue. Like the cello suites, the lute suites involve adaptations from other instruments in Bach's autograph for lute: Lute Suite No. 3 in G minor, BWV 995 (c.1730, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP4fnTLyXgQ), is based on Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhJuSU6C1e0), while Lute Suite No. 4 in E Major, BWV 1006a (c.1736-37, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0IBmL_-MSs), is adapted from Solo Violin Partita No 3 in E Major, BWV 1006 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tjl07RmEQg). The other two lute suites are No. 2 in C minor, BWV 997 (c.1740, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZvP0_OPMeE), and No. 1 in E minor, BWV 996 (c.1712-1717, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtdZSYXR-00).
The music in the third lute suite and the fifth cello suite, BWV 995 and 1011, respectively, are an interesting study. The cello version is understandably sparse with fewer chords. "The lute version is beautiful, and in many places it does sound superior to the fifth cello suite," says Eric Siblin.2 "One does wonder whether Bach might have composed it first, them transcribed the lute music for cello when he decided to bundle together the suites in the standard collection of six." In either version, the Sarabande is "a mediation that stands outside time and renounces the world," says Siblin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg_-K2S1fX0). "Bach knew lutenists at Leipzig and owned a lute at his death, but he probably did not play the instrument with any facility" observes David Schulenberg.3 Bach's works for lute have merit "for their intrinsic musical qualities" and show his "continuing interest in new instrumental media," as well as showing "fascinating connections with other works." All four suites, like the non-dance works for lute, Bach composed in two-stave keyboard style instead of in tablature (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablature).
Dancing Lute Suites
Lute Suite No 3, BWV 995, is the only work designated only for lute, "Piéces pour la Luth" on the title page in French by Bach and dedicated to "Monsieur Schouster" (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000269), probably the Leipzig book dealer Jacob Schuster who owned the autograph. It is "the most French of the group, opening with a French overture," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 361). A "tablature version attributed to Saxon lutenist Adam Falckenhgen [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Falckenhagen] is an arrangement for the common thirteen-course lute," he says (Ibid.). It was composed between 1727 and 1731 for the little-used 14-course lute with 26 strings, says Hans Vogt.4 "The musical text follows the cello version [BWV1-11] quite closely." "All in all, this piece is the most successful of Bach's lute transcriptions. It was written wholly in the idiom of the lute, without, however, violating the original cello work."
The Lute Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 997, has a long, cumulative history, possibly beginning as a partita for lute with Prelude, Sarabande and Gigue, says Hill (Ibid.: 14f). The fugue was added later and the Double to the Gigue "even later still" with the later four- and five-movement versions as "adaptations and expansions intended for performance on harpsichord or lute-harpsichord," dated to c1740, he says. Another perspective is that the "uniformly mature style points to its having been conceived integrally, and it is Bach's strongest original lute work," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 363). The title "suite" "does not occur in the chief sources" of BWV 997, he says, while "the organization is closer to that of a sonata da chiesa. Many copies survive, indicating that the piece was popular."5 The first two movements are a prelude and fugue, comparable in design, if not quite in dimensions," to the "Wedge" fugue in E minor for organ, BWV 548 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJCuew6mIFE), "pairing a ritornello-form movement in concerto style with a fugue in da capo form." "The opening of the sarabande [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-lmiIUT4Eg] recalls the closing saraband chorus of the St. Matthew Passion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaSvJZE3dCI).
Non-Dance Lute Works
The other Bach arrangement for lute is the Fugue in G Minor, BWV 1000 (after 1720, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOPGjZV84z8), from the fugue of the Solo Violin Sonata (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvwkFBzUMMM). The three arrangements (BWV 995, 1000, 1006a) are found at http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Holzenburg.htm. The other two non-dance works also are recorded on the lute-harpsichord, appropriate for two-stave format: Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major, BWV 998 (c.1740-45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1PsYOIYlG4), in Bach's autograph, and the Prelude in C minor, BWV 999 (c.1720, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnpaMm_2QYc) in a copy by Johann Peter Kellner. in the stylof the contemporaneous Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1.
Some Bach compositions such as the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat Major, BWV 998, and the Prelude in C minor, BWV 999, are appropriate for either the lute or harpsichord or for the lute- harpsichord (Lautenwercke, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautenwerck) "Bach uses tablature only once: at the end of BWV 998," says Vogt (Ibid.: 228). "He did this for reasons of space, because he had run out of staff lines. However, he used German organ tablature, not lute tablature." The autograph is inscribed "Prelude pour la Luth. ò Cembal. par J. S. Bach" ((https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00003825) and the date is 1740-45. Its authenticity has been established by Thomas Kohlhase in the NBA V/10.6 It "could be viewed as a church sonata, lacing a slow movement after the fugue," in he style of the "Toccata Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNZ1AEuJ3lM), says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 364). "The fugue subject is reminiscent of the chorale melody Herr Jesu Chrust, wahr'r Mensch und Gott, the basis of Cantata 127: and the fugue is in da-capo form." he says. The Prelude in C Major, BWV 999, surviving in a Kellner copy (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001815), "is equally playable on the keyboard," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 176). It is dated to c.1720 in Köthen, the sole lute composition at that time and is reminiscent of the WTC Book 1.
A selection of keyboard works that sound effective on the lute-harpsichord, including early works, is found on Robert Hill's recording of four non-dance music pieces (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV995-1000-Hill.htm): fragment Suite in F minor, BWV 823 (Prelude, Sarabande, Gigue; c.1715-18, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKAbL40U7Ys); Fantasia and Fugue in B-Flat Major, BWV 907, and Fantasia and Fugue in D Major, BWV 908 (?1733, copy; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biORMLmOfFg, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000238); and Prelude and Fantasia in C minor, BWV 921 and 1121 (1700-1720, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDyHkja0SxE). "We have tried to take into account Bach's long-term interest in the instrument by looking for early as well as later pieces which sound well on the lute-harpsichord," says Hill.7 The pair of fantasias and fugues, BWV 907, 908, use hybrid notation and "may have functioned in part as a teaching repertoire," says Hill (Ibid.: 15). "While they were probably intended for the organ, the sonority and flexibility of the lute-harpsichord sound offer an attractive if unusual alternative." The Prelude in C minor, BWV 921 and the Fantasy, BWV 1121, is a very early work found in the Andreas Bach Book dating to the early years in Weimar," says Hill (Ibid.: 14) and is an interesting pairing appropriate for the lute-harpsichord that Bach began to play at that time.
Recent research suggests that the Suite in F minor, BWV 823, may date later to Leipzig in a copy of Kellner, as late as 1735/40 while the movement "possibly represent the closest Bach ever came to pure French style," suggests Richard D. P. Jones:8 the Prelude in chaconne, the Saraband en rondeau, and the Gigue as a canarie. The two late lute-style works show Bach's compositional mastery of two genres, says Jones: The Lute Suite No. 2, BWV 997, which like the Suite in F Minor, uses only two of the classical dances — sarabande and gigue — and has a prelude and fugue like the other late work, the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major, BWV 998. Both works can be regarded as free (mixed genre) suites in the style of Handel's Suites de pièces of 1720 and are two "of Bach's finest solo instrumental works of the mid-to-let 1730s," says Jones. They "might equally have been occasioned by a visit to Bach's home in 1739," he suggests (Ibid.: 43).
Bach "had come to know in Weimar" the Lautenwercke (http://www.baroquemusic.org/barluthp.html), says Andreas Bomba,9 and had one built in Leipzig c1740 by Zacharias Hildebrandt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zacharias_Hildebrandt). Two lute-harpsichords were part of Bach's estate of musical instruments in 1750 [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach: Final years and death (1740–1750), last paragraph, "In January 1749 . . . ."].
Early Lute Suite, Silvius Leopold Weiß Encounter
The Lute Suite No. 1 in E minor, BWV 996, is the earliest dated Bach chamber works, composed in Weimar, c.1712-17, it exists in a manuscript copy of Bach student Johann Tobias Krebs (1690-1762, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Tobias_Krebs), title page (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001766) by Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Walther) with another copy in 1725 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004032) from Bach student Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber (1702–1775, https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Nikolaus_Gerber&prev=search). It may be an early, compact model for Lute Suite No. 3 in G minor, BWV 996, suggesting that the Leipzig work could predate its transcription, the Solo Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011. The bourrée (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyl0ZHxHb9U) and gigue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfv_ecJtmHk) are the best-known of Bach's earliest lute pieces, in addition to the sarabands. All the copies linked to Bach's circle are for keyboard and "at least partly in the hands of organists," says Schulenberg (Ibid.: 56), with a later copy by Johann Jacob Heinrich Westphal (1756–1825), https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000272).
The leading lute virtuoso in Bach day, Silvius Leopold Weiß (1686-1750, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Weiss-Silvius-Leopold.htm: "J.S. Bach Connection") and his student Johannes Kropfgans, the Younger (1708-1767, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Kropfgans) "were heard at our place several times" 1739, says Johann Elias Bach (cited in Bomba, Ibid.: 12). Bach about 1740 arranged a Weiß lute suite for violin trio (violin and continuo), BWV 125, with seven dance movements: I. Fantasia, II. Courante, III. Entrée, IV. Rondeau, V. Sarabande, VI. Menuett, and VII. Allegro (https://www.earsense.org/chamber-music/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Suite-in-A-major-BWV-1025/, https://imslp.org/wiki/Suite_in_A_major,_BWV_1025_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian). It is in the style of the accompanied violin sonatas (https://musopen.org/music/3927-suite-in-a-major-bwv-1025/) and two versions survive: Bach's autograph which went to Johann Christoph Friedrich (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001140), and Emanuel's copy before 1749 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002657), which he attributed to his father.
Bach's Reworkings; Lute Motive, Method, Opportunity
This arrangement of Weiß "has repeatedly been claimed to be a 'sort of parlor game for professional musicians," says Bomba (Ibid.: 12), citing Christoph Wolff.10 "There are numerous examples of Bach treating arrangements in a similar manner, even his own pieces," says Bomba. While Bach composed works such as the Six Solo Cello Suites to explore the instrument's idiomatic character, "Bach's instruments often feel beside the point, as if he composed ideal music, music that transcends instruments, music that was invented to reinvent itself," says Siblin (Ibid.: 210) in a chapter devoted to Bach's reworkings, from his to the 20th century. Reworkings "were a rich baroque tradition of borrowing existing music for inspiration. From the start, his works have undergone radical transformation." "The introduction of guitar arrangements of Bach by Francesco Tarrega (1853-1909) and Andres Segovia (1893-1987)" "was a partial stimulus for the beginning of the revival of the Baroque lute in Germany in the 1920s," says Tim Crawford.11
Bach's small group of lute-style works involved a plethora of motive, method, and opportunity. All Bach's music has a pedagogical purpose, particularly in Köthen with his courtly instrumental music. Bach previous in Weimar had mastered the dance, sonata, concerto and fugal forms and subsequently composed extensively for keyboard, violin, cello, flute and viola da gamba. In each period Bach composed one or two representative lute-style works, beginning with the dance suite (BWV 996) in Weimar, the WTC-like Prelude (BWV 999) in Köthen, the Fugue (BWV 1000) arranged from the unaccompanied violin sonata (BWV 1001/2), the iconic Suite in g minor (BWV 995) and its sister Solo Cello Suite (BWV 1011) possibly dating to c.1730 when Bach stopped presenting cantatas every Sunday. In the second half of the 1730s, when Bach selectively and deliberately composed in stages following numerous drammi per musica for the Saxon Court to gain the honorary title of court composer, he adapted his solo violin sonata of 1720 (BWV 1006) for lute, particularly its utilitarian Preludio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0IBmL_-MSs).
Finally, after entertaining the great lutenist Weiß with home music-making in 1739, the bicentennial of Saxony's acceptance of the Lutheran Confession, Bach produced two lute-oriented works: the Lute Suite in C minor (BWV 997) with its religious overtone or undercurrents c.1740, and the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major (both with the Trinitarian three flats), c1740-45, as well as his tribute-arrangement of Weiß (BWV 1015) c.1740. At this time, Bach also had his lute-harpsichord manufactured (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautenwerck), now often played on it or the guitar, observes Nicholas Kenyon.12 Bach's repeat performances of his three Passions in the 1740s involved the lute (John, bass arioso, "Betrachte, meine Seel" (Consider, my soul, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lYNE5NF-RE); Matthew bass aria, "Komm süßes Kreuz" (Come sweetest cross, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMbDdFOx1Wk); and Mark, tenor aria, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfgcgaakZyg: 23:35), and opening chorus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht4fmWI50XY).
In all likelihood, the lute-related works were composed primarily for intimate home music-making involving family and friends, with Bach performing on the harpsichord or lute-harpsichord. They were independent pieces, not part of a collection, but with inherent musical qualities that enhanced Bach's compositional palette. His compositional method was the two-stave keyboard with its clarity and simplicity. On special occasions, especially later in Leipzig, Bach would revisit his lute-style compositions and may have performed them during communion service on the lute-harpsichord. By the 1740s, Bach returned to a suite and a prelude and fugue to explore further their possibilities on the lute-harpsichord.
FOOTNOTES
1 Franz Halász, "J.S. Bach: The Lute Suites," liner notes http://bach-cantatas.com/Pic-NonVocal-BIG/Halasz-F-S01c[BIS-SACD-booklet].pdf.; lute compositions, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#BWV_Chapter_9).
2 Eric Siblin, The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece (New York: Grove Press, 2009: 198).
3 David Schulenberg, "The Later Lute Works," in The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach, 2nd. ed. (New York: Routledge, 2006: 359).
4 Hans Vogt, "Works for Lute," in Johann Sebastian Bach's Chamber Music: Background, Analyses, Individual Works, Eng. trans. Kenn Johnson ( Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 1988: 229f)); original, Johann Sebastian Bachs Kammermusik: Voraussetzungen, Analysen, Einzelwerke (Stuttgart: GmbH, 1981); overview, https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1711970.
5 Lute Suite No. 2, copies https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?q=%2BobjectType%3A%22work%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000005%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bmusicrepo_work01%3A%22BWV+997%22&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&sort=musicrepo_worksort01+asc&version=4.5&mask=search_form_work.xed&start=0&fl=id&rows=1&XSL.Style=browse&origrows=25.
6 Thomas Kohlhase, Compositions for Lute Instruments, Vol. 10, in NBA Series V, Keyboard and Lute Works, Critical Commentary (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1982); from Kohlhase Diss. phil (Tübingen, 1972), Johann Sebastian Bachs Kompositionen für Lauteninstrumente : kritische Edition mit Untersuchungen zur Überlieferung, Besetzung und Spieltechnik.
7 Robert Hill, "The Lute-harpsichord," liner notes (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV995-1000-Hill.htm, Ibid.: 12).
8 Richard D. P. Jones, "Two Lute Works," in The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach: Music to the Spirit, Vol. II: 1717-1750 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013: 243).
9 Andreas Bomba, "Bach and the Lute," liner notes, Eng. trans. Dr. Miguel Carazo & Associates Holzenberg (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Holzenburg.htm, Ibid.: 11).
10 Christoph Wolff, "Zu Bachs Bearbeitungen fremder Kompositionen," in 53. Bachfest der Neuen Bachgesellschaft (Marburg, 1978: 131-135).
11 Tim Crawford, "lute-harpsichord," in Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, ed. Malcolm Boyd (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999: 276).
12 Nicholas Kenyon, "Suites for 'Lute'," In Bach the Music, Bach 333, the J. S. Bach New Complete Edition (Berlin: Deutsche Grammaphon, 2018: 166). |
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