Poetic Music of Sorrow: Late Bach & Contemporaries
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Poetic Music of Sorrow: Late Bach & Contemporaries

William L. Hoffman wrote (September 23, 2018):
In the mid-1730s, at the same time that Bach was composing profane drammi per musica and comic cantatas, he began to embrace intimate, pietistic-flavored personal spiritual sentiments of mostly sorrow primarily involving Passion music for Good Friday. Most notably is the music of colleague Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Heinrich_Stölzel), Gotha capellmeister, particularly given the recent discovery of Bach's presentation in 1734 of the poetic Passion Oratorio (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Lämmlein_geht_und_trägt_die_Schuld_(Stölzel) at the annual Good Friday vespers, as well as at least one and possibly two church-year cantata cycles. Earlier, the Bach family enjoyed a simple sacred love song now attributed to Stölzel, "Bist du bei mir" ("If you are with me," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc7muJVEQfc), BWV 508, and copied it in the family album in 1733-34. It is an aria from Stölzel's 1718 opera "Diomedes," also known as "Die triumphierende Unschuld" (the triumphant innocence). Also, in the Passion oratorio, composed in 1720, is an enigmatic aria which Bach later in 1742-43 adapted as "Bekennen will ich seinen Namen" (I shall acknowledge His name, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000250?lang=en). It was first thought to be Bach Cantata BWV 200 for the Feast of the Purification. Recent scholarship of Peter Wollny, director of the Bach Leipzig-Arkiv, suggests that it could have been arranged with a new text for home devotional use (see below). The Stölzel Passion setting opened a floodgate of pietist-influenced, progressive-style music by his noted contemporaries Telemann, Handel, and Carl Heinrich Graun that Bach would continue to provide for the last 15 years of his life.

The tradition of the extended oratorio on the Passion began about 1700 in Hamburg with figures associated with the local opera, both composers and librettists, who during the Lenten closed period created both the single Gospel setting in a poetic oratorio Passion and the poetic Passion oratorio, performed in churches during Holy Week. Christian Heinrich Postel (1658-1705, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Heinrich_Postel) wrote the libretto for an oratorio Leiden und sterben Jesu Christi (Passion and death of Jesus Christ, or St John Passion). A setting formerly attributed to George Frideric Handel is now believed to be by Christian Ritter. Christian Friedrich Hunold (1680-1721, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Friedrich_Hunold), Hunold wrote the libretto Der blutige und sterbende Jesus (The bleeding and dying Jesus), set by Reinhard Keiser in 1704, an early Protestant Passion oratorio (http://www.menantes-wandersleben.de/Keiser_Passionsoratorium_Kurztext_g.pdf. The next major poetic Passion oratorio was set in 1712 by Hamburg poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barthold_Heinrich_Brockes), the Brockes Passion entitled Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus (The Story of Jesus, Suffering and Dying for the Sins of the World), subsequently set by Keiser, Georg Philipp Telemann, Handel, Johann Mattheson, and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel in 1725 as well as several movements from the Brockes Passion and the Postel St. John Passion found in Bach's St. John Passion in 1724. The Brockes Passion was the most popular setting in Germany until supplemented by librettist Karl Wilhelm Ramler, "Der Tod Jesu" (The death of Jesus) set in 1755 by Carl Heinrich Graun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Tod_Jesu), which finally was replaced by Handel's "Messiah" in the 19th Century. The Hunold-Keiser Passion was performed at the Gotha Court in Holy Week 1719 when Stölzel was selected as the new Kapellmeister.

Stölzel Poetic Passion Oratorio, Cantata Cycles

Bach was particularly motivated to new poetic, progressive directions because of his 23 April 1734 Good Friday presentation in the Thomas Church of Stölzel's 1720 poetic Passion oratorio, "Die leidende und am Creutz sterbende Liebe Jesu" (The love of Jesus which suffered and died on the Cross), a meditation on the 14 Stations of the Cross (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stations_of_the_Cross), beginning with Paul Gerhardt's 1648 Passion song, Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld (A lambkin goes and bears our guilt).¹ It will be performed at the Bachfest Leipzig on 15 March 2019 at the Thomaskirche by the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert, directed by Hermann Max. Previously in Leipzig, the annual Good Friday vespers involved only gospel oratorio Passion settings, beginning in 1722 with Johann Kuhnau's St. Mark (oratorio) Passion, alternating at the St. Thomas and St. Nicholaus churches. In 1717, Telemann's Brockes Passion oratorio setting had been performed on Good Friday in the university Paulinerkirche under the direction of organist Johann Gottlieb Görner, on the same date as Bach's "Weimar-Gotha" Passion.

The discovery in 2008 of this Stölzel Passion text book and the text books from two cantata cycles — as well as sources of works of other composers collected and performed by Bach — reveal "a range of repertoire that could scarcely have been imagine before," says Peter Wollny.² Previously, the late Kirsten Beißwenger (1960-2013, https://www.americanbachsociety.org/Newsletters/BachNotes19.pdf: 6), in 1990 developed a ground-breaking survey of Bach's music library of works of other composers, compiled for study/performance.³ Earlier Bach sources had known the existence of Passion works of Handel (Brockes Passion), Telemann (Seliges Erwägen) and Stölzel (Ein Lämmlein geht) that Bach presented and were housed at the Thomas School but lost, including the Stölzel Passion that "was in the holdings of the library of the St. Thomas School until 1945," says Beißwenger (Ibid.: 245).

The original Stölzel Passion oratorio, his first for the court with his own text, was followed by two cantata cycles, only partially extant, set to texts of Benjamin Schmolck (1672-1737, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Schmolck.htm), a noted Silesian theologian and the author of new chorale texts often based on popular melodies. Bach presented the 1727 "String Cycle" in Leipzig in 1735-36 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/1735.htm), and the 1731 "Book of Names of Christ" cycle possibly in 1736-37 or earlier, of which only a few works are identified through a text book for the St. Michael's Feast and the succeeding 17th to the 19th Sundays after Trinity, dated September 23 to October 7, 1736. The significance of the Passion and cantata findings is that beyond the range of new repertoire, Bach had been able to break free of the Good Friday Passion tradition of Gospel-texted works that scholars had previously accepted and that Bach, or his designated prefect, also had presented an annual cantata cycle by another composer. Besides Bach's affinity to Stölzel's music, there may have been a pragmatic reason: Bach was appeasing the pietist-oriented cantor faction on the Town Council who would have found no objectto these texts.

In the 1740s, when Bach heavily relied on other composers for Passion music, Wollny speculates that this could have included a reperformance of the Stölzel poetic Passion "in temporal proximity to the genesis of BWV 200, in other words, in the early 1740s" (Ibid.: 51). Given the significance of the Stölzel Passion, Bach's possible performances of other poetic Passion oratorios of Handel (Brockes) and Telemann (Seliges Erwägen) merit "a renewed search" for lost materials as well as a possible musical setting in Nuremberg of Picander's poetic Passion oratorio text, BWV Anh. 169 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001480?lang=en), says Wollny (Ibid.: 52). He suggests the lost Bach manuscript copy (DSB Mm. 9002/10) of Handel's Brockes Passion, from which the seven arias were inserted in the late1740s Keiser-Handel Pasticcio, might have been an earlier, possible Bach presentation (c.1746-47, still undocumented). The copyist is Johann Johann Nathanael Bammler (1744-49, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bammler-Johann-Nathanael.htm). Also, an extant, fragmentary Leipzig parts of Telemann's Seliges Erwägen could reveal the actual date of a Bach performance, originally set c.1734, based on copyists Paul Christian Stolle (Anonymous V) and Bernard Dietrich Ludewig (Bach student, 1731-37). Also lost is the

Bach, Gotha Court, Stölzel

Knowledge of Bach's connections to the Gotha Court in recent years "have dramatically increased," says Bach scholars Robert L. and Traute M. Marshall.⁴ Lying on the axis of the via regia between Eisenach and Erfurt "where the Bach family had a substantial presence," the court probably was visited by Bach in his youth, say the Marshalls. The first documented visit came in 1711 when Bach was a guest keyboard performer at the court (Dok 5: B 52b). On 26 March 1717 Bach presented possibly his "Weimar-Gotha Passion" oratorio, Bach Compendium BC D-1, at the Court Schloss Friedenstein castle court chapel (Dok: 5: B 81a, NBR 63-63).⁵ It was a commission from pietist Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, since his Kapellmeister, Christian Friedrich Witt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimarer_Passion) was dying. Of the nine movements Bach also used in the 1725 St. John Passion and the St. Matthew Passion, the three arias (nos. 2-4) now may be new settings to texts of Christoph Birkmann http://bachnetwork.co.uk/ub10/ub10-blanken.pdf: 28f). Annual performances were part a long court tradition of Good Friday Passion music, beginning in 1699 and directed by Witt, both poetic Passion oratorios and chorale/sacred song-based presentations, notably a Gotha St. Matthew Passion, 1707, with 19 chorales. In 1719 Stölzel succeeded Witt. Like Telemann in Hamburg and Bach in Leipzig and others, Stölzel provided annual Passion music during Lent. Bach probably kept close personal relations to Gotha through Stölzel "and clearly held Stölzel's music in high esteem (Ibid.: 145). In 1747, Stölzel bought a copy of Bach’s The Musical Offering for the court library. Much earlier, on 9 August 1723 in Leipzig, Bach presented a Latin ode, BWV 1155-Anh. 20 (lost), for the visiting Gotha Duke Frederick II (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001328?lang=en).

After 1723, Friedemann copied a keyboard partita in g minor attributed to Stölzel into his Klavierbüchlein (no. 48), to which his father added a minuet, BWV 929 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001104?lang=en, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY1LWkmaGi8). About the same time that Bach presented the Stölzel poetic Passion in 1734, Anna Magdalena entered "Bist du bei mir" in her Notenbüchlein, now BWV 508 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWnEUzUizkI): "Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden / Zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh. / Ach, wie vergnügt wär so mein Ende, / Es drückten deine schönen Hände / Mir die getreuen Augen zu." (Be thou with me and I'll go gladly / To death and on to my repose. / Ah, how my end would bring contentment, / If, pressing with thy hands so lovely, / Thou wouldst my faithful eyes then close).⁶ In an essay in the Bach-Jahrbuch 2002, says Wikipedia, Andreas Glöckner speculates that Anna Magdalena either obtained the song from the inventory of the Leipzig Opera that had gone bankrupt in 1720, or that it was simply a favourite known to nearly everyone in Leipzig that was particularly suitable for Hausmusik.⁷ Further, Bach and his colleagues often exchanged music, observes Wollny (Ibid.: 63f) and Bach could have relied on various sources as well as direct contact with Stölzel, and this explains why there are no extant materials in Bach's music library for the two cantata cycles while Stölzel's original manuscripts eventually were lost.

About 1742, Bach arranged a parody aria, "Bekennen will ich seinen Namen," BWV 200 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWN63Md1ESY), based on the Faithful Soul da capo aria, "Dein Kreuz, o Bräutgam meiner Seelen" (Thy cross, O bridegroom, my soul), from the Stölzel poetic Passion.⁸ The two-part aria for soprano and strings "occupies an exceptional position in Bach's ouvre," says Wollny (Ibid.: 39). The author is unknown (based in Luke 2:29.32, Purification) while the provenance was not through the usual paths: J. S. Bach – ? – Privatbesitz, Berlin – F. Osborn, Berlin (after 1924) – Osborns Witwe Lady Hutchinson, London (1955) – C. Osborn – BB (1979) – now Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung. "Bach took up an older composition and transferred it into a new version, revising some parts lightly and others heavily," says Wollny (Ibid.: 41). "The transformation of Stölzel's composition found in BWV 200 is unusually far-reaching," he says (Ibid: 43), "applying a six-line text to a musical structure conceived for a text of four lines" of typical song verse (strophic song verse) and offering "noteworthy insights into Bach's process of adaptation" (Ibid.: 46). Bach also reduced the orchestration of the original operatic bass aria, eliminating the oboe and bassoon, thus making the work more appropriate for "performance outside the church — a devotional song for private worship (or possibly a small ceremony) 'in the chamber,' for instance," Wollny suggests (Ibid.: 49). Further, the strophic form (without da capo repeat) is found in arias in the Schmolck "String Cycle" text initially published in 1720.

Passion Music of Bach's Contemporaries

The first significant study of Bach's performance of Passion music of his contemporaries was undertaken in the 1975 by scholar Andreas Glöckner who did a more extensive study of the same music published 1977 in the Bach Jahrbuch.⁹ The original sources were found in materials and references surviving in the Thomas School after Bach's death, as well as manuscripts in Bach's hand of actual performances under his direction. The specific works and dates are: Gottfried Keiser Markus Passion, ?30 March 1714 or earlier (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001534?lang=en), as well as first Leipzig version, 19 April 1726 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001535?lang=en); ?Gottlieb Fröber, "Lukas Passion," BWV 246, 7 April 1730 (https://imslp.org/wiki/Lukaspassion,_BWV_246_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

BGA Complete Score, PDF scanned); Telemann Das Seliges Erwägen, c1734; Telemann Brockes Passion, TVWV 5:1, ?27 March 1739; "Keiser"-Handel Pasticcio Passion, BNB I/K/2c. 1747 (only Bc parts extant, copyist Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach).¹⁰ Two dates Glöckner furnished were tentative and still not accepted: Telemann Seliges Erwägen, c. 1734 and Telemann Brockes Passion 1739, which could have replaced the banned St. John Passion. Copies of the latter were found at one time in the Thomas School (C-86, ?Bds. Mus. 21711) and in the 1790 estate of Emmanuel (p. 87, score and parts) — both versions now lost.

In the 1740s Bach apparently supervised the assemblage of the "Passion Pastiche After C. H. Graun," which is the culmination of the German Passion oratorio tradition, emphasizing a range of poetic and musical styles (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000626?lang=en).¹¹ Its core music is the progressive Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-59) 1730 harmony Passion Cantata, "Ein lämmlein," set in "sentimental" (empfindsam) style. The pasticcio also has the gallant style of Telemann's Palm Sunday Cantata, "Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt"(Who is this that cometh from Edom (Sodom), as well as the old motet style of "Der Gerechte kömmt um" (The righteous perisheth), once attributed to Bach's predecessor, Johann Kuhnau. The signature Passion Vesper chorale, "Chrustus, der uns selig macht" (Christ, who makes us blessed), in six harmonization's is probably by Johann Christoph Altnikol (1720-59), Bach student/copyist and son-in-law (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV1088-Gen.htm: "Discussions in the Week of March 31, 2013"). In addition to Bach's orchestration of the motet are two numbers that begin Part 2: Chorale Cantata BWV 127/1 chorus, "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott" (Lord Jesus Christ, truly man and God, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhga4zSro30) from the 1725 Quinquagesima cantata, and the bass arioso, "So heb ich denn mein Auge sehnlich auf" (I lift my longing eye to Heav'n above), BWV 1088 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFvh5ZlFSA). The Graun manuscript kept at the Thomas School was destroyed during World War II. Another Graun harmony Passion, c.1720, "Kommt her and schaut" (Come here and shout, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ-CyQ7HB7A: Nos. 1-23), may have existed at one time at the Thomas School, possibly performed in the late 1740s, although there is no source-critical evidence.

The 2008 discovery of the 1734 Stölzel Passion libretto of Bach's performance opens a whole chapter, still being explored, of Bach's late compositional period, especially its utilization of pietist-oriented texts and Passion music of sorrow. It is possible that further libretto books will be found to confirm the actual dates of Bach presentations of pasticcio Passions and those of his contemporaries, as well as other works he may have performed. This exhaustive study of Bach began early in the 20th century with Bach scholars began exploring various secondary sources such as the Thomas School Library historical holdings which were published in the Bach Jahrbuch annual scholarly periodical. Unfortunately, these holdings were lost during the war, while the new Bach compositional chronology beginning at mid-century occupied many scholars who also began the cottage-industry search for two lost cantata cycles and two original Passions. It was only at the beginning of this century that Bach scholars led by Peter Wollny began to re-examine new as well as earlier findings often ignored. Still, debate continues about the perspective of Bach studies and scholarship including the spiritual emphasis and the importance of Bach's legion of borrowings and other so-called "secondary" works.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Stölzel Passion oratorio 1734 (Dok 2:180; NBR 114; BJ 2008: 77-84), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Lämmlein_geht_und_trägt_die_Schuld, https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN817333371&PHYSID=PHYS_0141&DMDID=DMDLOG_0012).
² Peter Wollny, "'Bekennen will ich seinen Namen': authenticity, purpose and context for the aria BWV 200 [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000250?lang=en]: observations on Johann Sebastian Bach's reception of works by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel," trans. James Brokaw, BACH, Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute (Berea OH, Vol. XLVIII, No. 1, 2017: 38); originally published in Bach Jahrbuch 94 (2008: 123-58); see also "Is there another cantata cycle by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel that belonged to Bach’s performance repertoire?," by Andreas Glöckner (Leipzig) [from the Bach-Jahrbuch 2009], trans. Thomas Braatz (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Stolzel-Bach-Glockner-Eng.pdf).
³ Kirsten Beißwenger, Chapter 10, "Other Composers," The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (London & New York: Routledge, 2017); https://books.google.com/books?id=y8iVDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT366&lpg=PT366&dq=kirsten+beißwenger+Routledge&source=bl&ots=eYV79Cz64w&sig=7CBwSB_3wJjUTuif0jbwUHEHNgM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyxo3C8L3dAhVGzoMKHYEWBwUQ6AEwAnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=kirsten%20beißwenger%20Routledge&f=false).
⁴ Robert L. & Traute M. Marshall, Exploring the World of J. S. Bach: A Traveler's Guide (University of Illinois Press, 2016: 142ff), published in cooperation with American Bach Society.
⁵ "Weimar-Gotha Passion," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimarer_Passion, details https://books.google.com/books?id=6HtMDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=gotha+court+bach&source=bl&ots=jA3Yln07Kr&sig=C6z3T7GjWAWDbzm0Mo2M0zXoJ30&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwin_Z6-lLndAhUk64MKHT_hB-gQ6AEwAnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=gotha%20court%20bach&f=false); https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001533?lang=en).
⁶ "Bist du bei mir," BWV 508 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000579?lang=en, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bist_du_bei_mir).
⁷ Andreas Glöckner, "Neues zum Thema Bach und die Oper seiner Zeit" in Bach-Jahrbuch 2002: 172–174)
⁸ "Bekennen will ich seinen Namen," BWV 200, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000250?lang=en, text http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWV200-Eng3.htm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekennen_will_ich_seinen_Namen,_BWV_200).
⁹ Andreas Glöckner, "Bach and the Passion music of his contemporaries," in Musical Times, Vol. 116: 1975: 613-616; and Johann Sebastian Bachs Auffürung zeit genössicher Passionsmusicken, Bach Jahrbuch 63 (1977): 75-119.
¹⁰ Christine Blanken, "Foreward," "Keiser"-Handel Pasticcio Passion (Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag, 2011: https://www.carusmedia.com/images-intern/medien/30/3550203/3550203x.pdf).
¹¹ Graun Pasticcio Passion, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wer_ist_der,_so_von_Edom_kömmt, https://www.muziekweb.nl/Link/DBX1793/Passions-pasticcio, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV1088-Gen.htm.

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To Come: Sacred songs and chorale collections completing a Christological Cycle of personal expression