Bach / Fugue Master

Bach

Fugue Master

December 26, 2018 

Johann Sebastian Bach‘s extant compositions are what give us physical evidence and insight to his outstanding musical accomplishments. Among his interests were composing in the fugal style. Systematic yet creative is this method, as shown by Johann Joseph Fux‘s 1725 treatise Gradus Ad Parnassum, a step by step approach to this type of composition. First a literary excerpt and then musical examples.

“Nowhere could the principles of counterpoint be more richly applied than in the composition on fugue. In this genre, Bach not only excelled, peerlessly, but set new standards of technique, form and performance. Bach knew both what had been achieved by others in this branch of composition and where his own contributions had a particular impact. He could see that to a considerable extent, his place in history would be that of ‘fugue master.’

According to the Obituary, Bach ‘through his own study and reflection alone became even in his youth a pure and strong fugue writer’ on models by Bruhns, Buxtehude, Reinken, Froberger, Böhm and others. And the evidence in both instrumental and vocal examples from well before the Weimar period overwhelmingly supports this view. Bach’s inquisitiveness led him to scrutinize and absorb these masters’ different approaches and their enormous stylistic breadth. Of particular interest to him were the various ways they elaborated a musical subject in fugal form.

Unlike the free textures of preludes or dance movements, the rigorous polyphonic structure of a fugue required a firm command of the principles and rules of counterpoint. Bach’s deep immersion in the contrapuntal intricacies of composition and his analysis of many different fugal examples spurred him to form a musical logic that became an unmistakable hallmark of his style.”

– Christoph Wolff; Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician – pages 93, 171, 308, 432.

Bach – Fugue in G minor BWV 578 Ton Koopman

“The Art of Fugue or The Art of the Fugue (original German: Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV 1080, is an incomplete masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The work was most likely started at the beginning of the 1740s, if not earlier. The first known surviving version, which contained 12 fugues and 2 canons, was copied by the composer in 1745. This manuscript has a slightly different title, added afterwards by his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol: Die Kunst der Fuga. Bach’s second version was published in 1751 after his death. It contains 14 fugues and 4 canons. ‘The governing idea of the work’, as the eminent Bach specialist Christoph Wolff put it, is ‘an exploration in depth of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single musical subject.'”

J.S. Bach: Fuge BWV 998

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Bach / Clavier-Übung

Bach 

Clavier-Übung

 January 25, 2019 

The four parts of Bach’s Clavier-Übung emerged as a systematic and complete survey of the art of keyboard music as seen from Bach’s perspective. As extensive as Bach’s manuscript repertoire of new keyboard music from the 1730’s may be, it was clearly overshadowed by a commanding project: the Clavier-Übung series. By publishing, between 1731 and 1741, this comprehensive “keyboard practice” in four parts, Bach provided the most convincing evidence not only of his intent to renew an emphasis on his accustomed métier as a clavier and organ virtuoso (despite the fact he had not held a formal post as organist since 1717) but also of his desire to put a public face on his activities as a keyboard artist. The overall content of the series indicates Bach’s pragmatic approach. He selected genres and compositional types with broad appeal, though he did not compromise in the degree of compositional elaboration or performing standards.

Curiously, Leipzig’s lively publishing business and book trade had never paid much attention to publishing music. By 1800, however, largely through the activities of the Breitkopf firm, then Hoffmeister and Kühnel (later C.F. Peters) and others, Leipzig was well on its way to becoming the unrivaled leader in music publishing. Bach’s collection of six partitas, appeared in 1731, under the title Clavier-Übung and had previously been issued in single installments. As the publisher, Bach acted at his own financial risk, so it was prudent for him to invest in the project gradually so that expenses would largely by recovered by sales; after the first installment of 1726, the other five were issued over the next four years. For distribution, Bach recruited six colleagues in well-chosen locations who agreed, on a commission basis, to serve as sales agents in their areas. When Bach had tested the market and determined that the individual partitas sold well, he arranged to reprint all six partitas in one volume in 1731. The partitas of part I were followed in the spring of 1735 by the Italian Concerto and French Overture of part II, now published by Christoph Weigel Jr. With part III, Bach returned to the principle of self-publishing, but he apparently ran into some production problems with the Krügner engraving firm so that the publication date had to be postponed from the Easter Fair in 1739 to the St. Michael’s Fair a half year later. The concluding part IV was published (like part II, in Nuremberg) in the fall of 1741.

First, he included music specifically for the most important keyboard instruments: one manual harpsichord (part I), two-manual harpsichord (parts II and IV), and large organ as well as organ without pedals (part III). Second, the leading national styles (part II) are complimented by an enormously rich spectrum of other styles, both retrospective and modern (parts III and IV); we find religious hymns (part III) and even a burlesque quodlibet (part IV). In the end, all the standard genres, forms, and categories are represented: suite, concerto, prelude, fugue, chorale settings of all kinds and variations. All fundamental compositional methods are to be found, from free-voiced improvisatory pieces to imitative polyphony, cantus firmus technique, and strict canon. Everything from solo works and duets to settings with five and six obbligato voices makes an appearance, and Bach fully exploits keys (for commercial reasons, short of the well tempered system) and the principal church modes. Finally, the collection presents tremendous challenges to the performer, since there are no easy pieces included. On the contrary, with its use of advanced keyboard technique (from pièces croisés requiring hand-crossing skills to the most complex double-pedal technique), the Clavier-Übung sets new performing standards that match the rigorous principles of compositional organization.

Christoph Wolff: Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician – pages 373, 374, 375 376

BWV 825 – Partita No. 1 in B Flat Major – Karl Richter: Harpsichord

BWV 827 – Partita No. 3 in A minor – Karl Richter: Harpsichord

BWV 830 – Partita No. 6 in E minor – Louise Cournarie: Piano

BWV 971 – Allegro – Italian Concerto – Maia Darme: Harp

BWV 552 – Prelude – Hans-André Stamm: Organ

BWV 552 – Fugue – Hans-André Stamm: Organ

BWV 998 – Goldberg Variations – Jean Rondeau: Harpsichord

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Bach / The Brandenburg Concertos

Bach 

BIOGRAPHY

The Brandenburg Concertos

 December 15, 2018 

The Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046-1051) are six instrumental compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach given to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721. First an excerpt from Christoph Wolff‘s book Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician, then videos of the Freiburger Barockorchester performing all six concertos on period instruments, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) giving an in depth analysis of the concertos.

“Instrumental virtuosity is displayed in the Brandenburg Concertos, a collection of six ‘Concerts avec plusieurs instruments’ (concertos with several instruments) – so called in the original score because the pieces feature the concerto genre in varying configurations of solo instruments. “Several instruments” actually understates the case, for Bach makes use, again in a systematic manner, of the widest imaginable spectrum of orchestral instruments. The modest title does not begin to suggest the degree of innovation exhibited in the daring combinations, as Bach once again enters uncharted territory. Every one of the six concertos set a precedent in it’s scoring, and every one was to remain without parallel.

The design of the concertos reflects the composer’s own choice and shows no evidence of any external influence as, for example, a request from a commissioning patron. Moreover, contrary to conventional wisdom, the collection does not reflect a specific structure of ensembles available either to the Margrave of Brandenburg or to the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen. In any case, the origin of most if not all of these concertos, at least in their earliest versions, most likely predates Bach’s Cöthen appointment. Their overall layout as well as voice leading details, thematic-motivic treatment, and imitative polyphony definitely predates the standards set by the Well Tempered Clavier. But there is a further consideration that argues against a Cöthen origin. Eighteenth-century protocol would have required Bach, while in the employ of Prince Leopold, to obtain formal permission for dedicating such a work to another sovereign, and it is hard to imagine that Bach could have submitted to the margrave of Brandenburg a bundle of works originally written for the prince of Anhalt-Cöthen – especially if the prince was fond of them and considered them his property. We can therefore assume that Bach carefully selected from outside the restricted Cöthen contingent the best of his concerto compositions that would properly fit into an uncommon collection. In the end, the six concertos embody a repertoire fashioned more for its instrumental diversity than for any other reason.

The selection criteria appear to follow a scheme that highlights in half a dozen examples a maximum number of different solo instruments and their combinations. All three orchestral families are included, with their main subspecies: brass instruments with trumpet and French horn; woodwinds with recorder, transverse flute, oboe and bassoon; and strings with violin, piccolo violin, viola, cello, and viola da gamba. The only instrument lacking a solo function is the double bass, a pivotal member of the continuo group, while another component of the continuo group, the harpsichord, is assigned a prominent, indeed exceptional, obbligato part.

Bach juxtaposes the solo groups and their ripieno support in the opening and finale movements – modifications are made for the middle movements – with highly imaginative choices: a rich array of brass, woodwinds, and strings in an eleven part score in Concerto No. 1; a heterogeneous treble solo of trumpet, recorder, oboe, and violin in Concerto No. 2; and a trio of violin and two echo recorders, where the dominating concertato-violin alternatively functions as a basseto in Concerto No. 4. Even more surprising is Bach’s treatment of all-string ensembles: in Concerto No. 3 a ninefold solo group of three stratified trios of 3 violins, 3 violas, and 3 cellos, and in Concerto No. 6 a six-part score with two contrasting but low register trio formations, 2 violas and cello (the “modern” four stringers) on the one side and the two violas da gamba and violone (the “old fashioned” 6 stringers) on the other. Another special case is presented by Concerto No. 5, which in its middle movement features transverse flute, violin, and harpsichord, the most fashionable chamber trio of the time, but which in its outer movements turns that trio into a concertino with a commanding harpsichord part – the first time in history of the concerto that a solo keyboard instrument is so boldly integrated. Bach included in the dedication score for the margrave an elaborate sixty-four-measure harpsichord cadenza that would find its equivalent only later in the written-out piano concerto cadenzas of Mozart and Beethoven. The extravagantly virtuosic harpsichord part of Concerto No. 5 turns this concerto into a showpiece highlighting the brilliant technique of its performer. However, all the Brandenburg Concertos celebrate performing virtuosity, and beyond that, all of them testify to the compositional virtuosity – the facility, finesse, mastery, and genius – of their creator.” Christoph Wolff; Johann Sebastian Bach – The Learned Musician, pages 232-234

Freiburger Barockorchester

Nikolaus Harnoncourt videos

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Bach / Solos for Violin and Cello

Mischa Maisky plays Bach Cello Suite No.1 in G 

(full)

Bach 

BIOGRAPHY

Solos for Violin and Cello

January 1, 2019

Bach composed for chamber music in various instrumental configurations, but he also created works for solo instruments, among them violin and cello. What has survived are a set of multi movement suites for both. We have the violin music examples written in Bach’s own hand, and for cello in his hand and from the transcriptions of others.

“Bach’s unaccompanied violin and cello compositions epitomize virtuosity, and, on account of their singularity, to a degree even greater than his keyboard works of comparable demands. Both sets of solo pieces demonstrate Bach’s command of performing techniques but also his ability to bring into play, without even an accompanying bass part, dense counterpoint and refined harmony with distinctive and well-articulated rhythmic designs, especially in the dance movements.

Indeed, both collections create the maximum effect with a minimum of instrumental ‘tools.’ Once again, Bach the quintessential instrumentalist raises and redefines the technical standards by fully exploiting the idiomatic qualities of the violin and cello. Remarkably, the free improvisatory and strict imitative realizations of his sonata style movements and his suite (partita) dances with their rhythmic and textural flair reveal no deficiencies whatsoever when compared to the keyboard works of the same period.

Only a single source can be traced directly to the Weimar chamber music: a Fugue in G minor for violin and continuo, BWV 1026, in a copy made around 1714 by the Weimar town organist Johann Gottfried Walther. This oldest extant chamber composition by Bach is a sophisticated and highly virtuosic yet isolated single movement whose genesis and context remain obscure. Nevertheless, it’s lengthy double stop passages, other virtuosic devices, and the idiomatic treatment of the violin demonstrates Bach’s impressive technical accomplishments as a violinist and suggest that he continued to develop his violin technique. Moreover, it lends credence to a long held assumption that Bach began his work on the sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin, BWV 1001-1006, in Weimar. These works seem conceptually indebted to Johann Paul Westhoffs’ 1696 publication of solo violin partitas, the first of its kind, and since Westhoff, one of the preeminent violinists of his time, played in the Weimar court capelle until his death in 1705, Bach would have met him in 1703.”

Christoph Wolff; Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician, pages 133, 23,

BWV 1011 – Baroque Cello: Rainer Eudeikis

BWV 1004 –  Baroque Violin : Sigiswald Kuijken

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Bach / Anna Magdalena

Bach

BIOGRAPHY

Anna Magdalena

 January 16, 2019 

Anna Magdalena Wülcken came from a family of musicians and brought to the marriage the background and orientation of a professional singer. Indeed, she regularly performed with her husband in Cöthen and elsewhere until 1725, and from the time the public singing engagements are no longer recorded, her collaboration as a copyist is well documented. Until the early 1740’s, her hand shows up in a variety of manuscripts containing Bach’s music. She prepared, in particular, fair copies of the Cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012; the Violin Partitas and Sonatas, BWV 1001-1006; the organ Trio Sonatas, BWV 525-530; major sections of The Well-Tempered Clavier, parts I and II; the Kyrie and Gloria of the B-minor Mass, several cantatas, and other vocal and instrumental works. By comparison, Maria Barbara, Bach’s first wife, left few traces. Although she was the product of a musical family as well, there are no references whatsoever to her performing activities, secretarial assistance, or any other semiprofessional activities, but it is hard to imagine that she would not been engaged in any.

When Anna Magdalena celebrated her twentieth birthday in Cöthen on September 22, 1721, having reached top rank and pay in a princely capelle with her first professional appointment (above that of her father and brother), she could rightfully anticipate a most promising career as a singer. And she definitely planned to continue her professional life when the capellmeister asked her to marry him. Bach himself supported her intention, and thus she remained fully active in the capelle until their move to Leipzig. The Bach house-hold had continued to run smoothly, managed by Johann Sebastian’s sister-in-law Friedelena Bach, with the help of a maid named Anna Elisabeth. Still, when on December 3, 1721 – nearly one and a half years after Maria Barbara Bach’s death – the widowed Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna Magdalena Wülcken “were married at home, by command of the Prince,” it certainly brought a dramatic and generally uplifting change for Bach and his four children. And they seem to have celebrated the happy event in opulent style. Around the time of the wedding, Bach contracted a major shipment of Rhine wine, at a discount granted him by the Cöthen Ratskeller: four pails and eight quarts (one pail = sixty-four quarts) for 84 talers 16 groschen (more than a fifth of his annual salary). In all likelihood, the wedding was attended by many members of the Bach and Wülcken families and by friends and colleagues at the Cöthen court.

Probably not long after the wedding but sometime in 1722, Anna Magdalena started an album in which Johann Sebastian entered compositions for her to play in order to improve and cultivate her keyboard skills or that he would play to entertain her. She wrote herself the title page, Clavier-Büchlein vor Anna Magdalena Bachin, Anno 1722, and a few headings, but the musical entries are written exclusively in Johann Sebastian’s hand. They include, at the beginning, composing scores of five short yet highly refined harpsichord suites, BWV 812-816; first versions that would eventually become the set of the so-called French Suites. Bach’s devotion to Anna Magdalena and their affectionate relationship is evidenced, from the very beginning of their marriage, by the two Clavier Books of 1722 and 1725 dedicated to her. The second continued to be filled until the early 1740’s with early compositional attempts of their young son Johann Christian among the later entries. Around 1741, Anna Magdalena herself copied into it the Aria of the Goldberg Variations, apparently one of her favorite pieces. Unfortunately, as the album has survived in a dreadfully mutilated state, with only twenty-five leaves remaining out of about seventy to seventy-five, the precious document provides information that is more suggestive than exhaustive about the couple’s intimate and serious musical companionship.

Although Anna Magdalena in all likelihood continued her professional singing career after 1725, she would have done so on a greatly reduced scale. Opportunities existed in Leipzig within the Collegium Musicum series and in private homes, and elsewhere when she accompanied Bach on various trips, especially to her home-town Weissenfels and perhaps also to Dresden. Within the family circle, there were unlimited performance possibilities. In his 1730 letter to Erdman, Bach proudly mentions that his children ‘are all born musicians, and I can assure you that I can already form an ensemble both vocaliter and instrumentaliter within my family, particularly since my wife sings a good, clear soprano, and my eldest daughter, too, joins in very well.’

Anna Magdalena fulfilled many roles over the years: companion, professional partner, assistant, keyboard student, and maybe also critic, but above all she mothered a large and steadily increasing family. In marrying Bach, she took on a widower with four small children ranging in age from eleven to six. She then gave birth to thirteen children over nineteen years. Only six of Anna Magdalena’s children outlived early childhood, as did four of Maria Barbara’s. Joy and sorrow always stood side by side, with experiences of hardship, illness and pain usually prevailing. Thus, Bach shared worries and much grief with both of his wives. After Bach’s death in 1750, Anna Magdalena remained in Leipzig with her three daughters, Catharina Dorothea, Johanna Carolina, and Regina Susanna. Next to nothing is known about their lives but the women seem to have eventually lived together in rather poor circumstances. Anna Magdalena lived on the Hainstrasse, apparently in an apartment at the house of the attorney Graff, where she died on February 27, 1760, at the age of fifty-nine.

Christoph Wolff – Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician; pages 217, 395, 396, 456

BWV 812: Minuet II – Christiane Lang

BWV 830: Tempo di Gavotta – Christiane Lang

BWV 255a: Funeral Music – Christiane Lang

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Bach / The Well Tempered Clavier

Johann Sebastian Bach
Poster by T.A.

Bach

 BIOGRAPHY

The Well Tempered Clavier

January 5, 2019

Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier of 24 preludes and fugues have set a historic precedent for keyboard composition and technique. Exploring every major and minor key in an exhaustive manner, it was initially extremely innovative and has stood the test of time.

“More than any other of Bach’s works composed before 1722, the preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier manifests his resolve to leave nothing untried, even if it meant exploring avenues where no one had gone before. In demonstrating that the tonal system could be expanded to twenty four keys not just theoretically but practically, Bach set a milestone in the history of music whose overall implications for chromatic harmony would take another century to be fully realized.

He set the stage by exploiting fully the chromatic and enharmonic potential of the keys, especially in pieces such as the fugues in C-sharp minor (BWV 849/2), E minor (BWV 855/2), F minor (BWV 857/2), F-sharp minor (BWV 859/2), and B minor (BWV 869/2). Each individual piece, whether prelude or fugue, helped push the limits of musical composition, resulting in twenty-four diverse yet internally unified structures of musical logic. Simultaneously, standards of musical performance were brought to a new high if only in the necessary and uncompromising application of all ten fingers of the keyboard player.

Bach also decided to add a second part to the Cöthen Well-Tempered Clavier, in many ways his most revolutionary keyboard work so far. The compositions, including reworkings and transcriptions of some extant preludes and fugues, took place during the late 1730’s. The most complete original source we have, belongs to the years 1738-42, but it neither constitutes the earliest trace of the work nor does it mark the endpoint of Bach’s pursuit of this project. In its external dimensions, part II exceeds its forerunner of two decades by about a quarter, and in its stylistic orientation, it reflects a rapprochement with the preferences and needs of a younger musical generation.

Imagining Bach’s impatience as he anticipated the promising appointment as Cöthen capellmeister, soon after his return from Dresden, he made some demand – for an early dismissal, perhaps, or something else related to his imminent departure – that embroiled him in a situation where he lost his temper. Whether he managed to enrage Duke Wilhelm Ernst or only a high official in the Wilhelmsburg, nothing could apparently save him from serious trouble; an intervention of his protector Duke Ernst August, could have made matters even worse.

As a result of the incident, ‘on November 6, quondam [erstwhile] concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge’s place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavorable discharge.’ Apparently for no other reason than a show of anger, the Cöthen capellmeister-designate was kept in jail for nearly four weeks, a period which marked the absolute low point in Bach’s professional life.

Understandably, the episode is not reported in the Obituary nor in any other biographical source, although a useful hint is provided by Ernst Ludwig Gerber (whose father, Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber, studied with Bach in Leipzig during the 1720’s) when he relates that Bach wrote the Well-Tempered Clavier, Part I, ‘in a place where ennui, boredom, and the absence of any kind of musical instrument forced him to resort to this pastime.’ Though we cannot take this to mean the work was begun and completed during Bach’s imprisonment, a substantial portion of of the twenty-four preludes and fugues may well have originated in this unhappy venue.”

Christoph Wolff; Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician – pages 184, 230, 373

Prelude & Fugue BWV 849  – Andrei Gavrilov

Prelude and Fugue BWV 855  – German Ortega

Prelude and Fugue BWV 857 – Laurence Manning

Prelude and Fugue BWV 859 – Wim Winters

Prelude and Fugue BWV 869 – Julie Wilson

Fugue BWV 878 – Organ

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