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MUSC1050 Bach Lecture 2016 HO

Bach was influenced by both Italian and French styles during his time in Weimar and Cöthen, incorporating elements of both into his own mixed German style; as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, he was responsible for music at four churches and composed both sacred and secular works, including cantatas, passions, oratorios, and concertos that demonstrate his synthesis of national styles.

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33 views4 pages

MUSC1050 Bach Lecture 2016 HO

Bach was influenced by both Italian and French styles during his time in Weimar and Cöthen, incorporating elements of both into his own mixed German style; as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, he was responsible for music at four churches and composed both sacred and secular works, including cantatas, passions, oratorios, and concertos that demonstrate his synthesis of national styles.

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lanijeffries84
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MUSC1050 Music in Society 1

The ‘Mixed Taste’


Johann Sebastian Bach at Court & Church

The ‘Mixed Taste’


It is well known that Italian and French composers, singers, and instrumentalists have been in
service at various German courts, such as those at Vienna, Dresden, Berlin Hanover, Munich . . .
and have performed operas at them for a century past. It is also well known that some great
lords have let many of their musicians journey to Italy and France, and . . . that many of the
reformers of German taste have visited one or both of these lands. They have appropriated the
style of one as well as the other, and have struck a mixture that has enabled them to compose,
and to perform with great applause . . .

If one has the necessary discernment to choose the best from the styles of different countries, a
mixed style results that, without overstepping the bounds of modesty, could well be called the
German style . . . . Since the first [the Italian style] is no longer as solidly grounded as it used to be,
having become bold and bizarre, and since the second [the French style] has remained too
simple, everyone will agree that a style blended and mixed together from the good elements of
both must certainly be more universal and more pleasing.
Johann Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (On Playing the Flute,
Berlin, 1752)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)


b. Eisenach; Lüneburg (Michaelisschule/St Michael’s School [Lutheran])
Ritterakademie
Duke of Celle, ‘had acquired a Parisian veneer and maintained an orchestra consisting largely of
Frenchmen’
Thomas de la Selle, dancing-master at Ritterakademie
“. . . [while at Lüneburg] he [Sebastian Bach] had the opportunity to go and listen to a then
famous band kept by the Duke of Celle, consisting for the most part of Frenchmen; thus he
acquired a thorough grounding in the French taste, which, in those regions, was at the time
something quite new.”
The World-Famous Organist, Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court
Composer, and Music Director in Leipzig, obituary by C. P. E. Bach and J. F. Agricola (1750, pub.
1754)

Georg Böhm, organist at the Johanniskirche (St John’s Church), Lüneburg


Bach, 4 Ouverture Suites (BWV 1066–1069) (orchestral)
Mus. ex. Ouverture suite No. 1 in C (BWV 1066)
Ouverture – Courante – Gavotte I/II – Forlane – Menuet I/II – Bourée I/II –
Passepied I/II

1703 March–September: violinist at court of Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar


1703 August: organist at Neue Kirche, Arnstadt
1707: appointed organist at the Blasiuskirche, Mühlhausen

1705: to Lübeck to hear Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707)

Buxtehude’s Abendmusiken – a 1697 guidebook to Lübeck, when describing St Mary’s Church


(Marienkirche) stated:
On the west side, between the two pillars under the towers, one can see the large and
magnificent organ, which . . . is now presided over by the world-famous organist and composer
Dietrich Buxtehude. Of particular note is the great Abend-Music, consisting of pleasant vocal
and instrumental music, presented yearly on five Sundays . . . following the Sunday vesper service
sermon, from 4 to 5 o’clock, by the afore-mentioned organist as director, in an artistic and
praiseworthy manner. This happens nowhere else.

Following Bach’s return to Arnstadt, the church authorities complained that: he ‘made many
strange variationes in the chorale, and mixed many foreign tones into it, so that the congregation
was confused by it’

Weimar (1708–1717)
1708 25 June: appointed organist and chamber musician at the court of co-reigning Dukes
Wilhelm Ernst and Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar
The Italian Concerto
Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar (1696–1715)
. . . only then would I be able to perfect myself more and more in composition and on the
clavier and other instruments as well . . . 2. Because the Weimar Prince here, who is not only a
great lover of a music but himself an incomparable violinist, will return to Weimar from Holland
after Easter and spend the summer here, I could hear much fine Italian and French music,
particularly profitable to me in composing concertos and ouvertures. 3. By Whitsuntide the
castle organ here will be in as good a condition as possible . . . after the new Weimar organ is
ready, Mr Bach will play on it incomparable things; thus I shall be able to see, hear, and copy a
great deal.
Philipp David Kräuter (1690–1741), writing to the Augsburg town council from Weimar, April
1713
Bach, 16 concerto arrangements for keyboard (BWV 972–987), works by Vivaldi, A. & B.
Marcello &c.

1714 March 2: appointed Concertmaster at Weimar court; signed an agreement ‘to perform a
piece of his own composition under his own direction, in the chapel of the royal castle, on every
fourth Sunday at all seasons’.

Bach and the ‘sacred cantata’


Bach called his sacred cantatas ‘Concerto’, in earlier works ‘Motetto’, sometimes ‘Dialogus’
(depending on the text) or simply ‘Music’
To put it briefly, I would say that the cantata resembles exactly a piece from an opera, composed
of ‘Stylo Recitativo’ and arias.
Erdmann Neumeister, reform poet, Geistliche Cantaten statt einer Kirchenmusic (Weissenfels, 1700)

Mus. ex. Cantata, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (BWV 61), opening movt (Weimar, 1714)

Kapellmeister at the court of Cöthen (1717–1723)


1716 1 December: Weimar court Kapellmeister Johann Samuel Drese died

On November 6 [1717], the former 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 unfavourable discharge – court
secretary’s report
Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen
Calvinist court chapel

The Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046–1051)


Title: Six concertos with several instruments [Six Concerts avec plusieurs Instruments] dedicated to
His Royal Highness, Monsiegneur Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg &c. &c. &c. by
His very humble and very obedient servant Johann Sebastian Bach, Kapellmeister of His Most
Serene Highness, the Reigning Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen.

Dedication: “Your Royal Highness [Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg], As I had a


couple of years ago the pleasure of appearing before Your Royal Highness, by virtue of Your
Highness’s commands, and as I noticed then that Your Highness took some pleasure in the
small talents that Heaven has given me for Music, and as in taking leave of Your Royal
Highness, Your Highness deigned to honour me with the command to send Your Highness
some pieces of my composition: I have then in accordance with Your Highness’s most gracious
order taken the liberty of rendering my most humble duty to Your Royal Highness with the
present concertos, which I have adapted to several instruments . . . ”, March 24 1721

Concerto No. 1, F: 2 hn, ob, vn piccolo; 2 ob, bsn, str, bc


Concerto No. 2, F: tpt, rec, ob, vn; str, bc
Concerto No. 3, G: 3 vn, 3 va, 3 vlc, bc
Concerto No. 4, G: vn, 2 rec (‘Fiauti d'Echo’); str, bc
Concerto No. 5, D: fl, vln, hpd; str, bc
Concerto No. 6, Bb: 2 va, 2 viola da gamba, vc, bc

Mus. ex. Brandenburg Concerto No. 1


Allegro moderato; Adagio; Allegro; Menuetto & Trio

1721 11 December: marriage of Prince Leopold to his cousin Princess Henriette of Anhalt-
Bernburg

Bach in Leipzig
1722, 5 June: Johann Kuhnau, Thomascantor (cantor at St Thomas’s Church), Leipzig died
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)
Christoph Graupner (1683–1760), Kapellemeister of the Hessen-Darmstadt court
Thomasschule (St Thomas’s School)

1723 5 May: Bach was made ‘Cantor at St. Thomas’s and Leipzig Musical Director’ (Cantor zu
St. Thomae et Director Musices Lipsiensis)
Responsible for music in four principal churches: Thomaskirche (St Thomas’s), Nicolaikirche (St
Nicolas’s, the civic church), Neue Kirche (New Church) and the Petrikirche (St Peter’s)

Leipzig Cantatas – some common patterns


choral movt—recit—aria—recit—aria—chorale
choral movt —recit—chorale—aria—recit—aria—chorale
choral movt —aria—chorale—recit—aria—chorale

Cantata ‘Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme’ (BWV140)


25 November 1731; composed for the 27th Sunday after the Trinity
Chorale tune and text by Philipp Nicolai
Mus. ex. Opening chorus: ‘Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme’

Passions
St John Passion (BWV 245), first perf. Lent 1724
St Matthew Passion (BWV 244), prob. Good Friday 1727
Historia tradition
Secco recitative; da capo arias
Latin settings
Mass in B minor (BWV 232)
1733 Missa dedicated to August III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, accompanied a
request for a court title (finally given title Hofcompositeur in 1736)

Bach & secular music in Leipzig


Collegium Musicum (plural collegia musica)
Leipzig’s Zimmermann’s Coffee House in winter and outside in summer
The musicians in cities commonly hold a collegium musicum every week or two. That is indeed
a laudable undertaking, in part because it provides them with the opportunity to refine further
their excellent art, and in part, too, because they learn from the pleasing harmonies how to speak
together concordantly, even though these same people mostly disagree with one another at other
times.
Johann Kuhnau, The Musical Charlatan (1700)

Mus. ex. Bach’s ‘Coffee’ Cantata (BWV211) ‘Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht’
Narrator (tenor), Liesgen (soprano) and Schlendrian, her father (bass); flute, two violins, viola
and harpsichord continuo

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