Theirs is wisdom’s holiest treasure.
Thou dost ever lead Thine own
In the love of joys unknown.
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The opening of the autograph manuscript
The first page of the score
“Visitation”, from Altarpiece of the Virgin by Jacques Daret, c. 1435, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
Leipzig in the seventeenth century
The city today (Old Town)
Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041
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Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 follows the traditional Italian structure of three movements, arranged fast-slow-fast:
Allegro Moderato, in A minor, 2/4 meter
Andante, in C major, 4/4 meter
Allegro assai, in A minor 9/8 meter.
The heroic, yet tragic opening movement allows the violin to carefully integrate with the texture and melodic working-out of the material. The basic plan of the movement is ritornello, in which it is anchored around the frequent returns of the opening music in the orchestra. Bach’s use of the form is considerably richer in texture and sentiment than found in the music of his Italian models. The episodic sections between the recurrences of the ritornello, when the soloist is dominant, offer depth and ingenuity that until this time was rarely found in the concerto form.
The second movement derives its lyrical style from the world of opera, as the basses present a theme that is repeated in various keys throughout the movement. Bach uses an insistent pattern in the ostinato bass part that is repeated in the movement, focusing the variation in the harmonic relations. Bach relies on bariolage figures to generate striking acoustic effects, while the meter and rhythm are those of a gigue. The composer provides a touching melody for the soloist, providing counterpoint and commentary for the orchestral background. The concerto’s finale reprises the quick motion and rich pathos of the opening movement. Not until the last phrase of the movement do all the elements come together, as each instrument plays at the same time.
We know very little about the piece’s origin. We know neither when, where nor why Bach composed the concerto. Some musicologists ascribe it to the years between 1717 and 1723, when he was Kapellmeister at the court of the Duke of Anhalt-Köthen — the only time in his fifty-year career that he was not employed in making music for Lutheran church services. We know Bach composed concertos in Köthen, yet we also know that when he left that position for Leipzig, he also supplied concertos for the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, which he also directed. The only extant evidence for the A-minor Concerto in Bach’s handwriting is a set of parts that date from well into his Leipzig years.
Bach likely played the solo parts himself, as he was a capable musician that liked to direct his orchestras while playing the viola, where he could be the focus of a performance. In fact, Bach owned a violin by Jacob Stainer, whose instruments were prized more highly than those of Stradivari in the eighteenth century.
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Portrait, possibly of Bach, from the ‘Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment’
The autograph manuscript
The first page of the score
A violin by Jacob Stainer
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225
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It is uncertain how many motets Bach composed, as some are believed to have been lost and there are doubtful attributions among the extant scores. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the late thirteenth century theorist Johannes de Grocheo, the motet was “not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts”. In Baroque music, there were two distinct, and very different types of motet: petits motets, which are sacred choral or chamber compositions, with the sole accompaniment of a basso continuo; and grands motets, which included massed choirs and instruments up to and including a full orchestra. The motets of Jean-Baptiste Lully, an important composer of the grand motet form, often included parts for soloists as well as choirs; they were longer, including multiple movements in which different soloist, choral or instrumental forces were employed. Bach carried on this tradition, producing motets that were relatively long pieces in German on sacred themes for choir and basso continuo, with instruments playing colla parte.
One of Bach’s cantorial duties was to provide music for funerals. Although most of the time he could rely on a standard collection of funeral motets, a wealthy family would occasionally request something new. Several families did and the results are the six masterpieces ascribed to Bach, catalogued BWV 225–230. BWV 228 appears to have been written at Weimar, between 1708 and 1717, and the other five in Leipzig, between 1723 and 1727. A seventh motet, Ich lasse dich nicht, BWV Anh. 159, which was formerly attributed to Bach’s older cousin Johann Christoph Bach, appears to be one of Bach’s earlier works, possibly composed during the Weimar period. Bach’s motets are his only vocal works that remained in the repertoire without interruption between his death in 1750 and the nineteenth century Bach Revival. In the early 1800’s, the motets were among his first printed music.
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (Sing unto the Lord a new song), BWV 225, a motet in B-flat major, is scored for two four-part choirs (eight voices) and was first performed in Leipzig in c. 1727. Bach used Psalm 149:1–3 for the first movement, while the third stanza of a 1530 hymn after Psalm 103 provides the source for the second movement, and Psalm 150:2 and 6 makes up the content of the final movement. The motet may have been composed to provide choral exercises for Bach’s students at the Thomasschule.
Music scholars now believe that the work is the motet heard by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he visited Leipzig’s Thomasschule in 1789. Johann Friedrich Rochlitz, who graduated from the Thomasschule and remained in Leipzig to study theology, later recorded that Johann Friedrich Doles, a student of Bach and cantor of the Thomasschule during Mozart’s visit, surprised him with a performance of the double-choir motet. The Austrian visitor was told that the school possessed a complete collection of Bach’s motets, preserving them as a sacred relic. “That’s the spirit! That’s fine!” Mozart had cried. “Let’s see them!” There was, however, no score, so Mozart had the parts given to him, and “sat himself down with the parts all around him.” He later requested a personal copy and is believed to have valued it very highly.
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied was included in the first edition of Bach motets, printed by Breitkopf & Härtel in two volumes in 1803. The editor of both volumes is believed to have been Johann Gottfried Schicht, Thomaskantor from 1810. Bach’s six surviving motets are an enduring cornerstone of the choral repertoire. They demonstrate the composer’s contrapuntal craftsmanship, delicately weaving vocal lines into beautiful tapestries, sparkling with Bach’s passionate personality.
The words for Psalms 149:1–3, the basis of the first movement, are provided below:
1 Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
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Manuscript of the motet
The first page of the score
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), the influential composer of the Classical era, was a great admirer of Bach’s motets.
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
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Composed in 1727, the St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 is a sacred oratorio written for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, featuring a libretto by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known by the pen
name of Picander. Setting chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew to music, the oratorio features interspersed chorales and arias. Universally regarded as a masterpiece of classical sacred music, the St. Matthew Passion is the second of two Passion settings by Bach that have survived in their entirety, the first being the St. John Passion, first performed in 1724.
The St. Matthew Passion was most likely first performed on 11 April 1727 in the St. Thomas Church. In this version the Passion was written for two choruses and orchestras. Choir I consists of a soprano in ripieno voice, a soprano solo, an alto solo, a tenor solo, SATB chorus, two traversos, two oboes, two oboes d’amore, two oboes da caccia, lute, strings (two violin sections, violas and cellos), and continuo (at least organ). Choir II consists of SATB voices, violin I, violin II, viola, viola da gamba, cello, two traversos, two oboes (d’amore) and possibly continuo.
At the time only men sang in church, as high pitch vocal parts were usually performed by treble choristers. St. Thomas Church had two organ lofts: the large organ loft that was used throughout the year for musicians performing in Sunday services and the small organ loft, situated at the opposite side of the large loft, which was used additionally in the grand services for Christmas and Easter. The Passion was composed for a performance from both lofts at the same time: Chorus and orchestra I would occupy the large organ loft, and Chorus and orchestra II performed from the small organ loft. The size of the organ lofts limited the number of performers for each Choir. Large choruses, in addition to the instrumentists indicated for Choir I and II, would have been impossible.
Bach revised the Passion by 1736 for a performance on Good Friday 30 March 1736 — the version that is generally known as the St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244. In this version both choirs have SATB soloists and chorus, and a string section and continuo consisting of at least violins I and II, viola, gamba and organ. The woodwinds are two traversos, oboes and oboes d’amore for each choir, and in addition for choir I two oboes da caccia.
Picander wrote text for recitatives and arias, as well as for the large scale choral movements that open and close the Passion. Other libretto sections came from publications by Salomo Franck and Barthold Heinrich Brockes. The chorale melodies and their texts would have been familiar to those attending the services in St. Thomas Church. The oldest chorale Bach used in the St. Matthew Passion dates from 1525. Like other Baroque oratorio passions, Bach’s setting presents the Biblical text of Matthew in a relatively straightforward way, primarily using recitative, while aria and arioso movements provide newly written poetic texts, commenting on the various events in the Biblical narrative and portraying the characters’ states of mind in a lyrical, monologue-like manner.
The narration of the Gospel texts is sung by the tenor Evangelist in secco recitative accompanied only by continuo. Soloists sing the words of various characters, also in recitative; in addition to Jesus, there are named parts for Judas, Peter, two high priests, Pontius Pilate, Pilate’s wife, two witnesses and two maids. These roles are not always sung by different soloists. The “character” soloists are also often assigned arias and sing with the choirs, a practice not always followed by modern performances. Two duets are sung by a pair of soloists representing two simultaneous speakers. A number of passages for several speakers, called turba (crowd) parts, are sung by one of the two choirs or both. The words of Christ usually receive special treatment. Bach created particularly distinctive accompagnato recitatives in this work: they are accompanied not by continuo alone, but also by the entire string section of the first orchestra using long, sustained notes and highlighting specific words, creating an effect often referred to as Jesus’ “halo”. Only his final words, in Aramaic, Eli, Eli lama asabthani? (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?), are sung without the halo effect.
Bach’s recitatives often set the mood for the particular passages by highlighting emotionally charged words such as “crucify”, “kill” or “mourn” with chromatic melodies. Diminished seventh chords and sudden modulations accompany Jesus’ apocalyptic prophecies. In the arias, obbligato instruments are equal partners with the voices, as was customary in late Baroque arias. Bach often uses madrigalisms, as in “Buß und Reu”, where the flutes play a raindrop-like staccato as the alto sings of drops of his tears falling.
Surprisingly, the St. Matthew Passion was not heard in more or less its entirety outside of Leipzig until 1829, when the twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn performed a version with the Berlin Singakademie to great acclaim. Mendelssohn’s revival brought the music of Bach, particularly the large-scale works, to public and scholarly attention. The Sterndale Bennett 1845 edition of the Passion was to be the first of many, the latest being by Neil Jenkins (1997) and Nicholas Fisher and John Russell (2008).
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Title page of Bach’s autograph score
Last measures of movement 1 and start of movement 2 in the autograph score
Fair copy in Bach’s own hand of the revised version of the ‘St Matthew Passion’ BWV 244, c. 1746
Opening chorus, measure 17–18, vocal part of Chorus I
A third century papyrus of Matthew 26
Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068
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Bach composed a total of four orchestral suites, the best-known being Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068, which features the famous Air on a G String in the second movement. Along with the other three suites, the piece was written during the last period of the composer’s life in Leipzig, c. 1731. Despite their current arrangement, the suites were actually composed in a different order: Suite No. 1 almost certainly dates from around 1723, when Bach was Cantor of the Thomasschule, Suite No. 4 dates from before Christmas 1725 and Suite No. 2 survives in manuscript form from 1738-9.
Bach called his orchestral suites ouvertures, referring to the opening movement of a French overture, in which a majestic opening section in relatively slow dotted-note rhythm in duple meter is followed by a fast fugal section, before being rounded off with a short recapitulation of the opening music. During the Baroque era, the term was used in Germany for a suite of dance-pieces in the French style, preceded by an ouverture. Although this genre was popular, Bach appeared to showed far less interest than other major composers, such as Telemann, Christoph Graupner and Johann Friedrich Fasch; the latter actually composed close to 100 suites, compared to Bach’s small number of four. Bach did write several other suites for solo instruments, notably the Cello Suite no. 5, BWV 1011, which also exists in the autograph Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995, the Keyboard Partita no. 4 in D, BWV 828 and the Overture in the French style, BWV 831 for keyboard. Scholars now believe that Bach did not conceive the four orchestral suites as a set in the way he developed the Brandenburg Concertos, as the sources are various.
Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068 survives from a partially-autographed set of parts from around 1730. Set in five movements, the suite is scored for three instrumental choirs – two oboes, three trumpets, timpani and strings:
Ouverture
Air
Gavotte I/II
Bourrée
Gigue
Bach wrote out the first violin and continuo parts, C. P. E. Bach (the composer’s fifth child and second surviving son) wrote out the trumpet, oboe, and timpani parts and Bach’s student Johann Ludwig Krebs wrote out the second violin and viola parts. The famous Air in the second movement was transcribed for strings by August Wilhelmj. It would become a party piece for countless musicians over the centuries, as it is playable on only one string of a violin – hence the sobriquet ‘Air on the G string’. Due to this, some scholars believe the entire suite may have been composed for strings only, thus giving it the distinction of being Bach’s only known work written solely for four-part strings.
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The first page of the score
First page of the flute part, in the autograph for ‘Orchestral
Suite No. 2 in B minor for flute, strings and continuo’, BWV 1067
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second (surviving) son of Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. His second name was given in honour of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann, a friend of Bach.
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140
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Also known as ‘Sleepers Wake’, the church cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, calls the voice to us), BWV 140 is regarded as one of the composer’s most mature and accomplished sacred cantatas. Composed in Leipzig for the 27th Sunday after Trinity, the cantata was first performed on 25 November 1731 and was intended to complete Bach’s second annual cycle of chorale cantatas, which had commenced in 1724. ‘Sleepers Wake’ is based on the hymn in three stanzas “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (1599) by Philipp Nicolai, covering the prescribed reading for the Sunday service, the parable of the Ten Virgins. An unknown author supplied poetry for the inner movements as sequences of recitative and duet, based on the love poetry of the Song of Songs. Bach structured the cantata in seven movements, setting the first stanza as a chorale fantasia, the second in the style of a chorale prelude and the third as a four-part chorale. The new texts were set as dramatic recitatives and love-duets, similar to contemporary opera. The cantata was scored for three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor, bass), a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble consisting of horns, two oboes, taille, violino piccolo, strings and basso continuo including bassoon. Surprisingly, Bach performed the cantata only once in his career, in Leipzig’s main church Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) on 25 November 1731.
Delphi Masterworks of Johann Sebastian Bach Page 3