[47] J. Commer. Musica sacra, vol. i, No. 132.
[48] Following the publication of the "neu eröffnetes Orchester" of Mattheson, Buttstedt had written an essay entitled:
Ut mi sol
re fa la
Tota musica (Erfurt, 1717),
in which he defended the old solmisation, or system of changes, the si, a changeable note, being disregarded. Mattheson answered it the same year by the "neu beschütztes Orchester" (defense of the new orchestra), with the epigraph:
Ut mi sol
re fa la
Todte (nicht tota) Musica,
a bad pun on the words tota, the whole, and todte, dead.
[49] He was installed in this position April 11, 1668, and upon the third of the following August married Anna Margaretha, daughter of his deceased predecessor.
[50] Dietrich Buxtehude's Orgelcompositionen, herausgegeben von P. Spitta. (The first volume contains the preludes, fugues, etc.; the second the chorales.) Leipzig, 1876.
[51] It is curious to notice, even in these surroundings, an example of what was in the middle ages called the "proportio hemiolia," the immediate passage from triple to duple time, which we find as late as in the works of Bach and Händel. (See The Messiah, third chorus, thirty-fifth measure.)
In endeavoring to accentuate the rhythm, Buxtehude unconsciously breaks it. In reality, the pedal brings an accent upon the third beat; and we obtain, by taking as the first beats of measures the chords marked with a sign:
[52] See Merkel (Johann): "Betrachtungen über die deutsche Tonkunst im 18. Jahrhundert." Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde (School of Philosophy of Leipzig University, 1886).
[53] These concerts were inaugurated in 1673; undoubtedly for one of these, to which the name Abendmusik, evening music, was applied, the Chaconnes and the Passacaglia were written.
[54] Centone (It.): a composition made up of excerpts from other works.
[55] Peters Edition, edited by Griepenkerl and Roitzsch, vol. iv, No. 5.
[56] Peters Edition, vol. iv, No. 9.
[57] P. viii, 11.
[58] P. iii, 9.
[59] Bruhns was born at Schwabstädt (Schleswig) in 1666, and died at Husum in 1697; he was organist there, and had formerly occupied for some time a similar position in Copenhagen.
[60] It will be interesting to compare this piece with the prelude in F sharp minor by Buxtehude, particularly with this excerpt from it (ed. Spitta, xii, p. 68):
[61] For instance, in the Chaconne (iii, p. 15, from the 8th measure), which we have already analyzed:
[62] P. ix, 6. In this edition, this work bears the title of concerto, undoubtedly because of its form in several movements; at least, it was so designated in Griepenkerl's collection. A manuscript which has come down from the organist Westphal, in Hamburg, gives it this title: "Fantasia, clamat in G♮, di J.S. Bach."
[63] P. iv, 11.
[64] P. iii, 10. Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe (W. Rust), year XV, p. 100.
[66] Hanslick: Vom Musikalisch-Schönen.
[67] Schopenhauer: Lichtstrahlen aus seinen Werken (J. Frauenstädt, Leipzig, 1874, p. 128).
[68] P. iv, 4; B.-G. xv.
[69] P. iii, 7; B.-G. xv, p. 276. This work also bears the title of Toccata. It presents the peculiarity of being divided into four movements, whence, possibly, this designation, concertato, which accompanies it in one of the MSS. It is essentially an imitation of Buxtehude's compositions in several movements.
[70] P. iv, 3; B.-G. xv, p. 88.
[71] "It is not necessary," says Mattheson, "to indicate the degree of rapidity of an alla breve; these words suffice to animate the most sluggish brain, to make supple the heaviest of hands. For example, it is like 'clucking' to a horse."—Grosse Generalbass-Schule, Hamburg, 1732.
[72] P. iii, 5; B.-G. xv, p. 112.
[73] P. viii, 5. These works are part of the collection of G. Pölchau, a well-known musician of Hamburg in the last century.
[74] Born in 1663, Duke Wilhelm Ernst reigned from 1683. Early becoming a widower, and left without children, he adopted a somewhat retired mode of life, as we may judge. At the palace, "Wilhelmsburg," everyone had to retire at nine o'clock in summer and eight in winter. He evinced a marked taste for theological studies and discussions; in 1710 he brought together in a synod one hundred pastors, and he built or repaired a number of churches and seminaries. He was also interested in numismatics. This austerity was in some degree tempered by concerts, whose programs were performed (J.O. Köhler tells us, Historische Münzbelustigung, Nuremberg, 1730) by sixteen picked musicians, dressed in Hungarian costume (Bach en tzigane!). Further, the duke built a theatre in 1696; the patronage accorded to the troupe of Gabriel Möller, "Hofcomödiant" (court comedian), was not of long duration; it had already ceased in 1709.
[75] Prince Johann Ernst was of a weak constitution; he died in 1715, at the age of nineteen years, and the only way he could make his insomnia bearable was to keep with him in his room during entire nights Walther, his music teacher, who would play for him his favorite pieces.
[76] Johann Gottfried Walther was born in 1684, and from 1707 held the position of town organist in Weimar. Not only was he a good musician, but he was also a theoretician of merit; while he learned from his friend Bach the principles of the old school of Sweelinck, the traditions of which had descended through the teachings of Reinken and Buxtehude (see J.G. Walther als Theoretiker.—Study by Gehrmann in the Vierteljahrschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 1891), Bach, on the other hand, was able to obtain other advantages from this interchange; Walther was remarkably well-schooled in harmony, and from his thorough knowledge, of long standing, of Italian chamber music, he undoubtedly was not indirectly connected with these new studies of Bach's.
[77] I am not speaking of virtuosos. We know with what astonishment Corelli, the great Italian violinist, listened to the playing of Nikolaus Strungk of Celle: "I call myself arcangelo," said he to the latter, "but you deserve the title of arcidiavolo." And we must not forget the old musician, J. Franz Biber, who was born in 1638 and died at Salzburg in 1698, and who exerted a perceptible influence upon the creation of the violin sonata.
But what the Germans sought was not, let me repeat, within the domain of that expressive instrument; they could not be content with simple melody, they must have complete harmony. And so we learn that Bruhns (the remarkable organ-pupil of Buxtehude, and an exceptionally talented violinist) would seat himself before the pedal of an organ, violin in hand, and would play in four parts—the bass with his feet, the other parts upon his violin.
[78] P. viii, 1-4. Vivaldi was born toward the end of the seventeenth century; in 1713 he was appointed maestro di cappella at l'Ospitale della Pietà, at Venice; later he was for some time in the service of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. He died in 1743.
[79] The title of this last transcription gives us a clue to its date; it reads as follows: "Concerto dell'illustrissimo Principe Giovanni Ernesto Duca di Sassonia appropriato all'Organo a 2 clav. e pedale da Giovanni Sebastiano Bach." So it must have been written before 1715, the date of the Duke's death. Bach was not the only one to make these transcriptions; Mattheson tells us (Das beschützte Orchester): "Compositions of this order (concerti grossi, sinfonie in specie, overtures) may also be played upon a polyphonic instrument, for instance upon the organ or harpsichord; a few years ago the celebrated S. de Graue, the blind organist of the new Dunes Church in Amsterdam, played from memory and with remarkable clearness in my presence, upon the excellent organ in his church, the latest Italian sonatas and concertos in three and four parts."
[80] P. iii, 8. B.-G. xv, p. 253.
[81] This work, perhaps, dates from the journey which Bach made to Cassel in 1714 to examine a recently restored organ. At least the pedal passage in the prelude reminds us of that pedal solo executed during this tour before the Hereditary Prince of Hesse with such virtuosity that the latter drew from his finger a valuable ring and presented it to Bach. "One might have believed," says Adlung (Anleitung an der Musikgelahrtheit), "that his feet were winged, with such agility did they move over the keys which caused the powerful basses to resound. If the dexterity of his feet drew from the Prince so rich a present, what should he have given him in recognition of the genius of his hands?"
[82] It will be interesting to compare one of these themes with the following from the counterpoint of a fugue in A major by Albinoni:
especially if we remember this first transformation which it underwent at the hands of Bach in a fugue for harpsichord:
[83] Here are noticeable the pauses Bach contrives to introduce for one of the hands, that it might effect the changes in registration necessary to play the fugue coll'organo pleno.
[84] P. iv, 8.
[85] Corelli was born in 1653, and died in 1713. The theme mentioned is found in Joachim's edition of Corelli's works (Denkmäler der Tonkunst, vol. iii. Bergedorf, near Hamburg, 1871). It is the theme of a fugue, the second part of a "church sonata," opus 3; the fugue is marked vivace, and is but thirty-nine measures in length.
[86] The manuscript of this fugue, coming down from Andreas Bach, bears the following qualification: "Thema Legrenzianum elaboratum cum subjecto pedaliter."
[87] P. iv, 10.
[88] Sweelinck, who was born at Deventer about 1560, studied with Zarlino at Venice, and upon his return home in 1580 occupied (until his death in 1620) the position of organist to the old Protestant Church in Amsterdam (see Max Seiffert: J. Peter Sweelinck und seine directen deutschen Schüler).
[89] It is the third number in the volume entitled, Drei Phantasien, drei Toccaten und vier Variationen, nach einem Manuscript des grauen Klosters zu Berlin aus der Orgeltabulatur übersetzt und herausgegeben von Rob. Eitner (Berlin, 1870).
[90] Livre d'orgue (1701).
[91] Let it be remembered that Bach, imitating these same Sonatas in composing the Lamento of the "Capriccio upon the departure of his most beloved brother" (1704), employs this motif as a basso quasi ostinato, and that in the Easter Cantata written in the same year the viola sorrowfully gives expression to the same theme.
[92] His compatriot, John Bull, who died in Antwerp in 1628, had already written a series of variations upon this subject. (See "A General History of Music," by Charles Burney. London, 1789, p. 115.)
[93] This is the term which Bach employs in the preface to his Inventionen und Sinfonien compiled in 1723, that his pupils might, through their study, acquire un jeu cantable.
[94] P. viii, 6.
[95] Commer. Musica Sacra (Vol. I, No. 123, p. 137).
[96] P. i, 2. B.-G. xv, p. 289. [M. Pirro writes me: "You may state that the theme of the Passacaglia was the composition of the French organist André Raison." To which M. Widor adds: "André Raison, organist of St.-Étienne du Mont in Paris at the time of Louis XIV, left a volume of organ works, now very rare, which I have presented to the library of the Conservatoire. Raison's collection is interesting, in that it gives indications of the registration of his time; the chorale is usually found in the pedal, treated as the tenor, the real bass being played by the left hand. The melody of the chorale is performed upon a reed stop in the pedal, while upon the manuals only mixtures are drawn." Tr.]
[97] P. ii, 5. B.-G. xv, p. 104.
[98] P. iii, 6. B.-G. xv, p. 129, and P. iv, 12 (a 5 voci). Accompanying the latter Fantasia is a fugue of which, unfortunately, only the first twenty-seven measures are extant.
[99] P. iii, 2. B.-G. xv, p. 155.
[100] P. ii, 6. B.-G. xv, p. 218.
[101] P. iii, 3. B.-G. xv, p. 136.
[At the time of Bach it was a frequent usage to omit an accidental from the signature; in the above case the omission of the only flat undoubtedly suggested the appellation frequently given "in modo dorico," although otherwise the composition bears hardly a trace of the Dorian mode. Tr.]
[102] Geschichte der evangelisch-lutherischen St. Agnuskirche in Köthen. Herausgegeben von C.F. Hartmann, Köthen, in der Commission der Huschen Buchhandlung (1802). The organ is described on pages 19 and 20.
[103] [The pedal, even of modern organs, extends upwards only to f'. Since the middle of the last decade, the house of Cavaillé-Coll in Paris, has applied to the larger instruments constructed by it the compass of C to g'. This range was recommended by the translator and adopted for an organ now in process of construction in Boston; it is also a feature of the large organ for Yale University, recently contracted for.]
[104] P. iii, 2. B.-G. xv, p. 155.
[105] The beginning, at least; while the conclusion is characterized by repetitions, this part of the work is not its least imposing portion.
[106] P. ii, 3. B.-G. xv, p. 120.
[107] This cantata, written for soloists, was first performed December 29, 1715. B.-G. xxx, 2.
[108] For example, in the fugue in G minor (P. iv, 7).
[109] P. i, 1. B.-G. xv.
[110] The first part of the sonata in D minor undoubtedly dates from the year 1722; the adagio and vivace of the sonata in E minor are transcribed from the cantata Die Himmel erzählen (1723), B.-G. xviii. The last movement of this sonata was originally intended to serve as an interlude between the prelude and the fugue in G major (P. ii, 2. B.-G. xv, p. 169. The theme of the fugue is, in major, that of the first chorus in the cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss, performed in 1714), composed, according to the water-mark of the autograph, in 1724 or 1725.
[111] See S. Bagge: Die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Sonate.
[112] P. ii, 4. B.-G. xv, p. 177.
[113] Grosse General-Bass-Schule, oder Exemplarische Organistenprobe (Hamburg, 1731), p. 34. "The subject of this fugue was produced by a facile pen, and, in 1725, presented to a candidate for the position of organist."
[114] Charles Gounod: Le Don Juan de Mozart, p. 5.
[115] Clavierübung.—Dritter Theil der Clavierübung bestehend in verschiedenen Vorspielen über den Catechismus und andere Gesänge vor die Orgel: denen Liebhabern und besonders denen Kennern von dergleichen Arbeit, zur Gemüths-Ergötzung verfertiget von J.S. Bach, königl. Pohlnischen, und Churfürstlich Sächsischen Hof-Compositeur, Capellmeister, und Directore Chori Musici in Leipzig. In Verlegung des Authoris.
[116] P. iii, 1. B.-G. iii, pp. 173 and 254.
[117] It is worthy of note that the fugue, a last reminiscence of Buxtehude, is in three movements of different rhythms.
[118] P. ii, 9. B.-G. xv, p. 236.
[119] P. ii, 10. B.-G. xv, p. 199.
[120] Schopenhauer. Lichtstrahlen aus seinen Werken. J. Frauenstädt, Leipzig, 1874.
[121] P. ii, 1.
[122] P. ii, 6. B.-G. xv, p. 218. Here are noticeable reminiscences from the Recordare in the Dies Irae of Legrenzi, for eight-part chorus, three violes and organ.
[123] P. ii, 8. B.-G. xv.
[124] P. ii, 7. B.-G. xv, p. 228.
[125] These variations are contained in the fifth volume of the Peters edition (Part ii, 1 and 2).
[126] P. vi, 15.
[127] This also must have been written for the clavecin; the right hand passing over the left in order to strike the bass note e, held meanwhile by the pedal, clearly indicates the intention of thereby prolonging the sound.
[128] Published by Ritter: Geschichte des Orgelspiels, part ii, p. 181.
[129] Musica Sacra, vol. i, p. 5.
[130] Orgelbüchlein Worinne einem anfahenden Organisten Anleitung gegeben wird, auff allerhand Arth einen Choral durchzuführen, anbey auch sich im Pedal Studio zu habilitiren, indem in solchen darinne befindlichen Choralen das Pedal gantz obligat tractiret wird. Dem Höchsten Gott allein zu ehren, Dem Nechsten, draus sich zu belehren. Autore Joanne Sebast. Bach p.t. Capellae Magistro S.P.R. Anhaltini-Cotheniensis.
The chorales of the Orgelbüchlein are published in the fifth volume of the Peters, and in the twenty-fifth year of the Bach-Gesellschaft edition. W. Rust, in the latter volume, has preserved the order adopted by Bach in the succession of these chorales, which is according to the church year.
[131] Durch Adam's Fall ist ganz verderbt. Buxtehude employed fifths to symbolize this descent.
[132] Organists often played the sortie (postlude) in the form of a chaconne, with full organ (see Mattheson: "Der vollkommene Capellmeister," and Becker, "Rathgeber für Organisten"). The prelude to the chorale "Heut' triumphiret Gottes Sohn" is conceived in the same manner.
[133] In the collection Lustgarten neuer teutscher Gesänge, Balletti, Galliarden und Intraden mit 4, 5, 6, 7, und 8 Stimmen. 1601, Nürnberg, bei Kaufmann.
[134] O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden.—Cf. chorale in St. Matthew Passion.
[135] Compare that chorale with this fragment of a chorale by Böhm, Vater unser im Himmelreich:
[136] P. vi, and vii. B.-G. xxv, vol. ii, 3rd part.
[137] For example, upon the melodies "Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr'" (several versions), "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" and "Herr Jesus Christ, dich zu uns wend."
[138] Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.
[139] Various arrangements by Bach of this chorale are in existence; we would cite in particular the one which he made with double pedal, upon the same harmonic bass as the one already referred to. It was probably composed for the journey to Hamburg (in 1720), when Bach drew from old Reinken the avowal of an admiration which the latter was not wont to lavish, for his improvisations upon this theme. Reinken had also composed a prelude upon it. It is interesting to compare the profusion of ornaments by which he renders the melody almost unrecognizable, with the elegant design in which Bach clothes it. Reinken thus distorts the beginning:
With a Toccata and another Choralvorspiel, this arrangement is all that remains to us of Reinken's works.
[140] Schumann said of this prelude, by which he himself was influenced in certain compositions (Cologne): "Thou didst play, Felix Meritis (Mendelssohn), a prelude upon one of those figured chorales: 'Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele,' was the text; the melody seemed interlaced with garlands of gold, and the work breathed forth such happiness that you inspired in me this avowal: 'Were life deprived of all trust, of all faith, this simple chorale would restore all to me.' I fell into a revery; then, almost unconsciously, I found myself in the cemetery, and I felt poignant grief at not being able to cover with flowers the grave of the great Bach."—Letters, vol. i. Mendelssohn had played this chorale at a concert given, in St. Thomas' Church, to further the erection of a monument to the memory of J.S. Bach.
The melody of this chorale is found in choral-books since 1649.
[141] Einige kanonische Veränderungen über das Weihnachtslied: Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her.
[142] These variations were published separately. Bach had them engraved about 1746 by Balthasar Schmidt in Nuremberg, in order to present them as the work for admission which the "Society for Musical Sciences" founded by Mizler in 1738 imposed upon each of its candidates. Bach was elected in 1747. He must have composed them, however, some years previously. The MS. and the engraved edition present numerous differences of editing.
[143] P. vi, and vii. B.-G. iii.
[144] Cart. Un maître deux fois centenaire.
[145] P. vii, 58. B.-G. xxv.
[146] Forkel.
[147] At the commencement of his compositions he wrote the initials J.J. (Jesu Juva) or S.D.G. (Soli Deo Gloria).
[148] Ueber J.S. Bach's Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke. Leipzig, 1802.
[149] Dieupart, born in France during the last third of the seventeenth century, was a remarkable violinist and clavecinist. He went to England early in the eighteenth century, and, associated with Clayton, introduced Italian opera at Drury Lane. After disasters similar to those which later befell Händel, he renounced the theatre and busied himself no longer with instrumental music. He died in 1740.
Of his compositions are extant: Six suites for the clavecin, divided into Overtures, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gavottes, Minuets, Rondos, and Gigues, composed and arranged for concert performance by a Violin and a Flute, with a Bass Viol and an Archilute. (See Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians.") The prelude of Bach's first English Suite was inspired by a passage in the A major suite of Dieupart.
[150] Der Vollkommene Kapellmeister, Hamburg, 1739, §69, p. 467.