NOTES

The following abbreviations have been used in the Notes and Bibliography :

Full citations for references in the Notes are given in the Bibliography.

1. Early Years (1684-1703)

1.See Schmeider, Thematisches-systematisches Verzeichnis, p. 461.

2.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 293.

3.Paulsen, I, 31.

4.Monroe, p. 457.

5.Monroe, p. 484.

6.Monroe, p. 495.

7.Monroe, p. 487.

8.Comenius’ Didactus Magna, as quoted in Paulsen, I, 465.

9.Compare the “Allemande” and “Courante” of Bach’s first French Suite with Pachelbel’s Suite in E Minor, and Bach’s A Minor Fugue, BG, III, 334, to Pachelbel’s A Minor Fugue. See Spitta, Bach, I, 644.

10.Compare Bach’s E Major Fugue (Well Tempered Clavier II) with Froberger’s Phrygian Fugue.

11.Forkel, Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik.

12.Paulsen, 375.

13.During the Reformation years this text was a favorite for its moral lessons and its edifying admonitions to justice, honesty, and wisdom. Pho- cylides was one of the few authors of pagan literature who was tolerated by Protestant schoolmen, since his ideas on the immortality of the soul, and even of the resurrection of the body, singled him out as an exceptionally religious mind, though a pagan. Some lines of his poems are almost identical with passages in the Old Testament, a fact that must have elated the pious schoolmasters, even as it later aroused the suspicion of modern researchers. In Bach’s time scholars thought Phocylides to be a contemporary of Pythagoras, and a poet named Phocylides actually lived during the sixth century B.C.; the “Preceptive Poem” however, is now accepted as the composition of a Christian Jew who lived in Alexandria during the first half of the first century A.D. See Rudloff.

14.Spitta, Bach, 1,187.

15.Thomas. Curiously, C. S. Terry, who uses Thomas as his source, does not mention the history text of Buno either.

16.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 30.

17.“pestis scholae, scandalum eccleciae, et carcinoma civitatis.” Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 26.

18.Spitta, Bach, 1,188.

19.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 28.

20.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 36.

21.See Junghans, p. 6.

2. Theology in the Classroom

1.Gass, p. 4.

2.Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 137.

3.Luther, Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen.

4.See Zielinski.

5.“cum lacte quasi materno primo elementa purioris doctrinae Christianae imbiberit.” “Leonhard Hutter,” in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, pp. 476- 79-

6.Gass, pp. 255, 257.

7.Gass, p. 155.

8.Edition by Wilhelm Hertz, Libr. Besser.

9.Hutter, Compendium, p. 73.

10.Ibid., p. 101.

11.Ibid., p. 102.

12.Nebel, X, 329. For examples of his anti-Calvinism see especially pp. 279-83 of the Hertz edition of Compendium.

3. A Lutheran Sense of History

1.Barnes, p. 126.

2.Thomas.

3.Two eminent scholars, Andre Pirro and Charles Sanford Terry, based their description of Bach’s school education upon the discoveries of Dr. Thomas. But Terry, in Bach, A Biography, does not mention Buno, or the subject of history.

4.The Catalogue of the British Museum shows that the Historia Universalis was issued in 1672, 1692, 1700, and 1705. The University of Illinois kindly lent me their copies of the editions of 1672 and 1700.

5.“Eine kurtze summarische Abbildung Der merkwürdigsten Geist-und Weltlichen Historien von Anfang der Welt bis auf das Jahr 1671. In annehm- lichen Bildern deutlich und kürtzlich also fügestellet/ dass sowol Alte/ als junge Leute/ auch diejenige/ so der Lateinische Sprache nicht gar kündig/ leichtlich fassen und im Gedachtnisz behalten konnen.”

6.Preuss, p. 128.

7.See Bernstein, pp. 282 ff. For instance, the following passage from Flavius Josephus against Apion is very close to later accounts of the Arian and Athanasian controversies of 325 A.D.: “He (Moses) represented God as unbegotten and immutable through all eternity . . . unknown to us as to his essence.” Whiston, Josephus Works, III, Book II, 3, #17, p. 591. Even Whis- ton, Josephus’ orthodox translator and commentator of the early nineteenth century, is slightly suspicious of the genuineness of these words, which to him “seem” to show a regard to higher interpretations and improvements of Moses’ laws, derived from Jesus Christ.” (Ill, p. 591) Although the passage about Jesus Christ began to be regarded with skepticism as early as the sixteenth century, it took about 300 years before its authenticity was generally rejected. (Bernstein, p. 286) It is safe to assume that Bach, if he knew anything at all about these disputes, regarded the adversaries of the disputed passage as rank heretics.

8.Wars of the Jews in Whiston, Josephus Works, Book V, Chap. V, p. 456.

9.Ibid., pp. 420-72.

10.Luke 21:5, 6, 10, 20, 22, 23, 24. Matthew 23:34; 24, 1 ff. Mark 13:2.

11.Daniel 9:26, 27.

12.Whiston, Josephus Works, III, Book II, 3, #17, p. 592.

13.Although Gesner edited anthologies of several classical writers, he did not include Josephus. This was for linguistic reasons. Josephus himself admits that it was “a difficult thing to translate our history into a foreign and to us unaccustomed language.” (Preface to Antiquities, p. 60). He wrote in Aramaic, and the Greek that Gesner found in Josephus was of inferior quality.

14.See Fellerer, 123.

15.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 203.

16.See Eitner, “Johann Gottfried Walther,” p. 165. Also Gehrmann, 468. See also chapter 12 of this book.

4. Music in the Schools

1.Plato, “The Republic,” in The Dialogues of Plato, II, 108.

2.“Zum göttlichen Wort und Wahrheit/ macht das Herz bereit/ Solch ein Eliseus bekannt/ Da er den Geist durch harfen fand.” Luthers Schriften, P- 375-

3.“Der schonsten und herrlichsten Gaben Gottes eine ist die Musica. Der ist der Satan sehr feind. Damit man viele Anfechtungen und bose Gedanken vertreibet; der Teufel erharret irh nicht.” (“Tischreden”) Ibid., XV, 425.

4.Paulsen, 1,19.

5.Capitlaria anno 802. Monum. Germ. Hist. Leg. i, p. 106, as quoted in Schünemann, Geschichte der Schulmusik, p. 65.

6.Isidori Episcopi, Gerbert Scriptoris, I, 20, cap. Ill as quoted in Schünemann, Geschichte der Schulmusik, p. 65.

7.Migne Patrologia CI, 853, as quoted by Schünemann, Geschichte der Schulmusik, p. 6, and by Paulsen, 1,15.

8.Luther, “Tischreden,” in Luthers Schriften, pp. 425-34. “Wer die Musicam verachtet. . . mit denen bin ich nicht zufrieden.”

9.“Ein Schulmeister muss singen konnen, sonst seh’ ich ihn nicht an” Luthers Schriften, p. 426.

10.Quoted from Schünemann, Geschichte der Schulmusik, p. 83.

11.Ibid., p. 93.

12.Vorbaum, I, 6.

13.Spitta, Bach, 1,187.

14.Junghans.

15.Junghans, p. 4.

16.Preussner, p. 442.

17.Brieger Schulordnung 1581, in Schünemann, Geschichte der Schulmusik, p. 87.

18.Junghans, p. 9.

19.Junghans, pp. 8-12.

20.Preussner, pp. 414, 445.

21.Forkel, Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik, II, 65.

22.Junghans.

23.Junghans counted 102 numbers in the catalogue of church compositions, plus 190 anonymous works.

24.Montanus had a printing firm with Neuber in Nurnberg. Thesaurus Musicus contained work in eight, seven, six, five, and four voices, by Arca- delt, Clemens, Dietrich, Ducis, Lasso, Maillard, Scandelli, Phinot, Prenner, and Depres. Montanus died in 1563, and was replaced by Gerlach. From 1567, Neuber worked alone.

25.Georg Rhau composed a Mass for the occasion of Luther’s debate with Eck. Luther wrote a preface to Rhau’s Neue deutsche Gesange.

26.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 45.

27.Jean Tinctoris wrote the oldest musical lexicon, Terminorum musicae diffinitorium (Naples, 1475).

28.Ambros, III, 65.

29.Preussner, p. 424.

30.Schering, Bach und das Musikleben Leipzigs, II, 64.

31.Ibid., p. 39.

32.Ibid., p. 47.

33.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 36.

5. The Education of an Organist

1.Böhm, Samtliche Werke ; also, DdT, Vol. 45. Compare with BG, XXXVIII, 101, p. 43; 85, p. 257; 17, p. 242.

2.Preface to Böhm, Samtliche Werke.

3.The Gregorian modes were replaced very gradually by the major and minor tonality. The change was achieved more quickly in France than in Italy.

4.See Chapter 8.

5.BG, XXXVIII, 3, p. 243.

6.Sonata in A minor (BG, XLII, 29) after the Sonata I of Hortus Musicus (pp. 1-18); Sonata in C Major (BG, XLII, 42) after Sonata XI of Hortus Musicus (pp. 32-38).

7.Leti, Histoire de la Maison serenissime de Brunswick (1687), p. 327, as quoted by de Beaucaire, p. 104, and by Pirro, L’Esthetique de Bach, p. 423.

8.Horric de Beaucaire, p. 163.

9.Wolffheim, p. 427: “Im Jahre 1700 wird die Truppe aufgelost; Bach hat also keine Oper Mehr in Celle gehort.”

10.Horric de Beaucaire, p. 163.

11.Büttner.

12.Also see the transcriptions of portions of Lully’s operas as keyboard pieces by d’Anglebert.

13.The organist Friedrich Wilhelm Ulrich was engaged in 1699 at a yearly salary of 12 Reichsthaler. Wolffheim, p. 429.

14.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 51.

15.Wolffheim, p. 428. Louis Gaudon was engaged in 1698.

16.See Andre Raison, “Livre d’orgue,” Vol. 2 of Archives des maitres de I’orgue. . . .

17.BR, p. 310, and Chapter 10, p. 186.

18.BR, pp. 215-24.

6. Beginning of a Musical Career (1703-1706)

1.“Figuralorganist” means an organist capable of improvising variations on chorales, and of reading figured basses; also one capable of producing concerted music.

2.BR, p. 150.

3.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 56.

4.Spitta, Bach, I, 220.

5.A small size violin, used for high parts, tuned C, g, c, a, or b flat, f, c, g.

6.A five-stringed large viola, tuned d, g, d’, g’, c”.

7.A harpsichord with gut strings.

8.A Thaler: 75 Groschen; a Florin: 21 Groschen. In 1914 a German Mark was worth 24 American cents.

9.Weissgerber.

10.Spitta, Bach, I, 226.

11.Ibid., 228.

12.Ibid., 226.

13.Weissgerber.

14.Kluge’s Etymologisches Worterbuch der deutschen Sprache.

15.Ibid.

16.See Schmieder, Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis, p. 437.

17.A harpsichord with the usual two keyboards and an additional set of large keys, similar to the organ pedals, to be played with the feet.

7. Bach and Buxtehude

1.Curt Sachs, in his World History of the Dance, p. 373, dates the importation of the “new dance” about 1640. It came into Spain from Central America, and at that time was feared as a dangerous moral influence, like the saraband. The passacaglia was derived and indistinguishable from the cha- conne, which was not much older and was also regarded as the “most passionate and unbridled of all dances.”

2.Compare Buxtehude’s Passacaglia, Peters ed., No. 4449, p. 59, measures 3 and 5, to Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor (BG, XV, 289), meas. 10-25; Buxtehude’s meas. 8-17 to Bach’s 26-33; Buxtehude’s 33-45 to Bach’s 33-41; Buxtehude’s 62-69 to Bach’s 130-38; Buxtehude’s 66 to Bach’s 82-99.

3.Peters 4449, p. 28.

4.Peters 243, p. 20. BG, XV, 92.

5.Fugue in D Major, DTB, IV, p. 43.

6.Spitta, I, 316; see also BR, p. 51.

7.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 70.

8.BR, p. 52.

9.Pirro, Bach, p. 37, refers to them as “soudains caprices d’accompagne- ment.”

10.Bitter, I, 75, “dass bissher gar nicht musiciret worden.” “Musiciret” implies the combination of choral and instrumental music.

11.Ibid., y6, in the Protokol.

12.Ibid., 77, in the Protokol.

13.Spitta, Bach, I, 327.

14.Bitter, I, 77.

15.Forkel, as quoted in BR, p. 302.

16.Spitta, Bach, I, 335.

8. Ornamentation

1.Girolamo dalla Casa, II vero mo do di diminuir (1584). Riccardo Rog- noni, Passagi per potersi essercitare nel diminuire (1592). Giovanni Luca Conforto, Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Giovanni Bassano, Lodovico Zacconi, Ganassi del Fontega also wrote on the subject. There are excerpts from these authors in H. Goldschmidt, Vokalen Ornamentik, and Kuhn, VII (1902).

2.See Kuhn, p. 70.

3.Printz, Satyrischer Componist, Cap. XII.

4.Dannreuther, 1,162.

5.Printz, Satyrischer Componist, Theil II, p. 49, par. 18.

6.Goldschmidt, Vokalen Ornamentik, p. 58.

7.See examples from the works of Diruta, Andrea Gabrieli, etc.

8.Printz, Satyrischer Componist.

9.BG, XLII, 29, 42.

10.Reincken’s Hortus Musicus.

11.As quoted in Goldschmidt, Vokalen Ornamentik, p. 229. The work from which he quotes is Regole, Passagi di Musica (1593).

12.The first ornament is categorized thus by most theorists because of the repeated beats of g and f. Johann Andreas Herbst gives examples of several exclamations (the third ornament in the Palestrina example), each expressing a particular emotion. (See Allerup, who gives musical illustrations of the exclamatio languida, the exclamatio effectuosa, the exclamatio viva, and piu viva (quoted from Eitner in Dannreuther, I, 83).

13.BR, p. 238.

14.Ibid., p. 246.

15.In Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach relates that “Embellishments may be divided into two groups: in the first are those which are indicated by conventional signs or a few small notes; in the second are those which lack signs and consist of many short notes” (p. 80, par. 6). Referring to the latter he says: “they are too variable to classify. Further, in keyboard music they are usually written out.”

16.“Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, angefangen in Cothen den 22 Januar A. Dom. 1720.” BG, XLV, 213.

17.Aldrich, Ornamentation in Bach’s Organ Works, pp. 1-2.

18.Nohl, p. 59. C. P. E. Bach, Essay, pp. 5,12,17,18, 42, 85.

19.C. P. E. Bach, Essay, p. 85, par. 26.

20.BR, p. 310.

21.The symbol for mordant in Couperin’s text is i, a sort of downward arrow. It is called pince. Bach used the sign for the same ornament, and called it mordent.

9. The Organ

1.See Gerbert von Hornau, III, 329.

2.The Krummhorn “was a slender cylindrical oboe ending in a curve that was reminiscent of the folk instrument with an ox horn.” It was the oldest European instrument fitted with a wind cap and since the organ stop for Krummhorn is first mentioned in 1489, on a Dresden organ, the instrument itself must have been in existence before this time. The Rauschpfeiff belongs to a German family of oboes, Rauschpfeiff en, with narrow bores. Schreyari were “loud, shrill, double-reed instruments with a tapering bore and a reed- concealing cap.” See Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments, pp. 320-23.

3.Gurlitt, p. 12.

4.In his annotations to Adlung, Musica Mechanica Organoedi, edition of 1768. Also see BR, p. 258.

5.BR, p. 236.

6.Already in 1610 the pedals of St. Martin’s in Cassel had a powerful array of stops: Principal 32 feet, Octave 16 feet, Subbass 16 feet, Bourdon 8 feet, Rauschpfeiff 4, 2, 2A. Trombone 16 feet, Trumpet 8 feet, and Cornet 2 feet. See Dufourcq, p. 145.

7.See note 2 for descriptions of Rauschpfeiff and Krummhorn.

8.“ [I] n.European artmusic, the rough horn of an animal was replaced by a wooden or ivory tube. This became the curved Cornet ... or Krummer Zink.” See Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments, p. 325, for a drawing.

9.BR, p. 314.

10.Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum, II. Johann Mattheson’s edition of Niedt’s Handleitung zur Variation gives over 60 different organ specifications. Niedt, Musikalische Handleitung, Variationen des General-Basses. Adlung, Musica Mechanica Organoedi.

11.Dufourcq, p. 119.

12.Adlung, Musica Mechanica Organoedi, I, 211.

13.BR, p. 258.

14.Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum, II, 99.

15.Musica Enchiriadis, attributed to Hucbald (840-930). See Reese, pp. 125, 254. The chanting in these parallel intervals then was considered as “sounding agreeably together.” Whether this medieval art derives its name “organum,” meaning instrument, from the organ is doubtful.

16.The new function of the mixtures, however, was not scientifically understood until the time of Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753) and his school which included his brother Andreas of Strassburg and his pupil Zacharias Hildebrand. It was the epoch in which Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) also took his departure from the scientific knowledge of the partials or overtones to construct his new theory of harmony. As we have seen from Adlung’s criticism, Silbermann reduced the mixtures more than anyone had done before him. Whether Bach was in sympathy with this conception is impossible to ascertain by documented evidence; but considering that Adlung’s editor Agricola was Bach’s pupil, and in view of Adlung’s veneration for Bach, apparent throughout his book, we may assume that Adlung’s taste is a faithful reflection of Bach’s.

17.BR, p. 290.

10. Bach in Mühlhausen: Encounter with Pietism

1.In an augmented and corrected edition of his father’s book on the subject, a work written under the influence of Pietism. See Pirro, Bach, p. 45.

2.These passages were chosen from II Samuel 19:35 and 37; V Moses 33:25, I Moses 21:22; Psalms 74:16, 17, and 19; besides allusions to Deut. 33:25; Gen. 21:22; among others. A stanza from Johann Heermann’s “O Gott, du Frommer Gott“ was used to an anonymous melody. These various quotations were woven together with a few lines of Eilmar. For full English text see Terry, Bach’s Cantata Texts, p. 519.

3.Jordan, Chronik der Stadt Mühlhausen.

4.According to the custom of music publishing that prevailed throughout the eighteenth century, only the vocal and orchestral parts were printed—not the full score; the first printed editions of Haydn’s symphonies follow the same tradition.

5.Its specifications can be found in Adlung’s Musica Mechanica Or- ganoedi.

6.Democratic inasmuch as the city council and the mayor were elected and rotated.

7.Spitta, Bach, I, 363; Pirro, Bach, p. 45.

8.The dates of the editions are taken from Terry, Bach, A Biography.

9.Pia Desideria, p. 18.

10.Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, VII, 233-35.

11.Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition), XXI, 593-94.

12.‘Trediger sind Saugammen der Gemeinde, sollen gesunde, süsse Milch geben, so müssen sie zuvor selbst die Speise des gottlichen Wort schmecken, kauen, dauen, und ins Leben wandeln.” Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, XXII, 555-56.

13.Yale University graciously lent me this book through the interlibrary loan system. This collection is based on a Leipzig printing of 1498, which is the one Luther probably read. Tauler wrote between 1300 and 1361. His original text (ed. Leopold Naumann, Berlin, 1833) is in old low German (niederdeutsch) which in the eighteenth century was read by few, and with difficulty. The present edition of 1720 is a translation with considerable freedom, compared with the low German text, but without any apparent paraphrasing or reinterpretation.

14.Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 133.

15.Ed. of 1720, p. 664.

16.Clark.

17.Clark, p. 49.

18.Preface to the edition of 1720.

19.Pirro, Bach, pp. 43-44. Ahle, in the work mentioned by Pirro quotes Spener, Dannhauer, and Muscovius in their condemnation of figural music for church use. Dannhauer (1603-1666), the teacher of Spener, wrote Christo- sophia (1638), Mysterio sophia (1646), and Hodosophia (1649, re-edited by Spener in 1713), besides a Katechismusmilch in 10 volumes. Muscovius (1635-1695) wrote a work entitled Bestrafter Missbrauch der Kirchenmusik und Kirchhofe (Punished Misuse of the Church Music and Cemeteries) Lau- ban, 1694. See Eitner, Quellen Lexicon, VII, 124.

20.BR, p. 74.

21.Tholuck, p. 22. “Wie Luther, so will auch Spener uber die Moralitat dieser Dinge mehr secundum personam als secundum rem geurtheilt wissen. Auf einem fortgeschritteneren Standpunkte stehen Francke, Lange, Anton, Breithaupt.” (regarding card games, dancing, smoking, comedies, ballgames, and so forth.)

22.Composing in Roman times was a matter of collecting and adjusting existing melodies to new words. Sometimes a slight change in the melody became necessary for this adjustment. This is the way Saint Gregory “composed” the Gregorian chant.

23.See Wolfrum.

24.Ed. of 1720, p. 657.

25.“wohl-zu-fassende Kirchen Music.”

26.Bitter, p. 90.

27.Bitter, p. 89. He mentioned this twice. Once he says, “Wenn ich auch stets den Endzweck, nemlich eine regulirte Kirchen Music im Gottes Ehren,” then again, “und Erhaltung meines endzweckes wessen des Wohl zufassen- den Kirchen Music.”

28.BG, XL, 57.

11. The Weimar Years (1708-1717)

1.BR, p. 69. C. S. Terry calls him Groom of the Apartments.

2.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 93; “get board money” (BR).

3.See the preface to the toccatas in D major, d minor, e minor, g minor, and G major in BG, XXXVI, pp. xx, xxvi, xxxi-xxxii, xxxv, xxxvii-xxxviii.

4.Nos. 4514 and 4515 available in the Peters edition.

5.A ricercar is a multi-thematic, fugue-like composition that grew out of the motet, and gradually evolved into a monothematic fugue.

6.See Schmieder, Thematisch-systhematisches Verzeichnis.

7.See Schmieder, Ibid., No. 18, p. 22; No. 21, p. 26; No. 61, p. 79; No. 71, p. 94; No. 131, p. 176.

8.Ibid. Schmieder thinks that No. 31 was revised in 1731 and No. 59 perhaps composed in 1723 (p. 631).

9.BR, p. 231.

10.This hypothesis was probably based upon doubtful statements by Lorenz Mizler, a vain, untalented, rather unreliable musicologist who was a pupil of Bach in Leipzig for three years. The theoretical speculations that, according to Mizler, did not interest Bach were most certainly his own, and not those of the preceding generation that fascinated Bach and Walther. Thus, neither the assumption of a cooling friendship nor that of Bach’s aversion to musical speculation are well founded. See von Brodde, Walther.

11.Ibid., p. 6.

12.Wette, Historische Nachrichten. Three letters have been preserved—by Drese, Kuhnau, and Johann Christoph Schmidt, Oberkapellmeister at the Dresden court in 1717—in which they praise Walther’s book on composition.

13.Gehrmann, 468.

14.Robert Eitner, in his Quellen Lexicon, informs us that the MS is in the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin. When I tried to obtain a microfilm of it, I received the sad news from the librarian of the Hochschule that it is now counted among the war losses which the library suffered in 1945. An extensive description of the work by Gehrmann appeared in the Vierteljahrschrift fur Musikwissenschaft (see Bibliography). See also an article by Eitner in Monatshefte fur Musikgeschichte, p. 165.

15.See Gehrmann and von Brodde, Walther.

16.Burney, II, 272.

12. Musical Speculation: Kircher and Werckmeister

1.His erudition and experimentation included every imaginable field of inquiry. Until recently a tourist could visit a small museum, Museo Kirchi- riani, in Rome, where his numerous instruments for experimentation were on exhibit: microscopes, telescopes, magic lanterns, nautical instruments, maps, globes, skeletons, and monsters of all sorts—all witness to his multifarious interests. The exhibits included many musical instruments, and on the walls one could see a great variety of magical signs. A description of the contents of the Kircher Museum can be found in Julius Schlosser.

2.Meyer, p. 104.

3.In 1708 Walther still counted Kircher among the great musicologists of all time. M usikalische Handleitung by Friedrich Erhard Niedt, from which Bach and his students copied rules and maxims, praised Kircher highly. Werckmeister respectfully quotes Kircher, and another of Bach’s mentors, Caspar Printz writes that Kircher is “so famous that there is no need to mention him further,” in his Historische Beschreibung der edelen Sing- und Kling-Kunst.

4.Junghans.

5.Walther considers the derivation offered by Cyriacus Snegasius (1546- 1597), a preacher and cantor in Friedrichsroda, related by marriage to Luther. Snegasius, in his Isagoges Musicales, gives the Greek Mousa, muse, or Apioumosthai, to investigate, as the derivation of the word music.

6.Printz, Historische Beschreibung der edelen Sing- und Kling-Kunst.

7.BR, p. 276.

8.In Musikalisches Lexicon, p. 648.

9.Serauky, Andreas Werckmeister, p. 122.

10.Goldschmidt, Musikastetik des 18 ten Jahrhunderts, thinks that Werckmeister also was acquainted with Leibniz’ doctrine of perfection, but I have never found any reference to Leibniz in any of Werckmeister’s works.

11.D. A. Steffani, Abtes von Lepzig des Heil. Apostolischen Stuhls Pro- tonotarü Send-Schreiben . . . , edited by Andreas Werckmeister, pp. 39, 40.

12.Expressed in proportion:r3144 %24288, or 24 cents, a cent being a 1200th part of an octave, or a 100th part of a semi-tone in our present-day tempered scale.

13.Jacob Faber Stapulensis, Henricus Glarianus, and Franchinus. Hypom- nemata Musica, p. 26.

14.“kann ... in Fall der Noth ein gantz Comma in dre Schwebung ertragen/ ein Tertza minor noch mehr. Aber eine Octave gar nichts, Eine Quinte auch wol Vi vom Comma.” Ibid., p. 28.

15.Ibid., p. 30.

16.Ibid.

17.Die nothwendigete Anmerkungen und Regeln....

18.Erweitert und verbesserte Orgel-Probe....

19.Hypomnemata Musica, p. 36.

20.Mysterio Cosmographica and his Harmonia Mundi.

21.Musikalische Paradoxal Discourse, Capitel 2.

22.Harmonologia Musica, Foreword.

23.Der Edlen Musik-kunst Würde, p. 21. Chaps. 1 and 4; also see Paradoxal Discourse.

24.Ibid.

25.“Bose Leute achten die Musik nicht viel.” Der Edlen Musik-kunst Würde.

26.Foreword to Harmonologia Musica.

27.“und weil der Mundud Ectypus eine Idea des Architypui sey / und daraus fliesse / dass solche Harmonie in Gott selber auch sey.” Contents, 2.

28.Werckmeister, Der Edlen Musik-kunst Würde, Chap. VII. item: Cap. X.

29.Ibid., Chap. X.

13. Bach in Kothen (1717-1723)

1.Bitter, p. 107.

2.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 101.

3.Spitta, Bach, I, 514.

4.His Musikalischer Quacksalber (Musical Quack) describes the absurd craze in Germany for Italian singers and the attempt of many Germans to pose as Italians. His writings resemble Caspar Printz so much that Satyrischer Componist is believed actually to have been written by Kuhnau.

5.Bitter relates that the King of Saxony sent Bach a present of 100 Louis d’Or, which, however, failed to reach him, as the servant entrusted with its delivery absconded with the money. Terry does not mention this incident.

6.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 113.

7.Ibid., p. 114. See also BR, p. 75, for an excerpt from The Court Secretary’s Report which relates the story of Bach’s arrest, confinement, and “unfavorable discharge.”

8.Spitta, Bach, II, 3.

9.Smend, Bach in Kothen.

10.Seibel.

11.Heinichen, Generalbassschule, p. 3.

12.Ibid., p. 7.

13.Aurelius Augustinus, Musik, Vol. 23.

14.Musicalische Handleitung.

15.“Was soil man nun mit solchen alten barbarischen Canon-Meistern machen? Ich meistenteils lache darüber, und wenn sie auch gleich aus Bosheit in ihre Hosen canonieren, so sind es ihre eigene, und verlangt nicht solche ihnen abzudisputieren.”

16.See Chapter 9.

17.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 127.

18.Ibid., p. 128.

19.Ibid., p. 129.

20.Spitta, Bflc/z, II, 10.

21.Now in the Royal Library of Berlin.

22.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 139.

23.The theme, which has been preserved by Mattheson, was a rather long one for extemporaneous use;

24.Mattheson, Der musikalische Patriot, p. 316, quoted in Spitta, Bach, II, 20.

25.The theme may be found in Johann Mattheson’s Grosse Generalbass- Schule (Great School of Thoroughbass). See Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, I, 272.

26.Bach composed an ode for this memorable celebration but it has unfortunately been lost. Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 138. Also see Bunge, p. 30.

27.Smend, Bach in Kothen, p. 28.

28.Translation by Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 138.

29.“Bist du bei mir,/ Geh ich mit Freuden / zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh’ / Ach, wie vergnügt ware so mein Ende, / es drückten deine schonen Hande / Mir die getreuen Augen zu.”

14. Worldly Music of the Spirit

1.See Schmieder, Thematisch-systematisch Verzeichnis, p. 651.

2.Smend, Bach in Kothen.

3/4.Bunge, pp. 14-47.

5.Kirnberger, Die kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik....

6.By means of these instruments organists could keep in practice, when they did not have sufficient time to spend at the organ. The possession of these pedal harpsichords also explains the fact that Bach could display his phenomenal technique in the G Minor Fugue, as he played it for Reincken, despite the fact that he did not have access to any organ in Kothen. Three such instruments are included in the inventory of instruments Bach left at his death.

7.BG, Xlla, 27, No. 52.

8.BG, XXV, 105, No. 174.

9.BG, XXVII, 48.

10.BG, V, 1.

11.BG, VII, 173.

12.BG, XXVII, xx.

13.BG, XXX, 125.

14.BG, XVII, 142.

15.BG, XXXII, 99.

16.See Wilhelm Rust, BG, XVII, Preface.

17.BG, XXXII, 169.

18.BG, XVII, 45.

19.BG, XXIV, 276.

20.BG, XXIV, 249.

21.BG, IX, 252.

22.Cantatas 211, 212.

23.C. S. Terry’s overly free translation gives it a polish and polite language out of keeping with the rustic original.

24.BG, XXXV, 73, Cantata No. 173.

15. Compositions for the Keyboard

1.BG, XXXVI, 118.

2.BR, p. 329.

3.BG, XLIII (2), 37.

4.BG, III, 263.

5.Spitta mistakenly calls this work a passacaglia for the reason that the entire work is composed on an ever recurring bass. A passacaglia bass, however, never consists of two sentences (also called periods), but of only four or eight bars, while this air has two long and repeated sentences, each of 16 measures. Handel has a set of variations also called “Passacaglia.” This work is not a passacaglia either.

6.“Auffrichtige Anleitung, Wormit denen Liebhebern des Clavieres, besonders aber denen Lehrbegierigen, eine deutliche Art gezeiget wird, nicht alleine (1) mit 2 Stimmen eine spielen zu lernen, sondern auch bey weiteren progressen (2) mit dreyen obligaten Partien richtig und wohl zu verfahren, anbey auch zugleich gute inventiones nicht alleine zu bekommen, sondern auch selbige wohl durchzuführen, am allermeisten aber eine cantabile Art im Spielen zu erlangen, und darneben einen starcken Vorgeschmack von der Composition zu überkommen. [Verfertiges von Joh. Seb. Bach, Hochf. Anhalt-Cothenischen Capellmeister. Anno Christi 1723.]”

7.See BG, XLV, 213.

8.Schmieder suggests that two toccatas may have been composed either during the Kothen period or in Bach’s last years in Weimar, but I am inclined to accept the latter suggestion. See Thematische-systematisch Ver- zeichnis, p. 562.

9.See above, p. xxx.

10.Ehmann.

11.Ehmann, p. 180.

12.Schering, Bach und das Musikleben Leipzigs.

13/14. See the prefaces to vols. II and XXXVI of BG.

15.After about 1765 Klavier referred specifically to the clavichord, while a harpsichord was called a Flügel (wing) because of its wing-like shape. Germans generally called it a clavicymbal or cembalo.

16.BG, III, xiv.

17.BR, p. 311.

18.Adlung, Musica Mechanica Organoedi, II, 158. Adlung in this complete description of Pedalklaviere tells us that the instruments sounded the strings either by tangents or plectra. The dip of the pedal was so regulated that the violence of the players’ feet would not break the strings (p. 161). The pedals had three separate sets of strings, tuned at 16, 8, and 4 feet pitch. A set of pedals could be acquired in Bach’s time for the incredibly low sum of three or four dollars (p. 160). Today Mr. John Chalis of Detroit asks $2,000 for such a set of pedals.

19.Schering, Bach und das Musikleben Leipzigs, p. 47. Schering, Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, pp. 51, 61, 71, 76. Mendel, 339.

20.See BG, XLIV (2), 4, 9, and 10. For the manuscript of his 18 choral-vorspiele he wrote out a pedal part on a third staff (see BG, XLIV, 140,141).

21.Adlung, Anleitung zur Musikalischen Gelahrtheit, p. 554, says “sometimes one finds a sixteen-foot string on it, which consists of a spun eight-foot string.” Sachs, in his History of Musical Instruments, p. 377, says that no English, Flemish, French, Italian, or Spanish harpsichords ever had a sixteen- foot stop, and that it occurred exclusively in a few German harpsichords of the eighteenth century.

22.BG, III, xiv. Schweitzer even suggests that the Passacaglia was originally written for pedal harpsichord. C. F. Becker states that “several of the chorale preludes in this collection are calculated for this instrument.” The Hochschule fur Musick in Berlin has a harpsichord that was believed to have belonged to Bach, but Georg Kinsky has cast serious doubt upon the authenticity of this instrument. See “Zur Echtheitsfrage der Berliner Bach-Flügels,” p. 128.

23.BR, p. 329.

24.See Agricola’s addenda to Adlung’s Musica Mechanica Organoedi of 1768, II, 124.

25.Forkel says that Bach “liked best to play on the clavichord; the harpsichord, though certainly susceptible to a very great variety of expression, had not soul enough for him.”

26.Where the hammer of a pianoforte after its stroke falls back and is held down by the back check, the tangent of a clavichord remains clinging to the string. It creates the desired pitch depending on where it strikes the string, in the manner of the fingers of a violinist. The short end of the string is damped by a felt strip, while the long end emits its modest vibrations.

27.Cristofori called his innovation gravicembalo col pian e forte. This instrument has as yet no pedals, nor any stops for registration. Instead of quills or plectra it had little hammers with leather heads, producing an agreeable tone, less metallic and clanging than the harpsichord, but not as full and round as our pianofortes with their felt hammers. Two of these instruments still exist, one of which is at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. The author had the pleasure of playing on it through the kind permission of the curator Mr. Winternitz. Despite its age—and an unfortunate restoration by the Steinway Piano Company, who furnished the instrument with small felt hammers—its sensitivity to the slightest shades of loud or soft were still apparent.

28.This word, tractaments, may mean treatment, Behandlung; that is, manner of playing, hence also, the action.

29.Adlung, Musica Mechanica Organoedi, II, 116.

30.Essay, p. 112; p. 36.

31.Adlung, Musica Mechanica Organoedi, II, 124.

32.I am indebted to Mr. Curt Sachs for this information.

33.A hemiola occurs when the rhythm of six is divided in three times two, alternating with the division in two times three.

34.At the opening of the fugue it may seem as if the accent of the theme falls upon the first quarter note, that is upon the third strong beat (the piece is in four fourths, alia breve, as in musical illustration a) below, giving the usual accentual connotation to the bar line. As the fugue progresses, however, we see the second eighth note appearing as the first note after the bar line (see example b). This distribution and seeming distortion of the normal accents takes place especially in the numerous stretti.

16. Call to Leipzig

1.At that time Erdmann was stationed in Danzig as agent for the Russian Emperor. (Spitta, Bach, II, 253). The schoolmates had kept up an occasional correspondence. Bach mentioned having received a letter from Erdmann four years before he wrote this letter on October 28, 1730: “Es werden nunmehr fast 4 Jahre verfloszen seyn, da E. Hochwohlgeb. auf mein an Ihnen abgelas- zenes mit einer gütigen Antwort mich beglückten.” (Bitter, IV, 126) They had seen each other once since school days, in Weimar shortly before Bach left for Kothen. (Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 204)

2.See BG, XLIV, Facsimile No. 9

3.(Leipzig, 1684). Mr. Terry lists two editions of this book: part one of 1706, the other of 1710. I have read the copy of 1684, lent to me by the Theological Seminary of St. Louis. Mr. Terry’s dates are only hypothetical as no dates were noted in the original inventory; they are obviously derived from extant copies and catalogues.

4.“wenn mich dann entsinne, dasz Ihren Wegen meiner Fatalitaten einige Nachricht zu geben . . .”

5.Richter, “Die Wahl Bachs zum Kantor der Thomasschule,” 63.

6.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 127

7.DdT, Vols. 51/52 edited by Fr. Noack.

8.DdT, Vols. 29/30, edited by Arnold Schering (1938).

9.Although no compositions of his have survived, history has at least bequeathed us an amusing menu of a banquet at which Rolle, Bach, and Kuhnau gorged themselves on “boffalemote” (boeuf a la mode) and some 15 other dishes. This dinner took place in Halle, where in 1716 the three organists had been invited to inspect the new organ at the Liebfrauenkirche (see above, p. 141).

10.Bitter, IV, 108.

11.Bitter, IV, 109.

12.BR, p. 89.

13.Spitta, Bach, 11,185

14.Richter, “Die Wahl Bachs zum Kantor der Thornasschule,” 67

15.Arnold Schering tells us that there was a clause in the instructions for organists in which it is recommended that an hourglass be used to check the length of their playing. (Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, p. 242)

16.BR, p. 92.

17.See Chapter 4.

18.Schering, Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, II, 50.

19.Ibid., 29. Schering believes that only 12 boys sang and that there were four reserves plus the praefect, making the total of 17 that B. F. Richter suggests.

20.Ibid., 101.

21.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 169. E. E. Hochw. Raths der Stadt Leipzig Ordnung der Schule zu S. Thomae.

22.Schering, Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, III.

23.Bach’s inventory at his death lists 19 instruments. To this list should be added three pedal claviers claimed by his son Christian

24.Schering, Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, III, 5.

17. Fulfillment of Lutheran Reform

1.Bitter, I, 90. “Wenn ich auch stats den Endzweck, nemlich eine regulirte Kirchenmusik zu Gottes Ehren . . . auffuhren mogen . . .”, as stated in Bach’s resignation from his post at St. Blasius in Muhlhausen.

2.Terry, Cantata Texts, p. 36.

3.Ibid., p. 20; and Schering, Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, II, 5.

4.Schering, Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik. Blume, Evangelische Kirchenmusik, p. 103.

5.Before the Reformation similar songs were whimsically called Kirleisen, a pun meaning Kyrie tunes.

6.Luther, Von der Ordnung des Gottesdienstes in der Gemeinde, as quoted by Philipp Wolfrum, p. 60.

7.See Orel, Die Katholische Kirchenmusik von 1600 bis 1750, in Adler, pp. 528-32.

8.Mary’s Annunciation (I); Easter (4, 15, 31, 66, 108, 6, 145, 143, and 158); Circumcision (16, 41, 171, and 190); Michaelis (19, 170, and 149); Christmas: first feast (40, 63, 91, and 142), second feast (57 and 121), and third feast (64,133, and 151); Three Kings (65); Pentecost: first day (34, 59, 74, and 172), second day (68, 173, and 174). and third day (175 and 184); Reformation Festival (79 and 80); Feast of Christ’s Appearance (123); and Trinitatis (129 and 176).

9.“Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm” (No. 171, BG, XXXV) became the Patrem omnipotentem of the Credo. Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, from the cantata by that name (No. 12, BG, 2) became the Crucifixus. “Wir Danken Dir, Gott” (No. 29, BG, V) became Gratias agimus and Dona Nobis. The first section of the cantata “Schauet doch und sehet” (No. 46, BG, X).

10.Spitta, Bach, III,40.

11.Ibid., 42.

12.BG, VIII, 3.

13.Spitta, Bach, III, 35. Spitta bases this statement on the liturgical rules as given out by Vopelius (see above).

14.The Kyrie of the G Major Mass comes from Cantata 179, part I; its Gloria from Cantata 79, part 1; its Gratias from Cantata 138, part 5; its Domine Deus from Cantata 79, part 3; its Cum Sanctu Spiritu from Cantata 17, part 1. For the other derivations see Schmeider, Thematischsystematisches Verzeichnis and Neumann, p. 196. In total, 18 movements of the combined four masses prove to be derivations from cantatas. See also the prefaces to these works in BG, XI.

15.See Terry, Cantata Texts, pp. 33,55,63.

16.In the King James version the words are thus: 46: “And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47: And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48: For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 49: For he that is mighty has done to me great things; and holy is his name. 50: And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. 51: He has shewed strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52: He has put down the mighty from their seats, and has exalted them of low degree. 53: He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. 54: He has hopen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; 55: AS he spake to our fathers, and to his seed forever.” In the canticle this is concluded by Gloria Patri, gloria Filio, gloria et Spiritui sancto. Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum.

17.See Terry, Cantata Texts, p. 66,

18.All three are found in the Bodenschatz collection, “Florilegium Por- tense,” in 2 parts. Part i of the first (Leipzig, 1603). Part ü appeared in 1621. There is no score of the work.

19.Wilhelm Rust, in his preface to BG, XI, xviii, says that for the publication of the Magnificat he used two scores, one in E flat. However, he only published the one in D, and the two Chorales, the Gloria, and the unfinished Virga Jesse, that were sung antiphonally in between the movements of the Magnificat. Vol. XI, pp. 103-12.

20.The first chorale “Vom Himmel Hoch da komm’ ich her” has the cantus firmus in the soprano and diminutions in the other voices. It was sung after Exultavit. The second, Freut euch und jubiliret, is a free contrapuntal setting of the chorale by that name. Both of these are in German, while the Gloria that follows is in Latin. The second chorale was sung after Quia fecit. The Gloria was sung after the Fecit potentiam, and the Virga Jesse floruit after the Esuientes implevit.

21.See also Cantata No. 147, written for the Blessed Virgin’s Visitation, recitative, BG, XXX, 204, and the English to the same text by Terry, Cantata Texts, p. 357, no. 2.

18. The Chorale

1.Luther, Luther’s Werke, L, 368-74.

2.See Kostlin, p. 306.

3.In 1524 Luther wrote to Spalatin: “Es müssen Text und Noten, Weise und Geberde aus rechter Muttersprache und Stimmen kommen.” (Wolfrum)

4.Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 346.

5.Terry, Cantata Texts, p. 13.

6.Ibid.

7.Ibid., p. 12.

8.“Allein Gott in der Hdhe sei Ehr,” BG, III, 199.

9.This scribbled memorandum has survived, and is reproduced by Terry, Cantata Texts, p. 32.

10.See Terry, Bach’s Chorales, III, 21-22. Wilhelm Rust, in a preface to BG, XXV (2), pp. vü-ix, writes that Bach composed the Little Organ Book (Orgelbuchlein) in Kothen, and used the organ at the Lutheran Church there. He proves this thesis by the pitch of the pedal; only in this church was the pitch as high as the Organ Book reaches.

11.See Notes, Chapter 19.

12.Heinichen, Neu erfundene . . . der General-Basses, p. 24.

13.Kepler’s De Harmonice Mundi (Augsburg, 1619), quoted from the Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition), XV, 750.

14.See Chapter 17 for other Klavier works in this publication.

15.Composed in Dresden, 1625. See BG, XXXIX, 238.

16.Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 343.

17.“Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit! Gross ist dein Barmherzigkeit, aller Ding ein Schopfer und Regierer! Eleison!

“Christe aller Welt Trost! uns Sunder allein du hast erlost; Jesus, Gottes Sohn! Unser Mittler bist du in dem hochsten Thron, zu dir schreien wir aus Herzensbegier! Eleison!

“Gott, hieliger Geist! Trost, Stark’ uns im Glauben allermeist, dass wir am letzten End’ frohlich abscheiden aus diesem Elend! Eleison!”

18.See Vaihinger, Jung, and Langer.

19. The Cantata

1.Spitta, Bach, II, 349.

2.Criticism of this relation between music and poetry was not lacking in Bach’s time, nor in some of his biographers. The famous Hamburg master Mattheson—composer, opera director, singer, actor, harpsichordist, conductor, author, and critic—criticized Bach’s cantata No. 21 “Ich hatte viel Bekum- merniss” (I Had Much Sorrow, No. 21) for repeating three times the word “Ich,” over widely separated chords. This treatment, Mattheson felt, contradicted the sense of the text. Bach often composed entire staccato passages of several notes over a single syllable, as in Cantata No. 11, “Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen’ (Praise God in His Realms), where the word lobet is cut up into lo . . o . . 0 . . 0 . . obet with staccato marks over the notes carrying the o’s.

3.Quoted from Spitta, Bach, I, 473, and 479.

4.A term used by Bukofzer, p. 293.

5.Johann Sebastian Bach, I, 96.

6.Terry, Cantata Texts, p. 9; Schmieder, Thematisch-systematisches Ver- zeichnis, p. 65.

7.Smend, Bach in Kothen, p. 27.

8.Die allerneueste Art hofflich und galant zu schreiben. . . .

9.Spitta, Bach, 341.

10.A curious tax receipt has been preserved in which Bach acknowledges payment of Henrici of tax on three casks of beer. It is an insignificant little document, but it nevertheless throws a happy sidelight on the master’s life. Certainly he was no pietistic teetotaler nor lacking in a sense of humor.

11.Gottingen, 1736.

12.Spitta, Bach, II, 348.

13.Terry, Cantata Texts, p. 12.

14.BG, II, 35. Recorded by The Cantata Singers and the Jacques Orchestra, London, FFRR.

15.Schering, Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, II, 61; Mendel, 339.

16.Our bows today are about a third longer and the sticks are of concave construction, which enables them to tighten the hair whenever greater pressure is applied. With the convex stick the tension of the hair does not change as much when pressure is applied.

17.Often three or four wind instruments appear in the score. In our present-day conception of orchestral music we would say that such a combination of powerful wind instruments overbalances the total body of sound.

20. The Passions and Oratorios

1.Luther, Deutsche Messe (1526).

2.In 1538 this same motet Passion, composed exclusively in polyphonic style, appeared in a publication by George Rhau, where it was prefaced by Melanchthon.

3.From Brockes’s autobiography, quoted in Willi Flemming, VI, 23.

4.Jesus:

Das ist mein Blut im neuen Testament

Das ich fur euch und viele vergiessen

Es wird dem/ es wird geniessen [partake or enjoy]

Zu Tilgung seiner Sünden dienen.

Tochter Zion:

Gott selbst/ die Brunnquell alles Guten

Ein unerschopflichs Gnaden-Meer

Fangt fur die Sunder an zu bluten

Biss er vom alien Blute leer

Und reicht aus diesen Gnaden-Fluten

Uns selbst sein Blut zu trinken her.

Choral der Christlichen Kirche:

Ach wie hungert mein Gemühte

Menschenfreund/ nach deiner Güte!

Ach! wie pfleg ich oft mit Thranen

Mich nach dieser Kost zu sehnen!

Ach wie pfleg et mich zu dürsten

Nach dem trank des Lebens-Fürsten!

Wünsche stets/ dass mein Gebeine

Sich durch Gott/ mit Gott vereine.

5.See Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 209. To judge from the text it had little music in it.

6.Ibid., p. 196.

7.Ibid., p. 180, for Picander’s text with rhymed Evangelist. See also p. 194.

8.See Spitta, Bach, II, 537.

9.See Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 218, with regard to the influence of Bach’s friend Hasse in Dresden.

10.Ibid. Terry has reason to believe (from internal evidence) that the borrowing was in reverse order, that the Oratorio was composed first, but that the birthday cantatas were performed before the Oratorio.

11.If one accepts Terry’s premise (in the above note) the Christmas Oratorio belongs in a category with the Passion and Magnificat as music written with one intent in mind.

21. Signs of Change

1.Bitter, IV, 140: Verhandlung uber die Aufführung der Passions Musik in der Nicolai-Kirche. Excerpt: “Senat. Es solte der HEr Cantor auf EE. Hochw. Raths Kosten, eine Nachricht, dass die Music in der Nicolai Kirche vor diesesmahl gehalten werden solte, drucken die Gelegenheit aufm Chor, so gut es sich thun liese, mit Zu Ziehung des Obervoigts machen und den Clav. Cymbel repariren lassen.”

Johann Zachar. Trefurth, tit. jur.

2.Spitta quotes Scheibe as describing Gorner as an inferior musician: “He can never set a pure line [of music], and the grossest blunders grace— or disgrace—every bar.” As to his character: “completely possessed by conceit and rudeness. . . .” (Bach, II, 211)

3.See Bitter, IV, 137. “Entfernet Euck, The heitern Sterne,” words by Christian Friederick Haupt.

4.See Richter, Bach Jahrbuch (1925), 5.

5.Ibid., p. 9.

6.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 194 reads, “subject to the selection of being convenient with the Gospel. . . .” Spitta’s English translation of 1951 (Bach, II, 232) reads “provided that the hymns chosen be in conformity with the gospels. . . .”

7.Bitter, II, 231.

8.Smend, Bach in Kothen, p. 209.

9.Ibid., p. 78.

10.See Walther, Musicalisches Lexicon, and Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 195.

11.Terry gives the complete list of their names in Bach, A Biography, p. 197. Other such lists appear in Bach Jahrbuch (1907), pp. 68-76.

12.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 174.

13.A protocol of the Council of June 6,1730, tells: “3 Classen würden in einer stube informieret, diese stube sei auch das Coenaculum. Die cubicula waren auch schlecht beschaffen und schlafen in einem Bett zwei Kaben, . . .” in Bitter, II, 159.

14.Quotations are from the minutes of the meeting, which have been preserved.

15.Spitta, Bach, II, 245.

16.“Kurtzer, iedoch hochstnothiger Entwurff einer wohlbestallten Kirchen Music; nebst einigen unvorgreifflichen Bedenken von dem Verfall dersel- ben.” (see Bitter, II, 145)

17.The complete text of the letter appears in BR, pp. 125-26; Spitta, II, 253-54-

18.Translations are by Gesner, Ernesti, Heyne, Voss, Jacobs, Dissen, Herder Schlegel, and Goethe.

19.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 172.

20.Bitter, II, 157.

21.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 212.

22. Enlightenment Darkens Bach’s Horizon

1.His monadology did not appear until 1712, and was not translated into German until eight years later, after his death.

2.Wolff, “Von Gott, der Welt und die Seele des Menschen,” p. 126.

3.Ibid., p. 127.

4.Ibid., pp. 127,128.

5.Troeltsch, Gesammelte Schriften, IV, 371.

23. Wolffian Philosophy

1.In Chapter 8 this article is discussed in connection with its information about ornaments.

2.See Spitta, Bach, III, 253.

3.See Chapter 8.

4.BR, p. 224.

5.Scheibe, p. 499.

6.When Leibniz was very young he was impressed with certain aspects of Kircher’s thought. He even is believed to have tried to establish contact with Kircher. Lorenz Mizler, Der Musikalische Staarstecher (Leipzig, 1740), as quoted in Wohlke, pp. 14, 40.

7.Gottsched: “A world is a general notion by which we comprehend the names of all things . . . because on account of the connection of the parts (of this world) one always has its cause in another, there consequently is truth in the world: namely one that originates in the law of sufficient cause, and that distinguishes it from the Land of Cocaine.” Wolff, Von Gott, der Welt, und die Seele des Menschen, chap. 2, p. 17: “Through it [the law of sufficient cause] originates the distinction between Truth and Dreams, between the true world and the land of Cocaine.” Mizler: “We wish to call all things that really exist with one word the world. And to acquire the knowledge of this world, as far as possible, is the task of philosophy.” “Because there is only one truth, we must choose the least deceptive road to reach it; and that is the mathematical.” Wolff: “And so it is clear that everything concerning understanding and reason [Verstand und Vernunft ] can be explained by the soul’s own power to form mental representations of the world [die Weltvor zustellen]-, on the other hand, it is clear that nothing is contained in the body that surpasses the nature of a machine.”

8.Chapter 1.

9.It comprises the first volume. The present English translation has published only the second volume, which contains the practical, contrapuntal instructions.

10.Bitter, III, 212.

11.Today there are extant 480 solutions. It is a triple canon in six voices.

12.See Wohlke.

13.Falck, p. 9; Professor Jocher and Professor Ernesti: philosophy; D. Rudiger: Vernunftlehre; D. Kastner: Institutiones; D. Joachim: Pandkten und Institutiones; D. Dtiegelitz: Wechselrecht; Professor Haussen und Professor Richter: Mathematics.

14.See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, VI, 235-41.

15.Falck.

16.Spitta, Bach, III, 250.

17.It forms the last chapter of his Versuch einer Critischen Dichtkunst. . . .

18.Ibid., p. 466.

19.Ibid., p. 466.

20./frzd.

21./fc>zd.

22./frzd., p. 473.

24. Conflict with an “Enlightened” Rector

1.Terry, Bac/z, .4 Biography, p. 216.

2.Paulsen, II, 31-32.

3.A more detailed account may be read in Terry,BAC/Z, A Biography, pp. 224 ff. and Bac/z 7 ahrbuch (1907), 70.

4.Terry, Bac/z, A Biography, p. 224.

5.Ibid., p. 225. Chapter XIV, paragraph 4 of Schulordnung of 1723.

6.The entire letter appears in Bitter, IV, 181.

7.“Und durch Beschleunigung gebethenen Haupresolution . . . dieselben gesuchen dem Harm Rector unverzüglich hierinnen Einhalt zu thun.”

8.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 236.

9.Spitta, Bach, III, 11.

10.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 248; Spitta, Bach, II, 868 (German edition); BR, p. 162.

11.See BR, p. 166, for the reports on the candidates for this position.

12.1736 is the date attributed by C. S. Terry to the edition of this work (Bach, A Biography, p. 275)

13.Actually Gerhard took special pains in this work to avoid any imputations of Pietism. See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, VIII, 767-71.

14.Gass, p. 207.

15.Scheibler. See Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 273.

25. Musical Discipline: An Act of Worship

1.Grandson of Bach’s uncle, Georg Christoph.

2.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 249.

3.David, Bach’s Musical Offering, pp. 3-6.

4.Frederick wrote it out for Bach; according to Bach’s own dedication of the Musical Offering, Frederick played it for him. Bitter, III, 215.

5.Loc. cit.

6.At the king’s command the song and the remainder resolved with canonic art.

7.See Tillich, Systematic Theology, I, 264.

8.Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, XVI, 45-46.

9.Hochetus (hochet) is a truncation of a melody into fragments. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it appeared in alternate notes sung by different voices.

10.See note 11, Chapter 23.

11.In composing it one starts in the middle and works in both directions. To compose such a canon in more than one voice requires more skill. See example by Byrd in Prout, p. 238.

12.Willi Apel in Harvard Dictionary of Music describes Empfindsamkeit (Empfindsamer Stil) as a “denomination for the North German style of the second half of the eighteenth century represented by W.F.Bach, C.P.E.Bach Quantz, G. Benda, Reichardt, and others . . . who tried to arrive at an expression of ‘true and natural’ feelings. . . .”

13.Burney, II, 251.

14.Planemac, 586.

15.Ecstacy is used here in the sense in which Paul Tillich develops it: “ ‘Ecstacy’ must be rescued from its distorted connotations and restored to a sober theological function. . . . Ecstasy (standing outside one’s self) points to a state of mind which is extraordinary in the sense that the mind transcends its ordinary situation. Ecstasy is not a negation of reason. . . . This is the state mystics try to reach by ascetic and meditative activities. But mystics know that these activities are only preparations. . . . Ecstacy occurs only if the mind is grasped by the mystery, namely, by the ground of being and meaning.” Systematic Theology, I, 111.

16.Bach may actually have read Kircher as late as 1744.

17.Graeser, p. 6.

18.Terry, Bach, A Biography, pp. 262 and 263 about the conclusion to the history of this fact.

19.Riemer, p. 718. Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 260, footnote 3.

20.Bitter, III, 229.

21.The complete title of his essay is: De Vita Musica ex plaut.-Mostellar, Act. Ill, Sc. II Praefatus, with an appendix: Ad Orationes benevole auscul- tandas officiose invitat M. Jo Gottlieb Biedermann R. Freibergae (Master Johann G. Biedermann, Rector of Freiberg, urges for kindly listening to this discourse).

22.Spitta, Bach, III, 258.

23.Both the original article and its alteration are in Bitter, III, 234-38.

24.Terry, Bach, A Biography, p. 263.

25.BR, p. 220.

26.Written in 1588 by Franz Eler: “Whene’er we are in highest need and do not know where to turn, and when we find neither aid nor council . . . then our only consolation is to implore Thee in common, The true God, for saving us from anxiety and distress.”

27.Leipziger Gesangbuch; see W. Graeser, p. 81.

Vor Deinen Thron tret ich hiermit,

O Gott und dich demü tig bitt:

Wend dein genadig Angesicht

Von mir betrübtem Sunder nicht.

Ein Selig Ende mir bescher,

Am jüngsten Tag erwecke mich,

Herr, dass ich dich schau ewiglich:

Amen, Amen, erhore mich!

26. Epilogue: Music for the Spirit Living in a Changing World

1.Bitter, III, 254.

2.“. . . in der Enge des Raths.” Ibid., 260.

3.Ibid., 261.

4.Ibid., 259.

5.Ibid.

6.Spitta calls Friedemann a dissolute fellow, but Falck proved that this damning judgment was based upon rumors spread abroad by Reichard and Rochlitz. See Falck, p. 7.

7.Bitter, III, 263.