The Christmas Oratorio--The Magnificat--The Lost
Works--Instrumental Works--Bach’s Playing--The Manieren, or Grace
Notes.
Bach never wrote an oratorio in the sense of a sacred dramatic work
to be performed on a stage without action. We have shown that the
Passion settings are a portion of the Lutheran Lenten services; and the
church cantatas take much the same place as the anthem in the English
Cathedral service, with the difference of greater length, orchestral
accompaniment, and an opportunity for the congregation to take part in
the final chorale.
[Sidenote: _Christmas Oratorio_]
The so-called _Christmas Oratorio_, dated 1734, is nothing more than a
series of six cantatas, to be sung during the service on six successive
days at Christmas time. Each begins with a chorus which is followed by
several arias and recitatives, and each ends with a chorale, besides
which, chorales are also interspersed in the body of the work. The
second cantata opens with a most exquisite symphony, of a pastoral
nature something akin to the pastoral symphony in the “Messiah,” but
longer, and with the most subtle orchestral effects; especially are the
passages for two oboes interchanging with the strings most beautiful;
and the chief “motive” of the symphony recurs in the accompaniment of
the closing chorale. The character of the choruses is for the most part
one of triumphant joyfulness, and the arias have all the tender effects
which Bach so well knew how to produce.
[Sidenote: _Easter Oratorio_]
The _Easter Oratorio_ is a short cantata without a chorale.
The motets are compositions in several movements for unaccompanied
voices, from three to eight in number. The movements are interspersed
with chorales harmonised in four parts. The seventh motet, “Ich
lasse dich nicht,” though as fine as any, is considered to be almost
certainly not by Bach, and is therefore only given as an appendix in
vol. 39 of the Bach Gesellschaft edition. The appendix also gives a
figured bass and instrumental accompaniment to No. 2. “Der Geist hilft
unsrer Schwachheit auf.”
Motets by Bach and other composers are sung in the Thomas Church at
Leipsic, and in the Kreuz-Church at Dresden at vespers on Saturday
afternoons.
[Sidenote: _Secular Works_]
Bach also wrote a few secular vocal works. Among these are several
birthday, wedding and funeral cantatas--odes for important personages;
some “Dramme per Musica,” two of which, the “Choice of Hercules,” and
“Tönet ihr Pauken” are taken bodily from the _Christmas Oratorio_,
other words being adapted to the music; a cantata for the dedication
of a new organ at Störmthal, a comic cantata in praise of coffee. Some
of the secular cantatas were composed for the Concert Society which
met once a week about 1736 in a coffee-house in the Katharinen-strasse
at Leipsic, and of which Bach was the director. Among these was “The
strife between Phœbus and Pan.”
[Sidenote: _Smaller Masses and Magnificat_]
Besides the B minor Mass Bach wrote four “short” masses of much
smaller calibre, four “Sanctus,” and a “Magnificat” in D major of great
power and beauty. This work appears in two forms, of which one is much
finer than the other, and is therefore considered to be the latest. It
was the custom to intersperse the singing of the Latin Magnificat with
four chorales, but this custom not coinciding with Bach’s sense of the
fitness of things, he added the chorales as an appendix to his score.
The work is for a five part choir, with arias, a duet, and a trio.
The trio is a remarkable canon, or rather piece of canonic imitation
in the voice parts, to the words “suscepit Israel puerum suum,” to
which the strings play an accompaniment, while the oboes play in their
highest register the chorale “meine Seel’ erhebt den Herren” (“my
soul doth magnify the Lord”). And, as showing Bach’s sense of form,
the whole work is welded together by a fresh working of the material
of the opening chorus, at the words “sicut erat in principio et
nunc.... Amen.” We have remarked on this kind of construction in the
second cantata of the _Christmas Oratorio_,[75] and it is not at all
infrequent with Bach.
Except opera and oratorio Bach wrote every kind of work that was
known in his day. The Bach Gesellschaft completed the publication of
his works in full score in 1898 in some sixty large quarto volumes.
Complete editions of the vocal works in pianoforte score and the
instrumental in full score have been published by Peters, and by
Breitkopf and Härtel of Leipsic, while the editions of selected
portions published from time to time since the beginning of the
nineteenth century are innumerable.
But when we say “complete edition” it must be understood as referring
only to the works that have been preserved, for a large number seem to
have been lost when the great man died: before his property was valued
for probate there was an unseemly scramble for his manuscripts among
his elder sons.
[Sidenote: _The “year courses”_]
Mizler, in his “Necrology,” tells us the bare fact that there were five
“year courses” of cantatas, _i.e._ sets of cantatas for each Sunday
and holy day throughout the year. The Lutheran ecclesiastical year
contains fifty-nine such days (six Sundays in Lent and three in Advent
are excluded). The five courses would therefore require no less than
295 cantatas. Of these W. Friedemann took three “year courses,” since
he could use them in his post of organist at Halle, but his wretched
circumstances forced him afterwards to part with them one by one.
Forkel only knew of “eight to ten motets for double chorus,” and
twenty-one church cantatas, two five-voice masses, a mass for two
choirs, of which the first choir is accompanied by strings, the second
by wind, a double-chorus Passion with text by Picander (this must be
the “Matthew Passion”), a Sanctus, some motets, a single fugue for four
voices, and a comic cantata.
The other two “year courses,” which included about ninety cantatas, and
the two known Passions, went to C. P. Emmanuel Bach.
[Sidenote: MSS. of Works]
The MSS. of the larger number of the existing works of Bach are in the
Royal Library and in that of the Joachimsthal at Berlin. Many of these
are in autograph. The parts are of more value than the scores, since
they are not only more carefully copied, but contain the corrections
for performance.
Bach used to wrap up his scores and parts in covers on which the name
of the work and title of the composer were fully given, while on the
MSS. themselves nothing was given. If the cover were lost, therefore,
the composer’s name was lost. Many works by other composers are found
in Bach’s handwriting, both score and parts.
[Sidenote: _Difficulties in the way of publication_]
The Bach Gesellschaft has been at immense pains to search for all that
exists of Bach’s compositions. In vol. vi. they give a long account of
the difficulties they had to contend with in publishing the B minor
Mass; the owner of the autograph score, placing every difficulty in
their way, would neither sell it nor lend it to them, and finally tried
to dispose of it secretly to some unknown person. They were obliged,
therefore, to publish it from such copies as they could collect; but
almost immediately after they had done so they obtained access to the
precious MS. and were able to publish an appendix, giving whatever
variations from their own edition were found there.
Of Bach’s instrumental compositions the most important are, as we have
indicated, those for the organ and other keyed instruments. He has left
many orchestral works, but these have not the significance of his organ
and clavier music, for the symphony, in the modern sense, was not yet
developed.
[Sidenote: _Bach’s playing_]
His playing is thus described by the poet Schubart:--“J. S. Bach was
a genius of the highest order, his soul is so peculiar, so gigantic,
that centuries will have to pass before he is reached by anyone. He
played the clavier, the flügel, the cymbal with equal creative power,
and the organ--who is like him? who will ever equal him? His fist was
gigantic; he could, for example, stretch a 12th with the left hand, and
perform running passages between with the three inner fingers; he made
pedal runs with the greatest possible exactness, he drew the stops so
silently that the hearer almost sank under the magic effect; his hand
was never weary, and lasted out through a whole day’s organ playing.
“The comic style was just as familiar to him as the earnest; he was
equally a virtuoso and composer. What Newton was as a philosopher Bach
was as a musician. He had such a wealth of ideas, that no one except
his own great son can come near him; and with all this he combined also
the rarest talent for teaching.”
[Sidenote: _The Grace notes_]
With respect to the Manieren or grace-notes attacked in the “Kritische
Musikus” by Scheibe, a friend of Bach’s answered the attack by saying
that by means of these signs no performer would now be able to destroy
the effect of a piece by applying his own method; those who went wrong
would be put in the right way, and the honour of the master would be
retained.
The four chief ornaments are--
The Vorschlag (appoggiatura)
[Music: Appoggiatura Written Played]
It appears more in the parts than in the scores, and seems to have been
mostly added after they were written out. When Bach required it to be
played slowly he wrote out its exact value in full-sized notes.
The Trill (_tr._) seems to have been put down rather recklessly,
perhaps on account of fashion. Thus, the oboe sometimes has trills
given it which are quite impossible to perform.
Each composer had his own method of writing the various signs and there
was of course hopeless confusion. There is no doubt that the trill was
used to mean three different things, at the choice of the performer:
namely, the vibrato of the violin and tremulant of the organ, or a real
trill, or simply a _tenuto_. The sign [Music] appears to be equivalent
to _tenuto_, thus [Music]
Notes which are neither detached (gestossen) nor slurred, nor held
out, must be sustained for half their value, but if the word _ten._
appears above them they must be given their full value. These notes are
generally quavers and crotchets in moderate and slow tempo, and they
must not be played weakly, but with a refined and quite gentle touch.
Some of the signs can be interpreted by the fact that they are written
out in full in the parts. In this way Reitz has shown the Schleifer
(Glide) [Music: crotchet with glide] to mean [Music: crotchet preceded
by two ascending demisemiquavers] It was called in French _Coulé_,
sometimes written [Music] The Pralltriller or half trill [Music] is
lengthened when over long notes. It means no precise number of notes.
This is J. S. Bach’s own explanation,
[Music]
It will be seen that all four signs mean the same thing, and no turn
is to be played as in the shake. According to C. P. Emmanuel Bach it
must be so rapid that one does not perceive any loss of time from the
principal note.[76]
The Mordent [Music: crotchet with mordent] is to be played [Music: two
demisemiquavers descending, then dotted quaver on the initial note]
the lower note being either a semitone, as above, or a tone, as in the
little E minor fugue (Peters, 242).
FOOTNOTES:
[75] P. 144.
[76] This description of the _Manieren_ is extracted from the
Introduction to vol. vii. of the Bach Gesellschaft Edition.