Johann Sebastian Bach (69 page)

The well-thought-out design of the
Clavier-Übung
series is mirrored in the careful planning of its individual parts (Table 10.7), each of which represents a well-rounded entity often featuring fine-tuned subunits. In part I, all six partitas conform to the same basic suite scheme (Allemande-Courante-Sarabande-Gigue), but each one pursues the principle of variety in its own way; each begins with a distinctive opening movement (from Praeludium to Toccata) and then presents different choices of gallantry pieces (from dances to character pieces such as Scherzo and Burlesca). In part II, the two predominant national styles are contrasted in more than one way: three-movement concerto form versus eleven-movement suite structure; F major versus B minor, that is, opposite modes compounded by the tritone interval between them (attained by transposing the earlier C-minor version of the
French Overture
). Part III exhibits a multilevel formal organization, held together by the frame of an overture-like prelude and a fugue with three subjects, both for full organ. Corresponding to these two pieces are four duets for organ without pedal, in ascending keys (E to A, in symmetric modes). The overall framing device embraces twenty-one chorales. A first group consists of nine settings of strophic German versifications of the Kyrie “fons bonitatis” (three large
stile antico
chorales with migrating cantus firmi from soprano to pedal, followed by three miniature settings of the same melodies) and the Gloria (three trios in ascending keys, from F to A), with the central piece a pedal trio. A second group of twelve chorales (each of the six large-scale Catechism hymns with a corresponding small-sized pendant) features a subgroup comprising two canonic cantus firmus settings and a setting for full organ as centerpiece, and a second subgroup comprising two pieces with pedal cantus firmus and another centerpiece with full organ. The inclusion of smaller, less demanding settings made the collection more accessible to a broader circle of customers. Finally, part IV as a large-scale but unified performing cycle contrasts with the character of the preceding parts. Here, a chain of thirty variations is placed between an opening aria and its repetition at the end, which mark both the point of departure and the point of arrival for the work. An overture designates the beginning of the second half of the cycle (thereby fulfilling the same “symbolic” function as the overture opening Partita No. 4 does in part I). The internal variations are punctuated by canons that end each of the ten threefold groups of pieces; the canons themselves are arranged in ascendingly ordered imitation intervals, from unison to ninth, leading up to the quodlibet, with its several tuneful melodies fancifully combined, as a relaxed culmination.

The overall circulation of the
Clavier-Übung
series must have been considerable, with single print runs of at least one hundred copies keeping the process profitable.
⁹³
For parts III and IV, we know of only one printing; parts I and II had two printings each, part I possibly even three. The price of engraved music was relatively high: for example, part I sold for 2 talers (the same price as Heinichen's thoroughbass treatise, 994 typeset pages long) and part III for 3 talers, figures that prohibited distribution beyond the circle of genuinely interested parties. Nevertheless, copies of parts I and III found their way, for instance, into the hands of Giambattista Martini in Bologna. While Padre Martini knew much more about Bach than what is contained in the two Clavier-Übungvolumes,
⁹³
he recognized the significance of this particular collection of clavier and organ music, which had, in its far-ranging and all-encompassing form, no precedent or parallel. Indeed, with his kaleidoscope of published keyboard music, Bach had erected nothing short of a monument to his own artistry, anticipating the Obituary's declaration that he was “the greatest organ and clavier player that we have ever had.”

T
ABLE 10.7.
The
Clavier-Übung
Series, 1731–41

Part I:
Preludes, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gigues, Minuets, and Other Gallantries
(Leipzig, 1731), 73 pages of music: BWV 825–830

Part II:
A Concerto after the Italian Taste and an Overture after the French Manner
(Christoph Weigel, Jr.: Nuremberg, 1735), 27 pages: BWV 971, 831

Concerto in F major: [Allegro], Andante, Presto Overture in B minor: Ouverture, Courante, Gavotte I/II, Passepied I/II, Sarabande, Bourrée I/II, Gigue, Echo

 

Part III:
Various Preludes on the Catechism and Other Hymns
(Leipzig, 1739), 77 pages: BWV 552, 669–689, 802–805

Part IV:
Aria with Divers Variations
(Balthasar Schmid: Nuremberg, [1741]), 32 pages: BWV 988

A
T THE
C
OMPOSER'S
D
ESK

One of the most remarkable chapters of Forkel's 1802 biography deals with Bach as “the reviser of his own works.”
⁹⁴
Here Forkel draws on his philological experience as an adviser to Hoffmeister and Kühnel's projected complete edition of Bach's keyboard works, which was begun in 1800 and which led him to consult many unpublished manuscripts. “I have had opportunities,” he writes, “of comparing together many copies of his principal works, written in different years, and I confess that I have often felt both surprise and delight at the means with which he employed to make, little by little, the faulty good, the good better, and the better perfect.” Unfamiliar with Bach's handwriting development and not always correctly differentiating between autographs and scribal copies, Forkel often arrives at problematic conclusions and attributes certain major changes to fleeting fashions and tastes. On the other hand, Bach's sons may have pointed him in the right direction because he so clearly recognized one of the most characteristic traits of Bach's compositional activities: the never-ending process of reviewing and improving his musical scores:

 

Unity of style and character are often achieved by the alteration of a single note against which, in its former situation, the most rigid musical grammarian could not make any objection, but which yet did not entirely satisfy the connoisseur. Even commonplace passages are frequently changed into the most elegant by changing, taking away, or adding a single note. In these cases only the most thoroughly trained feeling and the finest, most polished taste can decide. This fine feeling and polished taste were possessed by Bach in the greatest perfection. He had gradually so improved both that at last no thought could occur to him which, in all its properties and relations, did not accord with the whole as it should and must. His later works, therefore, are all as if they were one cast: so gentle, soft, and even flows the inconceivably rich stream in them of the most diversified ideas blended together. This is the lofty summit of perfection in art which, in the most intimate union of melody and harmony, nobody besides Johann Sebastian Bach has ever yet attained.”

Forkel does not exaggerate. Although he provides no examples, there are numerous instances where indeed the change of a single note makes a tremendous difference. One need only compare the initial melodic contour of the principal theme of the “Confiteor” fugal movement from the
B-minor Mass
, BWV 232/20, as notated in the autograph score with its final shape (Ex. 10.1). Here Bach changed the third note in order to avoid undue emphasis on the third syllable “confiteor,” thereby also mollifying the melodic flow of the subject. A revision like this is not driven by any other than a purely musical consideration, and illustrates Bach's fine sensitivity. It shows the degree of attention he paid to the most subtle details of his scores, increasingly with advanced age and growing experience as a teacher-composer.
⁹⁶

In sheer compositional prowess, Bach moved at the highest levels of artistic achievement beginning in the later Arnstadt years, gradually conquering technique after technique, genre after genre, and quickly gaining complete control over the material he tackled. We can, however, observe a noticeable change in his attitude that emerged in the late 1720s and prevailed from the 1730s on. This change seems related to, or may even have been prompted by, Bach's having a large repertoire of vocal and instrumental compositions on hand for reuse and repeat performances. Now his composing and performing of new works stood side by side with re-performances of older works, primarily church compositions and keyboard music—a situation by no means typical of other composers, who for the most part opted for composing more new works. Thus, Telemann wrote over a thousand sacred cantatas, and Johann Friedrich Fasch and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel produced no fewer, but neither of them taught to the extent Bach did. Regularly turning to
The Well-Tempered Clavier
, for example, sharpened his eye and ear for compositional choices that are reflected in his continued revisions—a steady stream of minor and major changes made in the autograph score or entered into student copies. It is futile in this case, as in most of his keyboard works, to differentiate between distinct layers or versions because the situation cannot be compared with the careful revisions he undertook, for example, in the
St. John Passion
. In the pieces he tended to use for teaching purposes, Bach's never-ending review process was more haphazard than systematic, often affecting only a short passage or a single detail (see Ex. 10.2)—perhaps one flaw detected and “corrected” on the spot in the course of a lesson.

Considering Bach's immense facility at the organ and clavier, it may come as a surprise to learn that he ordinarily composed away from the keyboard, as son Carl testified in 1775: “If I exclude some (but,
nota bene
not all) of his clavier pieces, particularly those for which he took the material from improvisations on the clavier, he composed everything else without instrument, but later tried it out on one.”
⁹⁷
Many initial corrections may have resulted from Bach's checking his scores at the keyboard or—depending on the kind of work or passage—on the violin or some other instrument. The essential work, however, took place at the desk in his studio, which provided him with all he needed: stacks of paper; black (or dark-brown) and red ink pots and a supply of copper-gallic ink powder to be mixed with water;
⁹⁸
raven quills and a knife for preparing and sharpening quill pens (the same knife was used also for erasing mistakes after the ink had dried); single and double
rastrals
for ruling individual five-line staves or double (keyboard) staves; a straight ruler for drawing long bar lines in fair-copy scores; a box of fine sand to blot the ink; and (though rarely used) lead pencils. Bach clearly preferred to plan the layout of a page according to the structural needs of the music, so he avoided pre-ruled music paper. In this way, he also saved on the expensive commodity of paper suitable for music, which had to be more opaque than that used for correspondence and printing, and heavier because the sheets had to hold up on music stands. Bach's autograph scores invariably reflect the composer's space-saving efforts—for example, running a two-stave recitative underneath a multiline chorus score.