M502: J. S. Bach's cantatas in performance, Spring 2010

"Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich" BWV 17  BC A131, for 14.Trinitatis, first performed 22 September 1726

Text    Translation    On one page

An early printed text (Rudolstadt, 1726)

Score (BG)    Vocal score   

Recordings:  Gardiner or Gardiner   Harnoncourt/Leonhardt    Rilling    Koopman

NBA I/21 Critical Commentary

Autograph score (D-B Mus. ms. autogr. Bach P 45, fascicle 5)        Bach Digital

Original parts (D-B Mus. ms. autogr. Bach St 101)

Modern parts: V1     V2     Va     Ob1     Ob2     Bc    [no realization in the set]   Soprano     Alto     Tenore     Basso

1. Sources, analysis of movement 1

Follow the same steps as in the first assignment for BWV 44 above (1. Sources), familiarizing yourself with the original sources for this work.

Written assignment no.1: Write a two-to-three page prose summary and analysis of this work's history and particularly of the original sources that transmit it. Start your essay with the sentence "Bach composed "Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich" BWV 17 in . . . and first performed it. . . ." In well-ordered prose, summarize the most important features of the autograph score (no need to go into great detail); outline and discuss the original performing parts and their contents. Do not try to convey every detail; focus on the basic elements--what parts there are, what they contain, perhaps something about their copying, and so on. This assignment (double-spaced, with 1" margins) is due in class on Tuesday.

We will also discuss the construction and organization of the first movement.

    Diagram of BWV 17/1

2. Movements 1, 2, 4, 6

We will concentrate on the first movement, and do as many of the recitatives as time allows.

3. Arias: scoring and analytical issues

1. Study the text and music of the two arias mvts. 3 and 5. How are their texts organized poetically? What are the implications for musical setting?

2. What is the musical organization of each of the opening ritornellos? How do they differ?

3. What is the relationship in each aria between the material of the opening ritornello and the first vocal material?

4. How is each aria organized? Make a diagram of ritornello structure in each; diagrams are below, but try your own first.

5. How does the instrumental scoring of each aria relate to its musical organization?

 Diagram of BWV 17/3    Diagram of BWV 17/5

4. Movements 3, 5 and 7; complete run

We'll look at the two arias, seeing how their their formal organization, scoring and voice/instrument relationships can suggest ways of performing. We will look briefly at the concluding chorale, and perform the entire cantata.

"Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe" BWV 22   BC A46, for Estomihi, first performed 7 February 1723

Text    Translation   On one page

Original text print (1724)

Score (BG)   Vocal score   

Recordings: Gardiner or Gardiner   Rilling    Koopman or Koopman   Suzuki    Harnoncourt/Leonhardt

NBA I/8 Critical Commentary

Autograph score (D-B Mus. ms. autogr. Bach P119)                        Bach Digital

Modern parts: Ob    V1    V2    Va    Bc        S    A    T    B              Srip    Arip    Trip    Brip

1. Source; squiggly lines

1. Study the autograph score of this cantata, for which no original parts survive. (Note that this is a calligraphic fair copy that is particularly rich in indications for performance, but there are still gaps). How exactly specified is the work? What is reasonably certain about its realization? What aspects can you guess at by analogy to other works we have studied? What elements are unknown?

2. Note the squiggly line at the bottom of the front side of the third leaf, which has a specific meaning in 18th-century manuscript scores. Spend some analytical time with the movement and see what musical features line up with this indication. How is the movement constructed? How is it organized in relation to its scriptural text?

3. Does anything strike you as strange about the date of this work's first performance in the context of Bach's biography?

Written assignment no. 2: Write a two-to-three page prose overview of the piece as viewed from the autograph score, focusing on kinds of movements, their scoring, and their realization in performance. (This is essentially a matter of writing up what you do in the assignment above; don't spend too much time on the squiggly line, though.) This assignment (double-spaced, with 1" margins) is due in class on Tuesday.

2. Movements 1 and 5

We will experiment with various vocal realizations of these movements; this will be an opportunity for more than one person to sing each line, so come prepared.

3. Movements 2 and 4

1. The ritornellos of these arias represent the two most common kinds of organization. What is that musical organization (phrase structure, construction) of each ritornello?

2. Both arias use the same opening gambit--the same procedure right after the opening ritornello. What is it? (Hint: Listen for the sense that vocally the piece begins, then resets and begins again.)

3. Trace the large-scale formal organization of each aria, tracing appearances of the ritornello, the overal harmonic organization, and distribution of the text.

Written assignment no. 3. Make careful diagrams of each aria; you can take the diagrams of earlier works as a model and starting point. After you have polished your diagrams, write one concise paragraph about each aria giving an overview in prose of the arias' structure. [For example: "Bach divides the 14 lines of text into 8 lines + 6 lines and sets the aria as a da capo. A ritornello in the tonic frames the setting of the first 8 lines (A section), with an intermediate ritornello in #II. The second 6 lines are set as a B section in bIV.]

 4. Movements 2, 3 and 4; complete run

"Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet" BWV 164  BC A128, for 13.Trinitatis, first performed 26 August 1725

Text    Translation    On one page

Score (BG)   Vocal score   

Recordings: Harnoncourt/Leohnardt    Suzuki or Suzuki    Rilling    Gardiner    Koopman

NBA I/21 Critical Commentary

Autograph score (D-B Mus. ms. autogr. Bach P121)                    Bach Digital

Original parts (D-B Mus. ms. autogr. Bach St 60)

Modern parts: Trav1    Trav2    Ob1/2    V1    V2    Va    Bc    S    A    T    B

1. Overview and sources; Organ/Harpsichord

1. Study the text and music of the cantata for a basic familiarity with the work.

2. Examine the original sources of the work, particularly the original performing materials.

3. Please read Chapter 2 of Dreyfus, Bach's Continuo Group (reference and links below). You will probably find the first chapter a useful introduction.

Written Assignment no. 4. Write a short essay (c. 750 words) in which you identify the principal questions that Dreyfus asks in Chapter 2, the kinds of evidence he uses, and the conclusions he reaches. Don't try to summarize every argument; instead, give an overview of his approach, his strategy and his results.

Laurence Dreyfus. Bach’s continuo group. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987. [ML410 .B12 D67]

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. The Organ and the Harpsichord

Chapter 3. The Accompaniment of Recitatives

Appendix A. Catalogue of Original Performance Parts for Bach's Vocal Works

2. Mvts. 3, 5, 6.

We will try different combinations of continuo instruments.

3. Analytical issues; Recitative accompaniment

1. Please read Chapter 3 of Dreyfus, Bach's Continuo Group, on the accompaniment of recitatives.

2. Study the recits in our cantata. How do the principles argued by Dreyfus apply to these movements?

3. Review the recitatives in BWV 17 with the same questions in mind.

4. Study the construction of the three arias in this cantata along the lines we have been discussing.

4. Mvts. 1, 2, 4; complete run

Please bring scores/vocal parts/continuo parts for BWV 17 as well so we can look briefly at its recits if there is time.

"Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust" BWV 170   BC A106, for the 6.Trinitatis, first performed 28 July 1726

Text    Translation    On one page  <--revised

Original text print

Score (BG)    Vocal score

Recordings: Gardiner    Müller-Brühl    Suzuki    Sillito    Koopman    Rilling

NBA I/17.2 Critical Commentary

Autograph score                    Bach Digital

Original parts

Modern parts: V1    V2    Va    Bc    Org    Ob d'Am    Trav        Org (mvt. 5 in Altnickol's version)

1. Overview of BWV 170

1. BWV 170. Examine the autograph score (Bach Digital) and description of the original parts (NBA Critical Commentary). What are the problems of scoring in this work? You might want to focus on the role of keyboard instruments. How are continuo and obbligato organ lines notated in score and parts?

2. Performance of movements from BWV 170

Written assignment no. 5. Write a short essay (c. 750 words) in which you compare the approaches taken and results of at least three recordings of BWV 170 (a sampling is above--there are others as well). Pick one or two topics--don't try to cover every aspect. It's a given that some recordings pay relatively little attention to Bach's own performing practice documented in the sources, but I recommend against simply taking a recording to task for that. What choices are made? What are the musical results? To the extent that the recordings might be said to represent modern adaptations, which are successful? What are the approaches to scoring, pitch, articulation, vocal technique, balance, tempo? [Do not try to write about all of these!]

---------------------

For repertorial comparison:

Johann Ludwig Bach, "Ich will meinen Geist in euch geben" [for 6. Trinitatis, performed by Bach on the same day as BWV 170]

Text [Rudlostadt, 1726]

Recording: Max

"Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir" BWV 38    BC A152, for 21.Trinitatis, first performed 29 October 1724

Text    Translation    On one page    Derivation of the text

Score (BG)   Vocal score   

Recordings: Suzuki or Suzuki    Harnoncourt/Leonhardt    Rilling    Koopman

NBA I/25 Critical Commentary

Original parts    [These are in the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig but unfortunately are not available to us at the moment. We'll work from the descriptions in the NBA Critical Commentary.]

Modern parts: V1    V2    Va    Bc    Ob1    Ob2    Bc    Tbn1    Tbn2    Tbn3    Tbn4    S    A    T    B

1. Overview of BWV 38;  Mvt 3 (T Ob1 Ob2 Bc) 

1. Study the text of BWV 38, particularly its derivation from the stanzas of the chorale "Aus tiefer Not." How has the chorale been turned into a mixed text libretto? What are the implications for a musical setting?

2. Examine the first movement, the purest motet setting we have studied. What are its old-fashioned musical features? What are its modern features? What implications for performance are there from musical style and instrumentation?

3. What do you make of the other movements and their scoring, particularly the trio?

2. Bach's 1730 Entwurff and Bach's "choral ideal"; Mvts. 4, 5 (SAB Bc)

1. Please read Bach's famous "Short but most necessary Draft" on the staffing of Leipzig church music. Note that the translation (from the New Bach Reader) inevitably represents an interpretation of the document's meaning.
   
       Entwurff (transcription of original text)
       Entwurff (a standard English translation)

2. There is an extensive literature on this document and the issues it is said to raise about Bach's staffing of his Leipzig church performances. On one side of a curiously heated argument are claims that it describes Bach's choral ideal, and indicates either how he performed concerted church music or how he wished to. On the other are arguments that the essay has been misinterpreted, and that it neither expresses an ideal nor documents the performance of cantatas. The following essay takes the second position; note that it is written in response to claims for the first view, and mentions or summarizes them:
      

   Joshua Rifkin. Bach’s choral ideal. Dortmund: Klangfarben Musikverlag, 2002. [ML410 .B12 R57]

3. Debates on performance

Several aspects of the performance of Bach's cantatas have been the subject of heated ideological debate.

The first presentation of a new view of vocal scoring Bach's cantata performances led to the publication of several versions of this paper and a response. [These are optional background reading.]

Joshua Rifkin. "Bach's Chorus: A Preliminary Report." Musical Times 123 (1982): 747-754.
Robert L. Marshall. "Bach's Chorus. A Preliminary Reply to Joshua Rifkin." Musical Times 124 (1983): 19-22

Three articles on this and related topics appeared in the same 1996 issue of Early Music. [The first two are optional background reading]

Andrew Parrott. "Bach's chorus: a ‘brief yet highly necessary’ reappraisal." Early Music 24 (1996): 551-582. 

Joshua Rifkin. "From Weimar to Leipzig: Concertists and ripienists in Bach's Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis." Early Music 24 (1996): 583-604. 

Ton Koopman. “Recording Bach’s early cantatas.“ Early Music 24 (1996): 612-617. 

They (particularly the last) spurred the following increasingly testy exchange. [Available in a single file]

Andrew Parrott. “Bach’s chorus. Who cares? (Observation).“ Early Music 25 (1997): 297-300. 

Joshua Rifkin. “Bassoons, violins and voices. A response to Ton Koopman (Observation).“ Early Music 25 (1997), S. 302-307. 

Ton Koopman. “One-to-a-part? Who then turns the pages? – More on Bach’s chorus (Correspondence).“ Early Music 25 (1997): 541f. 

Joshua Rifkin. “Page turns, players and ripieno parts. More questions of scoring on Bach’s vocal music.“ Early Music 25 (1997): 728-734.

Ton Koopman. “Bach’s Choir, an ongoing story.“ Early Music 26 (1998): 109-121.

John Butt. "Bach's vocal scoring: What can it mean?" Early Music 26 (1998): 99-108. 

Joshua Rifkin. “Bach‘s Chorus. A neverending story?” Early Music 26 (1998): 380f.

Christoph Wolff. “Bach’s chorus. Stomach aches may disappear!” Early Music 26 (1998): 540f.

Joshua Rifkin. [Reply to Christoph Wolff]. Early Music 26 (1998): 541f.

Andrew Parrott. “Bach’s Chorus. Beyond reasonable doubt.” Early Music 26 (1998): 637-658.

Christoph Wolff. “Bach’s chorus. An amplification (Correspondence).” Early Music 27 (1999): 172.

Joshua Rifkin. “Bach’s chorus. Not again!” Early Music 27 (1999): 350. 

Please read this exchange and examine it for the kinds of arguments made, the types of evidence brought to bear, and the musical and ideological positions of the various authors. We will discuss some of these points in class.

Written assignment no. 6. Write a short essay (c. 750 words) in which you discuss the various backgrounds and ideological positions from which the authors represented above write. Aside from the specific evidence they cite, how do their backgrounds, points of view and leanings appear to influence their positions? Give some specific examples from the readings.

In this exchange you can follow most of the various threads of argument about Bach's performances, particularly the matter of vocal scoring. Rifkin has tended to argue from the evidence of Bach's performing materials, leading to the conclusion that Bach's parts were designed for use by one singer each; these singers were deployed as concertists and (where parts were provided) ripienists. Others, including Parrott, have emphasized iconographic evidence (drawings of performances) and writings of the time that discuss concertist/ripienist practice.

Arguments against this view and in favor of choral performance have taken several forms. One raises practical questions about the workability of performances with one singer (or sometimes two) on each line, or cites the simplicity of Bach's indication of where additional singers were to join. Another argues that various documents demonstrate that Bach had more singers available (and that he presumably used them); the main source here is the 1730 Entwurff. Recent writings along these lines (almost entirely in German) have enumerated specific students in Leipzig and argue or implied that they (and others) particpated in performances of concerted music. Other writers assert that Bach's ideal was of a chorus of multiple voices on a line, again often citing the Entwurff.

In response, Rifkin in particular has questioned the grounds for claiming to know Bach's ideal, and challenged traditional interpretations of documents like the Entwurff, pointing out that its interpretation (and translation) have typically been done from the assumption of choral performances of cantatas.

4. Mvts. 1, 6; complete run (SATB Ob1 Ob2 Str Bc Tbn1-4)

"Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen" BWV 215  

Text    Translation    In parallel columns

Original text print

Score (BG) [Web version is missing p.261--use this corrected one]        Score (NBA)  <--Warning: 84Mb

    Vocal lines (1, 8, 9) or full score (other mvts.), by movement:        1 (SATB/SATB)      2+3 (T)    4+5 (B)    6+7 (S)    8 (STB)        9 (tutti)

Recordings:    Koopman or Koopman     Rilling    Schreier   

NBA Critical Commentary

Autograph score (D-B Mus. ms. autogr. Bach P 139)                    Bach Digital

Original parts (D-B Mus. mus. autogr. Bach St. 77)

Modern parts [to be distributed on paper]

1. Overview; background; problems    MU205  

1. Study the text of the cantata. Some of it may not make sense, but become familiar with it. How are movements labeled in the original text print?

2. Please read

Stephen A. Crist. "The Question of Parody in Bach's Cantata Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen, BWV 215." In Bach Perspectives 1, ed. Russell Stinson, 135-61. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

The author is most concerned with the possible origin of several movements as parodies of existing compositions, but there is lots of useful background information about the work.

3. Examine the original sources for this work, particularly the original performing parts. How is the material distributed in the vocal parts? What can we tell about the disposition of the basso continuo group? What is in the oboe 1 part, and what do you make of it?

Written assignment no. 7. From your own examination of the autograph score and (especially) the original performing material, write a short essay (c.750 words) in which you propose and argue for the vocal and instrumental staffing of BWV 215 under Bach. Be sure to cover all the instruments and groups, including voices and continuo. Be as concise as you can in explaining why you suggest particular numbers and distribution of singers and players. Base your proposals on the sources and on what you have learned from other pieces we have studied.

2. Mvts. 1 [no trp/tmp], 6, 7     Voices, Trav, Ob, Str, Bc    MC040 

3. Mvts. 3, 5                             T, B, Ob, Str, Bc                  MC040  

4. Mvts. 1, 8, 9                         Voices, Trav, Ob, Str, Bc, Tpt/Tmp    MC040  

Written assignment no. 8

5. Mvts. 2, 4; complete run        Voices, Trav, Ob, Str, Bc, Tpt/Tmp    MC040  

6. Complete run                         Voices, Trav, Ob, Str, Bc, Tpt/Tmp    MC040  

Written assignment no. 8

Please write up your thoughts about this course, its organization, its assignments and its conduct. This class has been an experiment and I would be grateful for your reactions to and suggestions about: the choice of repertory (particularly the number of pieces); the balance between classroom work and performance; the balance between source study and reading in secondary literature; the usefulness of particular readings; the appropriateness of particular written assignments; the system of rotation of performing opportunities; mechanical matters (course Web page, resources); matters of organization; the conduct of classes and discussion; and anything else you'd like to comment on.

You are welcome to print this anonymously. This assignment will be collected by a member of the class and held until the semester is over and grades are in--I won't see it until everything is done, in the interest of fairness and in the hope you will feel comfortable writing whatever needs to be said. But it is required!