M602: Seminar in Musicology: J. S. Bach Cantata Topics |
Daniel R. Melamed |
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University |
Fall 2022 |
|
SCHEDULE
Tuesday 3-6PM PM, M263 |
|
Tue 23 Aug
1.
Introduction/Ritornello analysis
Tue 30 Aug
2.
Ritornello forms
Tue 6 Sep 3. Liturgical calendar/Bach's church cantata repertory
Tue 20 Sep 5. Autograph scores
Tue 27 Sep 6. Original performing parts
Tue 4 Oct 7. Original performing parts (cont.)
Tue 11 Oct 8. Performing pitch
Tue 18 Oct 9. Vocal fugue
Sun 23 Oct Bloomington
Bach Cantata Project BWV 9
Tue 25 Oct 10. Parody and re-use
Tue 1 Nov 11. Organ tacet markings
Sun 6
Nov Bloomington Bach Cantata Project BWV 156
Tue 8 Nov 12. Approaches to analysis
Tue 15 Nov 13. Translations. Guest: Michael Marissen
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Tue 29 Nov
Tue 6 Dec
Presentations
TBA Presentations
TOPIC
Topics in the study and performance of cantatas by J. S. Bach as a starting point for the study of early eighteenth-century music and its modern reception.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Prof. Daniel R. Melamed M325C, dmelamed (AT) iu.edu
Office hours by appointment (e-mail to arrange). E-mail questions are welcome at any time and are the fastest way to get an answer.Course information, assignments, reserve lists and this schedule can be found at https://dmelamed.pages.iu.edu/M602-JSBCantatas-2022.htm, also reachable through http://bach.melamed.org.
REQUIREMENTS
GRADING
The course grade will be based on presentations, participation and the final paper. There will be no examinations.
SEMINAR MEMBERS
Jack Bussert
Rachel Cisneros
Monika Franaszczuk
Elizabeth Hile
Tess Rhian
Yishai Rubin
Sarah Sabol
Kaylee Simmons
Kitt Westerduin
D. Melamed
RESOURCES
REFERENCE TOOL
Basic questions about research materials on Bach are answered in
Daniel R. Melamed and Michael Marissen. An introduction to Bach studies. New York, 1998. [Ref ML134.B1 M45]
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Introduction/Ritornello analysis
Reading
Stephen A. Crist. "Aria
forms in the vocal works of J. S. Bach, 1714-24."
PhD diss. Brandeis Univ., 1988. Chapter 4.
Laurence Dreyfus. "The
ideal ritornello." In Bach
and the Patterns of Invention. Cambridge, MA,
1996. Pp. 59-102.
The original formulation of modern analysis of Fortspinnung-type ritornellos is
Wilhelm Fischer. "Zur
Entwicklungsgechichte des Wiener klassischen Stils." Studien
zur Musikwissenschaft 3 (1915):
24-84.
Analysis
Study each of the ritornello movements listed below. Make yourself diagrams here along the lines of the samples also provided. Scores are in a pdf; texts and translations are supplied. You can type the diagrams if you wish, but it's often easier just to write them out by hand
For the first 10 movements listed with initials, please make a typed diagram for the one assigned to you and send it to me as a Word document by 11AM on the day of our seminar meeting. Please be ready to lead a short discussion of that movement and its issues and features. We'll discuss the last several as a group and compare our results.
BWV 61/3 BWV 61/5 BWV 76/3
BWV 44/1 BWV 44/3 BWV 44/6
BWV 51/1 BWV 51/4 BWV 140/1
BWV 140/4
DB-W JB
RC
MF
EH
TR
YR
SS
KS
KW
and
BWV 7/6 BWV 57/7 BWV 84/3 BWV 102/1
Scores Texts and translations Sample diagrams
3. Liturgical calendar and Bach's cantata repertory
1. Read this draft chapter on the liturgical calendar and Bach's repertory. Study the two examples (BWV 140 and Jubilate Sunday) examining the various resources below. Examine the calendar of cantatas during Bach's first year in Leipzig (1723-24).
Liturgical calendar, with Epistle and Gospel readings, from D. Melamed and M. Marissen. An introduction to Bach studies.
1723-24 liturgical calendar for Leipzig
Vollständiges Kirchen-Buch. Leipzig, 1718. [Includes Gospel and Epistle readings for the year]
Gottfried Vopelius. Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch. Leipzig, 1682. [Principal Leipzig musical liturgical book]
H. Grotefend. Handbuch der historischen Chronologie des deutschen Mittelalters und der Neuzeit. Hanover, 1872. [Modern reference for dates and calendars]
2. For the assigned liturgical date below, investigate the Gospel and Epistle readings for the day, hymns recommended for the day. Determine the date of the observation during Bach's relevant years in Weimar (1714-17) and first three years in Leipzig. Examine Bach's cantatas for the day and their relevance to the feast. (Do not get too involved in theological issues--keep this at a more general level.) Be ready to lead a short discussion of your findings. Please make a one-page handout as a Word document that summarizes relevant information, and send it to me by 11AM on the day of our seminar meeting. Be clear, concise, and organized in what you put on this page
New Year's Day JB
Estomihi RC
Pentecost 1 MF
Trinity EH
10th Sunday after Trinity TR
16th Sunday after Trinity YR
20th Sunday after Trinity SS
Purification KS
St. Michael's Day KW
1. Read this draft chapter on the cantata in the liturgy. Follow the service outline in the original sources, linked below.
--Bach's notation of the order of service on the wrappers of BWV 61 and 62. (Look these up at http://bach-digital.de)
--Leipziger Kirchen-Staat (1711)
--Leipziger Kirchen-Andachten (1694)
2. Trace the case study on the First Sunday after Trinity; follow the elements in the outline in the original sources, linked below.
A couple of tools:
A modern reference; note that you also have to refer to earlier dates in the liturgical calendar, as later ones are based on them to save space:
Charles Sanford Terry. Joh. Seb. Bach cantata texts sacred and secular. With a reconstruction of the Leipzig liturgy of his period. London, 1926 and reprints.
A modern compilation of Lutheran service music from old sources
Ludwig Schoeberlein. Schatz des liturgischen Chor- und Gemeindegesangs. I II-1 II-2 and III
--Leipziger Kirchen-Staat (1710) and its hymnal
--Leipziger Kirchen-Andachten (1694) and its hymnal
--Florilegium Portense Part I Part II
--Melchior Vulpius. Cantionum sacrarum and Selectissimarium cantionum sacrarum
--Martin Luther. Deutsche Messe (1626) English translation of textual portions
--Vollstaendiges Kirchen-Buch (1718) and Agenda (1712)
--Agenda das ist Kirchen-Ordnung (1735)
--Episteln und Evangelia (1730)
--Erdmann Neumeisters ...Geistliche Bibliothec, Bestehend aus Predigten Auf alle Sonn- und Fest-Tage des Jahrs (1719) [A volume of sermons from Hamburg]
3. For the liturgical dates below, trace the liturgy for the day in the primary sources above. Identify the various service and musical materials relevant to the day, as if you were going to reconstruct the liturgy. Consider the relevance of the liturgy to Bach's cantatas for the day. Choose one element that particularly interests you and prepare a short presentation on it; please send me a one-page handout as a Word document that summarizes relevant information, and send it to me by 11AM on the day of our seminar meeting.
1st Sunday in Advent JB
Christmas 1 RC
Epiphany MF
Sexageimae EH
Easter 1 TR
9th Sunday after Trinity YR
12th Sunday after Trinity SS
Visitation KS
St. John's Day KW
1. Read chapters 1-3 and the conclusion of this book, available online, on reserve, and in two additional copies in the stacks. Examine chapters 4-7, noting the kinds of compositional activity that the author is able to trace. Examine some of the sketches and drafts detailed in v. 2.
Robert L. Marshall. The Compositional Process of J. S. Bach. A Study of the Autograph Scores of the Vocal Works. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972. [ML410.B12 M369]
2. Read this draft chapter on autograph scores. Follow the two case studies (BWV 20 and 215) in the original sources available on bach-digital.de. Spend some time with the site's entries for the two cantatas, noting what kinds of information is provided. Look up the work in the Bach Compendium [Ref ML134.B1 S38] in the NBA watermark catalogue (NBA IX/1, 2 vols.) [M3 .B119 Ser. IX, v. 1], and in the critical commentary volumes [Kritische Berichte] for the works in the NBA [Ref M3 .B119], focusing on the information provided about the score.
On BWV 215 you can read
Stephen A. Crist. "The Question of Parody in Bach's Cantata Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen, BWV 215." Bach Perspectives 1 ed. Russell Stinson, 135-61. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
3. For the assigned cantata indicated below, study the work's autograph score. Identify the paper used and the gathering structure of the score; consider making yourself a mockup with folded copy paper. Look it up (focusing on the autograph score) on bach-digital.de, in the watermark catalogue, in the NBA critical report for the cantata, and in the Bach Compendium. Examine any corrections, sketches, or drafts; look them up in Marshall's book as appropriate. Account for the way the work is notated in the score (what is specified and what is not), how the music is arranged on the page, and so on.
Come to class prepared to give a short presentation in which you identify the character of the autograph score according to Marshall's categories (composing score, revision copy, score or fair copy), describe its gathering structure, and point out one or two noteworthy features that relate to Bach's compositional process in the work.
BWV 71 BWV 173a
BWV 75 BWV 105 BWV
194
BWV 33 BWV 207 BWV
30 BWV 14
JB
RC
MF
EH
TR
YR
SS
KS
KW
1. Read this draft chapter on original performing parts. Follow the case studies on BWV 33 and 44, examining the sources on Bach-Digital and looking up the materials in the cantatas' NBA Critical Report, in the Bach Compendium, and in the NBA copyist catalogue.
2. For the assigned cantata indicated below, study the work's original performing parts. Trace their preparation, separating chronological layers if necessary. Account for likely missing parts, and for parts made for reperformances. Consider the parts as a realization of the piece; relate this to the text in the autograph score (if it survives). Make a table of the parts, their contents, and their copyists; send this to me as a one-page summary by 11AM on the day of our meeting. Come to class prepared to talk about one or two interesting points.
BWV 33* BWV 14** BWV 110 BWV 40 BWV 123 BWV 137 BWV 30 BWV 2 BWV 70
*facsimile available [Vault 9092834]
**partial facsimile available [ML96.4 .B118 v.2]
7. Original performing parts (cont.)
1. Revisit the parts you examined in the previous assignment. Refine and polish your summaries of them according to the models provided separately. Start by closely checking the lists and descriptions in the Bach Compendium, NBA critical report for the cantata, NBA copyist catalogue, and Bach-Digital. Account for the specific contents of each part and its labeling--what movements are provided. Relate the parts and their content to the autograph score, if it survives. Distinguish layers of parts if appropriate. Account for likely lost parts. Reconstruct the part-copying process and make a table that reflects it. (If there are materials from after J. S. Bach's time, you do not have to go into detail about them. Send your revised tables to everyone in the seminar by e-mail; addresses will be in a message from me.
2. Examine the original parts for the 1733 "Dresden Missa" BWV 232I (BWV 232.2 on Bach-Digital). Do a quick survey of all the parts, then examine the "Laudamus te" in every part (modern score here; autograph score on Bach-Digital).
1. Read chapter 5 of this dissertation, both for background on pitch standards in Germany and as an example of the meticulous assembly of evidence on an elusive topic.
Bruce Haynes. "Pitch standards in the baroque and classical periods." Diss. Universite de Montreal, 1995.
2. Read this draft chapter on performing pitch. Follow the examples, examining the original materials where appropriate.
3. Using the usual resources, determine the content and pitch of each of the parts for these pieces. Distinguish the layers representing various performances; you can confirm your results with the conclusions presented in the Bach Compendium and the NBA. Then work out the parts used, new parts made, and old parts set aside for each performance, and characterize its performing pitch(es). Come to class ready to discuss the various performances and how Bach adapted the pieces.
“Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut” BWV 199
"Christen, ätzet diesen Tag" BWV 63
"Erschallet, ihr Lieder" BWV 172
"Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" BWV 12
1. Please read the following on vocal fugue and permutation fugue:
Paul Walker. "Die Entstehung der Permutationsfugue." Bach-Jahrbuch 75 (1989): 21-41.
Paul Walker. "Invertible Counterpoint and the Hamburg Circle of Theorists." Chapter 7 of Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach." Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2000.
Werner Neumann. J. S. Bachs Chorfuge. Ein Beitrag zur Kompositionstechnik Bachs. 3rd edition. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1953.
2. Confirm your understanding of the permutation principle by examining a movement attributed to Reinhard Keiser; analyis here, recording here (at 2:00). Make your own diagram.
3. Examine the following movements; come prepared to present briefly on the one assigned to you. Send me a diagram and identification of the musical units by 11AM the morning of our meeting. If the permutation fugue is part of a larger structure, make sure you understand that as well. Scores are on IMSLP, recordings on Naxos Music Library.
BWV 21/6 BWV 21/11 BWV 105/1 BWV 208/11 BWV 71/7 BWV 182/2 BWV 182/8 BWV 243/7 BWV 196/2
JB RC MF EH TR YR SS KS KW
3. Examine and diagram the movement "Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen" BWV 245/27b (score, recording). Come prepared to discuss it as a group.
4. Examine the following movements for their relevance to the topic; consider the overall organization as well as the contrapuntal elements.
BWV 76/1 BWV 17/1
1. Please read:
"Parody." In Malcolm Boyd, ed. Oxford composer companions: J.S. Bach. Oxford, 1999. [Ref ML410.B12 J15]
Hans-Joachim Schulze. "The parody problem in Bach's music: an old problem reconsidered." Bach 20, no. 1 (1989): 7-21.
Draft chapter on re-use
2. Study the parts for the Cöthen serentata "Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht" BWV 134a and the related Leipzig church cantata "Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiss" BWV 134.
Examine the sources on Bach-Digital, sorting out the layers of the original parts and examining their contents. (The autograph score does not survive but you can find a description in the NBA Critical Commentary for BWV 134a.) From a practical point of view, how did Bach make use of performing material from the older work in the newer one?
3. Study the text and music of “Durchlauchster Leopold” BWV 173a, for a Cöthen birthday, and "Erhöhtes Fleisch und Blut" BWV 173, for the second day of Pentecost in Leipzig. Compare the texts from the point of view of prosody and poetic construction. Then study the adaptation of the music at the level of the whole work and individual movements, particularly the vocal lines. (Scores are here and here.)
We will discuss this as a group, but please come prepared to lead the conversation on particular topics. If there is something you would like to have projected on the screen, send it to me beforehand.
BWV 173/1 /2 /3 /4 /5 /6 * ** Overall construction
JB RC MF EH TR YR SS KS KW
* Bach's attempt to put the new text and vocal line of BWV 173/1 directly in the autograph score
** The revised score P 74 (CGM/JSB)
Several original organ parts, listed here by Laurence Dreyfus, contain tacet markings for selected movements. We will investigate these parts and the pieces that call for organ only in certain movements.
Relevant chapters from the book are here:
Laurence Dreyfus. Bach's Continuo Group: Players and Practices in his Vocal Works. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Questions to pursue:
1. (2 people) What are the dates and liturgical occasions for these works? Can the approximate dating of many of them in the early 1730s be pinned down? Is there any way to tell if they are all from the same year? (Note that a lot has been published about the likely dates of sources since Dreyfus’s book appeared.) What about the apparently earlier pieces? Do they represent the same phenomenon? Is there any way to say whether the performances represented were all in one church or the other (St. Thomas, St. Nikolaus)?
2. (2 people) What kinds of movements are these? For what voices and instrumental forces? Of what movement topics and types? In what keys? How do the movements with and without organ figure in the cantatas overall?
3. (2 people) What other continuo parts survive? Figured? How completely, in which movements? Which sets of parts are incompletely transmitted and thus ambiguous? What do the sources say about the continuo disposition of performances before and/or after the ones with organ-tacet movements? What do the autograph scores say?
4. (2 people) Does the evidence (or not) for “dual accompaniment” play a role in understanding the organ tacet markings and their realization in performance?
5. (1 person) Were there documented organ repairs in the relevant years at the principal churches? Did this play a role?
"Organ repair hypotheses" were codified by Arnold Schering; chapter 22 of Johann Sebastian Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik is called "Orgelreparaturen." He discusses the Thomaskirche in 1720/21, again in 1730, and in 1747. In the Nikolaikirche he mentions a repair period in 1725. Schering's interest in this topic was related to his anxieties over the use of harpsichord in Leipzig concerted church music, documented by all those figured Cammerton continuo parts. Dreyfus has written about the ideology involved, and there is a brief section called "The Organ Repair Hypothesis" in his book (26-27).
We will examine modern critical treatments of the cantatas, trying to discern what issues have interested writers one these works.
1. Albert Schweitzer. J. S. Bach. Leipzig, 1911. [Vol 1 Vol 2]
Please read chapters 19-21, in which the author lays out an approach. What is it? Then look at his discussions of BWV 4, BWV 39, and some other cantatas of your choosing. Come to class prepared to discuss Schweitzer's approach, which has been hugely influential to the point that many commentators take it for granted that this is the way to approach a cantata.
2. Choose one of the sources below. Look up discussions of BWV 4, BWV 39, and some other cantatas of your choosing. Read other sections as well. From this material, formulate what you take to be the author's approach. Come prepared to present this, with an example.
Philipp Spitta. J. S. Bach. His work and Influence of the Music of Germany, 1685-1750. Transl. Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Maitland. London: Novello, 1899. [Vol. 1 Vol 2]
William Giles Whittaker. The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: Sacred and Secular. 3 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. [MT115.B2 W62]
John Eliot Gardiner. Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. New York: Alfred E. Knopf, 2013 [ML410 . B12 G23]
Christoph Wolff. Bach's Musical Universe: the Composer and his Work. New York: W. W. Norton, 2020. [ML410.B12 W793 Carrel 2-005]
Alfred Dürr. The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: with their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. [Ref ML410.B12 D74 2005]
Eric Chafe. Analyzing Bach Cantatas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. [ML410.B12 C47]
Alec Robertson. The Church Cantatas of J. S. Bach. New York: Praeger, 1972. [MT115.B2 R64 1972]
http://jsbachcantatas.com [J. Mincham]
http://bach-cantatas.com [discussions by various authors; this will require a somewhat different approach to the assignment]
1. Read this draft chapter and consider its examples and the issues raised by translation.
2. Examine the English translation of the cantata on which you are working in each of the versions listed below. Read the prefatory material to each collection, and consider the various approaches and their merits.
3. Make a close study of the translations of the following movements in each of the collections, considering them at the level of the movement, sentence, line, and word. Consult the original text sources available for two of them, reprinted in Werner Neumann, Sämtliche von Johann Sebastian Bach vertonte Texte (Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1974) [ML49.B2 N4] and elsewhere. You will certainly want to get to know these works musically, and to examine the entire cantata libretto for context. Come to class prepared to discuss these examples and their lessons.
BWV 182/5 BWV 182/8 BWV 22/3 BWV 22/5 BWV 172/2 BWV 172/3
______________________________________
Harry S. Drinker. Texts of the Choral Works of Johann Sebastian Bach in English Translation. 4 vols. New York: Assoc. of American Colleges Arts Program, 1942.
Melvin Unger. Handbook to Bach's Sacred Cantata Texts. Lanham, MD: Scarcrow Press, 1996. [Ref ML54.B15 C329] [pdf excerpt here, courtesy of Mel Unger]
Richard Stokes. J. S. Bach. The Complete Church and Secular Cantatas. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000. [ML53.8.B15]
Z. Philip Ambrose. J. S. Bach. Texts of the Vocal Works with English Translation and Commentary. https://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/ .
Richard Douglas Jones. [Alfred Dürr.] The Cantatas of J. S. Bach. With their librettos in German-English Parallel Text. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. [Ref ML410.B12 D74 2005]
Pamela Dellal. Bach Notes and Translations. http://www.pameladellal.com/notes_translations/nt_notes_transl_cantatas.htm .