Johann Sebastian Bach (33 page)

The historical significance of Vivaldi's concerto-style method, reflected in the widespread influence his music enjoyed after the publication of
L'Estro armonico
, has its foundation in a fruitful dialectic of two different aesthetic premises: simplicity (implying a broad spectrum from purity, clarity, and correctness to graceful and natural elegance) and complexity (implying intellectual analysis, sophisticated elaboration, and rational control). These two poles mark the full range in the process of genuine musical thinking, which Bach nearly always tipped in the direction of complexity. Nevertheless, he adopted and transformed the process on the basis of his own experience and preferences. The chorale settings of the
Orgel-Büchlein
, for example, contributed a strong sense for motivic and contrapuntal detail to his compositional approach.

No compositional genre that Bach touched would remain unaffected by his process of “modular” construction. The second aria of the cantata “Komm, du süße Todesstunde,” BWV 161 of 1715–16 presents a case in point. Its basic compositional material is a direct musical translation of the phrase “Mein Verlangen ist, den Heiland zu umfangen” (my desire is to embrace my Savior), the opening line of the poetic text that captures the spirit of the whole aria. The initial vocal entry consists of three short motives of two measures each (Ex.6.4). Motive (a) presents the opening statement, which, with its appoggiatura on the stressed syllable “Ver-
lan
-gen” (desire), essentially defines the musical character of the aria. Motive (b) further intensifies declamation and affect, by way of a melisma in the form of a broken descending scale; and motive (c) then has the function of both concluding the phrase and presenting a meaningful and figuratively “embracing” culmination point, which underscores the key words “den Heiland zu umfangen” (to embrace the Savior). Bach uses this generative vocal material in order to construct an instrumental introduction/ritornello that elaborates on the vocal idea and, indeed, enhances it by mobilizing all possibilities of a four-part homogeneous and polyphonic string score (Ex. 6.5). The symmetries of the vocal phrase are wholly preserved, yet texturally, harmonically, and contrapuntally enriched to further bolster the close word-tone relationship of this setting. In particular, the musical imagery of “embracing” penetrates and amplifies the second half of the ritornello so that, appropriately for a vocal piece, constructive and interpretive levels are kept in perfect balance—a vivid demonstration that the principles of order, coherence, and proportion also comprise a linguistic and semantic dimension that Bach adheres to.

Bach's Weimar cantata scores, but also his
Orgel-Büchlein
chorales and other keyboard works, show conclusive evidence of an increasingly abstract approach to composition, in which the compositional process moved away from the keyboard to the writing table. Probably in the later Arnstadt years and long before 1713, when composing his trial cantata for Our Lady's in Halle at the Inn of the Golden Ring apparently presented no problem for him, the desk in his study or composing room (
Componir-Stube
, as the office of the Leipzig Thomascantor used to be called) had become his primary work space for writing music. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, in a letter to Forkel, mentions that “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.”
⁴³
As for the instrument itself, Forkel related that Bach “considered the clavichord as the best instrument for study” and “the most convenient for the expression of his most refined thoughts,” as he preferred the “variety in the gradations of tone…on this instrument, which is, indeed, poor in tone, but on a small scale extremely flexible.”
⁴⁴

Bach's confrontation with the modern Italian concerto idiom in the years before 1714 ultimately provoked what became the strongest, most lasting, and most distinctive development toward shaping his personal style: the coupling of Italianism with complex yet elegant counterpoint, marked by animated interweavings of the inner voices as well as harmonic depth and finesse. Bach's adaptation, integration, and command of both modern and traditional compositional approaches represent a systematic attempt at shaping and perfecting his personal musical language and expanding its structural possibilities and expressive powers.

H
IGH AND
L
OW
P
OINTS

Despite the fact that Bach had, in the younger Duke Ernst August, a devoted and supportive patron throughout his Weimar tenure of office, his court service as organist and concertmaster could hardly have remained unaffected by the ongoing bitter and steadily worsening feud between the two co-reigning dukes. Nevertheless, by all indications, both dukes ranked Bach as the court's top musician. There is simply no other explanation for what happened on March 20, 1715, just a year after his concertmaster appointment: “Notice [was] given to the two Capellmeisters, Drese Senior and Junior, upon the order of His Most Serene Highness the Reigning Duke, that henceforth, in the distribution of perquisites and honoraria, the Concertmaster Bach is to receive the portion of a Capellmeister.”
⁴⁵
The idea was to bring Bach's benefits and extra pay in line with those of the capellmeister and vice-capellmeister (the remaining in-kind differences were immaterial), increasing his total compensation beyond that of everyone else in the court capelle. His favorable treatment is particularly obvious in light of the arrangements made after his departure from Weimar in 1717, when the younger Drese was appointed capellmeister and Bach's student Schubart took over the post of court organist (see Table 6.6).

Bach's function in the court capelle, however, must not be seen as one of supplanting or displacing the capellmeister and vice-capellmeister. True, the old Drese was ailing and basically emeritus, but his son received the same kind of music paper deliveries as Bach, a clear indication that the vice-capellmeister played an active role. Since none of his compositions have survived, we cannot judge his musical standing or stylistic orientation. But his Italian training must have borne some fruits in his works and perhaps also in his programming preferences. Already before his trip to Italy, the younger Drese had received a monetary supplement of 34 florins for copying services, a sum he continued to collect through 1717.
⁴⁶
The payments show that the vice-capellmeister was largely responsible for the acquisition and preparation of performing materials for the court capelle.

T
ABLE
6.6. Comparison of Annual Base Salaries, 1708–18

The vice-capellmeister acted in all likelihood as a loyal “joint servant”—as a court official who served both dukes, as the members of the court capelle were required to do. Bach fell into the same category, although he enjoyed a much closer relationship with the musically inclined Duke Ernst August and his younger half-brother, Prince Johann Ernst. Musical activities at the Red Palace were apparently abundant, much to the annoyance of Duke Wilhelm Ernst, who issued several orders that forbade the members of the court capelle to engage in separate services there. Trespassing servants could be fined and subject to arrest,
⁴⁷
yet there are no documentary traces of Bach having run into disciplinary problems with the older duke before his final months of service. He apparently managed to find a way out of the dilemma, perhaps by receiving some sort of limited special dispensation as private music instructor of Johann Ernst, possibly also of Ernst August. Otherwise it would be difficult to explain Bach's extra pay of 50 florins in 1716–17 from the treasury of the Red Palace.
⁴⁸
He had received similar extra pay in 1709–10, and in 1714 he mentions in a letter “certain obligations at court in connection with the Prince's [Johann Ernst's] birthday,” on the previous December 25, celebrated at the Red Palace.

To what extent the Red Palace maintained a musical establishment separate from the court capelle remains unclear, but there is sufficient evidence for a vigorous musical scene in which both ducal brothers participated as performers, Ernst August as violinist and trumpeter and Johann Ernst as violinist and keyboard player. Ernst August also continued to pursue his father's interests in the collection of musical instruments at the Red Palace. In May 1715, he acquired a
Lautenwerk
(gut-strung harpsichord type) from Johann Nicolaus Bach, its inventor and maker, and it is hard to imagine that Johann Sebastian did not have a leading hand in this musical business transaction with his cousin in nearby Jena. The regular members of the capelle were, as joint servants, statutorily limited to functions accommodating both ducal families, so the Red Castle had to rely on outside forces for its musical projects. Johann Gottfried Walther, the town organist, was certainly available, particularly since he had taught the young Johann Ernst the basics of composition. Moreover, as the increasingly famous court organist and concertmaster Bach attracted a growing number of capable private students—among them Johann Tobias Krebs and Johann Gotthilf Ziegler—his students also seem to have been drawn into opportunities provided at the Red Palace. Schubart, for example, was paid for copying services and was also sent on a special mission to Prince Johann Ernst in Frankfurt.
⁴⁹

On receiving the news in August 1715 of the untimely death of his eighteen-year-old brother, Duke Ernst August declared a six-month, duchy-wide mourning period through February 2, 1716. Every kind of music was banned, though church music was allowed to resume prematurely on November 10, the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.
⁵⁰
Bach, like all members of the court capelle, received 12 florins for buying mourning clothes. On April 2, two months after the mourning period was lifted, a memorial service was conducted at the
Himmelsburg
, with the performance of an elaborate funeral piece. The lengthy text for the multimovement work, “Was ist, das wir Leben nennen,” BC [B19], has survived, but not the music. Two days after the performance, Duke Ernst August's treasury paid out 45 florins 15 groschen “for presented
Carmina
.” Among the four recipients were the “Consistorial Secretary Franck” and the “Concertmaster Bach”—suggesting that Salomo Franck wrote the text and Bach the music for this special occasion.
⁵¹

Three other events of 1716 related to Red Palace affairs held particular significance for Bach. On January 24—still during the mourning period—Duke Ernst August married Princess Eleonore Wilhelmine of Anhalt-Cöthen at Nienburg Palace on the Saale River. Salomo Franck's collection of poems
Heliconische Ehren-Liebes-Und Trauer-Fackeln
, published in 1718, contains the text of the wedding cantata performed on the occasion; the music has not survived, but again, Bach remains its most likely composer. Three months later, Ernst August celebrated his twenty-eighth birthday, an event for which the treasury of the Red Palace paid for two horn players from Weissenfels, who lodged in Weimar from April 23 to 27. Bach's
Hunt Cantata
, BWV 208, commissioned for Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels and first performed at Weissenfels in 1713, now received a performance in Weimar, with the original congratulatory text references to “Chri-sti-an” in Bach's autograph score replaced by the three syllables “Ernst Au-gust” (BC G3). Only a few weeks later, as the new Duchess Eleonore Wilhelmine of Saxe-Weimar celebrated her first Weimar birthday, Franck wrote another allegorical cantata text,
Amor, die Treue und die Beständigkeit
, published in the same 1718 collection. Once again the work was “musically performed,”
⁵²
and once again the music is lost—yet here, too, the most plausible composer is Bach.

Ernst August's brother-in-law, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, surely attended the wedding of his sister in January and perhaps also the birthday celebrations in April and May, but there can be no doubt that on either one, two, or all three occasions he had the opportunity to hear and admire the Weimar concertmaster Bach. Even if Bach did not compose the 1716 wedding and birthday cantatas, his participation as concertmaster would have been indispensable. At any rate, it seems clear that the prince knew Bach before 1717 and that the connections were made through Duke Ernst August, probably as soon as he learned that his new brother-in-law eagerly pursued similar musical interests.
⁵³
And when the Cöthen capellmeistership fell vacant in 1717, Leopold promptly proceeded to hire Bach.

How long had Bach actually pondered leaving Weimar? His rejection of the attractive Halle offer of 1713 indicates that he saw at least something of a future for himself at the Weimar court. But his experiences there must have grown increasingly frustrating: the reduction in format of his cantatas in 1715–16 may reflect difficulties with the performing ensemble at his disposal; his working relationship with the two Dreses as his immediate superiors may have prevented further advancement; and the hostile atmosphere between the ducal cousins may have discouraged him from developing a positive long-term outlook in Weimar. But regardless of what caused his disenchantment with Weimar, Bach had reason to believe that his reputation in the outside world was growing steadily. In 1716, for example, he was invited back to Halle, where church and town officials apparently harbored no ill feelings. He made the trip in order to examine, along with Johann Kuhnau of Leipzig and Christian Friedrich Rolle of Quedlinburg, the recently completed Cuntzius organ at Our Lady's Church. The five-day visit included a dedication recital by Bach, and ended with a celebratory dinner on Jubilate Sunday, May 3
⁵⁴
—complete with fish and four kinds of meat (beef, ham, mutton, and veal), in addition to plenty of vegetables, fruit, and other delicacies. Though not listed on the menu, a good supply of beer, wine, and liquors would have complemented the meal and reminded Bach of the opulent treatment he had received in Halle a few years earlier at the Inn of the Golden Ring.