Evening in the Palace of Reason Read online

  Siegele, Ulrich. “Bach and the Domestic Politics of Electoral Saxony.” In John Butt, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Bach. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  Simon, Edith. The Making of Frederick the Great. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1963.

  Smend, Friedrich. Bach in Köthen. Translated by John Page. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1985.

  Snyder, Kerala J. Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck. New York: Schirmer Books, 1987.

  ——, ed. The Organ as a Mirror of Its Time: North European Reflections, 1610–2000. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

  Snyder, Louis, ed. Great Lives Observed: Frederick the Great. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

  Source Readings in Music History. Edited by Oliver Strunk. Revised edition edited by Leo Treitler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.

  Spitta, Philipp. Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1684–1750. 3 vols. Translated by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller-Maitland. London: Novello & Co., Ltd.

  Stapert, Calvin R. My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance and Discipleship in the Music of Bach. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000.

  Stauffer, George B. “Bach as Organist.” In Christoph Wolff, ed. The World of the Bach Cantatas. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.

  ——. “Changing Issues of Performance Practice.” In John Butt, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Bach. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  Stevenson, Robert. Patterns of Protestant Church Music. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1953.

  Stiller, Günther. Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig. Translated by Herbert J. A. Bouman, Daniel F. Poellot, and Hilton C. Oswald. Edited by Robin A. Leaver. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1984.

  Stolzenberg, Daniel, ed. The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.

  Swack, Jeanne. “J. S. Bach’s A Major Flute Sonata BWV 1032 Revisited.” In Daniel Melamed, ed. Bach Studies2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

  Taruskin, Richard. Text and Act. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

  Tatlow, Ruth. Bach and the Riddle of the Number Alphabet. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

  Terry, Charles Sanford. Bach: A Biography. London: Oxford University Press, 1928.

  The New Oxford History of Music. 10 vols. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

  “The World-Famous Organist, Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer, and Music Director in Leipzig.” 1750. The only contemporary obituary of Bach, it first appeared in L. Mizler, Musikalische Bibliothek, IV (Leipzig, 1754. NBR, 297ff.).

  Treitschke, Heinrich von. The Life of Frederick the Great. Translated by Douglas Sladen. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2001.

  Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet de. Philosophical Dictionary. Translated by Theodore Besterman. New York: Penguin Books, 1972.

  Walker, Paul, ed. Church, Stage and Studio: Music and Its Contexts in 17th Century Germany. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1990.

  ——. “Fugue in the Musical-Rhetorical Analogy and Rhetoric in the Development of Fugue.” In Russell Stinson, ed. Bach Perspectives, Vol. I. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

  ——. “Rhetoric, the Ricercar and J. S. Bach’s Musical Offering.” In Daniel Melamed, ed. Bach Studies 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

  Webber, Geoffrey. North German Church Music in the Age of Buxtehude. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

  Weiss, Piero, and Richard Taruskin, eds. Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. New York: Schirmer, 1984.

  Werckmeister, Andreas. Erweiterte und verbesserte Orgel-Probe in English. Translated by Gerhard Krapf. Raleigh, N.C.: Sunbury Press, 1976.

  Wilhelmina, Margravine of Bayreuth. The Misfortunate Margravine: The Early Memoirs of Wilhelmina, Margravine of Bayreuth, Sister of Frederick the Great. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1970.

  Wolff, Christoph. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

  Wollny, Peter. Bach: Essays on His Life and Music. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.

  ——. “Bach’s Pre-Leipzig Cantatas: Repertory and Context.” In Christoph Wolff, ed. The World of the Bach Cantatas. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.

  ——. “Cantatas, Arias and Recitatives.” In Christoph Wolff, ed. The World of the Bach Cantatas. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.

  ——. “Choir and Instruments.” In Christoph Wolff, ed. The World of the Bach Cantatas. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995.

  ——. “Dietrich Buxtehude and Seventeenth-Century Music in Retrospect. In Paul Walker, ed. Church, Stage and Studio: Music and Its Contexts in 17th-Century Germany. Ann Arbor & London: UMI Research Press.

  ——. “Genres and Styles of Sacred Music Around and After 1700.” In Christoph Wolff, ed. The World of the Bach Cantatas. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.

  ——. “J. S. Bach and the Legacy of the Seventeenth Century.” In Daniel Melamed, ed. Bach Studies 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

  ——. “Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Halle Performances of Cantatas by His Father.” In Daniel Melamed, ed. Bach Studies 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

  Yearsley, David G. Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

  ——. “Ideologies of Learned Counterpoint in the North German Baroque.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Stanford University, 1994.

  Young, Percy M. The Bachs, 1500–1850. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970.

  Zenck, Martin. “Bach Reception: Some Concepts and Parameters.” In John Butt, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Bach. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  A VERY SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY

  To recommend a few recordings of the works of Bach is to commit many terrible acts of omission, and so at the outset I disclaim the notion that the recordings suggested below are in any sense a list of “best performances.” What follows is simply a collection of favorites and familiars of mine, chosen for a variety of reasons, both musical and nonmusical. I have in certain cases favored a recording because it is commonly available or because of other works on the same CD; and in some cases I have chosen performances simply because they would be most accessible to people unfamiliar with many of Bach’s works (favoring piano over harpsichord in the performance of keyboard works, for example), on the theory that those with a more advanced familiarity with Bach would have no use for a discography as tightly circumscribed as this one. All that having been said, anyone wishing to become better acquainted with the works mentioned in this book will enjoy the following:

  Actus Tragicus (Cantata, BWV 106). Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir. Erato, 1995.

  Art of the Fugue (BWV 1080). Reinhard Goebel with Musica Antiqua Köln, 1979–1984. (The three-CD set includes his Musical Offering and many canons, including the Houdemann canon, the canon for J. G. Walther’s son, and the fourteen canons based on the Goldberg ground.)

  Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046–1051). Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Philips, recorded 1980, reissued 1990.

  Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother (BWV 992). Wanda Landowska. RCA, 1945–1957, reissued 1992. (Includes her Goldberg Variations, the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, and the Partita in C minor—taken together, a wonderful introduction to Bach on the harpsichord.

  Chamber Music of Frederick the Great. Richard Auldon Clark with Emily Newbold. Helicon Records, 1997. (Includes works by both Frederick and C. P. E.Bach.)

  Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). John Eliot Gardiner with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir. Archiv, 1987.

  C. P.
E. Bach: 8 Symphonies. Christopher Hogwood with the Academy of Ancient Music. Decca, 1997 (2 CDs).

  C. P. E. Bach: Flute Concertos. Feinstein Ensemble. Black Box Classics, 2000. Flötenkonzerte & Sinfonien, Friedrich “der Grosse.” Hartmut Haenchen with the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra. Capriccio, 1994.

  F Major Duetto from Clavierübung III. Christopher Herrick on a CD titled Organ Miniatures. Hyperion, 1996. (Includes his six-part ricercar from the Musical Offering.)

  Frederick the Great, Bach and Benda. Peter Schrier with Patrick Gallois, Klaus Kirbach, et al. Polygram Records, 1995. (Includes works by all three.)

  Gloria in Excelsis Deo (BWV 191). Ludwig Güttler with Virtuosi Saxoniae and Concentus Vocalis Wien. Berlin Classics, 1995. (Includes Güttler’s version of the Christmas Oratorio.)

  Goldberg Variations (BWV 998). Glenn Gould, the recordings of his very different 1955 and 1981 performances. Reissued by Sony Classical, 2002. After listening to this you can join the love-him-or-hate-him debate (I’m with the former) and, along with the Schiff version (see the Well-Tempered Clavier), comprehend what an extraordinary range of interpretation a work like this inspires.

  Gott ist mein König (BWV 71). Ton Koopman, Complete Cantatas Vol. 1. Erato, 1995. (Vol. 1 also includes Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, or Actus Tragicus, BWV 106.)

  Hercules at the Crossroads (BWV 213). Gustav Leonhardt with the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment. Philips, 1994. (Includes the Coffee Cantata.)

  J. S. Bach: The Ultimate Organ Collection. Anthony Newman. Excelsior, 1994.

  Magnificat in D-Major. Philip Ledger with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. London Jubilee, 1976. (Pairs the father’s version with C. P. E.’s very different one, which he seems to have used as his audition piece in making a bid for his father’s job in 1749.)

  Mass in B Minor. John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir. Deutsche Grammophon, 1990.

  Musical Offering (BWV 1079). Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Philips, 1974–1978. (Includes his Art of the Fugue.) For an “authentic” performance, listen to the Hänssler Bachakademie version (1999), which includes wonderful interpretations of other Bach canons as well.

  Passion According to St. John (BWV 245). John Eliot Gardiner with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir. Archiv, 1986.

  Passion According to St. Matthew (BWV 244). Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. Deutsche Grammophon, recorded 1972, reissued 1990.

  Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. Yo-Yo Ma. Sony Classical, 1994–1997.

  Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin. Nathan Milstein. Deutsche Grammophon, recorded in 1975, reissued in 1998.

  The Great Contest: Bach, Scarlatti, Handel. David Yearsley, organist. Loft Recordings, 2001. (An imaginary play-off among the three great composers, all born in the same year, which demonstrates the range of Baroque composition for organ.)

  The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I and II (BWV 846–893). Andras Schiff. Decca, recorded 1983–1993, issued in 1996 in a twelve-CD boxed set entitled Bach: Solo Keyboard Works. (Includes his Goldberg Variations, the six Partitas, the French and English suites, the Italian Concerto, and other works.) Schiff’s readings of Bach are original, profound, and unsurpassed.

  Twentieth-Century Bach: Virtuoso Orchestral Transcriptions. Seiji Ozawa with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Philips, 1992. (Includes Webern’s transcription of the six-part ricercar on the Royal Theme, Stravinsky’s arrangement of Vom Himmel hoch [BWV 769], and Schoenberg’s transcription of the Prelude and Fugue in E-flat [BWV 552].)

  Vor deinen Thron (BWV 668). Gustav Leonhardt on the Christian Müler Organ at the Waalse Kerk, Amsterdam. Seon-Sony, 1972–1973. (Includes his Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch.)

  A GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS

  Affection In Baroque music theory, the emotion or idea that a work or passage of music aims to evoke.

  Ambitus The natural scope of keys for a given work, derived from the term that described the tonal range of Gregorian chant.

  Augmentation The statement of a canon subject in notes double the length of those in a previous statement.

  Cadenza Usually a brilliant passage by a solo instrument toward the close of a concerto.

  Canon The most rigorous form of counterpoint, in which a single musical phrase is imitated in various ways by successive voices at varying intervals of time and pitch (see augmentation, inversion, crab canon, etc.).

  Canonic imitation The variation of a canon subject (see augmentation, inversion, crab canon, etc.).

  Canon per tonos A canon whose subject is such that each iteration of the canon begins one whole tone higher; also known as a spiral canon.

  Cantata A vocal and instrumental work, usually in multiple movements, that may include arias, recitatives, duets, and chorus, and is based on a lyrical, dramatic, or religious text.

  Cantus firmus A melody from a chorale, plainsong, or folk tune that becomes the basis for a work of polyphony.

  Catabasis One of the musical-rhetorical figures, a descending musical passage that expresses negative affections.

  Chorale A hymn of the German Protestant church.

  Chorale prelude A composition for organ based on a chorale.

  Chromatic/chromaticism Terms referring to the introduction of harmonic or melodic complexity through the use of notes not common to the “normal” major scale (what would happen, for example, if the black keys of the piano were introduced into a C-major scale), turning the six whole tones in an octave into twelve semitones.

  Collegium musicum A society of musical amateurs, formed for the performance of music, often drawn from a university.

  Continuo The accompaniment part in a vocal and/or instrumental work, often for harpsichord or organ and a viola da gamba or cello.

  Contrapuntist A composer of counterpoint.

  Counterpoint A method of composition in which two or more related but independent lines play together according to a fixed set of rules developed in numerous treatises of the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries (see polyphony).

  Countersubject A subsidiary passage used to complement or comment on the subject of a fugue or canon.

  Crab canon A canon in which the subject is varied by playing it in reverse, also known as retrograde.

  Da capo aria A song consisting of two sections followed by a repeat of the first, resulting in the form A-B-A.

  Descensus See Catabasis.

  Diminution The statement of a canon subject in notes half the length of those in a previous statement.

  Dramma per musica The earliest name for Italian opera, used by Bach for certain of his secular cantatas.

  Fugue A work of counterpoint in which the subject is stated and/or imitated two or more times in close succession and reappears throughout the work, in combination with secondary material.

  Galant The light, elegant style of the rococo period, associated with the evolution from counterpoint to accompanied melody.

  Gematria The simple substitution of a number for a letter in the alphabet, as in A = 1, B = 2, etc., used to encode meaning.

  Gregorian chant The unharmonized, single-voiced music of the Roman Catholic liturgy, thought to have been introduced by Pope Gregory I at the end of the sixth century A.D. (see monophony).

  Homophony Music that consists of a melody and a supporting accompaniment, as opposed to the coequal voices of counterpoint (polyphony) or the single voice of monophony.

  Inversion The variation of a canon subject by changing each interval to the same interval in the opposite direction, so that an ascending interval is changed to a descending one and vice versa. Also known as a canon in “contrary motion.”

  Mirror canon The canon that would result if you played a canon with the page turned upside down—in other words, a canon inverted and in retrograde motion (though sometimes also used as a synonym for crab canon).

  Monophony Music consisting of a sing
le line or voice, sometimes also called monody (see Gregorian chant and plainsong).

  Musical-rhetorical figures Passages meant to evoke specific positive or negative emotional responses or to carry specific meanings (see, for example, catabasis).

  Oratorio A choral and instrumental composition that supports a long, usually religious text but without costumes or other staging.

  Passus duriusculus Literally “hard passage,” a musical-rhetorical figure in which chromatic variation is introduced into a melodic line, a form of pathopoeia. See chromatic/chromaticism.

  Pathopoeia A general term for a musical passage meant to evoke a passionate affection through various means (for example, chromatic variation).

  Perpetual canon A canon whose subject leads back to its beginning and so permits the canon no natural ending. Rounds like Frère Jacques are simple examples of perpetual canon.

  Plainsong See monophony. Also used as a synonym for Gregorian chant.

  Polyphony Music that consists of two or more individual voice parts, as opposed to homophony and monophony, a term virtually synonymous with counterpoint.

  Puzzle canon A canon written in enigmatic notation, leaving the reader to “solve” the riddle of which intervals of time and pitch and which sorts of variation will work; also known as a riddle canon.

  Quodlibet A humorous form of polyphony in which well-known melodies and texts are combined to comment on one another.

  Recitative A free vocal style or form that follows the natural rhythms and dynamics of a piece of text, usually with only minimal accompaniment.

  Retrograde See crab canon.

  Saltus duriusculus Literally “hard leap,” a musical-rhetorical figure meant to express something harshly negative.

  Subject A melodic passage that forms the basis of a composition, such as a fugue or canon.

  INDEX

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