Chorale Prelude, BWV 679: Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot

Chorale Prelude, BWV Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot - Kindle edition by J.S. Bach. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or.
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The running semiquaver passagework is an accelerated continuation of the quaver passagework of the second section; occasionally it incorporates motifs from the second section. At bar 88, the third subject merges into the first subject in the soprano line, although not fully apparent to the ear. Bach with great originality does not change the rhythm of the first subject, so that it becomes syncopated across bars. The subject is then passed to an inner part where it at last establishes its natural pairing with the third subject: Apart from a final statement of the third subject in the pedal and lower manual register in thirds, there are four quasi-ostinato pedal statements of the first subject, recalling the stile antico pedal part of the first section.

Above the pedal the third subject and its semiquaver countersubject are developed with increasing expansiveness and continuity. The penultimate entry of the first subject is a canon between the soaring treble part and the pedal, with descending semiquaver scales in the inner parts. There is a climactic point at bar —the second bar below—with the final resounding entry of the first subject in the pedal.

It brings the work to its brilliant conclusion, with a unique combination of the backward looking stile antico in the pedal and the forward looking stile moderno in the upper parts. As Williams comments, this is "the grandest ending to any fugue in music. In , Martin Luther published his Deutsche Messe , describing how the mass could be conducted using congregational hymns in the German vernacular, intended in particular for use in small towns and villages where Latin was not spoken.

Over the next thirty years numerous vernacular hymnbooks were published all over Germany, often in consultation with Luther, Justus Jonas , Philipp Melanchthon and other figures of the German Reformation. The Naumburg hymnbook, drawn up by Nikolaus Medler, contains the opening Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit , one of several Lutheran adaptations of the troped Kyrie summum bonum: The first Deutsche Messe in was held at Advent so did not contain the Gloria , explaining its absence in Luther's text the following year.

A century later, Lutheran liturgical texts and hymnody were in wide circulation. Luther was a firm advocate of the use of the arts, particularly music, in worship. He sang in the choir of the Georgenkirche in Eisenach , where Bach's uncle Johann Christoph Bach was later organist, his father Johann Ambrosius Bach one of the main musicians and where Bach himself would sing, a pupil at the same Latin school as Luther between and The Kyrie was usually sung in Leipzig on Sundays after the opening organ prelude.

Bach's three monumental pedaliter settings of the Kyrie correspond to the three verses. They are in strict counterpoint in the stile antico of Frescobaldi's Fiori Musicali. All three have portions of the same melody as their cantus firmus — in the soprano voice for "God the Father", in the middle tenor voice en taille for "God the Son" and in the pedal bass for "God the Holy Ghost". Although having features in common with Bach's vocal settings of the Kyrie , for example in his Missa in F major , BWV , the highly original musical style is tailored to organ technique, varying with each of the three chorale preludes.

Nevertheless, as in other high-church settings of plainsong, Bach's writing remains "grounded in the unchangeable rules of harmony", as described in Fux's treatise on counterpoint, Gradus ad Parnassum. As Williams observes, "Common to all three movements is a certain seamless motion that rarely leads to full cadences or sequential repetition, both of which would be more diatonic than suits the desired transcendental style. Below is the text of the three verses of Luther's version of the Kyrie with the English translation of Charles Sanford Terry: BWV is a chorale motet for two manuals and pedal in 4 2 time.

The four lines of the cantus firmus in the phrygian mode of G are played in the top soprano part on one manual in semibreve beats. The single fugal theme of the other three parts, two in the second manual and one in the pedal, is in minim beats and based on the first two lines of the cantus firmus.

Even when playing beneath the cantus firmus , the contrapuntal writing is quite elaborate. The many stile antico features include inversions, suspensions, strettos, use of dactyls and the canone sine pausa at the close, where the subject is developed without break in parallel thirds. Like the cantus firmus , the parts move in steps, creating an effortless smoothness in the chorale prelude. The four lines of the cantus firmus in the phrygian mode of G are played in the tenor part en taille on one manual in semibreve beats. As in BWV , the single fugal theme of the other three parts, two in the second manual and one in the pedal, is in minim beats and based on the first two lines of the cantus firmus.

The writing is again mostly modal, in alla breve strict counterpoint with similar stile antico features and a resulting smoothness. In this case, however, there are fewer inversions, the cantus firmus phrases are longer and freer, and the other parts more widely spaced, with canone sine pausa passages in sixths. BWV is a chorale motet for organum plenum and pedal. The bass cantus firmus is in semibreves in the pedal with four parts above in the keyboard: The subject of the four-part fugue in the manuals is derived from the first two lines of the cantus firmus and is answered by its inversion, typical of the stile antico.

The quaver motifs in ascending and descending sequences, starting with dactyl figures and becoming increasingly continuous, swirling and scalelike, are a departure from the previous chorale preludes. Among the stile antico features are movement in steps and syncopation. Any tendency for the modal key to become diatonic is counteracted by the chromaticism of the final section where the flowing quavers come to a sudden end. Over the final line of the cantus firmus , the crotchet figures drop successively by semitones with dramatic and unexpected dissonances, recalling a similar but less extended passage at the end of the five-part chorale prelude O lux beata of Matthias Weckmann.

As Williams suggests, the twelve descending chromatic steps seem like supplications, repeated cries of eleison —"have mercy". The three manualiter chorale preludes BWV — are short fugal compositions within the tradition of the chorale fughetta, a form derived from the chorale motet in common use in Central Germany. Johann Christoph Bach , Bach's uncle and organist at Eisenach , produced 44 such fughettas.

The brevity of the fughettas is thought to have been dictated by space limitations: Despite their length and conciseness, the fughettas are all highly unconventional, original and smoothly flowing, sometimes with an other-worldly sweetness. As freely composed chorale preludes, the fugue subjects and motifs are based loosely on the beginning of each line of the cantus firmus , which otherwise does not figure directly. The motifs themselves are developed independently with the subtlety and inventiveness typical of Bach's later contrapuntal writing.

Butt has suggested that the set might have been inspired by the cycle of five manualiter settings of Nun komm der Heiden Heiland in Harmonische Seelenlust , published by his contemporary Georg Friedrich Kauffmann in BWV and employ similar rhythms and motifs to two of Kauffmann's chorale preludes. The Kyries seem to have been conceived as a set, in conformity with the symbolism of the Trinity. This is reflected in the contrasting time signatures of 3 4 , 6 8 and 9 8. They are also linked harmonically: What Williams has called the "new, transcendental quality" of these chorale fughettas is due in part to the modal writing.

The cantus firmus in the phrygian mode of E is ill-suited to the standard methods of counterpoint, since entries of the subject in the dominant are precluded by the mode. This compositional problem, exacerbated by the choice of notes on which the pieces start and finish, was solved by Bach by having other keys as the dominating keys in each fughetta.

This was a departure from established conventions for counterpoint in the phrygian mode, dating back to the midth century ricercar from the time of Palestrina. As Bach's pupil Johann Kirnberger later remarked in , "the great man departs from the rule in order to sustain good part-writing. BWV is a fughetta for four voices, 32 bars long. Although the movement starts in G major, the predominant tonal centre is A minor.

The subject in dotted minims G—A—B and the quaver countersubject are derived from the first line of the cantus firmus , which also provides material for several cadences and a later descending quaver figure bar 8 below. Smoothness and mellifluousness result from what Williams has called the "liquefying effect" of the simple time signature of 3 4 ; from the use of parallel thirds in the doubling of subject and countersubject; from the clear tonalities of the four-part writing, progressing from G major to A minor, D minor, A minor and at the close E major; and from the softening effect of the occasional chromaticism, no longer dramatic as in the conclusion of the previous chorale prelude BWV BWV is a fughetta for four voices, 30 bars long, in compound 6 8 time.

It has been described by Williams as "a movement of immense subtlety". The subject, three and a half bars long, is derived from the first line of the cantus firmus. The semiquaver scale motif in bar 4 is also related and is much developed throughout the piece. In contrast to the preceding fughetta, the writing in BWV has a playful lilting quality, but again it is modal, unconventional, inventive and non-formulaic, even if governed throughout by aspects of the cantus firmus.

The fughetta starts in the key of C major, modulating to D minor, then moving to A minor before the final cadence. Fluidity comes from the many passages with parallel thirds and sixths. Original features of the contrapuntal writing include the variety of entries of the subject all notes of the scale except G , which occur in stretto and in canon.

BWV is a fughetta for four voices, 34 bars long, in compound 9 8 time. The writing is again smooth, inventive and concise, moulded by the cantus firmus in E phrygian. The quaver motif in the third bar recurs throughout the movement, often in thirds and sixths, and is developed more than the quaver theme in the first bar. The constant quaver texture might be a reference to the last eleison in the plainchant. The movement starts in G major passing to A minor, then briefly C major, before moving back to A minor before the final cadence to an E major triad.

As Williams explains, [30] "The so-called modality lies in a kind of diatonic ambiguity exemplified in the cadence, suggested by the key signature, and borne out in the kinds of lines and imitation. Williams and Butt have pointed out the possible influence of Bach's contemporaries on his musical language. In BWV and there are similarities with some of Kauffmann's galant innovations: Below is the text of the four verses of Luther's version of the Gloria with the English translation of Charles Sanford Terry: BWV , 66 bars long, is a two-part invention for the upper and lower voices with the cantus firmus in the alto part.

The two outer parts are intricate and rhythmically complex with wide leaps, contrasting with the cantus firmus which moves smoothly by steps in minims and crotchets. The 3 4 time signature has been taken to be one of the references in this movement to the Trinity. Like the two preceding chorale preludes, there is no explicit manualiter marking, only an ambiguous "a 3": The additional motifs in the theme are ingeniously developed throughout the piece: These are playfully combined in ever-changing ways with the two motifs from the counter subject—the triplet figure at the end of bar 5 and the semiquaver scale at the beginning of bar 6—and their inversions.

At the end of each stollen and the abgesang , the complexity of the outer parts lessens, with simple triplet descending scale passages in the soprano and quavers in the bass. The harmonisation is similar to that in Bach's Leipzig cantatas, with the keys shifting between major and minor. BWV is a trio sonata for two keyboards and pedal, bars long.

The melody of the hymn is omnipresent in the cantus firmus , the paraphrase in the subject of the upper parts and in the harmony. The compositional style and detail—charming and galant —are similar to those of the trio sonatas for organ BWV — The chorale prelude is easy on the ear, belying its technical difficulty. It departs from the trio sonatas in having a ritornello form dictated by the lines of the cantus firmus , which in this case uses an earlier variant with the last line identical to the second.

This feature and the length of the lines themselves account for the unusual length of BWV BWV is a double fughetta, 20 bars long. In the first five bars the first subject, based on the first line of the cantus firmus , and countersubject are heard in stretto, with a response in bars 5 to 7. The originality of the complex musical texture is created by pervasive but unobtrusive references to the cantus firmus and the smooth semiquaver motif from the first half of bar 3, which recurs throughout the piece and contrasts with the detached quavers of the first subject.

The contrasting second subject, based on the second line of the cantus firmus , starts in the alto part on the last quaver of bar 7: The two subjects and the semiquaver motif are combined from bar 16 to the close. Examples of musical iconography include the minor triad in the opening subject and the descending scales in the first half of bar 16—references to the Trinity and the heavenly host. Careful examination of the original manuscript has shown that the large scale chorale preludes with pedal, including those on the six catechism hymns, were the first to be engraved.

The smaller manualiter settings of the catechism hymns and the four duets were added later in the remaining spaces, with the first five catechism hymns set as three-part fughettas and the last as a longer four-part fugue. It is possible that Bach, in order to increase the accessibility of the collection, conceived these additions as pieces that could be played on domestic keyboard instruments. Even for a single keyboard, however, they present difficulties: Below is the text of the first verse of Luther's hymn with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry: The prelude is in the mixolydian mode of G, ending on a plagal cadence in G minor.

The ritornello is in the upper parts and bass on the upper manual and pedal, with the cantus firmus in canon at the octave on the lower manual. There are ritornello episodes and five entries of the Cantus firmus, yielding the number of commandments. The distribution of parts, two parts in each keyboard and one in the pedal is similar to that of the de Grigny Livre d'Orgue , although Bach makes much greater technical demands on the right hand part.

Commentators have seen the canon as representing order, with the pun on canon as "law". As also expressed in Luther's verses, the two voices of the canon have been seen as symbolising the new law of Christ and the old law of Moses, which it echoes. The pastoral quality in the organ writing for the upper voices at the opening has been interpreted as representing the serenity before the Fall of Man ; it is followed by the disorder of sinful waywardness; and finally order is restored in the closing bars with the calm of salvation.

The upper part and pedal engage in an elaborate and highly developed fantasia based on motifs introduced in the ritornello at the beginning of the chorale prelude. These motifs recur either in their original form or inverted. There are six motifs in the upper part:. The writing for the two upper voices is similar to that for obligato instruments in a cantata: In between the cantus firmus is sung in canon at the octave on the second manual.

The lively gigue-like fughetta has several similarities to the larger chorale prelude: The motifs in the second half of the second bar and the countersubject are extensively developed. The liveliness of the fughetta has been taken to reflect Luther's exhortation in the Small Catechism to do "cheerfully what He has commanded. The chorale prelude is a four-part fugue in the Dorian mode of D based on the first line of the Luther's hymn.

It is written in the Italian style, apparent both in the instrumental trio-sonata style and in the ingenious use of the full range of Italianate semiquaver motifs. The five notes in the original hymn for the opening melisma on Wir are expanded in the first two bars and the remaining notes are used for the countersubject.

There is exceptionally no cantus firmus , probably because of the exceptional length of the hymn. Features of the remainder of the hymn, however, suffuse the writing, in particular the scale-like passages and the melodic leaps. The fugue subject is adapted to the pedal as a vigorous striding bass with alternate footwork; its quasi- ostinato character has been consistently interpreted as representing a "firm faith in God": During each occurrence of the semiquaver part of the subject in the pedal, the music modulates into a different key while the three upper parts play in invertible counterpoint , so that the three different melodic lines can be freely interchanged between the three voices.

These highly original transitional passages punctuate the work and give a coherence to the whole movement. In the final manualiter episode the ostinato pedal figures are taken up briefly by the tenor part before the movement draws to a close over a final extended restatement of the fugue subject in the pedal.

The subject paraphrases the first line of the chorale; the two-bar passage later in the movement leading to two dramatic diminished seventh chords is constructed over the second chorale line. Although not strictly a French ouverture, the movement does incorporate elements of that style, in particular the dotted rhythms. It also complements the preceding chorale prelude by following an Italian style with a contrasting French one.

Although still evidently written for organ, in style it most resembles the Gigue for harpsichord from the first French Suite in D minor BWV Vater unser im Himmelreich BWV in E minor has long been considered the most complex of Bach's chorale preludes, difficult at the levels of both understanding and performance. Through a ritornello trio sonata in the modern French galante style, the German chorale of the first verse is heard in canon at the octave, almost subliminally, played in each hand together with the obligato instrumental solo. Bach had already mastered such a compound form in the choral fantasia opening his cantata Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV The canon could be a reference to the Law, the adherence to which Luther saw as one of the purposes of prayer.

The galante style in the upper parts is reflected in their lombardic rhythms and detached semiquaver triplets, sometimes played against semiquavers, typical of French flute music of the time. Below, the pedal plays a restless continuo, with constantly changing motifs. On the technical side, the suggestion of the German musicologist Hermann Keller that BWV required four manuals and two players has not been accepted.

As Bach emphasised to his students, however, articulation was all-important: The theme in the upper parts is an elaborate coloratura version of the hymn, like the instrumental solos in the slow movements of trio sonatas or concertos. Its wandering, sighing nature has been taken to represent the unsaved soul in search of God's protection.

It has three key elements which are developed extensively in the prelude: Bach already used lombardic rhythms in the early s, in particular in some early versions of the Domine Deus of the Mass in B minor from his cantata Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV The mounting lombardic figures have been interpreted as representing "hope" and "trust" and the anguished chromaticism as "patience" and "suffering".

At the climax of the work in bar 41, the chromaticism reaches its most extreme in the upper parts as the lombardic rhythms pass to the pedal:. The otherworldly way in which the solo parts weave around the solo lines of the chorale, almost hiding them, has suggested to some commentators "groanings which cannot be uttered"—the mystical nature of prayer. After its first statement the ritornello recurs six times but not as a strict repeat, instead the order in which the different motifs are heard constantly changes.

The cantus firmus is played without interruption in the uppermost part, accompanied by three-part counterpoint in the lower parts. The accompaniment uses two motifs: The first motif is also inverted. The quiet and sweetly harmonious nature of the music is evocative of prayer and contemplation. Its intimate scale and orthodox style provide a complete contrast to the previous "larger" setting in BWV At the beginning of each line of the chorale, the musical texture is pared down, with more voices added towards the end of the line: The prelude comes to a subdued conclusion in the lower registers of the keyboard.

Below is the text of the first and last verses of Luther's hymn " Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam " with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry: The chorale prelude Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam BWV has a trio sonata like ritornello in C minor in the three parts of the manuals with the cantus firmus in the tenor register of the pedal in the Dorian mode of C. Bach specifically stipulates two keyboards to give different sonorities to the imitative upper parts and the bass part. The undulating semiquavers in the bass, usually interpreted as representing the flowing waters of the Jordan, imitate a violine continuo, according to the model of Kauffmann's Harmonische Seelenlust.

J S Bach - Chorale Prelude "Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot (2)" BWV679

The musical content of the ritornello contains explicit allusions to the melody of the chorale, sometimes hidden in the semiquaver passage work and motifs. The manualiter chorale prelude BWV , despite being only 27 bars long and technically speaking a three-part fughetta, is a complex composition with dense fugal writing.

The subject and countersubject are both derived from the first line of the cantus firmus. The compact style, imitative contrapuntal writing and sometimes capricious touches, such as repetition and the ambiguity in the number of parts, are features that BWV shares with the shorter chorale preludes in Kauffmann's Harmonische Seelenlust. Williams has given a precise analysis of the fughetta:. There have been many attempts to interpret the musical iconography of BWV Albert Schweitzer suggested that the subject and countersubject gave the visual impression of waves.

Hermann Keller suggested that the three entries of the subject and countersubject, and the three inversions, represent the three immersions at baptism. Others have seen allusions to the Trinity in the three voices. The subject and countersubject have been seen as representing Luther's baptismal themes of Old Adam and New Man.

Whatever the intended symbolism, Bach's most probable compositional aim was to produce a shorter chorale prelude contrasting musically with the preceding longer setting. Below is the text of the first and last verses of Luther's hymn with the English translation by Charles Sanford Terry: The fact that the setting in BWV flows more easily, has more countersubjects, has more novel features and has typically organ figurations in the final section has suggested that in this case the whole of Luther's text was taken into account and that it is a purer version of the stile antico.

Following the huge scale of the opening, Bach highly inventively incorporates motifs from the cantus firmus into the countersubjects of the seven sections counting the repeat , resulting in a constantly changing musical texture. The widest range in pitch between upper and lower parts occurs exactly halfway through at bar At the end of each line the cantus firmus is taken up in the left lower pedal, which, without break, then plays the countersubject while above the right upper pedal concludes the section by playing the cantus firmus in the tenor register in augmentation i.

Williams has given the following analysis of the seven sections:. The strict contrapuntal writing is denser than that of BWV , although it adheres less to the stile antico and has a more uniform texture. Commentators have suggested that the continual responses to the fugue subjects by their inversion signify confession followed by forgiveness. Williams has pointed out the following musical features in the seven sections of BWV The chorale prelude Jesus Christus, unser Heiland BWV is a trio sonata with the upper voices in quavers and semiquavers the manuals and the cantus firmus in minims in the pedal in the Dorian mode of G, like a Gregorian chant.

The eccentric angularity of the keyboard subject with its great widening or narrowing leaps is derived from the melody. It has prompted much speculation as to its iconographic significance. I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: It has similarly been suggested that the semiquaver passages are a reference to the flowing wine-blood of the communion.

Visually, the quaver theme might contain a cross motif and might form an elongated Christogram on the Greek letters iota and chi in certain sections of the score. Whatever the religious significance, the musical development from the motifs is ingenious and subtle, constantly varying. The material in the semiquaver codetta bar 6 of the fugue subject and of the countersubject bars 7—9 is used and developed extensively throughout BWV , sometimes in inverted form.

The theme itself is transformed in all sorts of ways, including inversion, reflection, reversal and syncopation, the variety increased by how the two upper voices combine together. Once started, the semiquaver figures form a moto perpetuo. At some points, they contain hidden versions of the quaver fugue subject; but as the work progresses, they gradually simplify to scale passages.

Even the ending is unconventional, with a simulated ritardando in the last bars with the pedal silent. The chorale prelude is thus composed from a few organic motifs heard already in the first few bars. The unprecedented novelty and musical originality of such a self-generated composition might have been Bach's main intention. In contrast to the previous fughettas in the previous five manualiter settings of the catechism hymns, it is a long and complex fugue of great originality, a tour de force in the use of stretti. The fugue subject is derived from the first line of the chorale. This change also allowed Bach to introduce dissonances, imbuing the work with what the French organist and musicologist Norbert Dufourcq called "tormented chromaticism".

The inversion of the countersubject in bar 5, omitting the first note, plays a significant role later in the fugue bar The stretti occur at intervals of varying length; in addition to the fugue subject, there are also imitations and stretti both for the semiquaver figure in the subject and its inversions and the figure above derived from the countersubject. Williams has given the following summary of the stretti for the fugue subject:. The last entry of the fugue subject in the tenor voice gives the impression of the return of a conventional cantus firmus ; the coda over the tenor's sustained F is built on the motifs of the countersubject.

The different types of stretti result in a large variety of harmonisations of the theme and musical textures throughout the chorale prelude. Kerman has given a detailed analysis of BWV from the perspective of Bach's keyboard fugues:. Their purpose has remained a source of debate. Like the beginning prelude and fugue BWV they are not explicitly mentioned on the title page and there is no explicit indication that they were intended for organ. The pieces can nevertheless be played on any single keyboard, such as a harpsichord or fortepiano.

The use of the term duetto itself is closest to that given in the first volume of the Critica Musica of Johann Mattheson: It was Mattheson's view that "a composer's true masterpiece" could rather be found in "an artful, fugued duet, more than a many-voiced alla breve or counterpoint". In choosing the form of the compositions, which go considerably beyond his Two part inventions BWV —, Bach might have been making a musical contribution to the contemporary debates on the theory of counterpoint, already propounded in the tracts of Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg and of Johann Fux , whose Gradus ad Parnassum had been translated by Bach's friend Mizler.

Yearsley has suggested that it may have been a direct response to the ongoing argument on musical style between Birnbaum and Scheibe: Bach combines the simple and harmonious styles advocated by his critics Mattheson and Scheibe with a more modern chromatic and often dissonant style, which they regarded as "unnatural" and "artificial". Despite many proposed explanations—for example as accompaniments to communion, with the two parts possibly signifying the two sacramental elements of bread and wine—it has never been determined whether Bach attached any religious significance to the four duets; instead it has been considered more likely that Bach sought to illustrate the possibilities of two-part counterpoint as fully as possible, both as a historical account and "for the greater glory of God".

The first duet in E minor is a double fugue, 73 bars long, in which all the musical material is invertible, i.

Bach - Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot BWV free music links from Classic Cat

The first subject is six bars long broken up into one bar segments. It is made up of one bar of demisemiquaver scales leading into four bars where the theme becomes angular, chromatic and syncopated. In the sixth bar a demisemiquaver motif is introduced that is developed later in the duet in a highly original way; it also serves as a means of modulation after which the parts interchange their roles. The contrasting second subject in quavers with octave leaps is a descent by a chromatic fourth. The first section has 37 bars and the second 75 bars, so that with repeats there are bars.

There is a sharp contrast between the two sections, which Yearsley has suggested might have been Bach's musical response to the acrimonious debate on style being conducted between Scheibe and Birnbaum at the time of composition. Section A is a conventional fugue in the spirit of the inventions and sinfonias , melodious, harmonious and undemanding on the listener—the "natural" cantabile approach to composition advocated by both Mattheson and Scheibe.

Section B is written in quite a different way. It is severe and chromatic, mostly in minor keys, with dissonances, strettos, syncopation and canonic writing—all features frowned upon as "artificial" and "unnatural" by Bach's critics. Section B is divided symmetrically into segments of 31, 13 and 31 bars. The first subject of section A is heard again in canon in the minor key. The character of the first subject undergoes a complete transformation, from bright and effortless simplicity to dark and strained complexity: The third duet BWV in G major, 39 bars long, is the simplest of the four duetti.

Light and dance-like, it is the closest in form to Bach's Two Part Inventions , of which it most closely resembles the last, No. The bass accompaniment in detached quavers of the subject does not appear in the upper part and is not developed. With very little modulation or chromaticism, the novelty of BWV lies in the development of the semiquaver passagework. Apart from a contrasting middle section in E minor, the tonality throughout is resolutely that of G major. The use of broken chords recalls the writing in the first movements of the sixth trio sonata for organ BWV and the third Brandenburg Concerto BWV BWV is a fugue in strict counterpoint in the key of A minor, bars long.

The 8 bar subject starts in minims with a second harmonic half in slow quavers. Bach introduced further "modern" elements in the semitone drops in the subject and later motifs bars 4 and Although all entries of the subject are either in A minor tonic or E minor dominant , Bach adds chromaticism by flattening notes in the subject and sharpening notes during modulating passages.

Despite being a rigorous composition with carefully devised invertible counterpoint, i. There are three episodes which move between different keys and combine three new pairs of motifs, either 2 bars, 4 bars or 8 bars long, in highly original and constantly changing ways. The first episode starts in bar 18 below with the first pair of new motifs, the upper one characterised by an octave drop:. The third pair of motifs, which allows significant modulation, appears for the first time in the second half of the second episode and is derived from the second half of the subject and countersubject:.

His comments represented a change in contemporary musical aesthetics: Bach's musical contributions, however, could only be properly assessed at the beginning of the 19th century, when his works became more widely available: From onwards a small group of ardent supporters became active in Berlin , keen to preserve his reputation and promulgate his oeuvre. The group centred around his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , who in at the age of 24 had been appointed court harpsichordist at Potsdam to Frederick the Great , then crown prince before his accession to the throne in Bach remained in Berlin until , when he was appointed Kapellmeister in Hamburg in succession to Georg Philipp Telemann.

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His brother Wilhelm Friedemann Bach moved to Berlin in , although not to general acclaim, despite his accomplishments as an organist. Other prominent members of the group included Bach's former pupils Johann Friedrich Agricola , court composer, first director of the Royal Opera House in Berlin and collaborator with Emanuel on Bach's obituary the Nekrolog , , and more significantly Johann Philipp Kirnberger. Kirnberger became Kapellmeister to the court in and music teacher of Frederick's niece, Anna Amalia.

Not only did Kirnberger build up a large collection of Bach's manuscripts in the Amalien-Bibliothek , but with Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg he promoted Bach's compositions through theoretical texts, concentrating in particular on counterpoint with a detailed analysis of Bach's methods. The first of the two volumes of Marpurg's "Treatise on fugue" Abhandlung von der Fuge , — cites the opening segment of the six-part fugal chorale prelude Aus tiefer Noth BWV as one of its examples.

Kirnberger produced his own extensive tract on composition Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik "The true principles for the practice of harmony" , twenty years later, between and In his treatise Marpurg had adopted some of the musical theories on the fundamental bass of Jean-Philippe Rameau from his Treatise on Harmony in explaining Bach's fugal compositions, an approach which Kirnberger rejected in his tract:. Rameau filled this theory with so many things that had no rhyme or reason that one must certainly wonder how such extravagant notions can have found belief and even champions among us Germans, since we have always had the greatest harmonists among us, and their manner of treating harmony was certainly not to be explained according to Rameau's principles.

Chorale Preludes, BWV 669-689 (Bach, Johann Sebastian)

Some even went so far that they preferred to deny the soundness of a Bach in his procedure with respect to the treatment and progression of chords, rather than admit that the Frenchman could have erred. This led to an acrimonious dispute in which both claimed to speak with Bach's authority. Bach, Capellmeister in Hamburg, thinks of the excellent work of Mr. Marpurg, is shown by some passages from a letter that this famous man has written to me: Marpurg towards you is execrable.

Through Bach's pupils and family, copies of his keyboard works were disseminated and studied throughout Germany; the diplomat Baron van Swieten , Austrian envoy to the Prussian court from to and afterwards patron of Mozart , Haydn and Beethoven , was responsible for relaying copies from Berlin to Vienna. The reception of the works was mixed, partly because of their technical difficulty: Sie gefallen mir nicht".

Because of its high price, this edition did not sell well: Bach was still trying to dispose of copies. Before , there are very few reports of performances of Bach's works in England or of manuscript copies of his work. Later that year in a letter to Christoph Daniel Ebeling , the music critic engaged in translating this work into German, Burney made one of his first references to Bach:.

I was no less surprised than pleased to find Mr. It was, however, only in the following year, during his tour of Germany and the Low Countries , that Burney received a copy of the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier from C. Bach in Hamburg; according to his own reports, he was only to become familiar with its contents over thirty years later.

The book contains the first English account of Bach's work and reflects the views commonly held at the time in England. Burney compared the learned style of Bach unfavourably with that of his son, whom he had visited:. How he formed his style, where he acquired all his taste and refinement, would be difficult to trace; he certainly neither inherited nor adopted them from his father, who was his only master; for that venerable musician, though unequalled in learning and contrivance, thought it so necessary to crowd into both hand all the harmony he could grasp, that he must inevitably have sacrificed melody and expression.

Had the sone chosen a model, it would certainly have been his father, whom he highly reverenced; but as he has ever disdained imitation, he must have derive from nature alone, those fine feelings, that variety of new ideas, and selection of passages, which are so manifest in his compositions. All the present organ-players of Germany are formed upon his school, as most of those on the harpsichord, clavichord and piano forte are upon that of his son, the admirable Carl.

As it is known that at the time Burney knew hardly any of Bach's compositions, it appears that his opinions of Bach came second-hand: In Germany Burney's book was not well received, infuriating even his friend Ebeling: Later that year, to Fanny's horror, the Queen requested that Fanny show her copy to her daughter Princess Elizabeth. The book was viewed by both the King and Queen, who accepted Fanny's hastily invented explanations of the markings; she similarly managed to excuse herself when Princess Elizabeth later read all the marked passages assuming them to be Fanny's favourites.

Burney was aware of George III's preference for Handel when in he wrote in his account of the Handel Commemoration that "in his full, masterly and excellent organ- fugues , upon the most natural and pleasing subjects, he has surpassed Frescobaldi, and even Sebastian Bach, and others of his countrymen, the most renowned for abilities in this difficult and elaborate species of composition.

Writing anonymously in the Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek in , C. Bach angrily responded that "there is nothing to be seen but partiality, and of any close acquaintance with the principal works of J. Bach for organ we find in Dr. Burney's writings no trace. The very terms of Canon and Fugue imply restraint and labour.

Handel was perhaps the only great Fughuist, exempt from pedantry. He seldom treated barren or crude subjects; his themes being almost always natural and pleasing. Sebastian Bach, on the contrary, like Michel Angelo in painting, disdained facility so much, that his genius never stooped to the easy and graceful. I never have seen a fugue by this learned and powerful author upon a motivo , that is natural and chantant ; or even an easy and obvious passage, that is not loaded with crude an difficult accompaniments. An active correspondent with both of Bach's sons in Berlin, he published the first detailed biography of Bach in , Bach: For Patriotic Admirers of True Musical Art , including an appreciation of Bach's keyboard and organ music and ending with the injunction, "This man, the greatest orator-poet that ever addressed the world in the language of music, was a German!

Let Germany be proud of him! Yes, proud of him, but worthy of him too! Among his criticisms of Bach in the s, Scheibe had written, "We know of composers who see it as an honour to be able to compose incomprehensible and unnatural music. They pile up musical figures. They make unusual embellishments. Are these not truly musical Goths! In his entry for "harmony" in the influential Dictionnaire de Musique , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , a fierce critic of Rameau, described counterpoint as a "gothic and barbaric invention", the antithesis of the melodic galante style.

In , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe gave a fundamentally different view of "gothic" art that would achieve widespread acceptance during the classical-romantic movement. In his celebrated essay on the cathedral in Strasbourg , where he was a student, Goethe was one of the first writers to connect gothic art with the sublime:. The first time I went to the minster I was full of the common notions of good taste.

From hearsay I respected the harmony of mass, the purity of forms, and I was the sworn enemy of the confused caprices of Gothic ornament. Under the term gothic, like the article in a dictionary, I threw together all the synonymous misunderstandings, such as undefined, disorganized, unnatural, patched-together, tacked on, overloaded, which had gone through my head. How surprised I was when I was confronted by it! The impression which filled my soul was whole and large, and of a sort that—since it was composed of a thousand harmonizing details—I could relish and enjoy, but by no means identify and explain.

How often have I returned from all sides, from all distances, in all lights, to contemplate its dignity and magnificence. It is hard on the spirit of man when his brother's work is so sublime that he can only bow and worship. How often has the evening twilight soothed with its friendly quiet my eyes, tired-out with questing, by blending the scattered parts into masses which now stood simple and large before my soul, and at once my powers unfolded rapturously to enjoy and understand. In , Johann Friedrich Reichardt , since the successor to Agricola as Capellmeister in the court of Frederic the Great, quoted this passage from Goethe in the Musicalisches Kunstmagazin to describe his personal reactions to the instrumental fugues of Bach and Handel.

He prefaced his eulogy with a description of Bach as the greatest counterpuntalist "harmonist" of his age:. There has never been a composer, not even the best and deepest of the Italians, who so exhausted all the possibilities of our harmony as did J. Almost no suspension is possible that he did not make use of, and he employed every proper harmonic art and every improper harmonic artifice a thousand times, in earnest and in jest, with such boldness and individuality that the greatest harmonist, if called upon to supply a missing measure in the theme of one of his greatest works, could not be entirely sure of having supplied it exactly as Bach had done.

Had Bach had the high sense of truth and the deep feeling for expression that animated Handel, he would have been far greater even than Handel himself; but as it is, he is only much more erudite and industrious. The unfavourable comparison to Handel was removed in a later reprinting in , following adverse anonymous remarks in the Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek.

Reichardt's comparison between Bach's music and the Gothic cathedral would often be repeated by composers and music critics. His student, the writer, composer and music critic E. Hoffmann , saw in Bach's music "the bold and wonderful, romantic cathedral with all its fantastic embellishments, which, artistically swept up into a whole, proudly and magnificently rise in the air. Another musician in C. Bach's circle was his friend Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch , son of the violinist and composer Johann Friedrich Fasch , who, on the death of Kuhnau in , had turned down the post, later awarded to Bach, of kantor at the Thomaskirche , where he himself had been trained.

He briefly succeeded Agricola as director of the Royal Opera in for two years. Three years later in , Fasch started an informal group in Berlin, formed from singing students and music lovers, that met for rehearsals in private homes. In , with the introduction of a "presence book", it became officially known as the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin and two years later was granted its own rehearsal room in the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin.

As a composer, Fasch had learnt the old methods of counterpoint from Kirnberger and, like the Academy of Ancient Music in London, his initial purpose in founding the Sing-Akademie was to revive interest in neglected and rarely performed sacred vocal music, particularly that of J. Bach, Graun and Handel. The society subsequently built up an extensive library of baroque music of all types, including instrumental music.

More significant for the 19th-century English Bach revival was the presence of a younger generation of German-speaking musicians in London, well versed in the theoretical writings of Kirnberger and Marpurg on counterpoint but not dependent on royal patronage; these included John Casper Heck c — , Charles Frederick Baumgarten — and Joseph Diettenhofer c c Heck in particular promoted fugues in his treatise "The Art of Playing the Harpsichord" , describing them later as "a particular stile of music peculiar to the Organ than the Harpsichord"; in his biographical entry for Bach in the s in the Musical Library and Universal Magazine , he gave examples of counterpoint from Bach's late period Canonic Variations , Art of Fugue.

Cooke knew them through the Royal Society of Musicians and had himself published a version of Art of Fugue. Calcott corresponded with Kollmann about the musical theories of the Bach school. In , he was one of the founding members of the Concentores Society , a club with a limited membership of twelve professional musicians, dedicated to composition in counterpoint and the stile antico. Forkel and Kollmann corresponded during this period: No complete authorized English translation was produced at the time. The son of a mason, he himself had been brought up as a master mason, but had cultivated his musical interests in secret, eventually taking composition classes with Fasch.

He had been linked to the Sing-Akademie for years and had acquired a reputation as one of the foremost experts on Bach in Berlin. In , he started a correspondence with Goethe on the aesthetics of music, particularly the music of Bach, which was to last until both friends died in Although Goethe had a late training in music, he considered it an essential element in his life, arranging concerts at his home and attending them elsewhere. In , he wrote:. On this occasion I recalled the good organist of Berka; for it was there, in perfect repose without extraneous disturbance, that I first formed an impression of your great maestro.

I said to myself, it is as if the eternal harmony were conversing with itself, as it may have done in God's breast before the creation of the world; that is the way it move deep within me, and it was if I neither possessed or needed ears, nor any other sense—least of all, the eyes. The organ is Bach's own peculiar soul, into which he breathes immediately the living breath.


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His theme is the feeling just born, which, like the spark from the stone, invariably springs forth, from the first chance pressure of the foot upon the pedals. Thus by degrees he warms to his subject, till he has isolated himself, and feels alone, and then an inexhaustible stream passes out into the ocean. Zelter insisted on the pedals as the key to Bach's organ writing: Zelter was instrumental in building up the Sing-Akademie, broadening their repertoire to instrumental music and encouraging the growing library, another important repository for Bach manuscripts.

Zelter had been responsible for Mendelssohn's father Abraham Mendelssohn becoming a member of the Sing-Akademie in As a consequence, one of the major new forces behind the library became Sara Levy , the great-aunt of Felix Mendelssohn , who had assembled one of the most-important private collections of 18th-century music in Europe. An accomplished harpsichordist, Sara Levy's teacher had been Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and she had been a patroness of C.

Bach , circumstances which gave her family close contacts with Bach and resulted in his music enjoying a privileged status in the Mendelssohn household. Felix's mother Lea, who had studied under Kirnberger, gave him his first music lessons. In , Zelter was appointed as the composition teacher of Felix and his sister Fanny ; he taught counterpoint and music theory according to the methods of Kirnberger.

Bach , who had himself studied musical theory under Zelter. Bach was organist of the Marienkirche, Berlin , which had an organ built in by Joachim Wagner. Mendelssohn's organ lessons were conducted on the Wagner organ, with Fanny present; they commenced in and lasted for less than two years. It is probable that he learnt some of J. Bach's organ works, which had remained in the repertoire of many Berlin organists; his choice would have been limited, because at that stage his pedal technique was still rudimentary.

In autumn the twelve-year-old Mendelssohn accompanied Zelter on a trip to Weimar , stopping on the way in Leipzig where they were shown the cantor's room in the choir school of the Thomaskirche by Bach's successor Schicht. They stayed two weeks in Weimar with Goethe, to whom Mendelssohn played extensively on the piano each day. All Mendelssohn's music lessons stopped by summer when his family left for Switzerland. In the s, Mendelssohn visited Goethe four more times in Weimar, the last time being in , a year after his resounding success in reviving Bach's St Matthew Passion in Berlin, with the collaboration of Zelter and members of the Sing-Akademie.

On this last trip, again by way of Leipzig, he stayed two weeks in Weimar and had daily meetings with Goethe, by then in his eighties. He later gave an account to Zelter of a visit to the church of St Peter and St Paul where Bach's cousin Johann Gottfried Walther had been organist and where his two eldest sons had been baptized: One day Goethe asked me if I would not care to pay a compliment to craftsmanship and call on the organist, who might let me see and hear the organ in the town church.

I did so, and the instrument gave me great pleasure The organist gave me the choice of hearing something learned or for the people But it was not much to be proud of. He modulated around enough to make one giddy, but nothing unusual came of it; he made a number of entries, but no fugue was forthcoming.

When my turn came, I let loose with the D minor toccata of Bach and remarked that this was at the same time something learned and for the people too, at least some of them. But see, I had hardly started to play when the superintendent dispatched his valet downstairs with the message that this playing had to be stopped right away because it was a weekday and he could not study with that much noise going on.

Goethe was very much amused by this story. In , Mendelssohn was appointed director of the Gewandhaus Orchester in Leipzig , a post he held until his death in at the age of He soon met other Bach enthusiasts including Robert Schumann , one year his junior, who had moved to Leipzig in Having been taught piano by J.

Kuntsch, organist at the Marienkirche in Zwickau , Schumann's seems to have started developing a deeper interest in Bach's organ music in In his diary he recorded sightreading the six organ fugues BWV — for four hands with Clara Wieck , the twelve-year-old daughter of his Leipzig piano teacher Friedrich Wieck and his future wife. Schumann later acknowledged Bach as the composer who had influenced him most.

One of the main contributors was his friend Carl Becker , organist at the Peterskirche and in the Nikolaikirche. Schumann remained as editor-in-chief until , the year in which Mendelssohn became the founding director of the Leipzig Conservatory. Schumann was appointed professor for piano and composition at the conservatory; other appointments included Moritz Hauptmann harmony and counterpoint , Ferdinand David violin and Becker organ and music theory. One of Mendelssohn's regrets since was that he had not had sufficient opportunity to develop his pedal technique to his satisfaction, despite having given public organ recitals.

Mendelssohn explained later how difficult gaining access to organs had already been back in Berlin: The English organist Edward Holmes commented in that Mendelssohn's recitals in St Paul's Cathedral "gave a taste of his quality which in extemperaneous performance is certainly of the highest kind August saw the fruits of Mendelssohn's labour: The proceeds from the concert were to go towards a statue of Bach in the vicinity of the Thomaskirche.

Most of the repertoire in the concert had been played by Mendelssohn elsewhere, but nevertheless as he wrote to his mother, "I practised so much the previous eight days that I could barely stand on my own two feet and walked along the street in nothing but organ passages. In the audience was the elderly Friedrich Rochlitz , founding editor of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung , a journal that had promoted the music of Bach: Rochlitz is reported to have declared afterwards, "I shall depart now in peace, for never shall I hear anything finer or more sublime.

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Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot BWV679

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