The Bach Family: About the Program
By Dr. C. Matthew Balensuela
Johann Bernhard Bach (1676-1749), the second cousin of Johann Sebastian, was an accomplished organist and harpsichordist who worked for a time at the same court as Georg Phillip Telemann in Eisenach. His only extant works are instrumental pieces which were copied by his students and his orchestral suites, which were copied at the direction of Johann Sebastian Bach for performance by the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. The Orchestral Suite in E minor begins with an overture in the French style with stately dotted rhythms, followed by a faster, imitative section, before concluding with the opening material. There follows a number of dances in a variety of meters and tempi. The descriptively titled “Les Plaisirs” follows the French tradition of fanciful titles in suites—in this case for dance in a quick duple meter. The predictable, repeated structure of the dances lets the listeners follow the music clearly while allowing the performers to add the embellishments and ornamentations that define the Baroque style.
Both violin concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) on today’s performance have traditionally been dated to his time at the court at Cöthen (1717-23), but scholars are increasingly concerned about the lack of physical evidence for this assumption. More certain is their performance in Leipzig when Bach was directing the Collegium Musicum (starting in 1729). As heard later in the program, J. S. Bach drew much of his inspiration for the concerto form and structure from the works of Antonio Vivaldi, specifically the alternation of the full orchestra with virtuoso solo passages in the ritornello form, which is employed in the outer movements of the A minor Concerto (BWV 1041). One way Bach developed the concerto model is that his slow movements are longer and in varying forms than the Italian model. In this concerto, the opening orchestral statement of the Andante in C major does not present thematic material, but rather a homophonic series of chords with a regular rhythmic propulsion in the bass. This texture allows the listener to focus entirely on the lyricism of the soloist throughout the movement. The constant demand for new music during J. S. Bach’s time in Leipzig (already seen in his copying of his cousin’s suite) lead to performances of this concerto, as well as its revised version as a harpsichord concerto in G minor (BWV 1058).
If family can be said to comprise both the people you are born into as well as the people you choose to be with, then Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) can be counted among the Bach family. It is difficult to overstate the profound reaction Northern Europeans musicians had to the publication of Vivaldi’s L’estro Armonico in Amsterdam in 1711. J. S. Bach was clearly fascinated by the Venetian composer’s approach to the concerto; he famously transcribed concertos by Vivaldi (as well as other Italian composers) for keyboard as a way to learn the styles and forms of these musicians. The Cello Concerto in D minor (RV 401) is one of at least twenty-eight composed by Vivaldi. It is considered to be one of the most technically demanding concertos Vivaldi wrote for the instrument, particularly in the use of the upper register. The opening movement of the D minor concerto accentuates the minor mood with sequential descending motion dominating the opening theme group. The Adagio in C minor presents the ritornello form in miniature, with brief alternations of the orchestra and soloist. The final Allegro employs imitative counterpoint and suspensions along with virtuoso solo passages to build tension throughout the movement.
The Sinfonia in E minor of Carl Philipp Emanual Bach, the second surviving son of J. S. Bach, was composed in 1756, while serving at the court of Fredrick the Great of Prussia. The work demonstrates ways the orchestra can be harnessed to produce bold gestures (his “Sturm und Drang” style). The first movement begins with a powerful tutti motive of a chromatic lower neighbor followed by a descending motive. The material rushes ahead to a development section starting with the opening material in the relative major, and continues with unrelenting drama with only brief lyric asides. The return of the opening motive in E minor presents not a full recapitulation, but a brief transition to the Andante, begun attacca, which presents the first extended relaxation in the work. A lyric ABA in G Major, the Andante features delicate melodic gestures and trills. The concluding Allegro begins a vigorous descending theme which is immediately repeated. The second section of the movement begins with a lyric second theme which is then alternated with the first theme through a brief development. After recapitulating the first theme, C. P. E. Bach repeats the entire second section before concluding with a brief coda. The Sinfonia in E minor was one of C. P. E. Bach’s most popular orchestral works; he reorchestrated it with the addition of pairs of horns, flutes, and oboes (Wq 178).
E major Violin Concerto of J. S. Bach (BWV 1042) demonstrates ways the German master combined the Italian ritornello form with his own ideas of musical symmetry and form. The opening three homophonic hammerstrokes are not merely a rhetorical gesture to start the work, but function as an important thematic motive running throughout the movement. While the opening Allegro sounds like the typical alternation of tutti and solo of the concerto, the first 52 measures function as a single A section. The contrasting B section is based in C# minor ending in a brief descending cadenza leading into a repeat of A. The slow movement in C-sharp minor begins with a supportive orchestra texture with a propulsive bass line, as in the A minor. This time the texture fills out with a descending line throughout the orchestra to the first cadence and the solo’s entry. Rather than alternating solo and tutti textures, the soloist plays throughout the movement until the closing, which repeats the orchestral opening of the beginning. The concerto closes with an exuberant gigue, which again is built around musical symmetries. All statements of the tutti are in E major and the first four solo passages are the same number of measures as the tutti, creating a regularity that is broken in the last solo passage, which is twice the length of all previous sections, building tension, and making the final tutti and the return to the orchestral tutti that much more satisfying. The E major Violin Concerto (BWV 1042) was revised as the Harpsichord Concerto in D Major (BWV 1054).
