Johann Sebastian Bach: Italienisches Konzert, Französische Ouverture, Vier Duette

Description

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most prolific composers in the history of music – also literally, with his twenty children, but mainly in terms of his exceptional output. In spite of this, those of his works which appeared in print during his lifetime are less numerous than the proverbial tip of the iceberg. This does not imply that his music did not circulate: indeed, at his time, the favourite means of dissemination of musical works was through manuscript copies. Printing was reserved for works which were considered as particularly meaningful, and which represented the composer at his or her best; for works which had, therefore, also a “promotional” dimension, and which could foster the composer’s career by obtaining him or her fame, reputation, and possibly also a prestigious post. The first works Bach issued in printing were his six keyboard Partitas, which were published individually at first (between 1726 and 1730), and then collected in what became the first volume of his Clavier-Übung. This consists of a four-volume publication, collecting some (but by no means all!) of the finest keyboard works composed by Bach. Some but not all: one of his absolute masterpieces, the Well-Tempered Clavier, would have to wait five decades after Bach’s death (!) to appear as a printed publication (1801, nearly eighty years after the composition of the first volume).
Clavier-Übung literally means “clavier practice” or “exercise”, and this may sound, in our modern ears, as a rather unappealing, and also quite misleading, title. Unappealing, because practice and exercise are not the most fascinating aspect of music making, necessary as they may be; misleading, because we associate keyboard exercises with something rather mechanical and repetitive, in the manner of the Etudes by Czerny or Clementi. However, in the Baroque era, this word and its cognates in other languages were very frequently employed to indicate pieces which were neither dry nor boring. For instance, a collection of thirty Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, Bach’s great contemporary (both were born in 1685, the same year as Handel) was issued in London in 1738 under the title of Essercizi per gravicembalo, “Exercises for the harpsichord”. Bach came first, because the first volume of the Clavier-Übung saw the light in 1731, the second in 1735, and the third and fourth volume would appear respectively in 1739 and 1741.
The Six Partitas which form volume One of this publication are arranged in a tonal plan which, at first, may seem haphazard or random, but which, in fact, is carefully organized. The first Partita is in B-flat (which is indicated simply as B in the German notational system); the second is in C minor, thus an ascending second above B; the third is in A minor, thus a descending third below C; then D major, an ascending fourth above A, then G major (a descending fifth below), and finally E minor (an ascending sixth above). Six was a very common number for music publications in the Baroque era, so Bach’s choice of six pieces made a complete and self-standing unity. However, there are seven notes in the scale, and, in the German system, eight note names (B natural is indicated as H). Therefore, it is a touch of elegance and refinement that the two works included in the second volume of the Clavier-Übung close the circle: the first, i.e. the Italian Concerto, is in F major (thus a descending seventh below the last Partita), and the second, i.e. the French Overture, is in B minor, H in German, completing the range of eight note-names. Coincidentally or not (probably not, given that we are speaking of Bach), this tonal organization also frames the first and last letter of the composer’s family name: B as the first Partita, H as the French Overture. Another admirable feature of the four volumes of the Clavier-Übung is that, in each of them, the piece beginning the second half of the book is in the French style (the Overture opening the fourth Partita is a French Overture, as is the sixteenth Variation of the Goldberg Variations in the fourth volume, and the Fughetta BWV 681 in the third volume is likewise in the French style).
The second volume was thus printed in 1735, the year of Bach’s fiftieth birthday – a momentous time in a person’s life. Issued in Nuremberg, it bore the following title: “Second Part / of / Keyboard Exercise / consisting of / a Concerto in the Italian Style / and / an Overture in the French Manner / for an / Harpsichord / with Two Manuals. / Composed with the intention of Refreshing the Spirit of / Music Lovers / by / Johann Sebastian Bach, / Chapel Master to the Prince of Saxe-Weissenfels / and / Director of Choral Music, Leipzig”.
The fact that the titlepage mentioned a two-manual harpsichord as the intended instrument for the works’ performance was by no means common, and also, from the commercial viewpoint, rather unwise. At Bach’s time as today, the largest slice of the musical market was composed by amateurs, who were unlikely to own a two-manual harpsichord (and for most of whom, furthermore, Bach’s works would have been exceedingly complex). However, the necessity and the non-optional nature of the specification is easily understood when observing Bach’s writing, which actually demands such an instrument. Moreover (and this is in turn a rather unusual feature), Bach frequently specifies, by means of the indications forte and piano, how and when the two manuals are to be employed.
This becomes all the more indispensable when one considers how the two works of the second volume are written, and what they are meant to represent. In the domain of Bach’s orchestral works, doubtlessly his absolute masterpieces are the “Brandenburg Concertos” and the Orchestral Suites. The second volume of the Clavier-Übung seems to offer a keyboard parallel to these orchestral works, with a concerto grosso and a suite, both of which are written in such a fashion as to suggest a transcription after an orchestral original. Of course, I do not mean to posit that either the Italian Concerto or the French Overture actually existed as orchestral works prior to their “transcription” for the harpsichord: as far as we know, both were conceived from the outset as keyboard pieces. However, particularly in the case of the Italian Concerto, the resemblance with other works by Bach is striking, and provides us with an interpretive key to its structure and raison d’être.
Indeed, the very word “concerto” seems out of place when speaking of a work for a solo, unaccompanied instrument. “Concerto” has two likely etymologies: one is related with certamen, and the other with concentus. Certamen is a struggle, a competition, a challenge, all of which imply at least two competitors; concentus signifies “sounding together”, and also “playing together” – but “together” and “alone” are antonyms. So, why did Bach write a “concerto” for a single player?
He was thinking, in all likelihood, of the seventeen concertos, most of which after works by Italian composers, which he had transcribed for the keyboard in his youth. Reportedly, he thought very highly of Antonio Vivaldi’s concertos (a genre in which the Venetian composer wrote pieces by the hundreds!), and he took inspiration from several of them, as well as from pieces by Marcello and others, in order to create keyboard transcriptions which could evoke the sounds of the orchestra on the harpsichord. Not only that: the very essence of the Baroque Concerto is in the contrast between either solo and tutti (in the solo concerto) or concertino and concerto grosso (in the concerto grosso); in both cases, between a thinner and a thicker musical fabric. This dynamic, which infuses life and variety into the composition, is faithfully mimicked in the Italian Concerto, both as concerns the alternation of forte and piano which prescribe the use of one or the other manual, and as regards the overall texture. Just as had happened with Bach’s youthful transcriptions after the Italian concertos, here too the “number of notes” played together or in the same beat increases or decreases depending on whether Bach is simulating an orchestral tutti or a solo passage.
Indications of forte and piano are also found in the French Overture. It actually is, as has been said earlier, a suite, but, just as the Orchestral Suites, it can be indicated also by the name of its first movement, which is an overture, and is in the French style. By “French overture”, Baroque musicians intended a tripartite piece, whose outer parts are similar to each other: in a slow tempo, and with ample use of dotted rhythms, which characterized this genre and its style. The core of the Overture is instead made of a fugato movement, in a quick tempo. This musical form was considered as exceedingly elegant, solemn, and evocative of majesty, royalty, and grandeur.
In the French Overture recorded here, the actual overture is followed by a series of dances, most of which are among those adopted by Bach also in other keyboard suites. However, the traditional Allemande is missing, there are more “Galanterien” (as Bach indicated them) than in most other keyboard suites, and, after the Gigue, there is an additional piece in Echo, profusely playing on the alternation of the two manuals. In the Italian Concerto, the luminous first and third movement frame an immensely beautiful slow movement, with a touching and ornate melody by the “solo” instrument. The third movement also encapsulates a short and almost unnoticed quotation of a Lutheran chorale, In dir ist Freude (“In thee is joy”), which therefore provides this seemingly secular piece with a religious interpretive key.
A mixture of sacred and secular is also found in the Four Duets, which belong in the third volume of the Clavier-Übung – the only one of the four to be conceived explicitly for the organ. The third volume is clearly sacred in its overall concept, as it explores two main fields: one is the Lutheran Catechism, with its articles discussing the main mysteries of the Christian faith; and the other is the Lutheran Mass with its most important moments. This all emerges clearly from the titles and the chorale citations on which the pieces of the Clavier-Übung are built. The Vier Duette have frequently appeared to be incongruous within such a structure: they seem not to demand an organ (and in fact are beautifully played on the harpsichord here), and have no explicitly religious content. In their structure, they are frequently likened to a (much) harder version of the two-part Inventions. So, how do they fit within the overall plan of the third volume? The most likely (and most fascinating, in my eyes) explanation is that they represent the Christian soul’s dialogue with Christ. In Bach’s cantatas, there are two kinds of duets: one is for neighbouring voices (e.g. alto and tenor), and the other for voices with very different ranges (soprano and bass); the latter type is always used to signify the Soul and her Bridegroom, Christ. The union between Bride and Bridegroom takes place in the Eucharist, and the pieces preceding the four Duets in the third volume are those dedicated to the musical accompaniment of Communion. The Duets, consequently, should represent the mystical dialogue taking place after this supernatural union.
Whether this interpretation is correct or not, it is impossible to say; but it beautifully summarizes the special beauty and intensity of these four miniatures.
Chiara Bertoglio © 2024