Bach Organ: 19th Century "Revival"
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Bach Organ: 19th Century "Revival," Publications, Mendelssohn

William L. Hoffman wrote (February 28, 2019):
Several milestone events occurred in Germany around 1800 and the beginning of Romanticism with Sebastian Bach in the forefront of the Bach Revival. Music publications involved composers works with C. P. E. Bach's edition of the complete collection of Vierstimmige Choralgesänge (Choral Songs for 4 Voices), issued by Breitkopf & Härtel (Leipzig 1784–7, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Breitkopf-History.htm). Music periodicals blossomed with Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (1769–1842) publishing Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, which he founded in 1798 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allgemeine_musikalische_Zeitung. In 1800 the Berlin Singakademie under Carl Friedrich Zelter became one of the first public musical organizations and rehearsed the music of Bach and other masters. In 1802 was published the first Bach biography, Nikolaus Forkel's Über Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach:_His_Life,_Art,_and_Work). At the same time, several other trends were developing with Bach having a growing position. Public concerts in dedicated venues began to flourish, music schools (conservatories) were established, and orchestras as the primary vehicle of classical music gained permanence.

Music embraced social and cultural trends, especially within "a new appreciation of the uniqueness of things" with "a genuine sense for history come to life," says Gerhard Herz in the first significant publication of music reception history in 1935.¹ Music began to acquire "a new spiritual content," stressing "freedom and originality," he says (Ibid.: 68). Bach's Lutheran orthodoxy with a personal emphasis on piety evolved into a Romantic religiosity "with faith anchored in the realm of longing" within "the free middle class which now became the bearer of culture." Bach as the master craftsman in polyphonic form and four-part harmony acknowledged in the previous half-century became one of history's great composers and "part of the national culture of the German people," Herz observes (Ibid.: 70).

Established a century before, the Collegium musicum movement of vocal and instrumental performing groups giving year-round concerts, leading to the amateur, bourgeois choruses in Germany and England performing major oratorio masterpieces, the first being Handel's "Messiah." The Bach movement laid aside its private life among town organists in Thuringia, keyboard performers in England, and the Bach circles in Leipzig and Berlin, in order to develop "from a sectarian Bach cult to a mass movement" in the first quarter of the 19th century. The "Romantic Historiography of Music" was lead by Forkel who made Bach "the everlasting heritage of an entire nation," "accessible and familiar to a wider public," says Herz (Ibid.: 78). While Forkel had direct access to Bach's two oldest sons, Friedemann and Emanuel, and used the German scientific research method, his musical interest was in Bach's keyboard works and not in the religious side, reflecting the increasing secularization of contemporary society. Bach's first scholarly biographer was joined by the first Bach esthetician, Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (1769-1842, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_Rochlitz), who had been raised as a member of the Thomas choir in Leipzig. His musical weekly journal reported on events with an emphasis on Bach from the perspective of the audience. His extravagance of language characteristic of the new generation, for example, compared Bach to Handel, with the former showing the "calm tranquility and religious faith in a great soul" and great intellect, in contrast to popular sensuality, suggesting "the beginnings of modern musicology," says Herz (Ibid.: 82).

Early Bach Keyboard Publications

At the same time, the publishing industry in Leipzig began plans for a complete edition of Bach's works, although most of vocal music remained in original manuscripts in the possession of Nägeli, Pölchau, Zelter, and Hauser, but not fully accounted for until 1850 and the beginning of the Bach Gesellschaft publication. The publishing house of Hoffmeister & Kühnel (now Peters) in 1802 announced a plan to publish the complete keyboard and organ works over time, with the initial focus on the Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC), taught to Beethoven and which in 1801 had been published in Bonn, Zürich, Vienna, and Leipzig, says Matthew Dirst.² Bach's music was first espoused in England by Samuel Wesley (1766-1837, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Wesley), beginning in 1808, who also founded the English Bach Society, says Herz (ibid.: 84). Most of the accessible music initially published focused on keyboard works, given the emerging popularity of the piano.

The first publication bearing Bach's name, says Herz (Ibid.), was the Trio Sonata for Organ, BWV 525 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUatfMtpuiQ), in 1799 by the London organist August Friedrich Christian Kollmann (17565-1829, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Frederic_Christopher_Kollmann), as well as plans for the WTC. The six Trio Sonatas, BWV 535-530, were issued separately by Wesley and Charles Frederick Horn (1762-1830, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Frederick_Horn) from 1809 to 1811, says Dirst (Ibid.: 125f). The first arrangements of organ works for orchestra, Vincent Novello's adaptation of the "Prelude in E-Flat Major," BWV 552/1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDADGE44i_o), known as "St. Anne," appeared about 1810 and were played during Covent Garden oratorio performances and at provincial festivals and concerts. Mozart in 1782 was the first composer to adopt Bach keyboard works for string trio and quartet, BWV 404a and 405 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Arran/OT-Mozart-WA.htm). Later in Germany in the 1820s, amateur choral societies began to perform the works of Handel, Mozart and Bach. Although the plans for a complete edition of the keyboard and organ works never materialized, some of the most important works were published, such as the organ chorale preludes (BWV 614, 633-34, 645-50, 664b, 675-84, 691-93, 697-701, 704-708a, 710-11, 748, 759, 769a) by Breitkopf in Leipzig in 1803-06; followed by the Clavier-Übung III, BWV 669-689 in 1804; the Preludes and Fugues, BWV 543-548, in 1813, and the "Pastorale," BVWV 590, in 1825.

During these early publications, Bach editors felt the necessity to distinguish between what they thought were Bach's good and bad works, the later being early pieces. Forkel writing to Hoffmeister & Kühnel called the "Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, "a school exercise, an archaic, imperfect piece, . . . one of the earliest works of J.S. Bach and in no way a masterpiece [quoted in Herz: 87]. "Like everyone else, Bach had to be at first a blunderer before he could become a master, and his student compositions . . . do not deserve to be included in a complete edition of his works," says Forkel. "Forkel and his contemporaries [excepting Rochlitz and others] were prejudiced," observes Herz (Ibid.: 88). "For one, they did not know the works of the young Bach, whose early phase of organ and cantata composition was still totally unexplored . . . . "In addition, scholars and publishers often showed little interest in the miscellaneous chorale-based organ works, given their brevity and seeming simplicity at a time when relconnections had less importance."

English Bach Awakening

Wesley's championing of Bach late in the first decade of the 19th century, aided by Forkel's pursuit of an English translation of his Bach biography, was supported by common fertile ground linking Germany to England. "England can lay undisputed claim to the glory of being the first country aside from Germany to recognize the significance of Johann Sebastian Bach and to have disseminated his works long before the famous revival of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829" by Mendelssohn in Berlin, observes Alfred Dürr in his study of the Well-Tempered Clavier manuscripts in England.³ Most significant are the "personal and cultural exchanges between Hanover and England fostered by the common ruling house," established a century before; the kinship between the Protestant Reformation churches of Germany and England; and a "certain wistful consciousness of a common musical tradition distinct from that of the Catholic South (especially Vienna), where the greatest advances in music were taking place," says Dürr (Ibid.). England's cultivation of Handel as a national treasure, beginning with the bicentennial in 1785, initially created a controversy over which was the greater composer, while the growth of understanding of the baroque style and their common interests "prepared for the seeds sown by the first apostles of Bach in England," says Dürr. English transplants Kollmann and Horn came in 1782.

To Kollman goes the distinction of disseminating the Well-Tempered Clavier to Wesley in 1808, music first brought to England by Charles Burney (1726-1814, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Burney), in 1772, a gift (now lost) from Emanuel in Hamburg. Wesley was "generally regarded as the finest English organist of his age," says Philip Olleson in his monograph on the English Bach Awakening.⁴ Wesley began performing Bach's works at Covent Garden and St. Paul Cathedral while the publication frenzy began in earnest, headed by Vincent Novello (1781-1861, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Novello).

Felix Mendelssohn, Berlin Bach Center

The second quarter of the 19th century in Bach reception is dominated by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), who also found England a welcoming place for Bach and public concerts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mendelssohn#Mendelssohn_in_Britain), as Haydn had done with his own music in the last decade of the 18th century (https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/haydn-in-england: Overview). "Within Germany itself, the 1820s brought a reawakening of enthusiasm for Bach," says Herz (Ibid.: 99). Choral societies flourished, particularly in Heidelberg and Frankfurt with the music of Bach, Handel, and Mozart continually performed. Most notable was Johann Nepomuk Schelbe (1789-1837, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Nepomuk_Schelble), founder of the Society of St. Cecilia in Frankfurt and a Bach manuscript collector who had met the visiting young Mendelssohn in 1822. By 1828 the "Credo" of Bach's B-Minor Mass was performed in the Berlin Opera House, as Bach vacated the church in the first official move to profane environs. Berlin became the center of the Bach revival in Germany and the home of Romanticism. The milestone performance of the St. Matthew Passion took place at the Berlin Singakademie on 11 March 1829.

Mendelssohn "was the most influential champion of Bach's organ works during the early Romantic era," says Russell Stinson in his study of 19th century reception of Bach's organ music.⁵ "Notwithstanding his activities as an editor, composer, antiquarian, pedagogue, and all-around ambassador, it was as a a brilliant performer (particularly in England) that he had his greatest impact," observes Stinson (Ibid.). He publicly presented more than 30 works although his private rehearsals and performances as well as his editing of more than 70 pieces for publication was even more significant. "It was the occupation of a lifetime." In the context of 19th century music, composers borrowed extensively from Bach, more than any other composer, "in creating their own masterpieces," Stinson says (Ibid.: 3), as "compositional responses" with a wide range of repertory in diverse media, in addition to keyboard, as well as chamber, orchestral and vocal compositions for performance, editing for publication, transcription to other media, taught to pupils, analyzed, "and reacted to aesthetically as well as emotionally," ensuring its afterlife.

The Bach circle in Germany involved four leading, interconnected composers. Mendelssohn grew up in the tradition of the Berlin Bach circle centered on the court of Frederick the Great with its Amalian Music Library and the direct influences of Emmanuel and Friedemann, the latter who taught Sara Levy (1761-1854), Mendelssohn's great aunt, who had a a manuscript of the Six Trio Sonatas, BWV 525-530, which she gave to Felix. Mendelssohn introduced Schumann to many of Bach's organ works and he in turn, as part of his circle, introduced some of the same pieces to the young Brahms. Liszt, never part of any circle, did shared with Schumann and Brahms, mutual acquaintances such as the organist J. G. Schneider. "Experiencing Bach's organ works through the eyes and ears of these four titans immeasurably increases one's appreciation of the music," says Stinson (Ibid.: 4). For example, all four performed the "Great" Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543/2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OgAmsGxYYM) and used it as a compositional or teaching model, while Liszt and Clara Schumann did piano transcriptions (Liszt, 1847-50; Prelude & Fugue in A minor ("The Great"), BWV 543, transcribed for piano [Peters]; S. 462/1 / LW A92 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7u6jptcpqg); source, http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT.htm).

At the turn of the 19th century, Berlin "boasted the strongest Bach tradition in all of Europe," says Stinson (Ibid.). Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Zelter), who took over the Berlin Singadademie at that time and became the leading figure of the Bach Revival in Germany, "served as catalyst for his student's [Mendelssohn's] initial exposure to Bach's organ music," from 1819 to 1826. Mendelssohn began organ studies with August Wilhelm Bach (no Bach Family connection) in 1820 and began composing organ works. At this time, more than two-thirds of Bach's organ compositions were still unpublished. The family library included the six Preludes and Fugues, BWV 543-548, printed in 1812 and by 1823 "the most popular print of Bach organ works available," says Stinson (Ibid.: 9).

Mendelssohn as Bach Apostle

Following his revival of Bach's Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn began his most ambitious "Grand Tour" (1830-32), which began in Germany and Austria "in effect as a Bach pilgrimage" to Weimar, where he met the aged Goethe (both he and Zelter "revered Bach's organ works in particular," says Stinson) and where Felix probably performed the famous "Toccata and Fugue in D minor," BWV 565, which he called "something for the people" with its drama, "rhetorical" pauses and "learned" devices. After Leipzig and Munich, Mendelssohn went to Vienne and began a life-long acquaintance with Franz Hauser, the foremost collector of Bach manuscripts, many being copies, who introduced Mendelssohn to chorale-based Bach works to complement his exposure to free fugal organ works. When Mendelssohn departed for Italy in October for a nine-month tour, he took a copy of Luther's chorales Hauser had given to him and composed a whole series of eight chorale cantatas bason these hymns (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WPEmVKNRFE). Most notably is a setting of the Christmas chorale, "Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6zG1lZCDGk), modeled after Bach's Canonic Variations, BWV 769 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhhc6_e_CK0). At Christmas in Vienna in 1830 Bach received a Hauser copy of the organ partita, "Christ, Der du bist Der Helle Tag," BWV 766, which was finally printed in 1846. "Evidentially this was not the first chorale by Bach that Mendelssohn had received from Hauser," Stinson surmises (Ibid.: 21).

In late September or early October 1831, Mendelssohn returned to Munich and played one of his favorite chorale settings, the "Great 18" communion hymn, "Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele," BWV 654 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeuy5IT2u_M). It was a Mendelssohn favorite until his death and provide consolation for others. He again visited Frankfurt and had access to Schelbe's collection of chorale preludes. Mendelssohn was particularly moved by the actual texts as set to the music, most notably in the "Credo" hymn, "Wir glauben all an eniem Gott" (We all believe in one God) BWV 740 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-es_rGC9Jg), which Mendelssohn also set as a chorale cantata (https://www.classicalarchives.com/work/529692.html). Eventually, in 1846, Mendelssohn published his Grand Preludes on Corales, 15 of the "Great 18" Leipzig Chorales, published for the first time in the 40 years since Breitkopf first published beginning in 1803 four volumes of chorales settings, omitting any of the "Great 18" (see https://www.bachnetwork.org/ub3/MILLS%20-%20YSF.pdf). Moving on to Paris in December, Felix wrote to Fanny and requested she make copies of their copies of the free preludes and fugues to send in reciprocity to Schelbe: Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565; Toccata & Fugue in F, BWV 540; Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 549, :"Wedge"; Fantasy & Fugue in G minor, BWV 542; Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538). In the spring of 1832 Mendelssohn returned to England for his second visit of 10, totaling 20 months. His "organ playing at St. Paul's in 1832 is well documented," says Stinson (Ibid.: 29), and most notable was his playing of the Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543/2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erfi8N4AMK8) and the Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533, "Cathedral" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv6tBa5bbxs).

The mature Mendelssohn turned to employment in the 1830s, finally securing the post of Leipzig municipal music director and conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835. "By the end of the 1830s, he had amassed one of the largest collections of Bach's organ works to be found anywhere," says Stinson (Ibid.: 30). Earlier in 1833 Hauser had compiled a thematic catalog of Bach works in his possession and Mendelssohn told him that he had copies of chorales not yet published: 44 from the Orgelbüchlein, 14 of the "Great 18," chorale "Wir Glauben" BWV 740, and the partita "Sei Gegrüsset, Jesu gutig," BWV 768 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMwzNHVpdUU). They began to exchange copies of Bach music, although by this time "early" chorale settings attributed to Bach were only recently found to be the work of others such as Johann Ludwig Krebs, BWV 740 and 744. Mendelssohn's tenure in Leipzig would last until his death in 1847, except for a one-year stint in Berlin during 1841-42. At this time Leipzig had become "the leading Bach center in all of Europe," says Stinson (Ibid.: 39). Leipzig had the two leading publishers of Bach''s music, "Breitkopf & Härtel and C. F. Peters, as well as the two leading and pro-Bach music periodicals, Allgemeines musikalische Zeitung and Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Mendelssohn knew well the local organists and provided them with Bach organ music, including the B&H four volumes of chorales which he also have to Schumann who in gratitude in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik praised Mendelssohn's work and singled out ""Schmücke dich" BWV 654.

Mendelssohn's Last Years

Often in the summer on vacation, Mendelssohn continued to visit London, presenting his own works as well as Bach's. His signature piece here and elsewhere at these times was the great "Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat," BWV 553, which he had learned in 1837. Two major Mendelssohn organ recitals were presented during this time, the first being the "reunion" at Christ Church, Newgate in 1837, with Mendelssohn improvising, as well as the elderly Wesley, a noted improvisor, who died a month later. It was Mendelssohn's first public organ recital "and one of the most satisfying in his entire career as an organist," says Stinson (Ibid.: 45). On 6 August 1840, Mendelssohn gave his all-Bach recital in the Thomas Church in Leipzig. It was his first and only full-length all-Bach organ recital and the beginning of a series of benefit performances there culminating in the dedication of a Bach monument in 1843, says Stinson (Ibid, "The Leipzig Bach Recital," 56). It was a varied program similar to Bach's own almost a century before, with short and extended free and chorale settings and a variation setting as a fantasia or passacaglia. Like Bach, Mendelssohn began and ended the recital with improvisations, as noted in Schumann's article, where Mendelssohn closed with his fantasy on the Passion Chorale, "O sacred head now wounded," in which he "wove the name BACH and a fugal passage," cited in Stinson (Ibid.: 57).⁶ The Bach works were the Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552; "Great 18" prelude on "Schmucke dich," BWV 654; Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543; and after intermission, Passacaglia & Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtFMxFQrKc4); Pastorale in F Major, BWV 590; and the Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565. "Mendelssohn's recital was a tremendous success, both artistically and financially," says Stinson in a later article on the event.⁷ During his final visit to London in May 1847, Mendelssohn improvised an entire prelude and fugue on BACH.

In 1843, Mendelssohn became director of the new Leipzig Conservatory and played the Thomas Church organ for its students and noted visitors. Notable was an informal Mendelssohn all-Bach recital on 17 May 1843 for Conservatory students and the visiting Charles Gounod, says Stinson (2006: Ibid.: 62f), who is best known for his setting of Bach's "Ave Maria" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Bach/Gounod)). In the mid 1840s, Mendelssohn published his Six Sonatas, Op. 65 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_Sonatas,_Op._65_(Mendelssohn)), not in classical sonata form but in Baroque suite style with varying pieces such as Lutheran chorales as well as Bach organ works. Besides the Miscellaneous chorales and "Great 18," Mendelssohn also had Breitkopf & Härtel published for the first time the Orgelbüchlein collection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgelbüchlein#Reception), together in 1845-46. Mendelssohn "was the most influential champion of Bach's organ works during the early Romantic era," concludes Stinson (Ibid.: 75).

FOOTNOTES

¹ Gerhard Herz, Johann Sebastian Bach: im Zeitalter des Rationalismus und der Frühromantik; zur Geschichte der Bachbewegung von ihren Anfängen bis zur Wiederaufführung der Matthäuspassion im Jahre 1829 (Kassel: Bären, 1935); English edition," Johann Sebastian Bach in the Early Romantic Period," in Essays on J. S. Bach (Ann Arbor MI: UMI Research Press, 1985: 67). Herz publications, see Bach Bibliography http://swb.bsz-bw.de/DB=2.355/SET=1/TTL=31/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=1016&SRT=YOP&TRM=Gerhard+Herz&MATCFILTER=N&MATCSET=N&NOABS=Y.
² Matthew Dirst, "First editions of the Bach Works from 1750-1829," Table 4.2, in Engaging Bach: The Keyboard Legacy from Marpurg to Mendelssohn (Cambridge University Press, 2012: 113).
³ Alfred Dürr, "On the Earliest Manuscripts and Prints of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier I in England," trans. George B. Stauffer, in A Bach Tribute: Essays in Honor of William H. Scheide, ed. Paul Brainard & Ray Robinson (Kassel: Bärenreiter, Chapel Hill NC: Hinshaw Music, 1993: 121ff).
⁴ Philip Olleson, "Samuel Wesley and the English Bach Awakening," in The English Bach Awakening: Knowledge of J. S. Bach and his Music in England 1750-1830, essays ed. Michael Kassler (Aldershot GB & Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2004: 254); http://www.biggerbooks.com/english-bach-awakening-knowledge-js-bach/bk/9781840146660: Table of Contents).
⁵ Russell Stinson, Part 1, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in The Reception of Bach's Organ Works From Mendelssohn to Brahms (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2006: 75).
⁶ Mendelssohn, "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," in D minor; https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-GenieoYaho-INTtraffic&hsimp=yhs-INTtraffic&hspart=GenieoYaho&p=mendelssohn+o+haupt+voll+blut+und+wunden#id=6&vid=e90b6efcd15e518a7d0ac7a6c28e9602&action=click
⁷ Stinson, "Some observations on Mendelssohn's Reception of Bach's Organ Works," in J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012: 40-55; http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199917235.001.0001/acprof-9780199917235)

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To Come: Later 19th Century Bach Organ Music Response

19th Century Bach: Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Franck, Brahms

William L. Hoffman wrote (Mar 10, 2019, 2019):
Having established Bach in the pantheon of great composers in the first quarter of the 19th century, the music world began to explore certain areas of his compositions in the second quarter as Felix Mendelssohn championed both the vocal and organ works, particularly the latter. By the 1840s he was joined by Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt as composers-performers. The organ performers who published Bach's works had begun with Samuel Wesley in England (1766-1837, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Wesley), Carl Ferdinand Becker (1804-1877, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Ferdinand_Becker) in Leipzig and Johann Gottlob Schneider Jr. in Dresden (1789-1864, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottlob_Schneider_junior). Mendelssohn introduced Robert Schumann to many of Bach's organ works and he in turn, as part of his circle, introduced some of the same pieces to the young Johannes Brahms. Franz Liszt, who engendered Lisztomania in the 1840s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania) but was never part of any circle, shared with Schumann and Brahms mutual acquaintances such as the organist J. G. Schneider. Liszt provided piano transcriptions of the Preludes and Fugues, BWV 543-548, his own setting of Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H, and adaptations of other Bach works, as part of his extensive transcriptions of other composers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Liszt%27s_treatments_of_the_works_of_other_composers#Johann_Sebastian_Bach).

French Influence

The young Charles Gounod (1818-1893, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gounod) on his "Grand Tour" after fulfilling the Prix de Rome visited Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1843 and was introduced to Bach's organ works at a special recital in the St. Thomas Church.¹ It was "a watershed in Gounod's Bach reception," says Russell Stinson.² "Indeed, by the time the Frenchman returned to Paris in the fall to begin his career as an organist, Bach had become one of his 'Gods'." Best known is Gounod's transcription, "Meditation on Bach's First Prelude," known as "Ave Maria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX2OmxnClGs, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Bach/Gounod). Gounod in France was followed by César Franck (1822-1890, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/César_Franck), and Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Marie_Widor). Liszt, Franck and Brahms all championed Bach's organ works in the second half of the 19th century, teaching them to organ performers and their students, often transcribing organ works for piano which brought Bach into the public venues of recital and concert halls.

Mendelssohn Influences on Schumann

Previously, in 1840, Mendelssohn had ended his all-Bach recital with his own improvisation on the Passion Chorale, "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" (O sacred head now wounded), theme and variations with a concluding fugue combining the melody with the musical equivalent of Bach's name, B-A-C-H, as described by Robert Schumann in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Sone of the best known settings of B-A-C-H in the 19th century are: 1845, Robert Schumann: Sechs Fugen über den Namen: Bach, for organ, pedal piano, or harmonium, Op. 60 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjmDZITJxcE; 1855, Franz Liszt: Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H, for organ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_and_Fugue_on_the_Theme_B-A-C-H, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iszFfpL5aJY, later revised, 1870, and arranged, 1871, for piano); 1856, Johannes Brahms: Fugue in A-flat minor for organ, WoO 8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN4TB3U5KXc); and 1878, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Variations on BACH, for string quartet, No. Op. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_IhcgVYnQ4&list=RD0_IhcgVYnQ4&start_radio=1&t=26), source, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BACH_motif.

Meanwhile, a Bach iconic work, the extended "Chaconne" closing the Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo Violin, BWV 1004, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqA3qQMKueA), was beginning to be transcribed for other media and venues (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaconne). Bach was one of the first transcribers of his own music, most notably the "Preludio" which opens the Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcsCbxM9Ugw, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partita_for_Violin_No._3_(Bach). Later, Bach scored the piece for orchestra as the sinfonia to the 1729 wedding Cantata 120a, "Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinge," and then as the opening sinfonia with organ obbligato to the 1731 Town Council Cantata 29, "Wir danken dir" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y37mXgWY1v4).

Robert Schumann: Bach Disciple

Mendelssohn had introduced the young Schumann (1810-1856, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann) to Bach's organ works which the latter considered the master's greatest creations and whose music he championed beginning with the first issue of his music periodical, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Zeitschrift_für_Musik) in 1834. By that time, Schumann had encountered Bach's organ chorales, the Well-Tempered Clavier, and the Six Preludes and Fugues, BWV 543-548. Organist Becker's signature piece was the apocryphal "Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Major on B-A-C-H, "BWV 898 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GY5J8iiGUc: SHOW MORE), which in 1841 was "standard fare for organists and pianists alike," observes Stinson in another organ music publication.³ The work inspired both Liszt and Schumann to do their own settings (see above). Another noted organist in the Schumann circle was Eduard Krüger (1807-1885, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Krüger_(Musikhistoriker)), who began as a contributor to Schumann's periodical and mastered the organ beginning in 1840 and soon was presenting all-Bach organ recitals, "still a great novelty at this time," says Stinson (Ibid.: 62).

Schumann during his last four years in Leipzig (1841-44) "continued to champion Bach's organ music" in his publication "and as an independent musicians with an ever-widening circle of friends and colleagues," says Stinson in another article.⁴ Schumann moved on to Dresden where in residence at the court church was the noted organist J. G. Schneider, "particularly famous for improvising in the style of Bach," says Stinson (Ibid.: 90). Schumann began to compose his setting of the "Six Fugues on B-A-C-H" there and in 1850 he moved on to be music director of the city of Düsseldorf. There he conducted Bach's John and Matthew Passions and the B-Minor Mass and also undertook a "Bachiana' project in which he provided piano accompaniment to Bach's solo violin and cello works (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sonatas_for_Violin_and_Harpsichord,_BWV_1014–1019#German-speaking_countries: "Reception and legacy"). Gustav Leonhardt arranged these solo string works for harpsichord (https://www.earlymusicamerica.org/web-articles/keyboardists-will-cherish-leonardt-bach-transcriptions/). "Bachiana" also is a term referring to paraphrases of composer's works which became the19th century's "Your Hit Parade," based on melodies primarily from opera. "Bach's organ music stayed in Schumann's consciousness to the very end" in 1856, Stinson concludes (Ibid.: 101).

Franz Liszt: Bach Champion, Pedagogue

Although "Liszt eschewed Bachian counterpoint in his own compositions," says Stinson (Ibid, Chapter 3, Franz Liszt: 103), he "championed Bach's music with far greater discrimination than did either Schumann or Mendelssohn." Although a Catholic, he regarded Bach's sacred works, especially the St. Matthew Passion, "among the greatest creations in all music," while neglecting Bach's Lutheran organ chorales. As a virtuoso pianist, ranking at the top as Bach had been, "he played and taught Bach's harpsichord works his whole life, with an emphasis on pieces that allowed for virtuoso display." Liszt became a traveling virtuoso from 1839 to 1847, spreading Lisztomania and securing "his reputation as the leading pianist in the world," says Stinson (Ibid.: 105). He had learned the 48 Well-Tempered Clavier under Carl Czerny and came to cherish the Six Preludes and Fugues, BWV 543-548. One of his closest acquaintances was French organist and Bach champion Chrétien Urhan (1790-1849, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrétien_Urhan). Czerny, who also championed publishing Bach's solo violin works, was the first composer-performer to publish his own Bach transcriptions (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Czerny.htm, https://www.pianorarescores.com/archive/j-s-bach-piano-transcriptions-busoni-siloti-scores/), followed by Liszt (http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Liszt.htm) and Busoni (http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Busoni.htm).

Exhausted, Liszt retired from concertizing in 1847 and took up residence as the Kapellmeister at Weimar court and beginning in 1869 until his death in 1886 divided his time between there, Rome and his native Hungary. In the city where Bach had composed most of his organ works, Liszt published the Six Preludes and Fugues and the Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542. In 1850, Liszt published his first organ composition, Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbhyFVJP0wA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_and_Fugue_on_the_chorale_%22Ad_nos,_ad_salutarem_undam%22), as an homage to Bach. In 1852 the elderly Czerny encouraged Liszt to publish all the Bach preludes and fugues and three years later Liszt's former student Hans von Bülow (1830-1894, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Bülow) "expressed much the same sentiment," says Stinson (Ibid.: 114). Liszt's Weimar circle of friends and students included the local organist Alexander Wilhelm Gottschlag (1827-1908, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Gottschalg-Alexander.htm) and together they explored the organs in Thuringia. Various transcriptions for piano of the Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV 565 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor,_BWV_565), began to appear, notably those of Gottschlag, says Stinson (Ibid.: 118) and Liszt pupil Carl Tausig (1841-71, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Tausig). Tausig set six Orgelbüchlein chorales for piano (http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Tausig.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Tausig-Rec.htm) and may have been introduced to these works by Brahms, says Stinson (Ibid.: 121). Tausig's best-known transcription is the "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RvL_d-xDzE).

Catherine Winkworth Chorale Translations

Catherine Winkworth (1827-1828, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Winkworth) was essential in translating "the German chorale tradition of church hymns for English speakers, for which she is recognized liturgically by Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America," says Wikipedia. Beginning in 1854 with her publications, she "did more than any other single individual to make the rich heritage of German hymnody available to the English-speaking world," sThe Harvard University Hymn Book. She published two series of Lyra Germanica, in 1855 and 1858 and the Chorale Book for England (1863), translating 224 hymns from Bunsen's Versuch eines allgemeinen Gesang und Gebetbuchs (1833). Some of her best-known titles are: "All my heart this night rejoices (Paulus Gerhardt, 1656); "Christ, the life of all the living" (Ernst C Homburg, 1681); "Christ the Lord is risen again!" (Michael Weissel, 1534); "Comfort, comfort ye my people" (Johann Olearius, 1684); "Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness" (Johann Franck, 1649); "From deepest woe I cry to thee (Martin Luther, 1546); "If thou but suffer God to guide thee" (Georg Neumark, 1681); "In thee is gladness" (Johann Lindemann, c1631); "Jesus, priceless treasure" (Johann Franck, 1677); "Lord God, we worship thee" (Johann Franck, 1653); "Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word" (Martin Luther, 1546); "Lord, thee I love with all my heart" (Martin Schalling, 1608); "Now thank we all our God" (Martin Rinkart, c1630); "O God, thou faithful God" (Johann, Franck, +1647); "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" (Joachim Neander, 1680); "Wake, awake, for night is flying (Philip Nicolai, 1597); and "When in the hour of deepest need (Paul Eber 1569).

César Franck: Bach Revival in France

César Franck was a champion of Bach's organ music and this influence on his students is legion as "he played a critical role in the revival of Bach's music in nineteenth-century France, "says Stinson (Ibid.: "Cesar Franck as a Receptor of Bach's Organ Works," in J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument: 88). Franck's students included Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Guillaume Lekeu and Henri Duparc. Of Franck's 54 organ students at the Paris Conservatory, 43 Bach works were part of his exams and competitions as well as a "goodly number" of other organ works, says Stinson (Ibid.: 68). Parisian organists Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Guilmant), Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Saëns), and Charles-Marie Widor regularly played Bach. The pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Valentin_Alkan) "most persuasively steered Franck" to Bach's organ music and was a celebrated interpreter of Bach's organ works," from the trio sonatas to the chorale preludes. Franck avoided the chorale settings, perhaps "agreeing with Saint-Saëns that Bach's organ music simply did not belong in the Catholic liturgy because of the overt Protestantism of the chorale settings and the virtuosity of the free works," as cited in Stinson (Ibid.: 69).

Franck's performances of Bach are poorly documented but his colleagues and students became steeped in Bach, such as Guilmant's performance of the "Toccata and Fugue" and d'Indy's performances of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W4PJUOeVYw) and the Fugue in C minor on a theme by Legrenzi, BWV 574 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=671ogyCL1vk). Franck had profound compositional responses to Bach's organ works (http://store.doverpublications.com/0486255174.html), says Stinson (Ibid.: 81), notably the Offertoire in F minor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyqT3Ct9014) from Bach's Passacaglia in C minor, Prelude, Fugue and Variation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp01vvucPAw) from the Fugue in A Major, BWV 536/2, Pastorale (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmm_kByQNsw) from Bach's Pastorale, BWV 590), fugue from the Grand Pièce symphonique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAMz_R1faQ0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Pièce_Symphonique) from the "Little" Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO8i5D2uz84, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_in_G_minor,_BWV_578); Franck's Final (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myDd2zE3CuA) from Bach's Toccata in F (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WX5PPRotSc), and Franck's last Trois Chorals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMsqKP-3Qog) from Bach's homophonic 371 Four-Part Chorales. Although Franck may never have performed Bach's chorales in a Catholic service, he mastered the same organ genres as Bach, says Stinson (Ibid.: 88): "passacaglia, fugue, pastorale, toccata, ornamental chorale fantasy, and prelude."

Brahms-Bach Piano Transcriptions

"Music history has never known a greater Bachian than Johannes Brahms," says Stinson (Ibid: Chapter 4, Johannes Brahms, The Reception of Bach's Organ Works From Mendelssohn to Brahms: 126). As a performer, Brahms championed Bach's music his entire life. As a composer, he regularly assimilated Bach's style into his own works." Bach was his idol and he "possessed a formidable knowledge of Bach's oeuvre." In the area of organ music, Brahms responded by composing preludes, fugues, and chorale settings and extensively played transcriptions of Bach's organ music in his piano recitals.

Beginning in 1853, Brahms established a repertoire of Bach organ works transcribed for piano: Toccata in F Major, BWV 540/1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WX5PPRotSc); Prelude and Fugue in a Minor, BWV 543 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JSBachPrelude%26Fugue_A_minor_BWV_543_transcribed_for_piano.ogg); Fantasy in G Major, BWV 572 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcdttYYdn0); and Pastorale in F Major, BWV 590 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-fFdxcf7i4). Best known is Brahms' transcription of Bach's "Chaconne" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8-nWq6pqag, http://bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Brahms.htm). In 1875, Brahms began a Vienna Gesellschaft concert with the orchestral transcription of the Prelude in E-Flat, BWV 552/1, "St. Anne," of Bernhard Scholz (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Arran/OT-Scholz-B.htm), here the Schoenberg version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDADGE44i_o).

Brahms in 1856, after the death of Robert Schumann and infatuated with the older Clara and under the influence of Bach, took up playing the organ and composed free and chorale preludes and fugues which were published posthumously: Choral prelude and fugue for organ ("O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid"), WoO 7; Fugue for organ in A flat minor, WoO 8; Prelude and fugue for organ in A minor, WoO posth. 9; and Prelude and fugue for organ in G minor, WoO posth. 10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8NTVwdsVSA). While Brahms by 1857 "had evidently abandoned any plans of becoming an organist," says Stinson (Ibid.: 131), he meanwhile composed a choral w, Ave Maria, Op. 12, in which Clara heard echoes of Bach's organ music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJx5sUFPWkk).

Following the death of Clara in 1896 and his fatal prognosis, Brahms turned to composing the Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ, Op. 122, his first music for organ since 1857 and his last work. Using the Orgelbüchlein "as a kind of blueprint," says Stinson (Ibid.: 169), it is "a tribute to Bach as the undisputed master of the organ chorale." It also shows a variety of compositional models from Brahms' late piano miniatures to Bach's Passion settings. The 11 chorale settings are: 1. "Mein Jesu, der du mich" (E minor); 2. "Herzliebster Jesu". Adagio (G minor); 3. "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" (F major) [1st version]; 4. "Herzlich tut mich erfreuen" (D major); 5. "Schmücke dich, o Liebe Seele" (E major); 6. "O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen". Molto moderato (D minor); 7. "O Gott, du frommer Gott" (A minor); 8. "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" (F major); 9. "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" (A minor) [1st version]; 10. "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" (A minor) [2nd version]; and 11. "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" (F major) [2nd version]. "Brahms may have known, if only subconsciously, that he might not live to see another summer; this may have influenced his decision to set, twice each, the chorales 'Herzlich tut ich verlangen nach einem sel'gen End' (I sincerely wish for a happy end) and'"O Welt, ich muss dich lassen' (O world, I must leave you"), say the program notes to Kevin Bowyer's recording (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0FhT39zqlQ). "Indeed, the second of the two 'O Welt' settings contains the last notes the composer ever wrote."

FOOTNOTES

¹ Gounod in Italy and Germany, https://books.google.ca/books?id=hIpBwFHH71QC&pg=PA388&lpg=PA388&dq=gounod+in+italy&source=bl&ots=Zd-4HtfAYB&sig=XJ4eQyn1pIY9YxSv2QC_FGZAbH8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD37XI0MXWAhVG5IMKHTRXBxgQ6AEIXzAO#v=onepage&q=gounod%20in%20italy&f=false: 394.
² Russell Stinson, Part 1, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in The Reception of Bach's Organ Works From Mendelssohn to Brahms (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2006: 63).
³ Russel Stinson, "Bach's Organ Works and Schumann's Neue Zeitschrift," in J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012: 60; http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199917235.001.0001/acprof-9780199917235)
⁴ Russell Stinson, Part 2, Robert Schumann, in The Reception of Bach's Organ Works From Mendelssohn to Brahms (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2006: 83).

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To Come: Early 20th century Bach organ performers, historic organ music recordings, transcriptions.