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William L. Hoffman wrote (July 9, 2018):
When Bach assumed the Leipzig dual posts of cantor at St. Thomas School and Leipzig music director in the spring of 1723, he was fully prepared to create a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God" as well as to enrich the economic, cultural and political and life of the orthodox Lutheran community and subjects of the Catholic monarch, Augustus the Strong, of the Saxon Court at Dresden. Bach was employed by the Leipzig Town Council and immediately began to build the school's music program with weekly new cantatas for the sacred services. Meanwhile Bach took advantage of the various opportunities in Leipzig, enrolling his sons Friedemann and Emanuel at the school, participating in the University Church of St. Paul and its connections to the Collegium musicum, and beginning to compose occasional works. The first possibly was the lost homage serenade, BWV Anh. 195, "Murmelt nur ihr heitern Bäche" (Murmur on, ye merry waters), for the Leipzig University installation of Dr. jur. Johann Florens Rivinus at the , 9 June 1723, member of a noted local family.1
Sacred music came first while Bach retained responsibilities of serving the Saxon Court as well as well the courts at Saxe-Weißenfels, Saxe-Gotha, and Anhalt-Cöthen and would create works, especially for people in Leipzig with connections to the court in serenades and drammi per musica, beginning in 1725. Bach's first extant civic work is the Leipzig Town Council annual installation sacred Cantata BWV 119, "Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn" (Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord, Psalm 147:12; http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV119-D6.htm), probable parody of a Cöthen sacred work. For this annual event in late August held at a special Monday evening service in the Nikolaikirche, Leipzig flagship Lutheran church, Bach provided an annual cantata (some repeated): surviving, BWV 119, 193, 120, 29, and 69; questionable, BWV 137; lost, Anh. 4, 3, 193; parody fragments, BWV 216a, possibly sinfonia sketch BWV 1045. Bach's other, unwavering annual commitment was to the Good Friday vespers presentation of a dramatic gospel Passion oratorio, later introducing poetic Passions of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Handel, was well as pasticcio Passions of Keiser-Handel and Carl Heinrich Graun, as Bach's compositional interests became more progressive, profane and less orthodox.
In early 1725, at the beginning of the closed Lenten season, Bach made a significant change in his compositions, turning to local, progressive profane poets Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander), Johann Christoph Gottsched, and Mariane von Ziegler, as well as lesser-known local writers, many involving works of parody or new-text underlay. Bach "must find it important , after a period of settling in, to emancipate himself from the confining religious circles and open the door to literary Leipzig," observes Martin Geck in a fresh appreciation of Bach's music.2 Picander was Bach's primary librettist and intermediary to Leipzig literary circles and may have assisted Bach in the St. John Passion libretto, "thoroughly cannibalized" from Barthold Heinrich Brockes' Passion libretto. Opportunist Picander also had direct connections to Saxon Court representatives such as Count Johann Friedrich von Flemming, Leipzig Governor. In 1723, the progressive Saxon Absolutist faction on the Leipzig Town Council had championed Bach's successful selection.
1725 Shift to Secular Music, Parodies Begin
Beginning at Lent 1725, while he shaped a new chorale-vested version of the John Passion, Bach produced the following works with new librettists: first sacred wedding Cantata BWV Anh. 14, "Sein Segen fließt daher wie ein Strom" (His blessing floweth forth like a stream, Ecc. 39:27; ?Picander), 12 February for Leipzig notables (three arias possibly parodied in the B-Minor Mass; BWV 249a, Shepherds' Cantata, Saxe-Wießenfels Duke Christian birthday (Picander text), parody as Easter Oratorio, BWV 249, 1 April; professor's birthday, “Schwingt freudig euch empor” (Soar in your joy up), ?8 April (first extant multiple parody); first extant dramma per musica, BWV 205, Aeolus Propitiated, name day of prof. August Friedrich Müller, 3 August (Picander text); Leipzig notables secular wedding Cantata BWV Anh. 196, "Auf! süß-entzückende Gewalt" (Up, sweet-enchanting force and pow'r), Gottsched text, 27 November (aria parodied in Ascension Oratorio and B-MM); birthday cantata BWV 36a "Steigt freudig in die Luft" (Soar joyfully in the air), Cöthen Princess Charlotte Friederica (Picander text), 30 November; and possibly Advent Cantata BWV 36 (Bach Compendium BC 3a), 1 December. Meanwhile, Bach had ceased composing chorale cantatas for the 1725 Easter Season and had substituted nine new, commissioned texts of Ziegler. Then, he took his first break from weekly composition, with almost no weekly service cantatas during the six-month Trinity Time 1725 (3 June to 24 November). During this time, Bach traveled to Gera, Cöthen, and Dresden, while in the fall petitioning Augustus to restore (unsuccessfully) his music director responsibility for weekly services at the Leipzig University Church.
Now, Bach fashioned occasional singular works with Saxon connections that also could be used in sacred applications, such as the wedding Cantata BWV Anh. 196, which shows "a glimpse of how well Bach has already mastered the gallant tone in his early Leipzig period, even if he comes it with other tones, as he is wont," says Geck (Ibid.: 162). Recently, the Bach Werke Verzeichnis (BWV) catalogue has accepted the other two Gottsched-texted works: BWV Anh. 196 now as BWV 1164 and BWV Anh.13 "Willkommen! Ihr herrschenden Götter der Erden!" (Be welcome, ye sovereign immortals terrestrial!; by Z. Philip Ambrose, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh13.htm), as BWV 1161, as well as two Cöthen period serenades: BWV 1153=Anh. 7, "Heut ist gewiß ein guter Tag" (Today indeed is one fine day; by Z. Philip Ambrose), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh7.htm, and BWV 1154=Anh. 194, Birthday cantata (no text), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh194.htm, as well as the 9 August 1723 Saxe-Gotha birthday ode, BWV 1155=Anh. 20, Birthday Ode (no title), http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWVAnh20.htm), details, see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Anh.htm.
At the same time as extended works of the profane chamber wedding cantata genre (also BWV 216, 210, and 202) are the three extant drammi per musica from the early Leipzig years: BWV 205 as well as BWV 207, prof. Gottlieb Korte installation, c11 December 1726; and BWV 201, general entertainment (Picander text), fall 1729, 1736-40 and 1749 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000251?lang=en). Gottsched called these drammi per musica "little operas or operettas" that "seldom find their way to the stage,"
cites Geck. "These pieces rich in gesture and tone-painterly effects are all score for trumpets and timpani; the [four] singers embody mythological or allegorical figures." Other profane works with possible sacred parody that Geck cites are two paying homage to the Saxon Court in 1727: BWV Anh. 9. "Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne" (Disperse yourselves, ye stars serenely) (text Christian Friedrich Haupt) for August birthday visit, 12 May, and Cantata BWV 193a, "Ihr Häuser des Himmels, ihr scheinenden Lichter" (Ye houses of heaven, ye radiant torches; ? Picander text), Augustus name day, 3 August, although the parody sources are still debated (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232-Gen19.htm), butthe origins appears to be in from Cöthen.
These early Leipzig secular cantatas and drammi per musica "may be smaller in volume than the body of church cantatas but it is in no way inferior in quality and social impact," says Geck (Ibid.: 163). He is a "composer in full command of the vocal chamber and theatrical styles who, unlike the sacred music genre, can compose without regard for established tradition, that is, largely autonomously," with a curious mix if styles and a multitude of perspectives." Bolstering Bach's achievements and growing success are the composition of keyboard and instrumental chamber music, beginning in 1725, as well as the beginnings of the Anna Magdalena Notebook of family compositions as well as favorite household music of other composers.
Three of Bach’s first four major surviving profane cantatas – BWV 36c, 205 and 207 -- were composed between 1725 and 1726 for celebrations associated with the University of Leipzig (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV205-D3.htm). Along with the Shepherd's Cantata BWV 249a which has the four characters of a drama per musica, this was the beginning of a reorientation in his creative direction and launched a transition from church year cantata cycles to the worldly domain. There were three primary reasons: to acquire and display new compositional techniques that could be applied to instrumental music such as suites as well as larger vocal works such as sacred oratorios, to explore and reflect on this wider world, and to gain more interaction and influence upon that world of enlightenment and pragmatism. As an example, two of the three cantatas, BWV 205 and 207, were parodied with few changes almost a decade later, for the coronation and name day, respectively, of Augustus III, Saxon Court elector and son of Augustus the Strong.
Leipzig Count von Flemming
The groundwork for the two Saxon 1727 celebrations involve an earlier relationship between Picander and the court's most trusted Leipzig representative, Count Joachim Friedrich von Flemming. The impetus for the King’s visit and Bach’s music probably was from Count von Flemming, the court-appointed Leipzig governor and a leader of the Town Council faction that has chosen Bach in 1723. In 1727, the Leipzig spring fair began on May 4 and the festivities were held on Monday, May 12. Special note was made in the C. F. Haupt libretto of Cantata BWV Anh. 9/5 citing Flemming as the court’s “most trusted” who had been present at this “mighty feast one year ago” in 1726. That year the Elector’s birthday had fallen exactly on Jubilate Sunday, May 12, when Bach probably had presented festive church Cantata BWV 146 with its opening two movements a sinfonia and chorus, ostensibly borrowed from the Clavier Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052.
On Sunday, August 25, 1726, the same day (Trinity 12) as Cantata 102, Bach a presented the first of three special cantatas for Flemming’s birthday, parody, BWV 249b, “Die Feyer des Genius” (Festival of Genius, drama per musica): "Verjaget, zerstreuet, zerrüttet, ihr Sterne" (Dispel them, disperse them, destroy them, ye heavens). The Picander text survives and the music is a parody in the 1725 Easter Oratorio, BWV 249. The characters are Genius, Mercurius, Melopomene, Minerva. It is an evening serenade for the birthday of Leipzig resident, Saxon court adviser and leading Bach patron, Count von Flemming. The others are solo soprano serenade, BWV 210a, 1729-30, and repeats for him and unknown patrons (through text revisions) between 1735-1740, and BWV Anh. 10, "So kämpfet nur, ihr muntern Thöne" (Contend ye then, ye tones so lively, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/VII.html) 25 August 1731, also to a Picander text.
In 1724, Flemming had assumed his position and moved into the Pleissenburg castle governor’s residence not far from the Thomas Church. On July 31, 1724, Flemming had assumed his official duties with a dramma per musica to a Picander libretto, composer unknown.3 Picander also wrote the text to a solo Evening Music for Flemming on January 1, 1725. Although both originally were attributed to Johann Gottlieb Görner, director and organist at the progressive St. Paul University Church, Bach scholars have developed a still-unsubstantiated hypothesis that Bach was the composer.
Leipzig Serenades/drammi per musica
There are 11 Leipzig compositions for various occasions that are considered serenades as evening entertainment with some also identified as drammi per musica with mythological or allegorical figures. Four are commissions from Leipzig University students (BWV Anh. 195, BWV Anh. 9, BWV 215, and BWV Anh. 13). Three are for the birthday of Saxon court adviser and leading Bach patron Count von Flemming (BWV 249b, BWV 210a, and BWV Anh. 10). Five have texts by Picander (BWV Anh.195, 249a, deest (Neumann 25), 249b, Anh.10). Bach’s original music for three works is completely lost: BWV Anh. 195, BWV Anh. 9, and BWV Anh. 13. Only one, the dramma per musica BWV 215, survives intact. Seven were parodied substantially as secular cantatas for other occasions and the Easter Oratorio (BWV 249), or movements were parodied in sacred oratorios for Christmas and Ascension Day and the B-Minor Mass, BWV 232. One cantata, BWV 193a, had its chorus and both arias, originating in an unknown Cöthen serenade, parodied in the 1727 sacred Town Council cantata, BWV 193. The 11 documented Leipzig serenades are:
*BWV Anh. 195, June 9, 1723; “Murmelt nur, ihr heitern Bäche“ (Murmur Now, You Serene Brook); text, Acta Lipsiensium Academium; serenade for Leipzig attorney, J. F. Rivinius, University professor installation, student commission; performance at University Church with Collegium musicum. (music lost; text and Z. Philipp Ambrose English translation, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/XXVI.html).
*BWV 249a, February 23, 1725, “Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen” (Flee, disappear, escape your sorrows); Shepherds Cantata, text by Picander; congratulatory work for the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weißenfels (music lost, parodied in BWV 249, Easter Oratorio, and Cantata 249b). Shepherd characters: Doris, Sylvia, Menalcas, Damoeta; http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV249a.html, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV249-Gen5.htm).
*BWV Anh. 196, November 27, 1725, “Auf, süß entzückende Gewalt“ (Arise, Sweet Charming Authority); text Gottsched; serenade for Leipzig wedding (music lost, two arias parodied in BWV 11, Ascension Oratorio: alto aria also parodied in Agnus dei, B Minor Mass, BWV 232, the other aria, a soprano pastorale). Characters: Nature, Modesty, Fate, Virtue. http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/I.html.
*BWV deest (Neumann 25), “Auf! zum scherzen, auf! zur Lust” (Arise to jests, arise to delights), for the birthday of the Honorable “J.W.G.D.,” presumably a Leipzig notable, on August 15, 1726, with text by Picander for a dialogue Arcadian serenade between Mercurius and Astraea and a chorus of “Grazien” (graceful-ones), music lost. The closing chorus possibly was parodied and expanded to open the Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11, in 1735.
*BWV 249b, August 25, 1726; dramma per musica, Die Feier des Genius: “Verjaget, zerstreuet, zerrüttet, ihr Sterne“ (The Celebration of Genius: Drive away, Scatter, you stars); dramma per musica, text Picander; congratulatory serenade for Count von Flemming; music lost, survives as parody in BWV 249; characters: Genius, Mercurius, Melpomene, Minerva. http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV249b.html.
*BWV Anh. 9, May 12, 1727; drama per musica “Entfernet Euch, ihr heitern Sterne” (Remove Yourself, Ye Clear Skies); dramma per musica, text C.F. Haupt; evening music commissioned by Leipzig University students for the birthday of Augustus II; May 12, 1727 (first surviving Bach work for the Dresden Court); music lost; characters: Philuris, Apollo, Mars, Harmonia; http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/IV.html.
*BWV 193a, August 3, 1727; drama per musica "Ihr Häuser des Himmels, ihr Scheinenden Lichter” (Ye Shining Heaven, Ye Shining Lights), a dramma per musica, text by Picander; for the name day of Augustus II, probably parodied from a Cöthen serenade; characters: Providence, Fame Welfare, and Pity; original Köthen materials (chorus, two arias) parodied in the August 25, 1727, Town Council Cantata, BWV 193, “Ihr Töre (Pforten) zu Zion” (Ye Gates [Portals] of Zion). No text or parts survive from Cöthen and its origin is unknown; http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV193a.html.
*BWV 210a, “O angenehme Melodei” (O pleasing melody), soprano solo homage serenade (three versions); originally composed as a homage to the Duke of Saxe-Weißenfels, January 12, 1729; for the birthday of Count von Flemming, August 25, 1729/30 or 1739; and repeats for him and unknown patrons (through text revisions) between 1735-1740; and finally, parodied as the extant secular wedding cantata, BWV 210 “O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit” (O glorious day, longed-for time), 1738-41 (no librettist identified for any version; http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV210a.html, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV210-D3.htm).
*BWV Anh. 10, “So kämpfet nur, ihr muntern Töne“ (So battle now, ye courageous sounds); text by Picander, serenade for the birthday of Count von Flemming, August 25, 1731; opening chorus parodied to open Part 6 of Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248; closing chorus parody of Cantata BWV 201, closing chorus, and parodied likewise in Cantata BWV Anh. 19, Thomas School welcome, 1734; http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/VII.html.
*BWV 215, October 5, 1734; drama per musica “Preise deine Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen“ (Praise Thy Good Fortune, Blessed Saxony); text by J.C. Clauder; dramma per musica for birthday visit of August III (evening serenade music commissioned by Leipzig University students); aria (No. 7) parodied in Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248V/5; opening chorus parodied in BWV 232, Osanna; two arias (Nos. 3, 5) parody, original unknown; http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV215.html.
*BWV Anh. 13, April 28, 1738, “Wilkommen! Ihr Herrschenden Götter der Erden!” (Welcome, Ye Ruling Royalty of Earth); text Gottsched, homage cantata for August III visit and celebrate wedding of Princess Anna Amalia (evening serenade music commissioned by Leipzig University students). (None of the music survives and most regrettably because this work was cited in Lorenz Mizler’s defense against Scheibe’s attack on Bach’s old-fashion style, “written in accordance with the latest taste and was approved by everyone” (NBR No. 46; text http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/XV.html.
*BWV deest, 7 October 1739, cantata unknown, for King-Elector Friederich-Augustus II, performed by Bach''s Collegium Musicum in Zimmermann's Coffee house (Dok 2: 459).
|During the coming three years (1726-28), Bach selectively focused his sacred service works on a third, heterogeneous cantata cycle as well as the omnibus St. Matthew Passion and increasingly in the profane-flavored textual realm with memorial works of the Funeral Ode, BWV 198 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV198-D6.htm) and the Cöthen Funeral Music, BWV 244a=1143 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryU_l6Ixsc, Picander text), as well as his first systematic exploration of extended secular works with progressive, operatic overtones. The most significant piece is the Passion-style Funeral Ode with Gottsched's profane text, which Geck describes as showing "evidence of the importance Bach ascribed to the genre of occasional music" (Ibid.: 163). This "event gives him the opportunity to present his music before members of the court at Dresden, whose favor becomes all the more important the more the burdens of cantorship weigh on him." "Any account of Bach's early Leipzig years that failed to do justice to his ambitions in the realm of secular music, in all its facets, would be woefully one-sided." On many occasions this music paid homage to Leipzig dignitaries with connections to the court as well as the university and the civic cultural which Bach increasingly created new, distinctive music with spiritual overtones or applications as sacred parody.
FOOTNOTES
1 "Murmelt nur ihr heitern Bäche," https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murmelt_nur,_ihr_heitern_B%25C3%25A4che&prev=search, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/XXVI.html); details, "First University Cantatas," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV205-D3.htm).
2 Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work, trans. John Hargraves (Orlando FL: Harcourt Inc., 2000: 153); a fictional account of Bach's travails is found in Ruth Ann Ridley's novel, Bach's Passions (Emumclaw WA: Winepress Publishing, 1999, 161ff).
3 Source, Szymon Paczkowski, “Bach and the Story of an ‘Aria Tempo di Polonaise’ for Joachim Friedrich Flemming, BACH, Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Vol. XXXVIII/2 (2007), 64.
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To Come: drammi per musica Cantatas BWV 205, 207, and 201. |
