As with most Bach organ works, no autograph manuscript of BWV survives. The only near-contemporary source is an undated copy by Johannes Ringk, a pupil of Johann Peter Kellner. It is most probably a later addition, similar to the title of Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV , because in the Baroque era such organ pieces would most commonly be called simply Prelude Praeludium, etc.
BWV exhibits a typical simplified north German structure with a free opening toccata , a fugal section fugue , and a short free closing section. The connection to the north German organ school was noted early by Bach biographer Philipp Spitta in However, the numerous recitative stretches are rarely found in the works of northern composers and may have been inspired by Johann Heinrich Buttstett, whose few surviving free works, particularly his Prelude and Capriccio in D minor, exhibit similar features.
The edition was conceived and partly prepared by Felix Mendelssohn, who had BWV in his repertoire already by The concert was very well received by the critics, among them Robert Schumann. Another popular transcription was completed in by Ferruccio Busoni.
In the 20th century the work was generally viewed very differently, as a bold and dramatic piece. Here is elemental and unbounded power, in impatiently ascending and descending runs and rolling masses of chords, that only with difficulty abates sufficiently to give place to the logic and balance of the fugue. With the reprise of the initial Toccata, the dramatic idea reaches its culmination amidst flying scales and with an ending of great sonority. The Toccata begins with a single-voice flourish in the upper ranges of the keyboard, doubled at the octave.
It then spirals toward the bottom, where a diminished seventh chord appears which actually implies a dominant chord with a minor 9th against a tonic pedal , built one note at a time. This resolves into a D major chord:. Three short passages follow, each reiterating a short motif and doubled at the octave. The section ends with a diminished seventh chord which resolved into the tonic, D minor, through a flourish. The second section of the Toccata is a number of loosely connected figurations and flourishes; the pedal switches to the dominant key, A minor.
This section segues into the third and final section of the Toccata, which consists almost entirely of a passage doubled at the sixth and comprising reiterations of the same three-note figure, similar to doubled passages in the first section. After a brief pedal flourish, the piece ends with a D minor chord. Thanks to Kevin Sutton for his reply - even if it was a little bit harsh on a mere music lover who is admittedly learning a lot about Bach, from scratch.
We do not all have the advantage of his greater learning. With all due respect that is a pretty narrow comment. It's the text that's secular and sacred, not the notes! So my question - which goes wider than Keith's answer - remains to some extent unanswered.
Bach's choral music was rarely heard outside of Leipzig until several years after his death. Most of it remained unpublished for years.
But I am still not sure. Thank you anyway. And I look forward to learning what Christoph Wolff can add to Schweitzer. Wolff is very likely the greatest living Bach scholar and is a musicologist by profession. Schweitzer, great man that he was, was an avocational musician and a great deal of research has been done since Dr.
S's over 40 year old tomes. It is unfair to a master scholar like Dr. Wolff to dismiss him with a weak one liner. And the way Wolff is currently pretending that he personally discovered the Bach manuscripts in Kiev - which is simply not true - also doesn't further my sympathy for him as a scholar.
Silly question regarding Cantata numbering Thomas Boyce wrote October 12, : My "recommended recordings" list has Cantatas 4, , , etc. Does this mean "Cantata, BWV "? Not "Cantata no. I fear it's the former, but anyway thanks. Bought Bylsma's Cello Suites today. Worth the money. Is this a problem? As in, when we speak of Cantata , what we're really doing is omitting the BWV before the Newbie Numbering Question Jim Morrison wrote October 13, : After years of listening to Bach's keyboard and concerti work, I've finally turned to the cantatas and I've been amazed at what all I've been missing.
My thanks to the others on this list for helping me expand my musical interests. And now onto the silly newbie question. I'm under the impression that Schmieder took his numbering for the cantatas straight from a pre-existing catalog of the works.
Is this correct? If so, does anyone know where I can find out more about that catalog? And does the BWV number always correspond to the cantata number? I have the Rifkin version. Anyone else have a favourite they could recommend? Sybrand Bakker wrote October 13, : To Jim Morrison The cantatas have been numbered during production of the complete edition of the Bach Gesellschaft in the 19 th century.
Their numbering must have been largely based on the findings of Philip Spitta, who wrote a 2-volume biography, which is still in print. As the cantata numbering at the time of Schmieder had been around for many decades, he simply took that. I must admit I am a bit prejudiced though, as I know Katharina Arfken, the oboe soloist in this aria.
She also plays and teaches renaissance wind instruments, in which capacity I met her in courses for renaissance music. Katharina is a very funny woman, and she is very nice. I'm listening to the Suzuki version right now and sounds quite moving. In the Rilling edition the oboe is pushed a little further forward in the recording and with less reverberation. Sometimes the oboe seems to get a bit lost behind the strings of Suzuki's recording. Anyone ever made of listing of some of Bach's greatest works for Oboe?
I'd love to see and help out on that. The Sinfonia from cantata BWV 21 also has a nice part for oboe. At the top of my list would be the Casals lead performance of BWV a reconstructed concerto for violin and oboe.
A friend on another list recently told me about this recording and the adagio, clocking in at what must be a record slow pace of , has become one of my all-time favourite pieces of music. For me, an incredible moving work.
Isaac Stern plays the violin and Marcel Tabuteau plays the oboe. In the oboe and violin form the work sounds very much like a wordless duet between human singers. Once again, thanks for your help, PS: I hope I'm not telling you folks something everybody out there already knows, but I just found a great site that does the best it can at listing the cantatas in chronological order.
Following our list of discussion every week you will bathe in Bach for the next three years! His music will always be on your mind. Unexpectedly it will pop up and comment your life situations in words and music. You will never be tired of studying gems from this treasure box. A cantata a day keeps the shrink away! PS Welcome to the list. I look forward to read your contributions! I've found this to be true. I've come to love working Bach into my conversations, my home, my car, my work. His music does add radiance in my life.
I hope this doesn't sound too fuzzy-headed, but I find my mind breaths easier when I listen to Bach. Brushing close to such a genius makes me feel better. I listen to Bach to encounter greatness. Thanks for the list of recommendations. I should probably come out right now on the list and say I'm all for different types of performances of Bach's work. I make a point to try to accept what the conductors and performers are trying to do and relax and see where they can emotionally move me to.
Sometimes when I'm in the mood, I like Rifkin's light-footed, deeply textured cantatas. But at other times when I'm in the mood to hear a glorious surging wall of beauty, I play Gardiner's version of the Mass. See above. I agree. Thanks for the welcome. Rifkin and Gould also share interests in modern music, both made early significant piano recordings of overlooked music for Rifkin it was Joplin's music, for Gould the famous 55 Goldbergs as well as having championed controversial performances of Bach which downplay the overly dramatic gestures in favour of smaller scale dynamics that allow for a better presentation of the contrapuntal aspects of Bach's compositions.
He derived many movements from his cantatas, such as Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen , BWV 12 , written in , and composed some new movements. All of these movements have substantial solo parts as well as choruses. It is not known what direction of development Bach had intended for his last Mass to take. As Stauffer states,. If Bach had lived longer, it is likely that he would have created a definitive fair copy of the Mass, similar to those of the St. John and St.
It contains the letters J S B superimposed over their mirror image topped with a crown. During the Baroque period, many composers only wrote the framework, and performers embellished this framework with ornaments and other elaboration. This practice varied considerably between the schools of European music; Bach notated most or all of the details of his melodic lines, leaving little for performers to interpolate.
This accounted for his control over the dense contrapuntal textures that he favored, and decreased leeway for spontaneous variation of musical lines.
At the same time, Bach left the instrumentation of major works including The Art of Fugue open. He wrote more cogent, tightly integrated chorale preludes than most. For example, the St Matthew Passion illustrates the Passion with Bible text reflected in recitatives, arias, choruses, and chorales. He wrote much for the keyboard and led its elevation from continuo to solo instrument with harpsichord concertos and keyboard obbligato. Bach produced collections of movements that explored the range of artistic and technical possibilities inherent in various genres.
The most famous example is The Well-Tempered Clavier , in which each book presents a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key. Each fugue displays a variety of contrapuntal and fugal techniques.
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