Exploring the Limits: the Tonal, the Gestural and the Allegorical in Bach's Musical Offering (original) (raw)
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2004
This dissertation investigates developments in the performance of J. S. Bach’s music in the second half of the 20th century, as reflected in recordings of the Mass in B Minor, BWV 232. It places particular emphasis on issues relating to concepts of expression through performance. Between the 1950s and the 1980s, most Bach performers shared a partial consensus as to what constitutes expression in performance (e.g., intense sound; wide dynamic range; rubato). Arguments against the application of such techniques to Bach’s works were often linked with the view that his music is more “objective” than later repertoires; or, alternatively, that expressive elements in Bach’s music are self-sufficient, and should be not be intensified in performance. Historically-informed performance (HIP), from the late 1960s onwards, has been characterised by greater attention to the inflection of local details (i.e., individual figures and motifs). In terms of expressive intensity, this led to contradictory results. On the one hand, several HIP performances were characterised by a narrow overall dynamic range, light textures, fast tempi and few contrasts; these performances were often considered lightweight. On the other hand, HIP also promoted renewed interest in the practical application of Baroque theories of musical rhetoric, inspiring performances which projected varied intensity within movements. More recently, traditional means of expression have enjoyed renewed prominence. Ostensibly “romantic” features such as broad legati, long-range crescendi and diminuendi, and organic shaping of movements as wholes have been increasingly adopted by HIP musicians. In order to substantiate the narrative outlined above, the significance of the evidence preserved in sound recordings had to be checked against other sources of information. This dissertation is divided into two main parts. The first part focuses on specific “schools” of prominent Bach performers. Complete recordings of the Mass are examined in relation to the biographical and intellectual backgrounds of the main representatives of these schools, their verbally-expressed views on Bach’s music and on their own role as performers, and their style as documented in recordings of other works. The second part examines the performance history of specific movements within the Mass, comparing the interpretations preserved in sound recordings with relevant verbal analyses and commentaries. The dissertation as a whole therefore combines the resources of reception and performance studies. Beyond its specific historical conclusions concerning Bach performance in the post-war era, it also provides specific insights into Bach’s music, its meaning and its role in contemporary culture.
Death and (Re)Birth of J. S. Bach: Reconsidering The Musical Work- and Author-Concepts
Routledge, 2019
While the study and redefinition of the notion of authorship and its relationship to the idea of the literary work has played a central role in recent research on literature, semiotics, and related disciplines, its impact on contemporary musicology is still limited. Why? What implications would a reconsideration of the author- and work-concepts have on our understanding of the creative musical processes? Why would such a re-examination of these regulative concepts be necessary? Could it emerge from a post-structuralist revision of the notion of musical textuality? In this document, I take the … Bach … project, a collection of new music based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No.1 for solo violin, BWV 1002, as a point of departure to sketch some critical answers to these fundamental questions, raise new ones, and explore their musicological implications.Music, Moores School o
Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, 2019
In attempting to determine how Johann Sebastian Bach taught composition, this article draws on recent archival discoveries to claim that it was not the ornamented, vocal Choralgesänge, but the simpler, thoroughbass-centered Choralbuch style that played a central role in Bach’s pedagogy. Fascinatingly, many newly-rediscovered chorale books from Bach’s milieu contain multiple basses under each melody, suggesting that Bach too may have employed this technique. What theoretical perspectives shall we bring to bear on this long-lost multiple-bass chorale tradition? This article asserts that it is a fallacy to assume that any pattern-yielding methodology offers a valid window into Bach’s teaching. Rather, an attempt is made to recover modes of music-theoretical understanding that existed contemporaneously with Bach. Such a coterminous theoretical “paratext” potentially offers more insight into Bach’s pedagogy because it establishes a horizon of possibilities from which we can draw when examining multiple-bass composition. Foremost within this paratextual horizon is the centrality of thoroughbass for Bach’s understanding of composition. In particular, Bach was immersed in the pre-Rameau thoroughbass tradition as represented by the writings of Johann David Heinichen. In contrast to many modern harmonic perspectives, chordal roots and root progressions played little to no role in the pre-Rameau thoroughbass tradition. Dissonance was understood not harmonically, but dyadically in terms of syncopatio (suspension) and transitus (passing and neighbor) figures. Drawing from a variety of sources from Bach’s circle, particularly those of his pupil, Johann Christian Kittel, this article posits that Bach may have understood multiple-bass chorale harmonization in terms of interlocking clausulae – that is, as a series of overlapping cadential modules. In sum, this article contributes to an ongoing revisionist project of recent years that aims to elevate early eighteenth-century thoroughbass from mere “pre-theoretical” accompaniment practice to its true place as the theoretical and practical basis of compositional understanding in Bach’s day. In der Absicht zu rekonstruieren, wie Johann Sebastian Bach Komposition unterrichtete, und ausgehend von Archivfunden aus jüngster Zeit stellt dieser Artikel die Behauptung auf, dass nicht die reich ausgestalteten, vokalen Choralgesänge, sondern der einfachere, generalbassbasierte Choralbuch-Stil in Bachs Pädagogik eine zentrale Rolle spielte. Faszinierenderweise enthalten viele neu aufgefundene Choralbücher aus Bachs Umfeld mehrere Bassstimmen unter jeder Melodie, was nahelegt, dass auch Bach diese Technik angewandt haben könnte. Welche theoretischen Perspektiven sind aus dieser lange Zeit aus dem Blick geratenen Tradition des Choralsatzes mit multiplen Bässen abzuleiten? Dieser Artikel bezweifelt, dass eine auf historisch späteren Denkweisen basierende Methodik tragfähige Perspektiven auf Bachs Unterricht gewähren kann. Stattdessen wird versucht, musiktheoretische Konzepte nutzbar zu machen, die aus Bachs Zeit stammen. Solch zeitgenössischer theoretischer »Paratext« bietet möglicherweise einen besseren Einblick in Bachs Pädagogik, da er einen Horizont von Möglichkeiten bietet, auf die man sich bei der Betrachtung der Komposition mit multiplen Bässen beziehen kann. Besonders wichtig ist die zentrale Rolle, die innerhalb dieses paratextuellen Horizonts der Generalbass für Bachs Verständnis von Komposition spielt. Insbesondere war Bach von der vor-Rameau’schen Generalbasstradition geprägt, wie sie in den Schriften Johann David Heinichens repräsentiert ist. Anders als viele moderne, von der Harmonielehre informierte Zugänge spielten Akkordgrundtöne und Grundtonfortschreitungen in der vor-Rameau’schen Generalbasstradition kaum eine bzw. gar keine Rolle. Die Dissonanz wurde nicht harmonisch, sondern als zweistimmiges Phänomen, als syncopatio (Vorhalt) oder transitus (Durchgang oder Nebennote) verstanden. Auf der Grundlage einer Auswahl von Quellen aus Bachs Umkreis, besonders denen seines Schülers Johann Christian Kittel, postuliert dieser Artikel, dass Bach die auf multiplen Bassstimmen basierende Choralharmonisierung im Sinne ineinandergreifender Klauselkombinationen, also als eine Folge einander überlappender Kadenzmodule verstanden haben könnte. Im Ergebnis trägt dieser Artikel zu einem seit einigen Jahren laufenden Projekt bei, das darauf abzielt, den Generalbass des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts vom Status einer bloßen ‚vor-theoretischen‘ Begleitpraxis zu befreien und ihn in seiner wahren Bedeutung zu würdigen, die ihm als der theoretischen und praktischen Grundlage des Verständnisses von Komposition zur Bach-Zeit zukommt.
2018
The emergence at the height of the Enlightenment of such a style as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Empfindsamkeit is one of the paradoxes surrounding the ideas of the Berlin School. At a time when Europe was pervaded by empiricism and reason, there appears in the Berlin School an attempt to find, in the aesthetic of the affects, individual features that could be presented on the level of compositional process. This gives us certain grounds for dubbing this school 'pre-Romantic'. The central key to eighteenth-century thinking about the aesthetics of music is the notion of musical expression. This is, of course, a phe nomenon which is difficult to systematically define-contrary to the for mal musical analysis of a work, in which the principles of form delineate a clear way to proceed, albeit occasionally not devoid of deviations and exceptions. The music of the second half of the eighteenth century, mainly in Germany and in France, elaborated its own ways of interpret ing, somewhat different to those which were present earlier in music, and which were based on the notion of expression. From the sociological point of view, all art, and music in particular, was for the eighteenth century primarily embellishment. Perceived in terms of refined sensibility, emotionality, the art of music was often given the epithet galant, and its chief determinants, particularly in the second half of the eighteenth century, were expression, proportion, gal lantry and naturalness. Nature, which was supposed to be merely imi brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology