 |
etc. |
"Wenn ich sie zehnmal gespielet habe, scheine ich mir immer noch eine Anfängerin darinnen."
-Luise Adelgunde Victoria Kulmus, 30 May 1732
(If I have played them ten times, I still reveal myself as a beginner therein.)
Unlike his solo music for harpsichord, cello or violin, Bach’s lute music was not conceived as a cycle. It is an anthology of works dating from all his major periods. Some are original, others mostly his own transcriptions from the cello and violin cycles. Until the 1950’s few people paid attention to this magnificent collection. Doubts were often expressed about their authenticity; in any event there was no competent lutenist to perform them. Since the 1960’s however, an ever-increasing interest and standard in the historical lute, both Renaissance and Baroque, have led to worthy performances. To be fair, even at present there is no consensus on whether these works were not actually intended for a keyboard instrument strung in gut, called the Lautenwerk (or lute-harpsichord), which Bach helped design and actually owned. My approach to this controversy is to examine the chronology of the lute works. In doing so, I have come to believe that as Bach moved from the courts of Weimar and Cöthen to the free city-state of Leipzig, and his circle of friends and students began to include serious lute players, he himself took an increasingly serious attitude in having his music performed on the lute.
It would be instructive to first look at Bach’s composing habit. "If I exclude some of his clavier pieces, he composed everything else without instrument, but later tried it out on one," reports C.P.E. Bach to Forkel in 1775. Another source from 1791, by E.L. Gerber whose father had studied with Bach in Leipzig around 1725-28, confirms and elaborates on it: "He had found himself compelled to make use of the night in order to be able to realize what he had written during the day…since it was never his habit in composing to ask advice of his clavier." That is perhaps the major reason the solo works for cello, lute or violin are so difficult to play.
Weimar, c. 1707-1715: Suite in e-minor
This is the earliest of Bach’s lute compositions, and also one of his earliest works for a single instrument besides the organ. Hans Joachim Schulze dates the manuscript to about 1715, around the time the Duke of Weimar, Ernst August, acquired a Lautenwerk from Johann Nicolaus Bach, Bach’s cousin in Jena. The manuscript itself was copied by Johann Gottfried Walther, Bach’s distant cousin and town organist in Weimar who later authored the Musikalisches Lexicon. Walther is believed to be an early advocate of the Italian instrumental style for Bach, so it is not surprising to find Walther "italianizing" both the work’s title and Bach’s name here. The opening and closing movements are certainly Italian in affect. The Prelude is more like a short toccata with fugue than the French overture which opens so many of Bach’s later solo suites. The Giga is a tour-de-force of tirata writing. All the other movements, however, conform to the dance suite and as such could have been penned earlier, during perhaps Bach’s first years in Weimar. Of great interest is the famous Bourée, which was probably introduced to most people in our time by the "jazzed-up" version of the 60’s rock group Jethro Tull. Whether by coincidence or by design, their performance is actually a bourée en gigue, an interpretation in agreement with Charles Masson’s instruction (Paris, 1697) that "la gigue doit se battre de même mouvement que la bourée…" In my performance I elaborate on this idea by including both versions.
From Walther the manuscript passed to Johann Tobias Krebs, a student of both Bach’s and Walther’s, and father of Bach’s favorite student Johann Ludwig Krebs, of the "only one crab (Krebs) in the one brook (Bach)" fame. Schulze credits Krebs Senior with the instrument designation — "aufs Lauten Werck" — on the manuscript’s title page. Since Bach was giving keyboard lessons to Duke Ernst August from 1711 onward, there is no reason to doubt that the e-minor Suite was indeed written for the Duke’s new Lautenwerk. Yet by some unknown force, this suite fits almost to a note on an 11-course French lute when played in its original key of e-minor. The great lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss played such an instrument in his "youthful debut" of 1706 in Düsseldorf, and did not switch to the larger 13-course "German" Baroque lute until around 1719. On this program this suite will accordingly be played on an 11-course lute.
Cöthen, c. 1722: Prelude in c-minor, BWV 999
Bach’s move to Cöthen in 1717 ushered in a period of extraordinary productivity in instrumental music. The first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, the 6 English Suites, the 6 Sonatas and Partitas for violin senza basso, and the Cello Suites all date from around 1722. The Prelude BWV 999 exists solely in a copy by J.P. Kellner, who befriended Bach in Leipzig and copied a number of the master’s works with high accuracy. This work is very much like the C-major Prelude on the opening page of the Well-Tempered Clavier I. Perhaps because of this, it was compiled into an edition called Twelve Litte Preludes by the Bach Gessellshaft in the late 19th century, and has been assigned to young beginning pianists ever since. What it sheds in technical triviality on the lute is repaid in musical content and atmosphere, although even for the lute it is a didactic piece. As such it bears perhaps an even greater resemblance to the famous arpeggiated prelude in d-minor of S. L. Weiss, the one which carries a remark: "Diese Partie habe ish zu allererst bey Ms. Weisen gelernet." However, what distinguishes the Prelude BMV 999 from all the other arpeggiated preludes in its ending in the dominant G-major. Will we ever discover the c-minor movement, perhaps a fugue, which followed?
The Early Leipzig years, c. 1727-1731: Pièces pour la Luth á Monsieur Schouster.
With his move to Leipzig in the Spring of 1723, Bach’s social status changed from indentured servant of the ruling class to member of the Lehrstand, the rising professional class of doctors, lawyers, teachers, merchants, etc. He built up an enviable reputation at the great courts of Dresden and Berlin. Although his principal position as cantor of the Thomaskirche left him overworked and underpaid, he had attained the intellectual life he sought. "He had more opportunity to talk personally to good people as his house was like a beehive, and just as full of life," recounts C.P.E. Bach in 1775. In addition to personal guidance to talented boys at the Thomasschule such as J.L. Krebs, Bach also took private students and befriended many who flocked to him. For the first time his circle attracted gifted lutenists. Among these were the law student E.G. Baron who later wrote the standard treatise on the lute, Adam Falckenhagen whose virtuosity was second only to the great Weiss, Krebs Junior whose skills on the lute received Bach’s testimonial, J.C. Weyrauch who became Bach’s lifelong friend and who translated much of Bach’s lute music into lute tablature, and Rudolph Straube who was one Bach’s last students. Bach’s principal oboist in the collegium, J.C. Gleditsch, also wrote lute partitas. Even Bach’s textual collaborator in the cantatas, the professor of poetry Johann Christoph Gottsched, was wooing a woman named Luise Kulmus (the future Mrs. Gottsched) who "played the most difficult pieces of Weiss just about at sight."
Before he came to Leipzig in 1723, Bach never used the lute in any of his ensemble writing. While his Leipzig predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, had a player of the colochon (a type of bass lute in d’ known for its carrying power) in the collegium, Bach did not seem interested in using the instrument initially. Then, in 1724, he wrote an obbligato lute part for a single bass arioso in his St. John’s Passion. And in 1727, in the Trauer-Ode (Cantata 198) which represents the highpoint of Bach’s collaboration with Gottsched, two lutes were called for in no less than 6 movements. We know that in 1732 Gottsched made a gift of Bach’s keyboard music and Weyrauch’s lute music (which actually could have been Bach’s lute music in Weyrauch’s tablature) to Luise Kulmus. It is tempting to speculate that the second lute in the Trauer-Ode was a guest appearance for Luise.
It was in this social climate that Bach arranged his most accessible work for the lute from his famous Fifth Cello Suite. Besides the invaluable watermark, which dates the work to 1727-31, Bach’s autograph score provides numerous clues to what is perhaps the centerpiece of his lute corpus. By entitling this work "Pièces" rather than suite, he was showing a preference for the French style. However, he let slip a grammatical error, since "luth" is masculine and lower-cased while "Laute" is feminine. Also, the proper way to title an instrumental suite in French would have been "pièces de luth," "pièces de claveçin," and so on. So it seems that Bach made a literal translation into French of his intention: "für die Laute."
One piece of the puzzle which we no longer have to guess is the identity of Monsieur Schouster to whom the work was addressed. Hans Joachim Schulze has convincingly identified this gentleman as the Leipzig bookdealer Jacob Schuster, who also carried Weiss’s music and was apparently the middleman between Luise Gottsched and both Bach and Weiss.
Most experts rate this suite higher than its model, the Fifth Cello Suite, for the masterly touches Bach put on a minimal composition to illuminate all the implied musical events. For example, in the Gigue he ornamented the sautillant figures so the two voices now chase each other in a brilliant display. Likewise, he gave the Gavottes the desired Vollstimmigkeit by composing a bass line. Yet he wisely refrained from turning the "tres viste" into a fugue, and in the Sarabande preserved the sublime beauty of the original by harmonizing as little as possible. This Lute Suite is the very illustration of J.F. Agricola's account of how Bach himself played his 'six violin solos without bass': "Their composer often played them on the clavichord, adding as much in the nature of harmony as he found necessary." (my own italics)
The late Leipzig years, c. 1745-1747: Prelude-Fuga-Allegro in E-flat BWV 998
Although Bach's later years in Leipzig saw increasing
work-related conflicts between himself and his rector as well
as the city's council, his house remained a magnet for the most
talented musicians of his time. The great lutenist Weiss came
to visit in 1739 and stayed a month, perhaps even long enough
to be Bach's soloist in the collegium's season opener at Zimmermann's
coffee house. In 1741 the coffee house concerts terminated upon
Zimmermann's death, and Bach left the collegium. The pace of his
performing life slackened with advancing age and deteriorating
eyesight. But his mind continued to produce great compositions,
among which the Prelude-Fuga-Allegro or "PFA" is just
a small testament. This work exists in Bach's own handwriting,
which by now was messy from poor eyesight and impatience for the
ink to dry. Yet the great sense of determination is unmistakable.
When he ran out of staves in the last measures of the Allegro,
he continue with German organ tablature in the margins.
It seems therefore that the lute works were tried by Bach himself
only on a keyboard, although lute tablature versions by Weyrauch
and others would imply that Bach must have heard them performed
by competent lutenists, perhaps even the great Weiss during that
memorable visit of 1739.
While the form of the PFA is somewhat unusual, and questions have
been raised concerning possible missing movements, Thomas Kohlhase
confirms it as a complete work. Although an extra slow movement
inserted between the Fuga and the allegro would have made this
a sonata da chiesa, I think Bach could have been following
the three-movement concerto form so popular with Vivaldi and other
Italian musicians.
The Prelude has a daring harmonic progression which is now widely
accepted as the genuine product of an unusually experimental Bach.
The Fuga is one of his very few da capo fugues and easily
the most important movement. It immediately recalls The Musical
Offering, BWV 1079, composed in 1747. The device which connects
the Fuga with the Ricecar a 3 Voci, and especially with the Andante
of the trio sonata in The Musical Offering, is the double appoggiatura:
|
etc. |
In our Fuga this motive is extensively developed in the fugal exposition. In the following divertimento or episode, its first appearance marks the turning point towards da capo. In the Andante of The Musical Offering, this phrase permeates the entire movement and defines the affect. As for the closing Allegro in the PFA, it is really a bipartite dance — a giga if fact. It does however provide structural closure by developing from the opening notes of the Prelude.
As in works of this late period, there is flexibility in the choice of instrument for the PFA. In his own hand Bach instructed this work to be "pour la Luth ò Cèmbal" but made no mention of the Lautenwerk. In fact, the Fuga demands an upper range to e"-flat, while no period description of any lautenwerk (e.g. Adlung’s Musica Mechanica Organoedi published in 1768) gives a compass exceeding c". Unfortunately we have no surviving Lautenwerk to verify one way or the other.
Which type of Lute?
As a lutenist I am of course committed to playing Bach’s music on the lute. But there is some dispute even after this choice is made. Many lutenists still wish to play this music on an instrument with Renaissance tuning, some citing the archlute as readily available in Bach’s lifetime, and Handel having used it in his arias. However, the only solo vehicle of the time for such a repertoire was the d-minor Baroque lute. This is verified by no less an authority than S.L. Weiss, in his letter of 1723 to Mattheson: "there is no more perfect instrument than the lute for Galanterie. The theorbo and Arciliuto, which are quite different even from each other, cannot be used at all in Galanterie pieces." The term Galanterie in this context refers to all the solo lute pieces, as opposed to church or dramatic music with lute accompaniment. I myself think that the immense technical difficulty of Bach’s music is lessened by the open tuning of the d-minor Baroque lute, which helps the music speak more freely.
© 1999, Franklin Lei, Berkeley, California.