Saturday, July 13, 2019

Bach / Clavier-Übung

Bach

Clavier-Übung

January 25, 2019

The four parts of Bach’s Clavier-Übung emerged as a systematic and complete survey of the art of keyboard music as seen from Bach’s perspective. As extensive as Bach’s manuscript repertoire of new keyboard music from the 1730’s may be, it was clearly overshadowed by a commanding project: the Clavier-Übung series. By publishing, between 1731 and 1741, this comprehensive “keyboard practice” in four parts, Bach provided the most convincing evidence not only of his intent to renew an emphasis on his accustomed métier as a clavier and organ virtuoso (despite the fact he had not held a formal post as organist since 1717) but also of his desire to put a public face on his activities as a keyboard artist. The overall content of the series indicates Bach’s pragmatic approach. He selected genres and compositional types with broad appeal, though he did not compromise in the degree of compositional elaboration or performing standards.

Curiously, Leipzig’s lively publishing business and book trade had never paid much attention to publishing music. By 1800, however, largely through the activities of the Breitkopf firm, then Hoffmeister and Kühnel (later C.F. Peters) and others, Leipzig was well on its way to becoming the unrivaled leader in music publishing. Bach’s collection of six partitas, appeared in 1731, under the title Clavier-Übung and had previously been issued in single installments. As the publisher, Bach acted at his own financial risk, so it was prudent for him to invest in the project gradually so that expenses would largely by recovered by sales; after the first installment of 1726, the other five were issued over the next four years. For distribution, Bach recruited six colleagues in well-chosen locations who agreed, on a commission basis, to serve as sales agents in their areas. When Bach had tested the market and determined that the individual partitas sold well, he arranged to reprint all six partitas in one volume in 1731. The partitas of part I were followed in the spring of 1735 by the Italian Concerto and French Overture of part II, now published by Christoph Weigel Jr. With part III, Bach returned to the principle of self-publishing, but he apparently ran into some production problems with the Krügner engraving firm so that the publication date had to be postponed from the Easter Fair in 1739 to the St. Michael’s Fair a half year later. The concluding part IV was published (like part II, in Nuremberg) in the fall of 1741.

First, he included music specifically for the most important keyboard instruments: one manual harpsichord (part I), two-manual harpsichord (parts II and IV), and large organ as well as organ without pedals (part III). Second, the leading national styles (part II) are complimented by an enormously rich spectrum of other styles, both retrospective and modern (parts III and IV); we find religious hymns (part III) and even a burlesque quodlibet (part IV). In the end, all the standard genres, forms, and categories are represented: suite, concerto, prelude, fugue, chorale settings of all kinds and variations. All fundamental compositional methods are to be found, from free-voiced improvisatory pieces to imitative polyphony, cantus firmus technique, and strict canon. Everything from solo works and duets to settings with five and six obbligato voices makes an appearance, and Bach fully exploits keys (for commercial reasons, short of the well tempered system) and the principal church modes. Finally, the collection presents tremendous challenges to the performer, since there are no easy pieces included. On the contrary, with its use of advanced keyboard technique (from pièces croisés requiring hand-crossing skills to the most complex double-pedal technique), the Clavier-Übung sets new performing standards that match the rigorous principles of compositional organization.

Christoph Wolff: Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician – pages 373, 374, 375 376

BWV 825 – Partita No. 1 in B Flat Major – Karl Richter: Harpsichord