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See also:SUMMARY OF See also:BACH'S See also:WORKS
No See also:attempt is here made at See also:chronological sequence. The changes in Bach's See also:style, though clear and important, are almost impossible to describe in untechnical See also:language; nor are they of such See also:general See also:interest as to make it See also:worth while to expand this summary by an attempt to apportion its contents among the See also:Arnstadt-See also:Muhlhausen
See also:period, the See also:Weimar period, the See also:Cothen period (chiefly remarkable or instrumental See also:music and comparatively uninteresting in its easy-going choral music), and the last period (1733–1750) in which, while the choral works became at once more numerous and more terse (e.g. Jesu, der du meine Seele) the instrumental music, though never diffuse, shows an increasing preference for designs on a large See also:scale. (Compare, for example, the second See also:book of the Wohltemperirtes Klavier, 1744, with the first, 1722.)
I.—See also: Magnificat in D. A few other ecclesiastical Latin choruses. A. Orchestral 7 clavier concertos arranged from See also:violin concertos and other See also:sources. 3 concertos for two claviers (two being arranged from concertos for two violins). 2 concertos for three claviers. The 6 See also:Brandenburg concertos, for various combinations. 2 violin concertos, and a See also:colossal torso of a concerted violin-See also:movement forming the prelude to a lost church See also:cantata. r See also:concerto for two violins. 4 orchestral suites. (The See also:symphony in F in the same See also:volume 'of the B. G. is only an earlier version of the first Brandenburg concerto.) B. Chamber Music 3 sonatas for clavier and See also:flute; a See also:suite and 6 sonatas for clavier and violin, 3 for clavier and See also:viola da gamba; 2 trios with figured See also:bass; 2 flute-sonatas and a violin suite with figured bass; 6 sonatas (i.e. 3 sonatas and 3 partitas) for violin alone; 6 suites for See also:violoncello alone.
C. Clavier and See also:Organ Music
Bach's own collections are:
I. Das wohltemperirte Klavier for See also:clavichord: two books each containing 24 preludes and fugues, one in each See also:major and minor See also: The other clavier works fill two Jahrgange of the B.-G. Bach's collections of organ music are (besides that included in the third part of the Klavier- Cbung) :—(1) 6 sonatas. (2) 4 See also:groups cf 6 organ preludes and fugues. (3) Das Orgelbiichlein, a collection of short choral-preludes carefully planned—all the See also:blank pages of the autograph being headed with the titles of the chorales intended for them—but not See also:half executed. (The projected whole would have been a larger volume than the Wohltemperirtes Klavier). (4) i8 larger chorale-preludes, including Bach's last See also:composition. (5) The 6 ' Schubler " chorales, all arranged from movements of cantatas. Besides these there are the three See also:great See also:independent toccatas and the See also:Passacaglia. The remaining choral-preludes fill one Jahrgang, and the other organ works two more. D. Unclassified Two important instrumental works cannot be classified, viz, Das musikalische Opfer, the volume of compositions (two great fugues, various See also:puzzle-canons, and a splendid trio for flute, violin and figured bass) on the theme given to Bach by See also:Frederick the Great; and See also:Die Kunst der Fuge, a progressive See also:series of fugues on one and the same subject, written in open See also:score as if entirely abstract studies, but all (except the extreme contrapuntal See also:tours de force) in admirable clavier style and of great musical value. IV.—LAST WORKS A. Choral J. N. See also:Forkel's statement that Bach wrote 5 Jahrgdnge of church cantatas (i.e. enough to provide one for each See also:Sunday and See also:holy See also:day for five years) would indicate that some 8o are lost, but there is See also:reason to believe that this is a great exaggeration. Not more than six or seven cantatas are known to be lost, by the See also:evidence of fragments, See also:text-books, &c. Forkel also says that Bach wrote five Passions. Besides the great Matthew and John Passions there is in an indisputable Bach auto-graph one according to St See also:Luke; but it is so worthless that the best plea for its authenticity offered by responsible critics is that only a See also:personal interest could have induced Bach to make a copy of it. It The lost Passion according to St Mark must, judging by the movements preserved in the Trauer-Ode, have been larger than that according to St John. Was there a genuine See also:Lucas-Passion ? If so, Forkel's See also:report of five Passions would be explained. Several lost See also:secular works are partly preserved in those portions of the Christmas oratorio of which the sources are not definitely kno",n, but which, like the other duplicated See also:numbers, are See also:fair copies in the autograph. B. Instrumental Three violin concertos and one for two violins; known only from the wonderful clavier versions. Most of the first movement of the A major See also:sonata for clavier and flute which was written in the spare staves at the bottom of a larger score. Some of these have been cut off. V.—ARRANGEMENTS OF WORKS BY OTHER COMPOSERS Arrangements for harpsichord alone of 16 concertos, generally described as by Vivaldi, but including several by other composers. 4 Vivaldi concertos arranged ,for organ. Many of these arrangements contain much See also:original See also:matter, such as entirely new slow movements, large cadenzas, &c. Concerto in A minor for 4 claviers and orchestra, from Vivaldi's B minor concerto for 4 violins. This, though the most faithful to its original, is the richest and most Bach-like of all these arrangements, and is well worth performing in public. 2 sonatas from the Hortus Musicus of Reinken, arranged for clavier. (The ends of the slow movements are Bach.) See also:Finishing touches to cantatas by his See also:uncle Johann See also:Ludwig Bach. Also a very characteristic See also:complete " Christe eleison " inserted in Kyrie of Johann Ludwig's. VI.—DOUBTFUL AND See also:SPURIOUS WORKS Bach's See also:autographs give the name of the composer on the outside See also:sheet only. He was constantly making copies of all that interested him; and where the outside sheet is lost, only the music itself can tell us whether it is his or not. The above-mentioned Passion according to St Luke is the See also:chief See also:case in point. The little music-books he and his second wife wrote for their See also:children are full of pieces in the most various styles. and the editors of the Bach-Gesellschaft have not completely identified them, even Couperin's well-known See also:Les Bergeries " escaping their See also:scrutiny. A sonata for two claviers by Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedermann, was detected by the editors after its inclusion in Jahrgang xliv. The second of the 3 sonatas for clavier and flute is extremely suggestive of Bach's sons, but Philipp Emanuel ascribes it to his See also:father. However, he might easily have docketed it wrongly while arranging copies of his father's works. It has a twin See also:brother (B.-G. ix. Anhang ii.) for which he has not vouched. Four absurd church cantatas are printed for See also:conscience' See also:sake in Jahrgang xliii. More important than these, because by no means too obviously ridiculous to deceive a careless listener, is the well-known 8-part See also:motet, Lob, Ehr' and Weisheit (blessing and See also:glory and See also:wisdom). A closer acquaintance shows that it is really very poor stuff ; and it was finally crowned with absurdity by the See also:discovery that its composer was a contemporary of Bach,—and that his name was See also:Wagner. The beautiful motet, Ich lasse See also:dick nicht, has See also:long been known to be by one of Bach's uncles (Johann Christoph). See also:EDITIONS Almost the only works of Bach published during his lifetime were the instrumental collections, most of which he engraved himself. Of the church cantatas only one, Gott ist mein Kdnig (written when he was nineteen, but a very great See also:work), was published in his lifetime. Of See also:modern editions that of the Bach-Gesellschaft is, of course, the only complete one. It is, inevitably, of very unequal merit. Its first editors could not realize their own See also:ignorance of Bach's language; their immediate admiration of his larger choruses seemed to them See also:proof of their competence to retain or dismiss details of ornamentation, figured bass, variants between score and parts, &c., without always stopping to see what See also:light these might See also:shed on questions of tempo and style—especially in the arias and recitatives, which they regarded as archaic almost in See also:direct proportion to the See also:depth of thought really displayed in them. In the 9th Jahrgang Wilhelm See also:Rust introduced scholarly methods, with the happiest results. The Wohltemperirtes Klavier (Jahrgang xiv.) was edited by Kroll, who also made his text accessible in the Edition See also:Peters (which till then had only See also:Czerny's—an amazing result of corrupt tradition, still widely accepted). Kroll's and Rust's volumes are far the best in the B. G. On Rust's See also:death the See also:standard deteriorated ; his immediate successor seems more interested in reprinting in full an See also:early version of a work of which Rust had given only the variants, than in digesting his own materials (Jahrgang See also:xxix.) ; and in his next volume (Jahrgang See also:xxx. p. 109) the bass and violin are a See also:bar apart for a whole See also:line. The last ten volumes, however, are again satisfactory. and in Jahrgang xliv. the French and English suites are re-edited. Part of the B minor mass was also worked over again; and Kroll's text of the Wohltemperirtes Klavier was supplemented by the evidence of the See also:British Museum autograph. The Steingraber edition of the clavier works, edited by Dr Hans Bischoff, is incomparably the best, giving all the variants in footnotes and clearly distinguishing the extremely intelligent nuances and phrasing signs of the editor from the rare but significant indications of Bach himself. Nor does this See also:wealth of scholarship interfere with the presentation of a straightforward, single text; though in addition there is every necessary explanation of the ornaments and kindred matters. We have seen no other editions that distinguish Bach's text from the editor's See also:taste—the disappointing publications of the Neue Bachgesellschaft 1 by no means excepted. We may remark that the older vocal scores of cantatas in the Edition Peters are, though unfortunately but a selection, far better than the complete series issued by Breitkopf and Hartel in conformity with the Bach Gesellschaft, and therefore accepted as authoritative (see See also:INSTRUMENTATION). The English vocal scores published by See also:Novello are generally very See also:good though covering but small ground. The Novello score of the Christmas oratorio contains a See also:fine See also:analytic See also:preface by See also:Sir See also:George Macfarr'n. 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