Download here

CHRISTIAN LANE
31 March 2007
DWIGHT CHAPEL, YALE UNIVERSITY
Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 566
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 662
à 2 Clav. et Pedale Canto fermo in Soprano
Johann Sebastian Bach
Toccata prima
from Apparatus music-organisticus (1690)
Georg Muffat
(1653-1704)
Trivium (1976)
Arvo Pärt
(b. 1935)
Toccata alla Rumba (1971)
Peter Planyavsky
(b. 1947)
Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 664
Trio à 2 Clav. et Pedale
Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548
Johann Sebastian Bach
With two major works of Johann Sebastian Bach as bookends, this evening’s program
surveys the development of Bach’s musical style, its influences and its legacy.
Bach’s greatest mentor was Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), quite possibly the most
important German composer of the mid-Baroque and an incredibly influential musician
during his lifetime. Holding the important Lübeck appointment as organist of the
Marienkirche, Buxtehude was a model musician; a composer that young men such as
Bach and Handel admired and learned from. In fact, G.F. Handel visited Buxtehude in
1703 and Bach, at just twenty years of age, famously traveled some 220 miles by foot to
study with Buxtehude in 1705.
Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Major (BWV 566) is quite possibly a product of this
monumental journey to learn from the era’s greatest master. In form, BWV 566 resembles
the multi-sectional fantastic style that experienced its highest fruition in the organ works of
Buxtehude. In this improvisational style, freely composed sections outlining the tonality of
the piece alternate with highly structured fugues. Bach shows his youth and inexperience
in this work: he expands upon this common form by including harmonies that are richly
chromatic, yet also display a certain immaturity with regards to chord voicing and voice
leading. The main fugue of this work, which in character and harmony resembles fugues
of Buxtehude, is an astounding ninety measures in length – twice the length of most
fugues in this style. Its length, however, is achieved not through use of adventurous
harmonies or inventing episodes (as would be common in later works) but by extended
and sometimes pedantic sequences. The work ends with a second fugue whose subject is
derived from that of the first and then slowly morphs into a final toccata-like finish. This
fugal manipulation that Bach experiments with at the conclusion of the E Major will
further develop and come to great maturity in works such as the E Minor Prelude and
Fugue, the final piece on today’s program.
Buxtehude was also an accomplished composer of ornamented chorale preludes, a style
of composition developed by another of Bach’s predecessors in the German School:
Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663). In this style of composition, the embellished melody
of a chorale is presented as an aria above an imitative and flowing accompaniment. Bach
might very well have studied Buxtehude’s vast array of ornamented preludes while in
Lübeck, yet it was between 1711 and 1713 that this setting of Allein Gott in der Höh sei
Ehr was probably composed. With no fewer than twelve ornamental symbols appearing
in just the first three measures, this is Bach’s most florid chorale prelude; one which
represents a monumental maturation of style in just the few years since his visit to Lübeck.
Georg Muffat was a contemporary of Buxtehude, and although he worked for much of his
career in Germany (the southern portion), his style is distinctly different than those of the
North German School. Having studied with Jean-Baptiste Lully in his native France and
later within the lineage of Frescobaldi in Italy, Muffat’s style was one of truly international
influence. Similar to the toccatas of Buxtehude, Muffat’s are multi-sectional, yet their
freedom, melodic flourishes and ornaments sometimes suggest an interesting marriage
between a French tierce-en-taille and an Italian canzona. The Prima toccata is from a
larger collection entitled Apparatus musico-organisticus, a compilation of twelve free
pieces published in 1690.
Similar to Bach, Arvo Pärt is a deeply religious person – one whose religious beliefs
influence and shapes his music. However, unlike Bach, much of Pärt’s music is intended
for concert rather than liturgical performance – the result of his Orthodox beliefs and the
concert-driven market of the modern world. Composed in 1976, Trivium is Pärt’s first
published work for organ, and its three sections are at once mystical and declamatory –
much like the Christian Trinity, which one could say is at once mystifying and fully
dogmatic.
Underpinning much Baroque music is the rhythm of the dance – characteristic rhythms of
the sarabande, minuet and gigue dominated music during Bach’s era. These rhythms
were found in all types of composition during this period (not simply within dance suites)
and would have been widely recognizable to listeners during the eighteenth century. Of
course, in today’s world one doesn’t instantly recognize a minuet or sarabande. However,
listeners in today’s society might just recognize the rhythm of the rumba. Peter
Planyavsky, a Venetian organist, captures this rhythm in his Toccata. As Bach did with
Baroque dances, Planyavsky uses this rhythm as the foundation of the work while showing
off his technical prowess around those rhythms.
The chorale Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr was Bach’s most frequently utilized melody in
his chorale-based organ works. The second setting we hear this evening is in the form of a
chorale trio, and in this case, the melodic lines are derived from the chorale tune and the
cantus itself appears in the pedal at the piece’s end. Bach famously composed six trio
sonatas that have been challenging pedagogical tools for organists ever since, and this
chorale trio is no less challenging a piece. Imitating a baroque trio -- which featured two
instruments playing distinct lines over an integral bass – these pieces require the most
agility on the part of an organist. The organist plays each solo line in one hand and the
bass with the feet. Consequently, each limb of an organist is working autonomously –
kind of like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time!
The E Minor Prelude and Fugue, BWV 548 is Bach’s longest prelude and fugue and is
perhaps his most mature free work for organ – a far cry from the E Major heard at the
beginning of today’s program. While the bulk of Bach’s organ music was composed
during his tenure at the Weimar Court (1708-1717), BWV 548 was crafted much later in
life while in Leipzig. Its prelude is full of religious symbolism: seventh-chords abound
and the opening melodic interval is a rising minor-6th, both characteristics symbolizing
the Passion of Christ (these elements are also abundant in the St. Matthew Passion). It is in
¾ time, symbolizing the Holy Trinity, is filled with cross-motifs, and features canonic
episodes which represent the journey that one walks while following Christ. It is a strong
yet wailing work, written in what has long been considered the most mournful key: E
minor. The fugue is nick-named The Wedge because of its distinctive subject – a subject
which begins on a unison pitch and gradually expands chromatically outward to a full
octave in the aural equivalent of a wedge. It is possibly Bach’s most virtuosic fugue,
characterized by alternating sections of eighth and fast-running sixteenth notes, and is one
of Bach’s few fugues which feature a verbatim (da capo) repeat of the exposition at the
end. In fact, this movement brings together a fugue (regular exposition), concerto (‘solo’
episodes), toccata (scales), and aria (da capo), resulting in what Peter Williams terms a
“virtuoso ritornello-fugue.” Most notably, the relationship between the number of bars in
the fugue and that of the entire work is 1:1.59 -- almost exactly the Golden Section
(1.618), a ‘perfect’ relationship that would be so common in works of another great
composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is without doubt one of Bach’s most cohesive
and mature works for organ. Its toccata characteristics hearken back to the works of
Buxtehude yet also sets a standard for the future: a standard that will be carried forward by
Mozart.
Notes Copyright 2007 by Christian Lane