THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2013 by John Eliot Gardiner
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. Originally published in Great Britain as Music in the Castle of Heaven by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, London.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gardiner, John Eliot.
Bach : music in the castle of heaven / by John Eliot Gardiner.—First American edition.
pages ; cm
ISBN 978-0-375-41529-6 (hardback)
1. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685–1750. 2. Composers—Germany—Biography. I. Title.
ML410.B1G34 2013
780.92—dc23
[B]
2013030398
eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-35198-0
Photograph on spine: Johann Sebastian Bach by Elias Gottlob Haussmann, 1748 (detail), after his painting of 1746. ullstein bild / The Granger Collection, NYC
Cover design by Peter Mendelsund
v3.1
To fellow travellers through Bach’s landscape
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
A Note on the Text
Abbreviations
Map
Preface
1 Under the Cantor’s Gaze
2 Germany on the Brink of Enlightenment
3 The Bach Gene
4 The Class of ’85
5 The Mechanics of Faith
6 The Incorrigible Cantor
7 Bach at His Workbench
8 Cantatas or Coffee?
9 Cycles and Seasons
10 First Passion
11 His ‘Great Passion’
12 Collision and Collusion
13 The Habit of Perfection
14 ‘Old Bach’
Chronology
Glossary
Notes
Index
A Note About the Author
Illustrations
List of Illustrations
Endpapers: Matthew Passion, fair copy in Bach’s hand, Nos. 23–4 (see this page) (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
FIRST INSET
1. Georgenkirche, Eisenach (photo: Constantin Beyer)
2a & b. Neues vollständiges Eisenachisches Gesangbuch, 1673 (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
3a. ‘The Whole World in a Cloverleaf’ (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
3b. ‘Buno’s Dragon’ (Universitätsbibliothek Halle: AB 51 21/ K.22)
4. Heinrich Schütz (Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek / bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
5a & b. Organ tablature transcriptions (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Fol 49/11 [3, 2]. Photos: Olaf Mokansky)
6. Concordia Cantata, title page (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
7a & b. The Dukes of Saxe-Weimar (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen KGr/04542, KGr1982/00171)
7c. Wilhelmsburg, Weimar, c. 1730 (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen KHz/01388. Photo: Sigrid Geske)
8. Himmelsburg (interior), c. 1660 (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen G 1230. Photo: Roland Dreßler)
SECOND INSET
9. Thomasschule and Thomaskirche, 1723 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 2808 a)
10. Thomasschule and Thomaskirche, 1749 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 2708 e)
11. Six Leipzig burgomasters: Abraham Christoph Platz, Gottfried Lange, Adrian Steger, Christian Ludwig Stieglitz, Jacob Born, Gottfried Wilhelm Küstner (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, Porträt A 1a, A 42, A 76c, A 39, A 48b, A 50a)
12–13. Calov Bible: title page and annotation (courtesy of Concordia Seminary Library, St Louis, Missouri. All rights reserved.)
14. The Lutheran Liturgical Year (courtesy of James Thrift)
15. Bach’s First Leipzig Cantata Cycle, 1723/4 (courtesy of James Thrift)
16. Bach’s Second Leipzig Cantata Cycle, 1724/5 (courtesy of James Thrift)
THIRD INSET
17. Christian Romstet, ‘The Tree of Life’ (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
18. Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1746 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, XX11/48)
19. Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1748 (courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey)
20. Viola d’amore, with inset of the opening phrase of ‘Erwäge’ (photo courtesy of Catherine Rimer)
21. Oboe da caccia (photo: Robert Workman)
22. Violoncello piccolo by A. & H. Amati, Cremona, c. 1600. On loan to the Royal Academy of Music Museum from the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation (photo: Simon Way. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation and the Royal Academy of Music, London)
23. Violoncello piccolo obbligato (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)
24. Mendelssohn’s watercolour of the Thomascantorei, 1838 (courtesy of Sotheby’s)
TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS
(opposite Acknowledgements) A. F. C. Kollmann, ‘The Sun of Composers’ (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
25. Eisenach and the Wartburg (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
26. Johann Hermann Schein, five-part circular canon (Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv – Staatsarchiv Oldenburg, Best. 297 J, N. 36, Bl. 10)
27. Adam Gumpelzhaimer, six-part retrograde cruciform canon (courtesy of the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester)
28. Johann Ambrosius Bach (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv / Carola Seifert)
29. Georg Philipp Telemann (akg-images)
30. Johann Mattheson (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
31. Crosses inscribed in bwv 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden (courtesy of Mark Audus)
32. Johann Theile, Harmonischer Baum (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, D-B/Am. B 451)
33. Heinrich Müller, engraving from Himmlischer Liebes-Kuss, ‘The Battle with Death’ (© The British Library Board. 1560/303, pl 23)
34. Leipzig street music (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig)
35. Endzweck (courtesy of Stadtarchiv Mühlhausen, StadtA Mühlhausen 10/*(Stern) Fach 1/2 No 2a fol. 34)
36. Extract from the draft charter for the Thomasschule (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 235)
37. Assessment of thirteen boy altos (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 247 v)
38. Division of choristers into four choirs for five city churches (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 549)
39. Bach’s MS of the Sanctus, bwv 232iii, with sketched melody for bwv 133, Ich freue mich in dir (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
40. Aide-mémoire from bwv 135, Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
41. ‘Entwurff’ (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
42. Copyist’s slip in bwv 135, Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
43. Wilhelm Friedemann’s errors in bwv 127, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe
des Thomanerchors)
44. Copyist errors in bwv 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)
45. Sperontes, Singende Muse an der Pleisse (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
46. Street lighting in Leipzig (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, S/23/2001)
47. Market square, Leipzig, with celebrations for Friedrich August II of Saxony (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 802)
48. Zimmermann’s coffee-house (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, Mü.III/42 b)
49. Seating plan of the Thomaskirche, 1780 (Courtesy of Breitkopf & Härtel)
50. Johann David Heinichen, Musicalischer Circul, with key breakdown of the John Passion (redrawn by James Thrift)
51. Interior of the Thomaskirche, Herbert Stiehl (Beiträge zur Bach-Forschung, Vol. 3 (1984)) (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
52. Matthew Passion, Gerne will ich mich bequemen, with square brackets added (courtesy of Mark Audus)
53. Jesu, meine Freude, structure.
54. Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1748: three details (courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey)
55. Canon triplex à 6 voci (detail, stave with middle note and two clefs, this page) (courtesy of Howard Moody)
56. The Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus XIV (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
57. Heinrich Müller, engraving from Himmlischer Liebes-Kuss, ‘Earthly/Heavenly Concert’ (© The British Library Board. 1560/303, pl 26)
Copper engraving of the sun – considered the embodiment of goodness and perfection – with Bach at its centre and surrounded by other German composers as its ‘rays’, designed by the English organist Augustus Frederick Christopher Kollmann and published in the Allgemeine musicalische Zeitung, Vol. I (1799). Haydn is said ‘not to have taken it amiss, nor that he was placed next to Handel and Graun, still less that he found it wrong that Joh. Seb. Bach was at the centre of the sun and hence the man from whom all true musical wisdom proceeded’.
Acknowledgements
I owe an immense debt to three amazing women: to Tif Loehnis, my niece, goddaughter and former literary agent, who gave me the encouragement and belief to get started; to Debbie Rigg, my long-suffering PA, friend and ally, who typed innumerable drafts of the manuscript and witnessed my pitifully slow coming to terms with a computer; and above all to my wife Isabella, who cherished and nurtured a husband daft enough to embark on writing a first book in his sixties and, who when asked, often came up with a formulation that was clearer than my own. They would all know that, although I had chosen to write about Bach, I am equally (though differently) drawn to the three ‘B’s – Beethoven, Berlioz and Brahms – and could have mustered equivalent fervour for writing about Monteverdi, Schütz or Rameau. But Bach is utterly central to my life as a musician, and, as Haydn is said to have remarked when shown this copper engraving by A. F. C. Kollmann (1799), Bach was indeed ‘the centre of the sun and hence the man from whom all musical wisdom proceeded’ (see illustration).
I owe special thanks to John Butt for acting as an inspirational ‘tutor’; to the path-finding brilliance of Laurence Dreyfus; to Nicolas Robertson, whose gimlet eye has saved me from further gaffes (and whose own book on Bach must surely follow); to Robert Quinney for his astute criticism; to the generous support of Peter Wollny and Michael Maul of the Bach-Archiv, Leipzig; and to the expertise of David Burnett, who answered my litany of cris de cœurs with friendly forbearance. I would like to thank all three of my daughters – Francesca (for sharing with me a writer’s woes), Josie (a brilliant line editor) and Bryony (a saviour when gremlins threatened to make whoopee in my laptop) – for putting up with a frequently distracted parent.
Last but not least, I would like to thank Donna Poppy for her exemplary and tactful copyediting and Jeremy Hall for running to earth the illustrations and without whose eagle eye and attention to detail the design and look of the book would have been compromised. My thanks to all of the above, plus the many friends and distinguished colleagues (listed below) who read and commented on sections of the book and who encouraged me to find my voice as a writer, to be true to it and to resist the insidious pressures to conform:
Sir David Attenborough
Manuel Bärwald
Reinhold Baumstark
Tim Blanning
Michael Boswell
Robert Bringhurst
Neil Brough
Gilles Cantagrel
Rebecca Carter
Eric Chafe
Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni
Kati Debretzeni
John Drury
Christian Führer
Iain Fenlon
Hans Walter Gabler
Andreas Glöckner
Bridget Heal
the late Eric Hobsbawm
Colin Howard
Jane Kemp
Emma Jennings
Ortrun Landmann
Robin Leaver
Robert Levin
Fiona Maddocks
Robert Marshall
Gudrun Meier
Howard Moody
Michael Niesemann
John Julius Norwich
Philip Pullman
Richard Pyman
Jane Rasch
Catherine Rimer
Stephen Rose
William and Judith Scheide
Richard Seal
Ulrich Siegele
George Steiner
Richard Stokes
Andrew Talle
Raymond Tallis
Ruth Tatlow
James Thrift
Teri Noel Towe
David Watkin
Peter Watson
Henrietta Wayne
Geoffrey Webber
Peter Williams
Christoph Wolff
Hugh Wood
David Yearsley
My thanks also go to the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge; the librarians of the UCL, of the Rowe Music Library in King’s College, Cambridge, of the Music Department of the Cambridge University Library and of Oxford’s Bodleian Library; the staff of the Bach-Archiv, Leipzig; the BBC TV team who worked with me on a documentary entitled Bach: A Passionate Life (2013); and to Stuart Proffitt as commissioning editor and to the Penguin team of Richard Duguid, Rebecca Lee, Stephen Ryan and David Cradduck for their professional and friendly input during the final stages of preparation. Thanks also go to Granta magazine, who commissioned a small part of the material used in this book in Granta 76: Music, in 2001.
For providing illustrations gratis, my thanks go to the following individuals and institutions:
Mark Audus; Bach-Archiv Leipzig; Bachhaus Eisenach/Neuen Bachgesellschaft; Breitkopf & Härtel; Concordia Seminary Library, St Louis, Missouri; Catherine Rimer; William H. Scheide/Scheide Library, University of Princeton; Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester; Sotheby’s London; Stadtarchiv Mühlhausen; James Thrift.
A Note on the Text
For the sake of brevity the Sundays in the liturgical year will be abbreviated as follows: Tr + 1 (the first Sunday after Trinity); Epiphany + 4 (the fourth Sunday after Epiphany).
The author’s recordings of Bach are available on Soli Deo Gloria (www.monteverdiproductions.co.uk) and Deutsche Grammophon (www.deutschegrammophon.com).
Complete texts and translations of the cantatas are available on www.bach-cantatas.com and in Johann Sebastian Bach: The Complete Church and Secular Cantatas, Richard Stokes (trs.) (Long Barn Books, 1999).
Monetary units:
1 pf. (pfennig)
1 gr. (groschen) = 12 pf.
1 fl. (florin or gulden) = 21 gr.
1 tlr (thaler) = 24 gr. (or 1 fl. + 3 gr.)
1 dukat = 72 gr. (or 3 tlr).
Abbreviations
BJb Bach-Jahrbuch
BD Bach-Dokumente, Vols. I–III
BWV Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, Bach’s work-list
JAMS Journal of the
American Musicological Society
JRBI Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute
JRMA Journal of the Royal Musical Association
KB Kritische Berichte (critical commentary to the NBA)
LW Luther’s Works: American edition (55 vols.), St Louis, 1955–86
MQ Musical Quarterly
NBA Neue Bach-Ausgabe
NBR New Bach Reader
SDG Soli Deo Gloria, Bach’s habitual dedication of his music to God’s glory (also the record label of Monteverdi Productions)
WA Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (65 vols.), Weimar, 1883–93
WA BR Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Briefwechsel (18 vols.), Weimar, 1930–85
WA TR Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Tischreden (6 vols.), Weimar, 1912–21
Bach’s field of activity in Northern and Central Germany.
Click here for large image
Preface
Bach the musician is an unfathomable genius; Bach the man is all too obviously flawed, disappointingly ordinary and in many ways still invisible to us. In fact we seem to know less about his private life than about that of any other major composer of the last 400 years. Unlike, say, Monteverdi, Bach left behind no intimate family correspondence, and very little beyond the anecdotal has come down to us that can help in painting a more human portrait or to allow a glimpse of him – as son, lover, husband or father. Perhaps there was a fundamental reluctance in him to pull back the curtain and reveal himself; unlike most of his contemporaries, he turned down the opportunity to submit a written account of his life and career when the opportunity arose. The limited, heavily edited version that we have inherited is one he himself spun and handed down to his children. It is not surprising some have concluded that Bach the man is something of a bore.
The idea that a more interesting personality lies behind this apparent disjunction between the man and his music has exercised his biographers from the very beginning, with inconclusive results. In any case, do we really need to know about the man in order to appreciate and understand his music? Some would say not. Not many people, however, are content to follow Albert Einstein’s summary advice: ‘This is what I have to say about Bach’s life’s work: listen, play, love, revere – and keep your trap shut.’1 On the contrary, in most of us there is an innate curiosity to put a face to the man behind the music that holds us so tightly in its grip. We yearn to know what kind of a person was capable of composing music so complex that it leaves us completely mystified, then at other moments so irresistibly rhythmic that we want to get up and dance to it, and then at others still so full of poignant emotion that we are moved to the very core of our being. Bach’s sheer stature as a composer is baffling and in many respects out of scale with all normal human achievement, so we tend to deify him or to elevate him to the superhuman. Few can resist the temptation to touch the hem of the garment of a genius – and, as musicians, we want to shout about it from the rooftops.
Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven Page 1
