Organ Concert Program Notes
In 1739, Bach published Clavier-Übung III, a large collection for the organ and the first of the extended works of his last decade of life (including such monuments as the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Art of Fugue and the Mass in B Minor). Among the variety of styles represented, it contains five examples of the results of Bach’s studies of 16th Century counterpoint, the stile antico.
Clavier-Übung III opens with the Prelude in E-flat, followed by ten chorale prelude settings with pedals (pedaliter), alternating with chorale preludes on the same chorales played without pedals (manualiter). Finally, there are four extended two-part inventions and the closing Fugue in E-flat, 27 pieces in all. It is sometimes fancifully referred to as Bach’s “New Testament,” because there are also 27 books in the New Testament. The hymns are taken from Lutheran chorales for the Mass, the Kyrie and Gloria (a tie-in with upcoming Boulder Bach Festival concerts, which feature several of Bach’s vocal Latin Masses), followed by Lutheran Hymns on the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Penitence, Baptism and Communion.
Because of the great length and the duplicate selections, it is not likely that the collection was designed to be performed at one sitting. In this concert, the Prelude and Fugue in E-flat frame the 10 pedaliter chorale preludes as follows:
Präludium pro Organo pleno
Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit (Kyrie—God and Father in Eternity)
Christe, aller Welt Trost (Christ, consolation of all the world)
Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist (Kyrie—God, Holy Ghost)
Allein Gott in der Höh sei ehr’ (Alone to God on high be honor [Gloria])
Dies sind die heilgen zehen Gebot’ (These are the holy Ten Commandments)
Wir gläuben all an einen Gott (We all believe in one God [Creed])
Vater unser im Himmelreich (Our Father in Heaven [Lord’s Prayer])
Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam (Christ, our Lord, came to the Jordan [Baptism])
Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (From deep distress have I cried to you [Penitence])
Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (Jesus Christ, our Savior [Communion])
Fuga a 5 con pedale pro Organo pleno
Lovers of Bach’s music who think the organ music only belongs in church or in limited concert exposure for the large organ preludes and fugues, for example, may receive a revelation here. There are a wide variety of styles, including one of Bach’s greatest preludes and fugues for the full organ. In between, there are pieces of great expressivity, especially the examples of the stile antico works, as in the Kyries, modal hymn tunes set so beautifully in Bach’s chromatic tonal language, incorporating modal harmonies alongside the tonal treatment. A Bach contemporary, Johann David Heinichen, described the stile antico as follows:
This antique, expressive (pathetische) style is surely the most beautiful and the most conducive (bequehmste), the one in which the composer can best reveal his profound science and correctness in composition… [The] parts [are] loaded with syncopations and beautiful suspensions both consonant and dissonant, and replete throughout with expressive thoughts, themes and imitations…”
Besides the Kyrie settings, nowhere does this style appear so movingly as in the first part of the Fugue in E-flat.
There is great joy in the dancing trio of the Gloria (Allein Gott), set in three parts as an allusion to the Trinity; there is deep sadness in the massive Aus tiefer, its text taken from the penitential Psalm 130, and set with double pedals. Anton Heiller, a great Austrian organist, said, “Aus tiefer is like a great cry of the whole world.”
One finds pictorialism as in the pastorale (perhaps picturing the wilderness) that forms the background for the stentorian voice of God delivering the Ten Commandments in two-part canon, symbolic of the two tablets on which they were written. Canons were typically used to depict the law.
In Wir gläuben, something sinister arises from the deepest pedals, invading the fugal setting of the Creed in the manuals, then slithering back down again, six times. Some have seen the devil depicted as a serpent here.
Waves of the River Jordan rise and fall in the left hand part of the baptism chorale, Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam.
There is profound symbolism, with many Trinitarian allusions (as in the three-part Fugue in E-flat), as well as other number symbols (called gematria, and seen, for instance, in Bach’s control of the exact number of measures in each part of the Fugue: 36, 45, 36). There are, in addition, theoretical wonders apparently written just for the delight in working them out. For example, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland presents its angular motive with its wide skips first in original order (rectus), then upside down (inversus), backwards (retrograde) and upside down and backwards (retrograde inversus).
According to his sons, Bach enjoyed puzzles and fugal devices. When Bach heard a fugue subject played, he immediately announced the potential of that subject for such fugal procedures as stretto (overlapping subjects), augmentation (the subject in double note values) and other possibilities. When the predictions came to pass, Bach delightedly nudged the son with his elbow!
We know that Sebastian Bach published very little music in his lifetime. The works he published were likely those he particularly valued or compositions likely to further his reputation as well as to make a profit. Among the keyboard works were the Partitas, published singly at first and then collected and issued in 1731 as Opus 1, Clavier-Übung I. A few years later, he published the popular Italian Concerto and the French Overture as Clavier-Übung II. The modest title, used at times by other composers, means “keyboard exercise,” and it does not do justice to the exquisite music contained in Bach’s collections.
There is much mystery surrounding Clavier-Übung III. What exactly is it, and what is its purpose? Some have called it “The Organ Mass”; however, there are several more chorales included that were not part of Ordinary of the Mass. Others call it the “Catechism,” and there is some basis for that because Bach refers to the Catechism in the subtitle of his first page of the music:
THIRD PART of the KEYBOARD PRACTICE consisting in Various Preludes on the Catechism and Other Hymns for the Organ For Music Lovers and especially for Connoisseurs of such Work, to refresh their Spirits composed by Johann Sebastian Bach…”
Perhaps it was a stock of pieces for teaching or service playing. (Although Bach did not regularly play services while he worked in Leipzig, these may have been intended for other church organists.) His theoretical studies, mentioned above, may have played a part since fugal and other technical devices abound in the collection. He may have been responding to some severe criticism of his style, recently received in print. Certainly Bach was also appealing to a wider audience than the church and town authorities in Leipzig, and he wanted to sell as many copies as possible: thus he included attractive pieces for a wide range of tastes and abilities, with several movements playable on a keyboard instrument without pedals. Further, it is known that Bach played concerts during such events as the Easter Trade Fair in Leipzig, in Hamburg, before royalty in Dresden and Potsdam, and when he was hired to approve a newly built organ.
Bach biographer, Johann Nicolas Forkel, described such an occasion:
It often happened that friends invited him, at times other than those of religious services, to show off the organ. He chose a suitable theme which would serve for improvisation in many organ forms and he would often play for two hours or more without interruption. First, a prelude and fugue on the full organ, then to show off his skill in the art of registration he used a trio or quartet always on the same theme. Then a choral and the melody used as counterpoint with imitations in three or four parts. Finally there would be a fugue on the full organ so that every part of the organ had been revealed.”
Is Clavier-Übung III, the contents of which resemble the above account, designed as concert music? The answer, of course, may be “all of the above,” since Bach made frugal use of his musical material, often recasting secular cantatas as sacred cantatas, a process known as parody (as seen in the short choral Masses). The collection could thus have served many purposes, not least of which may have been a collection for sale on the occasion of a recital that evoked the excitement and delight of the concert just heard.
Clavier-Übung III is, in fact, engaging music throughout, designed for Bach’s following and for purchase as a stock of music and memories of the master’s incomparable playing.
It is hoped that Boulder Bach Festival attendees will also enjoy hearing the infrequently performed Clavier-Übung III in concert.
Notes by Joyce Shupe Kull, DMA, FAGO, ChM
