At 5:20 PM +0200 9/4/07, Johannes Gebauer wrote:
This source must be one of the most misinterpreted ones ever. Bach
is not talking about ideal "forces". Rather he is talking about how
many _singers_ (not instrumentalists) he needs to fulfill the
musical needs of the services.
Well, I've found where my New Bach Reader got tucked away, and in
rereading parts of it I have been reminded how fascinating some of
this material really is. (Edited by Hans T. David and Artur Mendel,
Revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff.)
We've heard from a good many people with a good many questions and a
good many opinions, but one of those who has NOT commented is Herr
Bach himself, so let's see what he had to say.
Of course all historical evidence must be interpreted, and that is
precisely what Rifkin and Parrot and others are doing, as they
should. But they weren't there, and the man was! And there are at
least 3 different documents that seem to apply to our discussion.
First, there is a letter from Dr. Christian Ludwig Stieglitz, school
board chairman in Leipzig, apparently directed to the Town Council
and dated May 18, 1729, to which was attached several enclosures
prepared by Bach. At that time there were 9 openings for students at
the Thomasschule, and a number of prospective students had applied
for those openings. Dr. Stieglitz reminds the Councilmen that, "with
respect to singing in services of all five churches, there is need
for 44 boys." [I am a bit confused as to whether there were four
churches or five for which Bach had responsibility, since a year
later he mentions four. He had no responsibility for the University
church.] The purpose of the letter is to urge the Council to decide
which boys should be appointed, and the purpose of Bach's enclosures
was to make it clear which boys could serve musically and which could
not.
In Exhibit B, Bach rates (by name) those who can be used in music (8
sopranos and 2 altos, ranked in order of voice quality and
musicianship), and those "who have no musical accomplishments (11
boys). A later addendum endorses two additional boys, one age 14 and
one, a tenor, age 19. [This, by the way, answers two questions I
have long had: (a) Bach's boys sang both soprano and alto, unlike
the English tradition of boys singing treble while the altos were
young men; and (b) the tenors and basses WERE students in the school,
and not necessarily young men borrowed from the university.]
But it is Bach's Exhibit D: Organization of the St. Thomas Choir,
that is of the most interest. (Remember that by his own reckoning 44
of the students out of the total of 55 needed to be music capable.)
The first choir (assigned to St. Nicholas) needed 12 singers, 3 in
each section. The second choir (St. Thomas) and the third choir (New
Church) the same, and the 4th choir 8 singers, two on each part, with
the note that "this last choir must also take care of St. Peter's"
obviously at a later service, with the name of the 4th church omitted.
Second, there is Bach's own "Short But Most Necessary Draft for a
Well-Appointed Church Music, with Certain Modest Reflections on the
Decline of the Same," his memorandum to the Town Council dated August
23, 1730 (which I consistently misdate to 1731 through impaired
memory!). At the time, the Council was reprimanding Bach for his
perceived failures, relating not to music at all but to his teaching
duties in non-musical studies. (It is interesting that no matter
what problems the Council felt they had with Bach, and no matter how
much they complained, they hardly ever (or perhaps never) complained
about the music, just about administrative matters.)
And here is where a great deal of interpretation is necessary.
First, he was begging for additional funding and for the
reinstatement of benefices and honoraria which had previously
provided additional incentive for non-students to take part in
Leipzig's church music. Second, he was arguing for a greater say in
which students were admitted to the school, arguing (but most
obsequiously!) that the Council were idiots for admitting students
with no musical talent at all. (And Johannes, he very definitely
speaks of both singers and instrumentalists.)
He starts out saying, "A well-appointed church music requires
vocalists and instrumentalists. The vocalists in this place are made
up of the pupils of the St. Thomas School, being of four sorts,
namely, sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses. In order that the
choruses of church pieces may be performed as is fitting, the
vocalists must in turn be divided into 2 sorts, namely, concertists
and ripienists. The concertists [i.e. soloists] are ordinarily 4 in
number; sometimes also 5, 6,7. or even 8; that is, if one wishes to
perform music for two choirs. The ripienists, too, must be at least
8, namely two for each part."
Taken with his numbers from the previous year's enclosures, this adds
up to 12 voices for EACH of at least the first three choirs. He goes
on to clarify that, saying, "Every musical choir should contain at
least 3 sopranos, 3 altos, 3 tenors, and as many basses, so that even
if one happens to fall ill (as very often happens, particularly at
this time of year, as the prescriptions written by the school
physician for the apothecary must show) at least a double-chorus
motet may be sung. (N.B. Though it would be still better if the
group were such that one could have 4 subjects on each voice and thus
could provide every choir with 16 persons."
At the end he summarizes, "In conclusion I find it necessary to
append the enumeration of the present alumni [i.e. admitted students,
NOT graduates as we use the term], to indicate the proficiency of
each *in musicis* and thus to leave it to riper reflection whether in
such circumstances the music can continue to be maintained, or
whether its still greater decline is to be feared. It is, however,
necessary to divide the whole group into three classes." For "those
who are usable" he names 18 specific singers; for "the motet singers,
who must first have further training in order to be used eventually
for concerted music," he names an additional 20 specific singers; and
for those "of the last sort are not *musici* at all," he names a
final 17 non-singers.
In terms of instrumentalists, he paints an equally depressing
picture, but remember that he has an agenda here and WANTS to paint a
depressing picture! He writes, "The instrumentalists are also
divided into various kinds, namely, violinists, oboists, flutists,
trumpeters, and drummers. N.B. The violinists also include those
who play the violas, the violoncellos, and the violones."
He lists the necessary players for the instrumental music:
"2 or even 3 for the Violino 1
2 or 3 for the Violino 2
2 for the Viola 1
2 for the Viola 2
2 for the Violoncello
1 for the Violon
2, or if the piece requires, 3, for the Hautbois
1, or even 2 for the Basson
3 for the Trompetten
1 for the Paucken,
total 18 persons at least, for the instrumental music. N.B. If it
happens that the church piece is composed with flutes also (whether
they are recorders or transverse flutes, as very often happens for
variety's sake, at least 2 more persons are needed. Making
altogether 20 instrumentalists."
He then lists the present instrumentalists by name, and emphasizes
the vacant chairs:
2 trumpets (and no drummer)
2 violins (needing 4 more)
No violas (needing 2, which does not line up with his other list)
No celli (needing 2)
No violon (needing 1)
2 oboes (needing 1)
And notes the Bassoon is played by "The associate" (Apprentice?)
Plus 2 flutes needed.
He uses these figures to argue for *stipendium* or *honorarium* or
*beneficia* to attract *studiosi* [university students]. He also
notes that some of the empty instrumental chairs have to be covered
by students of the school, which then makes them unavailable as
choristers.
(He also mentions four churches by name, which must be the source of
my confusion over whether he served four or five different churches.)
INTERPRETATION
Yes, he was painting a black picture to try to light a fire under the
Town Council, and there's a definite agenda behind this memo. Yes,
boys (and men) do get sick from time to time. And yes, he emphasized
how many unmusical boys the Council had foisted on the school. But
considering his broad responsibilities for the day to day and week to
week supervision of Leipzig's church music, it's awfully difficult to
avoid seeing that his specifications were entirely reasonable, even
minimal, and not blue-sky idealism! Anyone who has ever been a
church musician (or been married to one!) will understand
instinctively that he had to do what church musicians have always had
to do: make do with what was available, see that the show goes on in
spite of emergencies and inevitable problems, and basically grin and
bear it. Which I'm sure he did.
But there is absolutely NO hint that he wanted, or intended, or would
have been happy with, on a regular basis, four choirs with only one
singer on each part, no matter how one argues from the number of
surviving parts or anything else. THAT is why I haven't considered
it worth the time or trouble to study Rifkin's or Parrot's writings.
Their presumptions simply don't make sense to a working musician,
knowing what Bach himself laid out as the reasonable forces for
producing reasonably good church music. If that's a
misinterpretation, sobeit. And yes, I fully agree that he was
"talking about how many _singers_ ([and] instrumentalists) he needs
to fulfill the musical needs of the services," and not about some
ideal.
The third document I just happened across, but it's most interesting.
It is the Missa (Kyrie and Gloria only, although people keep writing
as if it were the complete B minor mass) BWV 232: performing parts,
title wrapper, presumably dated July 27, 1733, as is the letter that
accompanied it:
"To His Royal Majesty and Electoral Highness of Saxony, demonstrated
with the enclosed Mass--for 21 [voices], 3 violins, 2 sopranos, alto,
tenor, bass, 3 trumpets, tympani, 1 hunting horn, 2 transverse
flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, violoncello, and continuo--his most
humble devotion, the author, J.S. Bach." If we read "21 [voices]" as
meaning 21 separate score lines, including both vocal and
instrumental parts, that does fit the rest of the description, but
says absolutely nothing about how many singers would be used on each
of the 5 parts, which Bach probably knew quite well would be a local
decision and not something to be dictated by the composer, especially
when the composer was asking for a job! The accompanying letter is
typical brown-nosing of the time. I wonder whether the music was, in
fact, ever performed in Dresden, or whether, like the Brandenburg
Concerti, it went straight to the Elector's library. It may be
there, somewhere, in the reader, if I search for it.
All the best,
John
--
John R. Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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