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Volume 1. The roots of Bach's art. Subjective and objective art -- The origin of the chorale texts. The reformation and the medieval sacred song ; The first hymn-book ; Protestant poets of the hymns -- The origin of the chorale melodies. Borrowings from the middle ages and new creations ; Borrowings from the secular songs ; The end of the creative period -- The chorale in the church service. The organ and congregational singing at the time of the reformation ; The choir and the congregational chorale ; Osiander and Hassler ; The organ undertakes the leading of the congregational singing ; Congregational singing in Bach's time -- The chorale prelude before Bach. Samuel Scheidt ; Pachelbel, Bohm, Reinken, Buxtehude ; Bach and his forerunners -- The cantata and the passion before Bach. The old church music ; Schutz ; The influence of Italian art on the German church service ; The question of the text-form ; Strophic song and madrigal ; The achievements of Schutz ; The tendencies of the new church music in the period after Schutz ; The chief representatives of church music in the 17th century ; The Lubeck Abendmusiken ; The cantatas of the northern school ; The new cantata ; The development of the older Passion ; The German opera and its significance for church music ; Neumeister and Salomo Franck ; The new form of Passion music -- From Eisenach to Leipzig. Bach's ancestors ; Childhood and boyhood ; Arnstadt and Muhlhausen (1704-1707) ; Weimar (1708-1717) and Cothen (1717-1723) ; Journey to Hamburg (1720) and appointment as cantor at St. Thomas's -- Bach in Leipzig. The cantor's duties ; The financial position ; The conditions at St. Thomas's school ; The struggle over the university service ; Choir and orchestra ; Music in the Leipzig service ; The first conflict with the Council ; Application for the title of court composer ; The struggle with the rector ; Bach's position in the musical world of Leipzig -- Bach's children and their fate -- Appearance, nature and character. Bach's friendliness and modesty ; His attitude towards other artists ; His economy and hospitality ; Emmanuel inherits his father's economic spirit ; Portraits of Bach ; The discovery of the skeleton ; Bach's artistic personality ; His religion -- Artistic journeys, critics and friends. Journeys in the pre-Leipzig period ; Journeys in the Leipzig period ; Mattheson and Bach ; Scheibe's criticism ; Panegyrists in prose and verse ; Acquaintances and friends -- The artist and teacher. Bach's general culture ; The Mizler musical society ; Bach studies and arranges the works of other men ; Bach's own imagination stimulated by the work of others ; His employment of other men's themes ; Bach and the organ construction of his epoch ; Clavichord, clavicembalo, and pianoforte ; The lute-clavier and the viola pomposa ; Bach's clavier touch and violin playing ; Improvisation, registration, conducting ; The composer at work ; Bach's pupils ; His method of teaching composition ; The work of his pupils -- Death and resurrection. Illness and death ; Obituary notices ; Why he was forgotten ; The revival ; Forkel and Rochlitz ; Zelter and Goethe ; The revival of the St. Matthew Passion ; The results of the victory ; Mosewius ; Obstacles to the proper appreciation of Bach ; History of the Bachgesellschaft edition ; Spitta's biography ; Liszt and Wagner ; Bach in France, England and Italy ; Bach and the present day -- The organ works. Dates of composition ; Youthful works ; Preludes and fugues of the Weimar period ; Preludes and fugues of the Leipzig period ; Smaller preludes, organ sonatas, and passacaglia ; Early chorale preludes ; The orgelbuchlein ; The chorale preludes on the catechism hymns ; The eighteen chorales ; Paralipomena -- The performance of the organ works. The Bach organ and the modern organ ; Registration ; The natural architecture of the preludes and fugues ; Changes of manual ; Tempo, phrasing and ornamentation ; Organ and clavier fugues ; Transcriptions -- The clavier works. Publication of the klavierubung ; The French and English suites ; The little preludes, inventions and sinfonias ; Origin of the well-tempered clavichord ; The autographs of the well-tempered clavichord ; The spirit of the well-tempered clavichord ; Separate preludes, fantasias, sonatas and toccatas ; Capriccios -- The performance of the clavier works. The ornaments ; Cembalo or modern pianoforte ; The dynamic nuances ; The phrasing ; The accentuation of Bach's theme ; The tempo -- Chamber and orchestral works. The suites and sonatas for solo violin ; Polyphonic violin playing in Bach's time ; The suites for cello solo ; The sonatas for clavier and violin and their performance ; Sonatas for gamba and for flute ; Orchestral overtures ; The Brandenburg concertos and their performance ; The clavier concertos ; The concertos for three or four claviers ; The violin concertos -- The musical offering and the art of fugue. Origin and character of the musical offering ; The canons ; The origin of the art of fugue ; The fate of the art of fugue ; The musical quality of the art of fugue. |
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Volume 2. Bach and aesthetics. Spitta's embarrassment with regard to Bach's tone-painting ; Neglect of Bach by aestheticians -- Poetic music an pictorial music. Art per se ; Poetry and painting ; Poetry and music ; The connection of the arts in the receptive imagination ; The inadequacy of artistic expression ; The explanation of music ; The poetic element in Beethoven and in Wagner ; The pictorial element in Schubert, Berlioz and Bach -- Word and tone in Bach. The relation between the verbal and the musical phrase ; The declamation in the recitatives ; The poetical element in Bach's chorale movements ; The expression of emotions ; Bach and programme music ; Bach's tone painting ; Pictorial symbolism in music ; Bach's tonal language ; Origin and development of Bach's tonal language -- The musical language of the chorales. Pictorial and symbolical representation ; The "step" motives ; The motives of peace and grief ; The motives of joy ; The illustration of single words and of the sequence of poetical ideas ; The chorale fantasia on "Jesus Christus unser Heiland" -- The musical language of the cantatas. Pictorial themes ; The "step" motives ; The "tumult" motives ; The motives of exhaustion ; The rhythm [dotted eighth-sixteenth-dotted eighth-sixteenth] ; The rhythms of felicity ; The motive of terror ; The motives of grief ; The motives of joy ; The co-operation of the motives -- The Arnstadt, Muhlhausen, Weimar and Cothen cantatas -- The Leipzig cantatas of 1723 and 1724 -- The magnificat and the St. John Passion. The magnificat ; The unauthentic passion and the two lost passions ; Origin and first performance of the St. John Passion ; The musical character of the St. John Passion ; The choruses of the people ; The recitatives and arias ; Opening and final choruses -- The cantatas of the years 1725-1727 -- The trauerode and the St. Matthew Passion. The Trauerode ; The text of the St. Matthew Passion ; The choruses of the St. Matthew Passion ; The recitatives ; The arias -- The cantatas of the years 1728-1734 -- The secular cantatas -- The motets and songs. The origin of the motets ; With or without accompaniment -- The oratorios. Origin and history of the Christmas Oratorio ; Its musical character ; The sinfonia and its performance ; "Cuts" in the Christmas Oratorio ; The Easter Oratorio ; The Ascension Oratorio (Lobet Gott; no. 11) -- The masses. Origin and history of the B minor Mass ; The Kyrie and the Gloria ; The Credo ; The Sanctus and the Osanna ; The instrumentation of the Credo and the Confiteor ; Smaller masses ; Sanctus -- The cantatas after 1734 -- The performance of the cantatas and passions. The phrasing ; The accentuation ; The tempo ; The ornaments ; The dynamics ; The rendering of the vocal solos ; The employment of boys' voices ; The rendering of the final chorales ; The choir in general ; The interpretation of Bach's instrumentation ; The Bach orchestra in general ; Bach's strings ; Bach's flutes, oboes, bassoons and cornetti ; Bach's trumpets and horns ; The right proportions of the Bach orchestra ; The figured bass part ; The rendering of the organ accompaniment ; The proper choice of cantatas ; Simple music for the church service in the cantatas. |
