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Bach at Mid-Life: The Christmas Oratorio and the Search for New Paths

2012; Baldwin Wallace University; Volume: 43; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/bach.2012.a820293

2767-4843

Robert L. Marshall,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

Bach at Mid-Life: The Christmas Oratorio and the Search for New Paths1 RobertL. Marshall ForMaynard Solomon Only The Christmas about Christmas Oratorio seven Oratorio from years was the separate onset puttogether of the work creation in on the the weeks Art of of Bach's before Fugue. Christmas Oratorio from theonsetofworkontheArtof Fugue. The Christmas Oratorio was puttogether intheweeksbefore the 1734/1735 Christmas/NewYear's season; the manuscript containing theearliest portionsof theArtofFugue can be datedto around1742.Yetthetwoworksoccupyaltogether different stylistic andaesthetic worldsand seemto bearwitnessto a profound artistic "evolution," in a remarkably briefperiodof time,froma flirtation withtheimmediately appealing,the sensuous,and progressive in musicto theuncompromisingly rigorous, serious, and timeless. I The Christmas Oratorio is Bach's last majorcontribution to the repertoire ofGermanLutheran liturgical music. By1730,whenhewas justforty-five yearsold andwas stilltoliveforanother twenty years, Bachhadsubstantially completed whathehadexpected tobehislife's workas a churchcomposer - hisEndzweck (finalgoal),as he called it - namely, the creationof "a well-regulated churchmusicto the gloryof God."2 As it happened,it had takenhimlittlemorethan Versions ofthis essay were presented aslectures atTufts and Brandeis Universities, atthe BaldwinWallace College BachFestival, andata symposium atthe Juilliard School, NewYork, inhonor ofMaynard Solomon onthe occasion ofhiseightieth birthday. 2The phrase appears inBach's request for his dismissal dated "Mühlhausen,June 25, 1708." TheGerman original reads: "den End2weck, nemlich eine regulirXe kirchen music гмGottes Ehren." SeeBach-Dokumente, eds. Werner Neumann and H.-J. Schulze (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1963), 1:19 (no. 1).TheEnglish translation isprinted inThe New 1 2 Bach twenty years,rather thana lifetime, to achievethislife'sgoal. The project began when Bach had assumed the post of organistin Mühlhausenin 1707. Over thenexttwenty-plus yearsthenatureof hisofficial dutiesfromone job to theotherdetermined how much timeandenergy hewouldbe abletodevotetotheEndzweck. Attimes itwas sporadic;atothertimes(suchas during hissix-year sojournin Kothen)itvirtually ceasedaltogether. Atstill othertimes(specifically, hislastfewyearsinWeimar[1714-1717]andmostespecially hisfirst few yearsin Leipzig [beginning in 1723]), the commitment was intense, indeed - evenheroic: culminating inthecreation ofsometwo hundredchurchcantatas, alongwiththeMagnificat , and theSt.John andSt.Matthew Passions. (Itis tempting to think thatthefirst version oftheSt.Matthew - which waswritten in1727- wasintended tomark thecapstoneandendpoint tothatalmostsuper-human achievement.) In anyevent,theChristmas Oratorio , datingfromaround1735,is a delayedoutlier totheentire enterprise; forby1730Bach's systematic production ofLutheran church musichadeffectively ceased,andthe composerhad already turned hisattention innewdirections. Actually, Bach had begunto look in two new directions, both decidedly secularinnature. In 1729he hadassumedthedirectorship of an amateurmusic-making society - the CollegiumMusicum consisting mainly of university students. He occupiedthisposition faithfully through 1737 and tookitup again,moreintermittendy, in 1739.We shouldnotunderestimate theimportance oftheCollegium MusicumforBach's activities in the 1730s. In purelyquantitative termsitwas substantial. GeorgeStauffer has recendy demonstrated thatBach spentconsiderably more timeconductingsecularmusic duringhis ten-plus yearsas director of theCollegiumthanhe had performing church cantatas overthecourseofhisentire twenty-seven yearsinLeipzigas Thomascantor.3 By1730- especially after a highly unpleasant confrontation with hissuperiors on theLeipzigtowncouncil - Bach was readyto leave Bach Reader ;eds. Hans T.David and Arthur Mendel; rev. and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: Norton, 1998), 57(no.32). George B.Stauffer, "Music for 'Cavaliers etDames': Bach and the Repertoire ofHis Collegium Musicum," About Bach ,eds.Gregory G.Butler, George B.Stauffer, and Mary Dalton Greer (Urbana: University ofIllinois Press, 2008): 135-56. Bach at Mid-Life 3 Leipzigandwasliterally looking ina newgeographic direction aswell, specifically, towardthewell-endowed royalcourtin Dresden. Bach documented hisadmiration, evenhisenvy, ofthefavorable musical conditionsin the Saxon capitalwith crystalclarity in a famous memorandum whichbore the provocativetide: "Short but Most NecessaryDraftfora Weil-Appointed ChurchMusic,withCertain ModestReflections on theDecline oftheSame."4 In theyear1733Bach beganto strengthen hislongstanding but hitherto informal connectionswiththe Saxon court.He took the occasionofthedeathinFebruary oftheElectorFrederick Augustus I (Augustthe Strong)to apply to the new monarchFrederick Augustus II (August III ofPoland)fora courttideandpromised "my untiring zealinthecomposition ofmusicforthechurch aswellas for theorchestre ." He madethisrequestin a letter datedJuly 27, 1733;it accompanieda gift:a set of performance materialsfor a newly composedwork:theKyrieand GloriaoftheMassinВ minor . Bach's ties with Dresden were to grow over the followingyears;and eventually, in Novemberof 1736,he receivedthetideof Dresden CourtKapellmeister. Bach's new activities duringthisperiod - his connections with Dresdenand hisdirectorship of theLeipzigCollegiumMusicum reinforced one anothersince he foundhimselfin both activities engagedto a largeextent inrelated, oftenidentical, projectssuchas thecomposition ofmusicinhonoroftheroyalfamily inDresdenor ofnotablemiddle-class burghers inLeipzig.Mostoftheseworks were performed bytheCollegiumMusicum. II This allbrings us backto theChristmas Oratorio , foralmostallof thearias, duets, andfree choruses(i.e.,thosenotbasedon traditional choralemelodies)arenotoriginal compositions butarederived from earlier works. Most ofthemweretakenfrom twocompositions that...