by Johann Christian Bach

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1 19 An andante b Johann Christian Bach Ops 12, no. 6, mt. 2, Andante, Paris, giing father l adice abot the art of composition, Leopold Mozart wrote to his son Wolfgang: The small is great, when it is natral flent and lightl scored and solid in its composition. To compose lie that is more difficlt than to write all the artificial harmonic progressions incomprehensible to most people, and melodies difficlt to perform. Did Bach lower himself b this? Neer! Good writing and the ordering of things, il filo [the thread] this distingishes the master from the bngler, een in trifles. 1 Leopold was seeing to inflence his son b inoing a name that the onger Mozart held in high esteem. Bach, howeer, meant Johann Christian Bach ( ), Italian trained, Catholic lie the Mozarts, and master of msic to Qeen Charlotte of ngland. And thogh Mozart did eentall acqaint himself with some msic b Bach s less well nown older brother (C. P..) and deceased father (J. S.), he alwas iewed the Bach who had written operas for Naples as the great model, the man whose stle he wored to emlate more assidosl than an other dring his earl ears. In tring to explain how one cold distingish, from the internal eidence of texts, between those prodced in oral and literar traditions, Albert Lord wrote: Formla analsis, proiding, of corse, that one has sfficient material for significant reslts, is, therefore, able to indicate whether an gien text is oral or literar. An oral text will ield a predominance of clearl demonstrable formlas, with the bl of the remainder formlaic, and a small nmber of nonformlaic expressions. A literar text will show a predominance of nonformlaic expressions, with some formlaic expressions, and er few clear formlas.... Analses of different inds of enambment in different stles are 263

2 264 msic in the galant stle liewise helpfl. We hae seen that nonperiodic enambment, the adding stle, is characteristic of oral composition; whereas periodic enambment is characteristic of literar stle. 2 This chapter presents the Andante slow moement of Bach s Bb sonata from his late collection of eboard pieces, Ops 12 (Paris). If Galppi or Dittersdorf represents a tpe of oral tradition characterized b the chaining together of stoc material and a minimm of inter-figre oerlap, enambment, or cross-reference, Bach represents a more literar stle. One hesitates to point ot indications of calclation and conscios constrction in a moement that scceeds so well in coneing the noble simplicit and natralness that was an aowed aesthetic goal in the later 1770s. Yet natralness is an artfl impression and not necessaril indicatie of the mode of constrction. Bach seems to hae treated een the most triial msical material as a candidate for arbitrar maniplation. For instance, the accompanimental figre in the bass of measre 1 featres an accented lower neighbor tone followed b a pattern of rising chord tones (see ex. 19.1). He ses this figre three times in sccession (mm. 1 3). Beginning in measre 7, he slightl changes its contor for three more statements, and then from measre 13 he seems to echo this pattern in sixteenth notes for the twofold presentation of a decoratie melodic figre. ex Motiic associations in Bach s Andante 1? a a n a n b 7? a a a 13 bb n n «@ n One cold arge that the neighbor-note-with-arpeggio motie of example 19.1 was part of Bach s main theme and ths liel to be sed repeatedl in the corse of the moement. Bt the same cold not be said of the small ingang (Ger., lead-in ) in measre 11 that introdces a new theme in the e of Bb maor (see ex. 19.2). Ten measres later, this

3 Chapter 19 an andante b bach 265 same generic little pattern is plaed pside down and bacwards (retrograde inersion) to introdce a different theme. Recherché ariation of this tpe, more characteristic of seenteenth-centr cort poetr than of light, galant sonatas, wold hae been appreciated better b Mozart the son than b Mozart the father. ex Bach s mirroring of a small ingang 11? 21? J Msical similarit is in the ear of the beholder, and more instances of motiic similarit in Bach s sonata cold be fond if one were committed to the effort. His seeral different ses of the Sol-Fa-Mi schema, for instance, wold natrall hae man featres in common. M point in drawing attention to these practices is not to claim that the reslt in sperior compositions, or that Bach was bilding a bridge to Beethoen and Brahms. Bt Bach s woring methods do seem to reflect a German orientation to galant composition, one that proed to be a significant inflence on Mozart in his earl ears, and one that can still spea to modern listeners withot reqiring as mch translation as might be needed for the wors of his Italian contemporaries. Becase Bach draws so heail on internal relationships and references, his wor can be appreciated more easil b otsiders, whereas the references in wors b Galppi or Dittersdorf are more to the galant tradition as a whole, which faors insiders with broad nowledge of the cortl repertor. These two approaches are not opposites, bt rather different weightings of (a) similarit perceied within a wor, and (b) similarit perceied between wors. Both approaches emplo rich networs of relationships, the one more internalized, the other more externalized, the one more solitar, the other more social. As the list on the following page shows, this long moement barel departs from the scales of tonic and dominant, the one exception being the hint of the hermaphrodite Fonte (the wrong, lowered ❻ being the Cb in m. 44). This wor s flid diatonicism and delicate, well-sbordinated chromatic embellishments can easil conceal how carefll Bach stroe to elide, rn together, and generall ndermine the normal scansion of the galant schemata. en the opening theme departs significantl from what a cortier might hae learned to expect from a Sol-Fa-Mi. Instead of the melodic dad sol fa being answered b the dad fa mi, Bach proceeds directl to mi, accompanied b a moe in the bass mch lie a deceptie cadence (5 6). I sa mch lie becase there are also strong hints of the Romanesca in Bach s opening bass (mm. 1 3). The ensing cadence is eaded, and

4 266 msic in the galant stle the closre of the cadence that follows is itself lessened b the entr in the bass of the motie shown earlier in example 19.1 (as m. 7). Onl with the end of the Prinner, and its extension to the half cadence in measre 12, is there a real caesra. When the strong cadence of measre 25 finall finishes the first half of his moement, Bach embars on a large, increasingl brara digression with roots in Italian opera sinfonias. Section Schema Ke 1st Half Sol-Fa-Mi b Cadence, eaded... b Prinner b Meer Bb Passo Indietro Bb Conerging cadence Bb F Sol-Fa-Mi Bb Cadence, eaded... Bb (triadic ascent) Bb Cadence, eaded... Bb Qiescenza, bis Bb } ] 2nd Half Sol-Fa-Mi Bb Cadence, eaded... Bb Fonte, hermaphrodite Fm b Prinner b Ponte b Sol-Fa-Mi b Prinner b Sol-Fa-Mi b Cadence b (triadic ascent) b Cadence, eaded... b Qiescenza, bis b } While each passage in this moement repas carefl examination, I want to draw attention to st a few that relate specificall to the topics of preceeding chapters. One is the se of the Qiescenza to end each half of the moement. Chapter 13 described the diatonic and chromatic ersions as different tpes of the same schema. That seems to hae been Bach s conception as well, since he ends the first half of the moement with the diatonic ersion and the second half with the possibl more emphatic, more noticeable

5 Chapter 19 an andante b bach 267 chromatic ersion. Chapter 11 described the Passo Indietro as often being performed st before the beginning of a significant cadence. Bach ses the Passo Indietro in measre 15 and qite properl follows it with a large Conerging cadence. Chapters 3 and 9 presented dozens of examples of the Prinner and Meer with High ❷ Drops. Bach follows that tradition throghot this moement. Bt he also introdces a relocation of the Prinner in the moement s second half. After the doble bar, instead of appearing as riposte to the opening theme, the Prinner is replaced b a Fonte (m. 43). The Prinner that sered as riposte to the opening gambit in the moement s first half onl retrns late in the moement (m. 57) as riposte to a second theme, itself a Sol-Fa-Mi st lie the opening gambit. While in its first appearance that Prinner riposte was accelerated to close with a half cadence (m. 11), in its second, delaed appearance Bach allows it the normal scansion (m. 57). Mozart later copied this manner of delaing and relocating the Prinner riposte in the slow moement of his great G-minor smphon (see the final section of chap. 9). Bach s Andante, b galant standards a challenging, literar moement, sometimes taes the galant repertor of schemata onl as a point of departre. His compositional stle, nonetheless, remained thoroghl gronded in that repertor.

6 268 msic in the galant stle ex J. C. Bach, Ops 12, no. 6, mt. 2, Andante (Paris, ) 1? 5? 9? 13? sol-fa-mi eaded x x c.. c a J a n a n b a a o m z a.. a.. na a. a a a a a m m x half x «. n a a a n n «n n prinner meer passo indietro D z n n a J a J n p m m nm conerging 17 n D? w w sol-fa-mi n b n x eaded m

7 Chapter 19 an andante b bach 269 b b «b. n n.? b b b a J D 21 sol-fa-mi x n m 25? triadic ascent n n n 28? n n n n D b b «n n «z.. n. z.. n? b b n b triadic ascent eaded qiescenza qiescenza sol-fa-mi b b b n. x x.? a n a n n a # n o

8 270 msic in the galant stle 39 n? a a 43? eaded n a. K n a a a. n «b b b fonte «b. J J a z n b a x zx p zx J zx J a b b a «47 b b z b prinner. J x. J # J a a a a m half ponte J a «sol-fa-mi x. 55? w w n b a.. n. n a. a. a a a m z m prinner

9 Chapter 19 an andante b bach ? 62? 65?. n a n a. n p m sol-fa-mi x. w w x triadic ascent triadic ascent? 68 eaded «@? 71? D D qiescenza b z n b n m qiescenza a. b

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