Bach s Musical Revolution

Transcription

1 Clik here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 27, Numer 25, une 23, 2000 Cognition vs Information Panel II Bah s Musial Revolution y Anno Hellenroih This speeh opened the onferene panel on May 28 Mr Hellenroih is an Exeutive Committee memer of the International Cauus of Laor Committees Foonotes have een added FIGURE 1 The Six Speies of Human Singing Voie Middle C F # do re mi fa sol la ti do re mi fa sol la ti do re mi fa sol la ti do In his 1680 Rules for the Promotion of the Sienes, Gottfried Wilhelm Leiniz wrote an idea to whih he attahed a metaphor whih would seem funny to us today, an idea whih is now more important than ever: Those who walk around in the Sun, take on a different olor, and so likewise will a musiian, having oserved in the ompositions of apale people thousands upon thousands of eautiful adenes and, so to speak, phrases of musi, will, thus equipped with this eautiful material, e himself enaled to inspire his own fantasy And, as a good teaher, who does not want to disourage those who are willing to learn, Leiniz adds: There are even suh people who are musiians y nature, and ompose eautiful melodies To reognize something in the oservation of thousands of musial phrases whih inspires one s own fantasy This is the Classial-humanist method of teahing, whih hallenges those who are willing to learn to relive, from the soures of great ompositions, the disovery for themselves, whether these e disoveries in the natural sienes or new artisti reations ohann Seastian Bah ( ) did exatly that when he was a hild, and C C C D E F G A B C C D Bass English Horn I & II A Tenor Baritone D Soprano A (mezzosoprano) F E E n Contralto F# A B E E n A Violonello & Bass 13 F F # FF # BC G C # D C # D G G A C # D G E E n B C F F # BC F FIGURE 2 Conluding Refrain in Ah Golgatha from S Bah s St Matthew Passion ah r Gol - ga - tha, * A B Bn First register Seond register Third register Fourth register * Mezzosoprano Verdiana is not stritly a fourth register he eame a genius Mozart and Beetho- phrases from the works of their prede- groundreaking essay, Mozart s ven wrote down new ounterpoint essors, ut espeially from those of 1786 Revolution in Musi in Bah, in order to make the new musial As it seems, it is only today, Lyndon H LaRouhe, r, Mozart s idea or thought-oet their very years after Bah s death, that we are et Revolution in Musi, Fidelio, Winter 1992 own, as LaRouhe desried it in his ter ale to understand the musial revo- EIR une 23, 2000 Feature EIR News Servie In All Rights Reserved Reprodution in whole or in part without permission stritly prohiited

2 lutions whih Mozart and Beethoven reognized in Bah s late works, espeially in A Musial Offering (1747), and in The Art of the Fugue Many of ethe ideas whih Leiniz, some 40 years older, artiulated in his late work The Monadology and in Priniples of Reason in Nature, and Grae, an help to make Bah s way of thinking, of omposing, more intelligile today We an otain a deeper insight into Bah s intelletual priniples of omposition, whih so fundamentally revolutionized Classial thinking, from remarks whih Leiniz made with respet to musi, his omparison to the priniples of onstrution in nature, the divine order of reation, and the lawfulness of musial harmony In his Priniples of Reason, for example, Leiniz speaks aout the growing oy in the knowledge of the perfetion of the universe God reated, the same oy whih arises from the eauty of a musial work of art, whih sounds harmoni: Sine God is the most perfet and the happiest, and onsequently the most worthy of love of all sustanes, and sine truly pure love onsists in an emotional ondition whih allows of the pereption of desire for the perfetion and happiness of that whih one loves, this love gives us the greatest desire of whih one an e apale, as soon as God is its oet Thus do we take oy in musi, although its eauty seemingly only onsist in the onord of numers and in ounting of whih we are not onsious of the waves and virations of sounding odies, whih take on ertain intervals In order to avoid misunderstanding: Leiniz sees as did Kepler and Cusa efore him in numers and ounting a harateristi of the osmos ordered y God, a measuring, an aspet of a fundamental lawfulness whih haraterizes us and our universe In partiular, Leiniz makes the important remark that musi pleases us y means of the onord of numers and ounting, of whih we are not onsious Is Leiniz speaking aout our souls, perhaps as the midwife of Reason, in whih eauty is un- FIGURE 3 Opening of Ah Golgatha from S Bah s St Matthew Passion English Horn I & II Violonello & Bass r Ah Gol - ga-tha, FIGURE 4 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op 111, opening of first movement & Maestoso rk n n f S S # RÔ # # dim 7th & 3 f R 4 n n Ô S S p res n n & S n n n English Horn I and II Violonello and Bass 5 n n n p res f n n n R Ô n n * 5 n f n f R n Ô S S n n * f R n Ô n 2 dim 7th n FIGURE 5 Lydian Intervals in Ah Golgatha from S Bah s St Matthew Passion n R der Se - gen und das Heil der r n n Welt wird als ein Fluh an s Kreuz ge - stellt R 30 Feature EIR une 23, 2000

3 FIGURE 6 The six Lydian intervals FIGURE 7 & w # w nw nw w nw & nw w w w w w onsiously pereived (Friedrih Shiller develops this idea in his essay on the aestheti eduation of the eautiful soul) In another passage of the Priniples of Reason, Leiniz formulates the priniple of the est of all possile worlds in the following way: It follows from the highest perfetion of God that, when he reated the universe, He seleted the est possile plan, in whih there was the greatest multipliity in the framework of the greatest order, in whih spae, position, and time are est employed, so that He ahieved the greatest effet with the simplest of means, endowing the reatures with the greatest power, the highest knowledge, the greatest happiness and the greatest good, of whih the universe was apale Greatest multipliity in the framework of the greatest order : Is not the immense work of ohann Seastian Bah s life permeated y this priniple Bah wrote all of his works to God alone the glory, Soli Deo Gloria, hundreds of spiritual and seular Lieder, antatas, motets, the powerful Passions and the large fugal works, and not least the later work with the royal theme Musial Offering as a painful and tedious work Eah of his works attests to the attempt to generate the largest multipliity in a unity, a perfetion, to reate the greatest effet y employment of the simplest means Bah s development of polyphony, the fugue, his use of the organ point, are notieale elements of this priniple of the greatest effet with the simplest means That is why we onern ourselves with Classial musi, from the Augustinian tradition to Leonardo s researhes Bah s manusript of Ah Golgatha from the St Matthew Passion EIR une 23, 2000 Feature 31

4 on the el anto human voie, to Bah s revolutionary invention of the well-tempered system eause we are onvined of the fundamental intelligiility of reative thinking For oth in researhes in the physial-natural sienes, as well as in investigating our powers of thinking, our reative thinking proesses in the forming of works of art, we run up against the paradox today more than ever: lawful development and disontinuity, whih we have to solve FIGURE 8 S Bah s own keyoard redution of the Six-part Rierar from A Musial Offering C C n & 20 n n n # n 15 3 n 10 min 3rd # n 21 4 dim 7th n # n 5 n # n Lydian n # n n # aug 2nd n n 23 n n n n 8 n 19 n 24 n n Bah: Master of Song It took a long time for Bah s atually magnifient disovery of the harateristis of the six registers of the human voie (Figure 1) for example in horal singing and in the horal passages of the Passions to e adequately appreiated Today, we have to redisover the harateristis of hearing and singing of Bah s time, the heritage of the Bah family extending over six generations, aout whih Bah s great son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, reports I want to provide one example to illustrate this, in the rief form of this introdution to our panel to Himself Come ) Compositionally, The opening interval Ah Golgatha (Figure 3), whih onsists of a In the seond part of the great St the aria ehoes the intereted alls, Matthew Passion, whih was proaly whih one an hear in the introdutory diminished seventh E to G =F, was first performed in 1727 (redisovered doule horus of the St Matthew later used y Mozart and Beethoven, and performed anew 100 years later y Passion for example in Beethoven s Piano Sonata the young Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Compositionally, Bah employed Opus 111 (Figure 4) The parathe in Berlin), Bah omposes a reitativo the speial harateristis of the alto (or doxes of the poeti text are haraterized for the alto voie and two alto ooes mezzosoprano) voie, to represent this y a suession of Lydian intervalfor (Ooe da Caia in F) Ah Golgatha, painful paradox This eomes lear, for leaps and ominations Eah Lydian whih represents a prelude for a mag- example in the onluding refrain of interval sung y the soloist also intro- nifient alto aria These two alto solos Ah Golgatha (Figure 2), whih dues a new degree of poeti tension in are situated following the sene of the drops from a D in the middle register the text For example, in the lines der ruifixion of esus, efore esus dies to the E in the hest register, efore Segen und das Heil der Welt/wird als on the ross Ah Golgatha reflets Bah ends the alto voie in the middle ein Fluh an s Kreuz gestellt ( The the great paradox for all Christians as register on the shallow-sounding G, lessing and the salvation of the world / expressed in the text of the aria, whih polyphonially set against the ooe is eing, as if a urse, put up on the says: Twas there the Lord of glory voies With the ooes and the aom- ross ), the ontraries Der Segen and was vilely reeted, and it peaks in the panying pizziato ass, whih are polyphonially an s Kreuz are oth sung on Lydian ry of agony, the innoent must singing with the human intervals (Figure 5) This is a peuliar- die, as do the guilty Ah! how this grief voie, Bah reated one of the most ity whih Mozart disovered ased on afflits my soul! The following aria, gripping of voal ompositions This is A Musial Offering in , as a new plaed at this prominently dramati pas- also true with respet to its harmoni tool of omposition In earlier times, sage of the Passion, takes up the idea oldness, whih antiipates the para- this Lydian interval was outright of salvation ( See ye, see the Savior s doxes of the later theme of his A Musial ursed as Tritonus, the devil (Dia- outstrethed Hands! /He would draw us Offering olus) in musi 32 Feature EIR une 23, 2000 n

5 FIGURE 9 Canon Perpetuus Super Thema Regium from S Bah s A Musial Offering In riddle form: B n # n n & R n % nn n n B & n n # n n n n n In solution form: R n n n n n n n # # n n n n n n n n R n n n # n n n n # n n n n n n n n n One of the speial harateristis of Passion under Furtwängler 2 Furt- not sensuousness, ut agapē, as Plato the Lydian interval is onneted with wängler died that year The alto is and the Apostle Paul define that emo- the matrix of the six types of voies Marga Hoeffgen In this performane, tion In true ontrapuntal polyphony, the The natural shift in the register upwards the young Dietrih Fisher-Dieskau essential ideas of the omposition are or downwards ours either at distanes sang the words of Christ (Figure 7) hiefly defined in two ways First, as of the otave or Lydian interval So one One harateristi of all Classial physial priniples are defined in si- an say: The Lydian interval is the musi, as you an pereive it in the ene, y ontologial paradoxes In musi, smallest interval-unit whih effets a interpretation of this segment of the St the relevant paradoxes are posed y register shift in all of the voies There Mathhew Passion, is arried y the fun- the metaphorial forms of transitions, are only six Lydian intervals, and they damental idea of the Passion, the love lawfully generated dissonanes, gener- remain the same upwards or down- agapē in the Christian sense In other ated within the omposition Seond, y wards, ie, also in the inversion (Fig- words, the essential musial emotion is expliit or implied quotation from ideas ure 6) stated in other ompositions, either y This partiularly impressive reord- the same, or other omposers For this 2 Furtẅngler s 1954 reording of the St ing is from the year 1954, under the reason, the two late works, A Musial Matthew Passion is availale on EMI diretion of Wilhelm Furtwängler with , performed y the Vienna Philthe Vienna Philharmoni orhestra, one harmoni, Wiener Singakademie, Wiener Säng- aout whih we shall learn more from Offering and The Art of the Fugue, of the very few performanes of the erknaen Professor Vyaskova, have their promi EIR une 23, 2000 Feature 33

6 FIGURE 10 Contrary Motion Canon from S Bah s A Musial Offering In riddle form: n # n B B n % n n n n n n n B B n n n n n r In solution form: n n n n n n n n # n n n n n n n n n n n n nent importane for the sueeding mu- erations of omposers Then we shall sial revolutions hear two further anons, the very om- pressed short form of A Musial Offering Bah s A Musial Offering y Bah, with the harateristis of the I shall play three short examples simultaneous upward and downward from A Musial Offering to illustrate movements of the same ounterpoint- this What is striking in the asi theme voie, thus the amiguity of the intervals, whih Bah formulated as the simof A Musial Offering, is the seemingly paradoxial F in the C-minor key area, ple movement and then the inversion of that F in the seond part of the royal the movement (Figures 8, 9, and 10) theme, along with the already-men- In a letter written to Niolaus tioned diminished seventh A to B, Hartsöker (around 1711), Leiniz whih Bah put on the first aentuated wrote the following on the suet of dissonanes: eat of the ar With the entrane of the The imperfetions whih exeat seond voie, that allows for the devel- ist in the universe are like the dissonanes opment of lawful dissonanes, whih in an exellent omposition, were so inspiring for the sueeding gen- whih, in the opinion of those who well 34 Feature EIR une 23, 2000

7 FIGURE 11 Choral Opening of Kyrie from Mozart s Mass in C, K 427 Soprano Tenor 10 Bass V 15 V 6 r & Ky - ri - e e - son, e - r V n ri - e e - n Ky - ri - n son, e - son, e- son, n son, e - e e - r Ky - ri - e e - r n n e-lai -son, e - # Ky - ri - son Ky - ri - e e - n son, e - Ky - e e - n n son, e - nn son Ky - son son, son, son, e- son, e - son e - # n ri - e e - son, e - son, Ky - Ky - ri - e e - understand the onnetion, ontriute to make this [the omposition] more perfet And to Goldah (a orrespondent mathematiian from St Petersurg), he wrote aout the sparing use of dissonanes: Dissonanes are pleasing as an oasional aompanying element and are employed to great effet: they are inserted etween the harmonious sounds [Wohlklänge] like shadows in the order and in the light, so that we all take great oy in the great order Mozart s Great Mass in C-minor Mozart understood this revolution whih Bah had introdued, and he, in turn, revolutionized his method of omposition with the priniple of Motivführung One fruit of this effort to extend the C-minor/F paradox whih he reognized in Bah, is represented y Mozart s inomplete Mass in C-minor, where the use of the four-voie horus, espeially the fugal part, is uilt on a variation of the seond part of the royal theme, the towering polyphonies of the Kyrie introdutory horus (Figure 11) This work, whih was omposed some 35 years after Bah s A Musial Offering and The Art of the Fugue, opened the way to a new freedom of musial expression Another 50 years would pass, until, with the immense Missa Solemnis of Beethoven, written in 1824 and performed for the first time in St Petersurg, Bah s revolutionary disovery would e rought to a new ulmination point in the art of omposition If we an follow and relive the progressions of suh magnifient musial thought-oets today in the year 2000, whih ommemorates Bah s anniversary; and if we an make this musial revolution really intelligile, then we an take the ranhes of human knowledge the natural siene and the siene of art, whih, thanks to the immoral Immanuel Kant were artifiially divided one again ak to their single soure: the reative Reason of man EIR une 23, 2000 Feature 35