Chapters 20, 22, & 24 - Johann Sebastian Bach

CHAPTER 20
Musical Sermons: Bach and
the Lutheran Cantata
Copyright © 2020 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

AETN: Humanities Through the Arts
Meaning Through Structure

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
• Most prominent composer
of Baroque Period
• Born in Eisenach, Germany;
family with many musicians
• Culminating figure of the
Baroque style
• Career in northern
Germany
• Devout Lutheran
• Secular and church
patrons during career

Copyright © 2020, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Johann Sebastian Bach
II. Bach and the Lutheran Cantata
A. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
1. German composer, organ virtuoso; devout Lutheran
2. renowned, best-known during his lifetime as a performer
3. culminating figure of Baroque style
4. court positions: Weimar and Anhalt-Cöthen
5. 1723–50 church position: St. Thomas Church, Leipzig
6. two marriages, nineteen children: four sons, leading composers

Johann Sebastian Bach
First wife, Maria Barbara,
dies
Marries Anna Magdalena, for
which he wrote book of
keyboard music, still used
today

Baroque Cantata: General Characteristics
Featured soloists, chorus, and orchestra
Similar in style to an oratorio, but much shorter
Sacred cantatas
Usually glorified New Testament subjects
Often based on a Lutheran Chorale (a 4-part hymn
sung by the congregation)
Secular cantatas
Based popular stories and themes
Otherwise, like sacred cantatas

The Church Cantata
Performed in worship service
1700-Influence of Erdmann
Neumister
Theologian & poet who
introduced subjective,
meditative texts not of
Biblical liturgical origin
Designed for use in arias or
duets, in addition to
choruses based on the
Chorale

Bach’s Cantatas at Leipzig
58 per year
Small orchestra: 18-24 players
Approx. 200 cantatas preserved (not numbered by Bach,
but by editors)
All use chorale melody as basis for each movement
Typically have five to eight movements
Several choral numbers, recitatives, arias

The Lutheran Chorale and Cantata, Part 1
I. The Lutheran Chorale and Cantata
A. Martin Luther
1. lasting contributions to Western culture
2. believed in congregational singing
3. professional singers and instrumentalists create polyphony in church
service
B. Chorales: German hymn tunes
1. composed or recycled melodies, German poetry or Biblical passages
2. specific chorale integrated in weekly service

1. sung in unison by congregation
2. professional choir: four-part harmony
C. Lutheran Cantata
1. multimovement work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra: solo arias,
recitatives, and choruses
2. “musical sermon”: elaboration of weekly chorale
3. related to Gospel reading of the day
4. integral part of church service

Bach and the Lutheran Cantata, Part 2
7. style: raised existing forms to highest level, master of contrapuntal
composition
8. output: prolific in secular and sacred works, suites, concertos,
sonatas, keyboard music, cantatas
B. Two hundred Bach church cantatas survive
1. Bach composed four or five yearly cycles
2. each cantata, five to eight movements
a. first, middle, last movements based on chorale tune: full
ensemble
b. from hymnlike settings to intricate fugues
c. interspersed: solos or duet arias, recitatives

C. Wachet auf (Sleepers, Awake)
1. cantata in seven movements
2. text: Gospel of Matthew, parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
a. Lutherans prepare spiritually for the second coming of Christ
3. hymn tune (chorale) by Philipp Nicolai (1599)
4. same hymn sung in unison by congregation
5. chorale tune featured in three choral movements

Cantata No. 140 Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme
(Wake Up, Call the Voices)
Performed Sunday Before Advent
Text: Matthew 25: 1-13, parable of 5 wise, 5 foolish virgins
Message: Be prepared and vigilant, for you don’t know
when God will call
Seven sections total

D. Listening Guide 9: Bach: Cantata No. 140, Wachet auf (Sleepers, Awake), Nos.
1 and 4 (1731, performed in Leipzig)
1. first movement: Chorale fantasia
a. stanza 1 of chorale; bar form (A-A-B)
b. majestic, marchlike: arrival of Christ
c. uplifting major key, insistent dotted rhythm in orchestra
d. recurring instrumental sections (ritornellos)
e. complex, imitative polyphony in lower voices

2. fourth movement: Unison chorale
a. stanza 2 of chorale; bar form (A-A-B)
b. bright major key
c. chorale tune sung in unison by tenors, countermelody in strings

Cantata 140-Movement 1
Movement I

Cantata 140-Movement 4
Movement 4

CHAPTER 22
Grace and Grandeur: The
Baroque Dance Suite

Instrument designs were improved
Finest violins in history came from shops of
Stradivarius
Guarneri
Amati
Violin strings made of gut
Woodwinds made of wood
Horns and trumpets: valveless, called “natural”
Timpani
Baroque Instruments

Baroque Instruments, Part 1
I. Baroque Instruments
A. Focus on instruments and instrumental music
1. encouraged by wealthy patrons
2. collaboration of craftspeople and musicians
3. music written for specific instruments
B. Dramatic improvements to instruments
1. strings:
a. gut strings, softer more penetrating sound
b. Northern Italy workshops: Stradivarius, Guarneri, Amati

2. woodwinds:
a. all made of wood
b. expanded range, subtlety
c. suggest pastoral scenes
3. brass:
1. valveless, demands virtuosity
2. trumpets: bright sonority
3. French horn: mellow, huntlike sound

The Baroque Suite, Part 1
II. The Baroque Suite
A. Suite: group of short dances
1. all in same key, contrasting moods
2. performed by diverse array of instruments
3. international influence
a. German allemande
b. French courante
c. Spanish sarabande
d. English jig (gigue)
e. other dances: minuet, gavotte, bourrée, passepied, hornpipe

The Baroque Suite
Dance Suites
“Stylized” collection of dances intended for listening
rather than dancing
Derived from various types of dances that were in
fashion
Core Dances: Allemande(Ger), Courante(Fr),
Sarabande(Sp), Gigue(Irish)
Other dances: Bourée, minuet, gavotte, loure, polonaise,
passepied
Might include prelude or overture
Customary for all to be written in the same key, faster
dances contrast with slower
Repeated sections; embellished on repeat
Binary form

4. binary (A-A-B-B), or ternary (A-B-A) form
5. written for solo instrument, chamber ensembles, orchestra
B. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3
1. Bach composed four orchestral suites for the Collegium Musicum
a. Collegium Musicum: forty to fifty university students, weekly
concerts at Zimmerman’s
2. French-style overture and series of French dances

Binary Form
Two sections, each repeated
||: A :||: B :||
• Tonic key to related key New key ---> tonic
A section starts in tonic and modulates; B section starts in the
new key and goes back to the tonic key.
Usually based on a single theme, manipulated in various ways;
little actual contrasting material.

C. Listening Guide 11: Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3, Air and Gigue
(1731)
1. Air: binary form (A-A-B-B)
a. slow tempo, homophonic texture
b. strings only
c. A section:
i. rhapsodic, lyrical melody; first violin
ii. steady, cello bass line
d. B section: longer, melodic phrases embellished,
sequenced

2. Gigue: binary form (A-A-B-B)
a. fast-paced compound meter
b. bright, major key
c. added oboes, trumpets, timpani
d. A section:
i. vigorous dance, continuous motion
ii. strings and oboes exchange with trumpets
e. B section: longer, development of musical ideas

“Air” on a G String – Orchestral Suite No. 3
"Air" on a G string - Orchestral Suite No. 3

CHAPTER 24
Process as Meaning: Bach and
the Fugue

Keyboard Instruments in the Baroque Era
Organ
Harpsichord
Clavichord

The Organ: The King Of Instruments
Largest and most powerful keyboard instrument
Air pumped through “ranks” of pipes which are
opened closed by depressing keys on keyboard
Pipes create sounds that mimic many other
instruments: woodwinds, brasses, strings.
Early organs used people to pump bellows.
Modern organs used electricity to move air.

The Keyboard Instruments: The Harpsichord
Small, delicate instrument
Has two keyboards or “manuals”
Black & white keys opposite of piano
Keys operate a plectrum (a pick-like device made of leather or
a bird quill), which plucks the string.
The plectrum produces a twang-like sound.
Knobs that affect coupling of strings
The player cannot vary the dynamics of the sound on a
harpsichord.
Lost popularity around 1750

Keyboard Instruments in the Baroque Era, Part 1
A. Technological advances; 1600s, new levels of refinement
1. musicians broaden techniques
B. Harpsichord
1. strings plucked by quills
2. tone not sustained
3. dynamic extremes not possible
C. Organ
1. German builders 1600s, 1700s
a. multiple keyboards
b. terraced dynamics

2. J. S. Bach: renowned keyboard player
a. sought-after consultant
b. famous for improvisation, extraordinary pedal technique

D. Keyboard forms
1. toccata and prelude
a. based on improvisation (written out later)
b. showcase performer’s dexterity
c. highly contrasting musical ideas and tempos
d. often paired with organized form (e.g., Toccata and
Fugue in D Minor by J. S. Bach)
2. fugue: systematic elaboration of short musical ideas

The Fugue and Its Devices, Part 1
A. Fugue: contrapuntal composition based on imitation
1. subject: main theme, unifying idea, focal point
2. answer: subject imitated in another voice
3. countersubject: different theme heard against the subject
4. exposition: first section, subject presented in each voice one time
5. episodes: interludes (lacking the subject)
6. contrapuntal devices: augmentation, diminution, retrograde,
inversion, stretto

FUGUE – Primary Diagram

The Fugue and Its Devices, Part 2

Fugue: Compositional Techniques
 stretto-subject imitated before it is completed
 pedal point(organ point)-a single tone, usually in
bass is held while other voices are still moving
 sequence-pattern of notes repeated several times in
succession but at different pitch levels
 suspension-holding notes from one chord to next to
create tension & release

Bach’s Keyboard Fugues, Part 1
A. The Well-Tempered Clavier
1. two volumes: twenty-four
preludes and fugues in each
volume
2. intended as teaching aid:
expressive and technical
challenges
3. written for new tuning system
B. The Art of Fugue
1. fourteen fugues, four canons
2. systematic exploration of fugal
devices
3. contrapuntal sophistication;
ultimate achievement

C. C. Listening Guide 13: Bach: “Little” Fugue in G Minor,
BWV 578 (1703–07)
1. four-voice fugue
2. fugue subject in soprano range outlines G minor triad
3. middle section: alternating subject and free material
(episodes)
4. final statement: fugue subject returns to G minor in low
organ pedals
5. final chord: major triad (common feature in Baroque music)

“Little” Fugue in G minor
• "Little" Fugue in G minor

Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for “The Enjoyment of Music, 4th Edition, Chapter 20: Musical Sermons:
Bach and the Lutheran Cantata”
For more resources, please visit https://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic4ess
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for “The Enjoyment of Music, 4th Edition, Chapter 22: Grace and Grandeur:
The Baroque Dance Suite”
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for “The Enjoyment of Music, 4th Edition, Chapter 24: Process as Meaning:
Bach and the Fugue”

Chapters 20, 22, & 24 - Johann Sebastian Bach

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