SUMMARY OF BACH'S WORKS Chronological sequence is not the primary interest in a cata logue of Bach's works. The changes in his style, though clear and evolutionary, are best appreciated after the bulk of the work has been digested. To describe them beforehand does not aid the student enough to make it worth while to expand this summary by an attempt to apportion its contents among the Arnstadt MUlhausen period, the Weimar period, the Cothen period (chiefly remarkable for instrumental music and comparatively uninterest ing in its easy-going choral music), and the last period in which, while the choral works become at once more numerous and more terse (e.g., Jesu, der du meine Seele) the instrumental music, though never diffuse, shows an increasing preference for designs on a large scale. (Compare, for example, the second book of the Wohltemperirte Klavier, 1744, with the first, 1722.) A. With Orchestra.—i 90 church cantatas : besides several which are only known from fragmentary sets of parts. Of the 190, 4o are for solo voices, about 6o (including some solo can tatas) are more or less founded on chorales, and the rest, though almost invariably containing a chorale (for congregational sing ing), are practically short oratorios and frequently so entitled by Bach himself.
Three wedding cantatas; the Easter Oratorio (exactly like the above-mentioned oratorio-cantatas; and the Christmas Oratorio (six similar cantatas forming a connected design for performance on six separate days) .
The Passions according to St. Matthew and St. John.
Funeral ode for the Duchess Eberhardine, now known to be arranged from portions of the lost Passion according to St. Mark.
Four short masses (i.e., Kyrie and Gloria only) mainly com piled from church cantatas.
Mass in B minor ; Magnificat in D ; and a few other ecclesias tical Latin choruses.
B. Without Orchestra.—Five motets a capella (but the treat ment of the bass shows that these were intended to be partly supported by the organ). A sixth motet has an obbligato figured bass accompaniment.
A few early choruses, mostly turned to account in later works. A large collection of plain chorales, including several original melodies.
Der Streit zwischen Phoebus and Pan and Der zufrieden gestellte Aeolus; each entitled Dramma per Musica, but showing no more essential connection with the stage than Handel's Acis and Galatea.
Seven solo and seven choral cantatas, of which the latter three were almost entirely absorbed into the Christmas Oratorio and the B minor Mass. Of the solo cantatas two are Italian (one of these being Bach's only developed work for voice and clavier) and two are burlesque.
Several tunes with clavier bass, almost foreshadowing the song style of the 19th century.
Three concertos for two claviers (two being arranged from concertos for two violins).
Two concertos for three claviers.
The six Brandenburg concertos, for various combinations. Two violin concertos, and a colossal torso of a concerted violin movement forming the prelude to a lost church cantata.
One concerto for two violins.
Four orchestral suites. (The symphony in F in the same volume of the B.G. is only an earlier version of the first Brandenburg concerto.) B. Chamber Music.—Three sonatas for clavier and flute (one doubtful) ; a suite (very doubtful) and six sonatas for clavier and violin, three for clavier and viola da gamba ; two trios with figured bass; two flute-sonatas and a violin suite with figured bass; six sonatas (i.e. three sonatas and three partitas) for violin alone ; six suites for violoncello alone.
2. Klavier-Ubung (chiefly for harpsichord) in four books corn prising: (i.) 25 two-part inventions and 15 three-part symphonies. (ii.) Six partitas. (iii.) The Goldberg variations, four duets, and an important collection of organ choral-preludes, with the "St. Anne" prelude and fugue in E flat. (iv.) The Italian concerto and French overture.
3. The six "French" and six "English" suites.
The other clavier works fill two Jalirgdinge of the B.G.
Bach's collections of organ music are (besides that included in the third part of the Klavier-tJbung) :—(1) Six sonatas (prob ably for pedal-harpsichord). (2) Four groups of six organ pre ludes and fugues. (3) Das Orgelbiichlein, a collection of short choral-preludes carefully planned—all the blank pages of the autograph being headed with the titles of the chorales intended for them—but not half executed. (The projected whole would have been a larger volume than Das Wohltemperirte Klavier.) (4) 18 larger chorale-preludes, including Bach's last composition.
(5) The six "Schubler" chorales, all arranged from movements of cantatas.
Besides these there are the three great independent toccatas and the passacaglia. The remaining choral-preludes fill one Jahrgang and the other organ works two more.
D. Schematic.—Two important instrumental works remain to be mentioned, viz., Das Musikalische Opfer, the volume of corn positions (two great fugues, various puzzle-canons, and a splendid trio for flute, violin and figured bass) on the theme given to Bach by Frederick the Great ; and Die Kunst der Fuge, a progres sive series of fugues Am one and the same subject, written in open score as if entirely abstract studies, but all (except two completely invertible fugues) in admirable clavier style and of great musical value.
A. N. Forkel's statement that Bach wrote five Jahrgdnge of church cantatas (i.e., enough to provide one for each Sunday and holy day for five years) would indicate that some 8o are lost, but there is reason to believe that this is an exaggeration. Not more than six or seven cantatas are known to be lost, by the evidence of fragments, textbooks, etc.
Forkel says that Bach wrote five Passions. Besides the great Matthew and John Passions, there is one according to St. Luke in Bach's handwriting, but it is so worthless that the only possible plea for its authenticity is that nothing but personal interest could have induced Bach to make a copy of it.
The movements of the St. Mark Passion preserved in the Trauer-Ode are larger than anything in the St. John Passion; but the text-book has been found and proves to be on a very restricted scale.
Was there a genuine Lucas Passion? If so, Forkel's report of five Passions would be explained. Several lost secular works are partly preserved in those portions of the Christmas Oratorio of which the sources are not definitely known, but which, like the other duplicated numbers, are fair copies in the autograph.
Part of the first movement of the A major sonata for clavier and flute which was written in the spare staves at the bottom of a larger score. Some of these have been cut off.
Arrangements for harpsichord alone of 16 concertos, generally described as by Vivaldi, but including several by other composers. Four Vivaldi concertos arranged for organ.
Many of these arrangements contain much original matter, such as entirely new slow movements, large cadenzas, etc.
Concerto in A minor for four claviers and orchestra, from Vivaldi's B minor concerto for four violins. This, though the most faithful to its original, is the richest and most Bach-like of all these arrangements, and is well worth performing in public.
Two sonatas from the Hortus Musicus of Reinken, arranged for clavier. (The ends of the slow movements are pure Bach.) Finishing touches to cantatas by his uncle Johann Ludwig Bach. Also a very characteristic complete "Christe eleison" inserted in a Kyrie of Johann Ludwig's.
Bach's autographs give the name of the composer on the out side sheet only. He was constantly making copies of all that interested him ; and where the outside sheet is lost, only the music itself can tell us whether it is his or not. The above-mentioned Passion according to St. Luke is the chief case in point. The little music-books which he and his second wife wrote for their children are full of pieces in the most various styles, and the editors of the Bach Gesellschaft have not completely identified them, even Couperin's well-known "Les Bergeries" escaping their scrutiny. A sonata for two claviers by Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friede mann, was detected by the editors of ter its inclusion in Jahrgang xliv. The second of the three sonatas for clavier and flute is extremely suggestive of Bach's sons, but Philipp Emanuel ascribes it to his father. However, he might easily have docketed it wrongly while arranging copies of his father's works. It has a twin brother (B. G. ix. Anhang. ii.) for which he has not vouched.
Four absurd church cantatas are printed for conscience sake in Jahrgang xliii. More important than these, because not so obviously ridiculous, is the well-known eight-part motet, Lob, Ejir' and IVeisheit (blessing and glory and wisdom). It is poor, plausible stuff by a contemporary of Bach's named Wagner.
The beautiful motet, Ich lasso dick nicht, has long been known to be by one of Bach's uncles (Johann Christoph).
Almost the only works of Bach published during his lifetime were the instrumental collections, most of which he engraved him self. Of the church cantatas only one, Gott ist mein Konig, (written when he was 19, but a very great work), was published in his lifetime.
Of modern editions that of the Bach Gesellschaft is, of course, the only complete one. It is, inevitably, of very unequal merit. Its first editors could not realize their own ignorance of Bach's language; their immediate admiration of his larger choruses seemed to them proof of their competence to retain or dismiss details of ornamentation, figured bass, variants between score and parts, etc., without always stopping to see what light these might shed on questions of tempo and style—especially in the arias and recitatives, which they regarded as archaic almost in direct pro portion to the depth of thought really displayed in them. In the 9th Jahrgang Wilhelm Rust introduced scholarly methods, with the happiest results. The Wohltemperirte Klavier (Jahrgang xiv.) was edited by Kroll, who had already made his text acces sible in the Edition Peters (which till then had only Czerny's—an amazing result of corrupt tradition, still widely accepted). Kroll's and Rust's volumes are far the best in the B.G. On Rust's death the standard deteriorated for several years. The last ten volumes, however, are again satisfactory, and in Jahrgang xliv., the French and English suites are re-edited. Part of the B minor mass was also worked over again; and Kroll's text of the Wohltemperirte Klavier was supplemented by the evidence of the British Museum autograph.
The Steingraber edition of the clavier works, edited by Dr. Hans Bischoff, is incomparably the best, giving all the variants in footnotes and clearly distinguishing the extremely intelligent nuances and phrasing signs of the editor from the rare but sig nificant indications of Bach himself. Nor does this wealth of scholarship interfere with the presentation of a straightforward, single text ; though in addition there is every necessary explanation of the ornaments and kindred matters. There is still a great dearth of editions that distinguish Bach's text from the editor's taste—the publications of the Nene Bachgesellschaf t by no means excepted. The Associated Board Edition of Das Wohltemperirte Klavier provides a pure text and analytical commentary.
The older vocal scores of cantatas in the Edition Peters are, though unfortunately but a selection, far better than the complete series issued by Breitkopf and Hartel in conformity with the Bach Gesellschaft and therefore accepted as authoritative (see INSTRU MENTATION). The English vocal scores published by Novello are generally very good though covering but small ground. The Novello score of the Christmas Oratorio contains a fine analytic preface by Sir George Macfarren on lines by no means yet superseded. (D. F. T.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-C. H. Bitter, Johann Sebastian Bach (1865 and Bibliography.-C. H. Bitter, Johann Sebastian Bach (1865 and 1880 ; P. Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach (1873 and 188o ; Eng. trans. 1899) ; R. L. Poole, Sebastian Bach (1882) ; Ernest David, La Vie et les Oeuvres de Bach (1882) ; E. Heinrich, Sebastian Bachs Leben (1885) ; A. Pirro, J. S. Bach (1906) ; L'Esthetique de Jean-Sebastien Bach (1907) and L'Orgue de Jean-Sebastien Bach (19o7) ; Rutland Bough ton, Bach (19o7) ; C. H. H. Parry, Johann Sebastian Bach (19o9) ; A. Schweitzer, J. S. Bach (Eng. trans. 1911) ; Harvey Grace, The Organ Works of Bach (1922) ; Walter Dahms, Johann Sebastian Bach: Ein Bild seines Lebens (1924) ; W. G. Whittaker, Fugitive Notes on cer tain Cantatas and the Motets of J. S. Bach (1925) ; C. Sanford Terry, Bach: A Biography (1927) ; B minor Mass (1924) ; Bach's Cantatas and Oratorios (1925) ; Bach's Passions (1925).