Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 535
Partita diverse sopra: O Gott, du frommer Gott, BWV 767
Trio in G Minor, BWV 584
Fantasia super: Valet will ich dir geben, BWV 736
Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 550
Canzona in D Minor, BWV 588
Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, Vater, BWV 740
Allabreve in D Major, BWV 589
Johann Sebastian Bach was a member of a family that had for
generations been occupied in music. His sons were to continue the tradition, providing the
foundation of a new style of music that prevailed in the later part of the eighteenth
century. Johann Sebastian Bach himself represented the end of an age, the culmination of
the Baroque in a magnificent synthesis of Italian melodic invention, French rhythmic dance
forms and German contrapuntal mastery.
Born in Eisenach in 1685, Bach was educated largely by his
eldest brother, after the early death of his parents. At the age of eighteen he embarked
on his career as a musician, serving first as a court musician at Weimar, before
appointment as organist at Arnstadt. Four years later he moved to Mühlhausen as organist
and the following year became organist and chamber musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of
Weimar. Securing his release with difficulty, in 1717 he was appointed Kapellmeister to
Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen and remained at Cöthen until 1723, when he moved to
Leipzig as Cantor at the School of St. Thomas, with responsibility for the music of the
five principal city churches. Bach was to remain in Leipzig until his death in 1750.
As a craftsman obliged to fulfil the terms of his employment,
Bach provided music suited to his various appointments. It was natural that his earlier
work as an organist and something of an expert on the construction of organs, should
result in music for that instrument. At Cöthen, where the Pietist leanings of the court
made church music unnecessary, he provided a quantity of instrumental music for the court
orchestra and its players. In Leipzig he began by composing series of cantatas for the
church year, later turning his attention to instrumental music for the Collegium musicum of the University, and to the collection and
ordering of his own compositions.
Bach's Prelude and Fugue in
G minor, BWV 535, seems to have been written during the composer's period at
Weimar as court organist. The Prelude contains an extended passage of modulation on a
chromatically descending bass. In the fugal exposition the four voices enter in descending
order, the whole work culminating in a dramatic climax, introduced by the pedals, before
the final extended tonic pedal-point.
O Gott, du trommer Gott, BWV 767,
(O God, thou good God), is one of an early set of Partite
diverse, chorale variations, written
probably during Bach's school-days at Lüneburg, but later much revised. The chorale is
first stated, the first section repeated with ornaments, as in its third appearance at the
end. The first variation, Partita II, in a
two-part texture, sets fragments of the chorale melody over an active lower part. In Partita III a three-voice texture is used, the
chorale melody appearing in a more elaborate form. The following variation, again in
two-voice texture, has continuing semiquavers over a simple broken bass-line. It is
followed, in Partita V, by a three-voice
texture in which scale patterns have an important part to play. Partita VI preserves a two-voice chorale in the upper
register, with a syncopated bass. The following variation, with its descending scale
patterns, is in triple time, leading to Partita VII, in
a more complex four-voice texture. The work ends with a variation of contrasting dynamics,
calling for dexterous changes of manuals, an Andante and a final Presto.
The Trio in G minor, listed
as BWV 584, is thought by many to be the
work of another composer, although it has traditionally been included among the
compositions of Bach. It is a contrapuntal composition in that three-voice texture that
reaches its height in the six Bach organ Trio Sonatas.
The Fantasia on Valet will
ich dir geben, BWV 736, (Farewell will give you), is an alternative working of
the chorale, with the melody in the pedals, and an antiphonal triple rhythm above. As with
so much of Bach's organ music, it is thought to belong to his Weimar period.
Bach's Prelude and Fugue in
G major, BWV 550, thought to predate Bach's appointment at Weimar, opens with
figuration that allows a later extended pedal passage, before a prolonged pedal-point. The
final bars of the Prelude modulate to the dominant, before the introduction of the fugal
subject in the tenor, answered by alto, then soprano, before the final pedal entry of the
subject, now duly worked out in a style giving full prominence to each voice.
Bach's D minor Canzona, BWV
588, more precisely dated to a later period of the period at Weimar, about the
year 1715, builds on an opening pedal cantus firmus, an
extended subject, answered first in the tenor voice, then in the alto and finally in the
soprano. The second section changes the subject into triple metre. Here the alto
introduces the subject, the chromatically descending countersubject heard in the tenor and
then the bass, while the alto subject is answered by the soprano in a composition of
increasing contrapuntal elaboration.
Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, Vater, BWV 740,
(We believe all in one God, the Father) is less usual in its treatment of the original
chorale, in that it uses a five-part texture, with two parts entrusted to the pedals. The
chorale melody remains in the upper part, although earlier adumbrated in the upper notes
of the pedals. The authenticity of the work has been doubted, as has that of the Allabreve in D major, BWV 589. These are,
nevertheless, compositions of interest, the Allabreve a model of contrapuntal
construction, with its opening subject, in the top voice, accompanied by the alto with the
second part of that subject. In the duple metre implied in its title, the Allabreve comes
to an end over a prolonged tonic pedal-point, after varied use of stretto, as entries of
the subject are made to overlap.
Wolfgang Rübsam
A native of Germany, Wolfgang Rübsam received his musical
training in Europe from Erich Ackermann, Helmut Walcha and Marie-Claire Alain and in the
United States from Robert T. Anderson. Living today in the Chicago area, he has held a
professorship at Northwestern University since 1974, and since 1981 has served as
University Organist at the University of Chicago. International recognition was
established in 1973 when he won the Grand Prix de Chartres, Interprétation, and has grown
through his recording career, with over eighty recordings, many of which have received
awards. Wolfgang Rübsam performs frequently in major international festivals and concert
halls, including the Los Angeles Bach Festival; Wiener Festwochen, Vienna; Lahti
International Organ Festival, Finland; Royal Festival Hall, London; Alice Tully Hall, New
York, and conducts master classes both in interpretation of early and romantic organ
repertoire, and in interpreting the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach on the modern
piano.