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Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology
Discussions - Part 4

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Leaver: Bach's Christ lag in Todesbanden: Hymnology, Chronology" (Chapter 7)

William L. Hoffman wrote (August 18, 2021):
What is now presumed to be Bach's first vocal work, the pure-hymn Cantata 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ lay in death's bonds; trans. Francis Browne), is the subject of Robin Leaver's second chapter (No. 7), focusing on hymnology and chronology, in his Bach Studies, Part 2, Hymnology.¹ Bach's iconic work in the early cantata tradition of chorale concerto² is based on Martin Luther's iconic Reformation chorale on the Resurrection (Wikipedia) and appears to have had its genesis during Bach's first tenure as organist at Arnstadt (1703-1707) when the chorale as a musical, liturgical, and hermeneutical device was nurtured, as well as Bach's learning period of composition in its various facets. Following his trajectory establishing the importance for Bach of the Lutheran chorale at Arnstadt, Leaver places the first performance of Cantata 4 at Easter Sunday, 6 April 1706, a year ahead of previous calculations (Bach Digital), as well as the beginning of the Orgelbüchlein, organ chorale prelude collection, which is a template of the church-year hymns. Cantata 4 is unique in Bach's cantatas because of its use of a variety of seven different movement settings without madrigalian poetry but with a chiastic (symmetrical, palindrome) structure. Because the original manuscript is lost, it is not possible to determine its exact genesis and original movements or to exactly date its first performance.

"Remarkable" Cantata 4 Movements, Early Dating

Cantata 4 "is by any standard a remarkable composition," observes Leaver (Ibid.: 137), citing William Gillies Whittaker,³ who describes per omnes versus Cantata 4 with its "founding every number [movement] on a basic chorale," setting each verse as one number "to avoid the palling monotony of these oft-recurring ideas in seven settings": orchestral sinfonia, chorale chorus, chorale duet, chorale solo aria, chorale chorus, chorale duet, and plain chorale. The origins of BWV 4 are uncertain since no original autograph is extant, only the 1724 version (Bach Digital). Citing recent scholarship that dates the origin "to successively earlier years,"⁴ Leaver proposes the 1706 date in Arnstadt (Ibid.: 138). In the first section, "The evidence of the extant parts" (Ibid.: 138f, Bach Digital), Leaver described the original version as "perhaps even the earliest" Bach composition in the early cantata genre, with "many similarities with vocal works based on chorales by earlier composers such as Buxtehude and Pachelbel," says Leaver (Ibid.: 138), in the early cantata genre of chorale concerto,⁵ using verses with instruments in Buxtehude's six settings with "a wide variety of compositional styles and overall designs," says Kerala Snyder (Ibid.: 38), and Johann Pachelbel's "Christ lag" with the first five verses in chorus and aria settings (YouTube), as well as various other composers' settings of Luther's chorale in the 17th century.⁶ Stylistically, says Leaver (Ibid.), Cantata 4 is linked with Mühlhausen Town Council Cantata 71, Gott ist mein König (God is my King, Ps.74:12; BCW, YouTube), and undesignated Mühlhausen Cantata 150, “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (For you, Lord, is my longing, Psalm 25:1b; BCW, YouTube). The Leipzig 1724 version of Cantata 4 contains two movements which may not be originals: a fully-developed opening sinfonia with ritornello and the closing plain chorale, neither of which Bach mastered stylistically until Weimar, and brass (cornetto and three trombones), also "strengthening the voice parts in movements 2, 3, and 8," says Leaver (Ibid.: 139). Consequently, "many questions about the nature of the original cantata cannot be fully answered."

Libretto Textual Variations, Olearius' Comments, Hymn Source

The next section on Cantata 4, "Textual variations in Bach's libretto," is an extended discussion of word changes from Luther's 200-year old, seven-stanza Resurrection hymn, with "textual changes that can be traced to various hymnals," Leaver observes (Ibid.: 143), and based on "a modification to Luther's text for musical reasons." In the next, related section, "Olearius on Christ lag in Todesbanden and Bach's Libretto" (Ibid.: 144-46), Leaver shows that the Olearius Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz (Evangelical song treasure) second part of 1705 (Lent and Easter chorales) includes a discussion of the Easter hymn with a survey of its background and "many citations praising this "true masterpiece'," says Leaver (Ibid.: 144). The Arnstädtisches Gesangbuch (1705) "was most likely the hymnal that Bach referred to when composing the cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden," says Leaver (Ibid.: 146), although "this conclusion has to remain tentative," since the original score is not extant and "the extant sources date from Bach's early years in Leipzig."

Structure, Motivations, Time Frame

The final, extended section of Leaver's essay on Cantata 4, "The Chorale Cantata (BWV 4)" (Ibid: 146-49), deals with the symmetrical structure of the seven-movement work as well as possible motivations and a compositional time-frame during Lent 1706 in Arnstadt. The rhetorical device of repeating music within a symmetrical structure was a favorite of Bach (discussion, BCW), beginning with Cantata 4, including the Motet Jesu, Meine Freude, and sections of the St. John Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, and the B-Minor Mass, most notably the Credo. This technique also is known as palindrome, mirror-form, and chiastic or cross-like structure, similar to the Mass Ordinary sequence of Kyrie-Gloria-Credo-Sanctus-Agnus Dei. In Cantata 4, the first chorus (chorale fantasia) and closing chorale are "the weakest pairing," while the fantasia in strict counterpoint is followed by a free alla breve — almost breathless — Allelujah," he observes (Ibid.: 146f). Here "Bach is giving audible form to the theological distinction between the Law and Gospel, the concept that lies at the heart of Luther's and Lutheran Theology," he says (Ibid.: 147). The theology involves the Law (Old Testament) which often involves sorrow, and the Gospel (New Testament) which brings joy (Wikipedia. The four-part closing chorale with instruments doubling the voices was composed in 1725 while the 1724 Leipzig premiere version probably "was a different simple four-part setting of the final stanza of Luther's hymn." Speculation surrounds the original version of the concluding movement, which may have been "an exact reprise of the opening chorus to the text of verse 7," says Alfred Dürr (The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: 265), cited by Leaver (Ibid.: 147), who agrees, listing a recording of such ( YouTube: 16:27). The central movement (no 5) "is quite extraordinary," says Leaver (Ibid.), SATB chorale chorus (verse IV), "Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg" (It was a strange battle), depicting the struggle between life and death with death the victor." All three chorus movements (nos. 2, 5, 8) are "musical expositions of the distinction between Law and Gospel," says Leaver (Ibid.). Often, Bach's cantatas, especially in the first and third cycles, begin with an OT statement and close with a Gospel perspective, moving from sorrow to j. In Cantata 4, Leaver quotes Olearius' Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz statement cited above, that "the first stanza of this hymn contains the whole Disposition, which is expanded and expounded in the following stanzas" (Ibid.: 148). "Here is justification for the reuse of the music of Stanza 1 for the final movement of Bach's Easter cantata."

The genesis of Cantata 4 is outlined in Leaver's essay as follows: Bach in Lübeck in December 1705 encountered Buxtehude's music to improve his art (organ and vocal works) and on his return the Arnstadt consistory on 21 February 1706 called Bach to account for his extended absence of 16 weeks instead of four and complained that "hitherto no concerted music had been performed, for which he is responsible." "Having received this reprimand," says Leaver (Ibid.: 149), "his reaction may well have been to demonstrate to the members of the consistory that not only would he participate in concerted music, he would compose such a piece that would show them his worth and competence." This was the beginning of Lent and Bach "should want to try his hand at composing a Buxtehude-like cantata," with a five-part string accompaniment (2 violins, 2 violas, continuo). Bach had the remaining six weeks of Lent to compose and show the consistory "something of what he had learned while he had been away." To respond to the consistory criticism and "impress the Arnstadt clergy," especially the some-time deacon of the Neuen Kirche and hymnologist Olearius, says Leaver (Ibid.), Bach chose Luther's iconic Easter hymn as the cantata libretto to be set to varying concerted musical forms. "If this scenario is basically correct it means that Christ lag in Todesbanden is the product of a twenty-one-year-old and, whatever the exact chronology of its composition, it is an extraordinarily competent work that foreshadows the contrapuntal complexities of his later years," Leaver concludes (Ibid.: 149).

Cantata 4 Monograph

Gerhardt Herz wrote an exemplary monograph, Bach Cantata 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden: An Authoritative Score. Backgrounds, Analysis, Views and Comments (See FN 4). The study begins with The Historical Background in three sections (unsigned, Herz presumably is the author): "The Place of Bach's Cantata in History" (Ibid.: 3-20), "The Dating of Cantata No. 4" (Ibid.: 21-24), and "The History of the Hymn and its Melody" ( Ibid.: 25-27). The second part is the score (Eulenburg edition, Arnold Schering ed.; Ibid.: 29-72), followed by Herz's "Textual Note" (Ibid.; 73-77); a substantial third part, Analysis, has two explanatory sections on "The Chorale Melody" (Ibid.: 81f), and "The Form of the Cantata" (Ibid.: 83-85), followed by the sinfonia and seven verses (Ibid.: 86-113), then Views and Comments chronologically from Bach scholars: Philipp Spitta, Albert Schweitzer, Andre Pirro, W. G. Whittaker, Arnold Schering, Friedrich Smend, Alfred Dürr, and Karl Geiringer (Ibid.: 117-136). Herz's study of Cantata 4 begins with some important observations on "The Place of Bach's Cantata in History," beginning with the development of the Italian solo secular cantatas with their da capo aria and recitative influencing the development of the German church cantata, initially the early cantata as a vocal concerto, followed by the reform cantata of Erdmann Neumeister, beginning in 1700 with church-year cycles while Bach's earliest cantatas (Wikipedia) he called, variously, says Herz (Ibid.: 5), motteto (BWV 71), concerto (BWV 196, 150), dialogo (BWV 152), actus tragicus (BWV 106), and Psalm (BWV 131). Bach used the term "cantata," almost exclusively for profane Leipzig works such as the Jagdkantate (Hunt Cantata, BWV 208), Kaffeekantate (BWV 211) and Cantate burlesque (BWV 212). One characteristic of Bach's earliest cantatas is the use of the chorale (BWV 71/2; 106/2d, 3b, 4; 131/2, 4; and 143/2, 6), replacing "the singing of the Gregorian chant and unaccompanied motet," says Herz. In Cantata 4, the movements are treated as contrapuntal variations on Luther's chorale, Herz observes (Ibid.: 6). Bach added Neumeister-style madrigalian movements in Weimar. In Leipzig, Bach experimented with new cantata forms, notably the chorale cantata with its opening, extended chorale fantasia while in his later years Bach returned exclusively to the pure-hymn cantata, says Herz (Ibid.; 14), such as BWV 129, 192, 117, 112, 177, and 100 as well as hybrid Cantatas BWV 140 and 80. Although Bach's 200 cantatas were systematically published by the Bach Gesellschaft beginning in 1850, reception history preferred his instrumental and major vocal works until well into the 20th century with the growth of Bach festivals and societies as well as recordings made cantatas accessible, says Herz (Ibid.: 18-20).

In his section on the history of the Lutheran chorale and its melody, Herz shows (Ibid.: 25f) that German "borrowings" from chant and Latin hymns, both texts and melodies, were the foundation of the chorale. Luther's Christ lag in Todesbanden has quite a pedigree, including New Testament references to the Passover Lamb and the Easter sequence, Victimae paschali laudes (Wikipedia; ref. Cantata 4, Stanzas 4, 5). Appearing in the 1524 first Lutheran hymnbooks, "Christ lag" (BCW) "was described as the Easter Carol 'Christ ist erstanden' improved" (BCW), says Herz (Ibid.: 26). The melody "is typically eclectic" and the chorale "belongs among Luther's most successful textual as well as musical adaptations." Among hymn authors," says Herz (Ibid.: 27), "Bach preferred Luther [BCW] and Paul Gerhardt" (BCW). "Bach made the chorale — and the older the better — the spiritual and musical center of much of his vocal and organ music," Herz observes (Ibid.). As an addendum to the Cantata 4 score, Herz as a "Textual Note" (critical commentary, Ibid: 73f) suggests that the 1724 version of Cantata 4 was premiered at the University Church of St. Paul (9 April), based on William Scheide's study of Bach's first Leipzig Jahrgang, "Bach Achieves His Goal. His First Year of Regular Church Music Following the Leipzig Lutheran Calendar" (ms. 1960, Princeton University Library).⁷ Meanwhile, Bach presented Cantata 31 at the two main Leipzig churches on that Easter Sunday in 1724. The 1725 Cantata 4 addition of the four wind parts (coronetto and three trombones, Bach Digital) in the opening chorus and closing chorale may have been to strengthen the festive presentation.

The next part of Herz's study, "Analysis," involves explanatory sections on the Cantata 4 chorale melody, the cantata form, and its seven movements. The chorale melody Bar form (Wikipedia) structure and mode are analyzed, followed by the symmetrical form of the movements. Bach's treatment of each of the stanzas with an instrumental introduction is distinctive and unique, "a tour de force unique in Bach's cantata output," says Herz (Ibid.: 84). "Though life eventually triumphs over death, the hymn, as well as Bach's setting of it, shows a profundity that encompasses the realms suffering, war, and victory, of mockery, earnest celebration, and jubilation." The "seven movements might follow one another like beads of a rosary," "a solid structure that may be viewed at one glance as a finished and complete artwork." It is a mirror form in which the central axis projects two halves of reflection in which the proportions balance and resemble each other equally, forwards and backwarrds, as a palindrome (Wikipedia), such as madam or racecar. Thus in Bach's Cantata 4, the Sinfonia and Verse 1 chorus are matched with the last Verse 7 cho(chorus); Verse 2 Duet (SA) is matched with Verse 6 duet (ST), Verse 3 aria (T) is matched with Verse 5 aria (B), and the middle Verse 4 in the central, axial chorus. Also, the two duets and central chorus are accompanied by basso continuo only. Reinforcing this ricecar form (Wikipedia), all the Cantata 4 movements Bach set as polyphonic variations. This palindrome form also is called chiasm (Wikipedia), based on the Greek letter chi (X), which signifies in Christian symbolism the name Christ in its initial letter and at the same time the shape of the cross, says Herz (Ibid.: 85), citing and translating Bach scholar and theologian Friedrich Smend (Luther und Bach, Berlin 1947: 35): "The same is true of the rhetorical-poetic form of chiasm and its application to music." Bach trained in Lutheran theology at his Latin schools in Ohrdruf and especially in Lüneberg, and this symbolism could have occupied his from his youth to the last years of his life, that is from Cantata 4 to the Musical Offering and the Credo of the B minor Mass." Thus the Cantata 4 "balanced cyclic form is no figment of the scholastic imagination but an irrefutable reality," says Herz (Ibid.: 86). The following are key Herz observations in his analysis of the individual movements: the sinfonia is one of 10 early, concise sinfonias (the only one related to a chorale) and in the style of predecessors Buxtehude, Böhm, and Kuhnau (Ibid.: 87). Verse 1 is set as a "formidable chorale fantasy" in the style of Pachelbel (Ibid.: 89f) with imitative Choralzeilendurchfuhrung (chorale lines through execution), and the last, jubilant line, "Hallelujah," in motet-like alla breve involving the Trinitarian numerical symbolism of 27 measures (3x3x3) (Ibid.: 92f), suggesting a vanity symbolism in Bach's first cantata, Herz suggests (Ibid.: 94). Verse 2, "Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt" (Nobody could overcome death), is a soprano-alto duet lament with quasi-ostinato continuo in trio texture. "The surviving parts of 1724 were copied from the original score" (Ibid.: 96). Verse 3, "Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn" (Jesus Christ, God's son), a tenor trio aria unison chorale, "is a song of jubilation, evoked by the coming of Christ" (Ibid.: 98). Verse 4 centerpiece, "Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg" (It was a strange battle), is a chorale fantasia chorus (SATB), resembling Verse 1 "insofar as the contrapuntal voices again discuss the chorale lines fugally before the cantus firmus is intoned" (Ibid.: 101). "Bach — whose knowledge of the rules of rhetoric was, according to Magister Birnbaum, unmatched — pushes the grim picture the text reveals into the realm of the absurd (bid.: 102f). Verse 5, "Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm" (Here is the true Easter lamb), is a bass aria and the only movement in triple time, a traditional motif of grief, descending chromatically (Ibid.: 106). Verse 6, "So feiern wir das hohe Fest" (Thus we celebrate the high feast), as a soprano-tenor trio duet corresponds to Verse 2 in contrast of day to night, of festive French overture to the earlier gloom (Ibid.: 110). Concluding Verse 7, "Wir essen und leben wohl" (We eat and live well), is a four-part tutti congregational chorale reinforced with doubling brass (Ibid.: 113). Almost two decades later Bach perfected the chorale cantata in 1723-24 with poetic madrigalian paraphrases of the internal movements, still flanked with opening fantasia and closing hymn, while retaining from Cantata 4 "the dominating position which both the text and the melody of the hymn assume throughout the work," Herz citing Karl Geiringer (Johann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of an Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968: 148; cited in Herz, Ibid: 136).

ENDNOTES

¹ Robin A. Leaver, Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology (Abingdon UK: Routledge, 2021); Amazon.com; discussions, BCW; download, EBIN.
² Cantata 4: details, BCW; music, YouTube; text, BCW; Wikipedia, Wikipedia; and discussion, BCW.
³ William Gillies Whittaker, comments on Cantata 4, in Fugitive Notes on Certain Cantatas and Motets of J. S. Bach (London, Oxford University Press, 1924: 129f), Amazon.com.
⁴ See Gerhardt Herz, "The Dating of Cantata 4," in Bach Cantata 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden: An Authoritative Score. Backgrounds, Analysis, Views and Comments (New York: Norton, 1967: 21-23), Amazon.com; Herz's exemplary Norton Critical Score also includes an extended essay on "The Place of Bach's Cantata in History" (Ibid.: 3-20), the score and textual note (Ibid.: 29-77), Herz's Analysis (Ibid.: 81-113), and Views and Comments of Bach scholars (Ibid.: 115-136); and Bibliography (Ibid.: 137f).
⁵ Chorale concerto: see Wikipedia, Wikipedia: "Bach's early cantatas," and Kerala J. Snyder, “Tradition with Variations: Chorale Settings per omnes versus by Buxtehude and Bach,” in Festschrift Music and Theology: Essays in Honor of Robin A. Leaver, Daniel Zager, ed. (Lanham, MD & London: The Scarecrow Press, 2007), 38-40, Amazon.com, see Snyder Selected bibliography (Society for Seventeenth-Century Music),
⁶ Other composers settings of "Christ lag": Heinrich Schütz (lost), Andreas Hammerschmidt (YouTube), Johann Hermann Schein (YouTube), Samuel Scheidt (YouTube), Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (IMSLP, Sebastian Knüpfer (IMSLP, Patch.com), Johann Schelle (lost), and Johann Kuhnau (YouTube).
⁷ William Scheide study, Bach-Bibliographie; Princeton University Library.

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To Come: Leaver, Chapter 8, "Bach's Orgelbüchlein"

Leaver: Hymnology, Bach's Orgelbüchlein (Chapter 8)

William L. Hoffman wrote (September 1, 2021):
In the second ingredient in Bach spirituality — hymnology — the Lutheran practice of the chorale or congregational hymn was a dominant feature in Bach's sacred music, both vocal and instrumental, observed throughout the church year service liturgy (the first practice), and made manifest in both tvocal realm of the most important genre of cantata or musical sermon and the wordless instrumental realm of the organ chorale prelude, both essential in his the Lutheran service. Bach first systematic exploration of this prelude prepared the congregation for the hymn singing of at important places in the services, from prelude to Biblical readings, the sermon, and communion to the closing postlude. In Robin Leaver's Bach Studies,¹ the eighth chapter explores his earliest such organ chorale collection, "Bach's Orgelbüchlein" (the Little Organ Book), the template for the church-year service hymns conceived during his first tenure as organist in Arnstadt, 1703-07, says Leaver (Ibid.: 134). The sections in Chapter 8 cover "The manuscript: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. Mus. Ms. Bach P283" (Ibid.: 151-53), "The question of chronology" (151-57), "The overall plan of the Orgelbüchlein" (157-66), "The Orgelbüchlein in relation to a Choralbuch' (166-70), "Chorale preambling defined" (170-76), "The Neumeister Collection" (176-80), and "The influence of Pachelbel" (180-82).

Orgelbüchlein Project Purpose, Content, Sources

The purpose of Bach's Orgelbüchlein (Wikipedia), as found in the first section on "The manuscript," is the pedagogical process of "developing a chorale in many diverse ways" and "acquiring facility in the study of the pedal," here "treated as wholly obbligato," says the title page (added by Bach in Cöthen) in the manuscript (D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 283, Bach Digital), as cited and translated by Leaver (Ibid.: 150f), with the Bach couplet, "In Praise of the Almighty's will / And for my neighbor's greater skill" by the "Autore."² The manuscript lists the incipits for 164 chorale melodies for the Lutheran church year, beginning with Advent, with Bach setting only 45 (BWV 599-644 (BCW, YouTube). Most of these concise preludes were set for the de tempore first half of the church year on Jesus Christ while the projected 118 (The Orgelbüclein Project: The Missing Chorales) are found almost entirely in the omne tempore section of the second half of the church year for Trinity ordinary time, now known as the Sundays after Pentecost. The primary hymnal source for the Orgelbüchlein was the Weimar Geistreiches Gesang-Buch of 1713 (BCW: "[Weimar]"), says Leaver (Ibid.: 152) while "the order in which he selected them is different from that of the hymnal," he observes. Meanwhile, the Christian Friedrich Witt (Wikipedia) Psalmodia Sacra (Gotha, 1715) "probably influenced the ordering and choice of chorales in Orgelbüchlein. Only two chorales in Orgelbüchlein are not found in Witt," says The Orgelbüchlein Project (The Orgelbüclein Project: The Missing Chorales). When Bach became Weimar Concertmaster in 1714 "with the responsibility of composing a cantata each month," says Leaver (Ibid.: 153), those composed in 1714 (BCW) had chorales where "most of them were also planned to be included in the Orgelbüchlein, he says (Ibid., Table 8.1 Chorales in the early cantatas: 154 ³).

Initial Planning: Extent, Scope; Related Publications

The "initial planning" of "the extent and scope of the project" "may well have originated during the Arnstadt years," Leaver says in the next section on the chronology of the collection, (Ibid.: 155), pointing to two early versions of OB chorale preludes, BWV 601a, "Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes Sohn," and BWV 639a=Anh. 73, "Ich ruf zu dir Herr Jesu Christ," found in the earlier Neumeister Collection" (c1700). "Bach's major involvement in the Orgelbüchlein project spanned the Weimar years between 1708-1714/1715," he says (Ibid.), based on the manuscript watermark, citing Christoph Wolff and Russell Stinson.⁴ "The question is whether the watermark of the manuscript establishes the beginning of the work on Bach's project, or whether it represents his commitment after having spent considerable tine planning the extent and scope of the project," with both scholars favoring the latter view (Ibid.). Three contemporary Arnstadt related publications support this, says Leaver (Ibid.: 155f): Johann Philipp Treiber's pedagogical workbook treatise, Der Accurate Organist im General-Baß (Arnstadt, 1704), and Johann Christoph Olearius' edition of the Neu-Verbessertes Arnstädtisches Gesangbuch (Arnstadt 1700, 1702, 1705) and his Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz (Jena: Bielcke, 1707). "Trieber's manual must have attracted the young Bach and may well have inspired him to use chorale melodies in his teaching, and at the same time influenced his own concise approach to composition that is exhibited in his Orgelbüchlein," says Leaver (Ibid.: 156). Olearius' interest in early Lutheran hymnody in the Arnstadt Gesangbuch was a practical matter involving "a collection that Bach must have used almost daily in his Arnstadt years" while the contents of the Orgelbüchlein reflect this interest in early chorales: 70% date from the early 16th century (30 by Luther) "and most of the remainder [164 planned preludes in all] date from around 1650 or earlier," says Leaver (Ibid.). Between 1705 and 1707 Oleaerius began publishing commentary on the principal Sunday and festival service hymns (Guaduallied) of the church year in four quarterly sections: Advent 1 to Quinquagesima, Invocavit to Trinitasfest, Trinity 1-13, and Trinity 14-27 plus Michaelfest and the Apostles' Day. It "is instructive to compare Olearius's basic list with that of the projected sequence of chorale settings" in the similar Orgelbüchlein," Leaver observes (Ibid.; 157). "Of the seventy five hymns given by Oleaerius only seven cannot be found." On the other hand, "apart from the principal festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost," "Bach did not follow the strict order" of these Graduallied.

Overall Plan: Choral Book Influences

Leaver's next section examines the overall plan of the Orgelbüchlein. In Table 8.3, Projected contents of the Orgelbüchlein (Ibid.: 158-64), there are three comparative columns: The Bach 164 chorale incipits interspersed with the 45 BWV listings, the 78 chorale listings in the 1704 Tabulaturbuch of Pachelbel, and the 74 chorale listings in the Neumeister c1700 collection. These three comparative studies extend over the next three sections of the Orgelbüchlein Chapter 8, with a concluding section on Pachelbel's great influence. The projected Orgelbüchlein with more than twice as many listings than the earlier Tabulaturbuch and the Neumeister collection served different pedagogical performing and composing purposes than the Pachelbel template of core chorales or the primarily Bach Family anthology in Neumeister. All three chorale prelude books cover the main de tempore seasons in similar order with notable ambiguities and varying usages (Ibid.: 165). In the next chapter section, "The Orgelbüchlein in relation to a Choralbuch" (166-70), Leaver describes (Ibid.: 166) how Bach had assembled the manuscript pages into book form, planned the sequence of the chorale melodies that would follow, inscribed incipits at the head of most pages, and ruled the staves on every page. Although the chorale music lacked the inscribed figured basses in a Choralbuch, "there are significant parallels between the Orgelbüchlein and the typical Choralbuch set in two staves with melodic and figured bass lines,⁵ in contrast to the earlier tablature notation (Wikipedia). The Choralbuch in the early 18th century was an individual organist's chorale repertory similar to "Sebastian Bach's Chorale Book" manuscript in the Sibley Library (Bach Perspectives, Volume 10: Bach and the Organ (Project Muse)) of 238 melodies with figured bass, possibly dating to the 1740s, with connections to Dresden and Bach students. Bach's Orgelbüchlein is a conflation of the Choralbuch two-stave manual with added pedal staff and the Gesangbuch hymn book anthology for use of the congregation, Leaver says (Ibid.: 167). The Orgelbüchlein was Bach's first musical study and personal hymnbook. The Choralbuch of Heinrich Andreas Schünemann (Wolfenbuttel, 1st decade 18th century) of 170 melodies with index is "a representative example," says Leaver (Ibid.: 168). "The grouping of the melodies in the two manuscripts [Bach's and Schünemann's] are strikingly similar, says Leaver (Ibid.; 169), particularly the major de tempore settings between Advent and Trinity, and especially the intention to include a similar section of Psalmlieder." "In his choice and organization of chorale melodies Bach's first concern was with compiling a basic repertory that a church organist would require in the course of a year," says Leaver (Ibid.: 170).

Pachelbel Chorale Preambuling, Neumeister Collection

Leaver's comparative chorale exploration turns to the "Chorale preambling redefined" (Ibid.; 170ff), with the Johann Pachelbel (BCW) Erfurt organist's contract of 1678 defining the hymn-playing purpose to "play the hymns first by preambling them thematically and then accompanying [the singing] throughout," Leaver translates (Ibid.: 170). The "organist's primary responsibility was to introduce and accompanying congregational singing." Later, Pachelbel published chorale collections which "illustrate the different ways the chorale can be treated in a prelude," says Leaver (Ibid.: 171), in different voices, parts, and fugally, which Bach develops in his Orgelbüchlein. "Pachelbel appears to have been particularly influential through the succession of his pupils who seemed to have had a particular liking for the chorale fugue," Leaver citing (Ibid.: 172) Hieronymous Florentinus Quehl, Johann Peter Kellner, and Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber. "Pachelbel both personally and musically, was well-known among the Bachs," says Leaver (Ibid.: 173), especially the two Johann Christoph Bachs, the Eisenach first cousin to Sebastian's father (1642-1703) and brother Johann Christoph (No. 22, 1671-1721, BCW [22].htm, Google paste) in Ohrdruf — "Sebastian's first two organ teachers," says Leaver (Ibid.: 173). Two significant, influential collections (Ibid.: 174f), prepared but left unpublished, were the elder (No. 13) Johann Christoph's collection of 44 chorales (1695-1700, BCW), and Pachelbel's 1704 Tablature Book with its similar church year organization and 80% melodies found in the Orgelbüchlein, a "basic core repertory of chorale melodies in various Choralbücher and manuscript collections" says Leaver (Ibid.: 176). The Neumeister Collection (Wikipedia) dated to 1700 "exhibits a good many of these identifiable features." Authenticated in 1985 by Christoph Wolff, the 77 chorale preludes involved 66 by three Bachs: Johann Christoph (3), Johann Michael (25) and Sebastian (38), as well as a few of Georg Andreas Sorge,, Zachow, Pachelbel, Daniel Eric, and anonymous. The structure of this manuscript collection is similar to the Choralbücher and other chorale prelude collections, says Leaver (Ibid.: 177), with 59 titles "to be included in the completed Orgelbüchlein," 21 of which are new. The connections between the two collections involve three categories (Ibid.: 178f): 1. Early versions included in the later manuscript (BWV 601(a) and 639(a); 2. those which could have been included but "Bach chose not do so (21)," and 3. those specifically rejected. In the OB, "Bach set the chorale melodies in a variety of ingenious ways and comparisons of the early versions of BWV 601a and 639a show "Bach's practice in the Orgelbüchlein of exploring different forms and techniques in setting chorale melodies," Leaver notes (Ibid.: 178f). The exclusion of the 21 preludes in the second category could be that "most were simply too long for the usual single page that Bach assigned for them" or "that they did not come up to the standard that Bach had set himself," he says (Ibid.: 179). The third category are six preludes "that in effect were displaced by later Orgelbüchlein compositions, some too long, some less sophisticated (OB Nos. 15, 17, 20, 21, 65, 76). As to the reason Bach did not complete the Orgelbüchlein 164 entries, Leaver provides no conjecture while collateral supporting evidence of the unfinished chorale cantata cycle of 1724-25 suggests that Bach may have been content with what he had already composed (Es ist genug!).

Influences: Pachelbel on Two Johann Christoph Bachs

While "studies of Bach's early development as a composer of organ music" emphasized the North German influence of Georg Böhm (BCW) in Lüneburg and Dietrich Buxtehude (BCW) in Lübeck, says Leaver (Ibid.: 180), Bach's solid foundation came from the two Johann Christoph Bachs "that owed much to the influence of Pachelbel." The Orgelbüchlein was "an audacious plan" for a complete repertoire for the entire year "using the typical Choral-Buch as a model," serving the de tempore (proper time) for the weekly main service (Gottesdienst) and Trinity ordinary time for the weekly vespers such as the catechism chorales. The 164 chorale melodies "amounts to Bach's personal hymnal." Had Bach finished his collection, it would have been able " to cover every hymn in each and any of the hymnals he knew and used in the first decades of the eighteenth century, such as the Weimar Gesangbuch (1713) with its total of 547 hymn texts," Leaver suggests (Ibid.; 181). Beyond an anthology of chorale preludes, the OB explored "a wide variety of compositional techniques with the utmost brevity." "The one form that is apparently missing" — associated with Pachelbel and his students — is the extended chorale fugue. Others such as Quehl and Johann Christoph (13) were shorter in comparison as well as in Pachelbel's Tabulaturbuch (1704). "Bach's aim in the Orgelbüchlein was to make the preludes as brief as possible without sacrificing the musical ingenuity or integrity," and "he transformed it into a more concise and compact counterpoint." Despite its being a torso, the OB preludes "form the most intriguing collection of compositions for organ, unrivaled by anything that came before it or unparalleled by anything that has come after it," Leaver concludes. At the same time, Bach began composing extended chorale preludes in Weimar, known as the "Great 18,"⁶ which he revised later in Leipzig in his final decade and which are subject to recent scholarship of Russell Stimson (chronology and authenticity) and Anne Leahy (purpose, textual focus and chorale application). Meanwhile, Bach in the middle 1730s turned to pietistic devotional books with hymnic arias, notably Paul Gerhardt, and the great compendium of the Schemelli Gesangbuch which also embraced personal 18th century sacred song writers.

ENDNOTES
¹ Robin A. Leaver, Bach Studies: Liturgy, Hymnology, and Theology (Abingdon UK: Routledge, 2021); Amazon.com; discussions, BCW; download, EBIN; the immediately preceding Part II Hymnology chapters are discussed as follows: Chapter 6, Leaver Bach Studies, Hymnology, Chapter 6, "Bach, Johann Christoph Olearius," BCW, and Chapter 7, "Bach's Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV4): hymnology and chronology." See: Leaver: Bach's Christ lag in Todesbanden: Hymnology, Chronology" above.
² "Autore" is studied in Stephen Rose, Musical Authorship from Schütz to Bach; Musical Performance and Reception, eds. John Butt, Laurence Dreyfuss (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019), Amazon.com; specifically, "Bach used this term in some of his collections of music; for instance to sign the title page of his Orgel-Büchlein (OB) manuscript, or to signal his role as self-publisher of his first engraved book of keyboard music, Clavier-Übung I," says Rose (Ibid.: 30), while the couplet shows Bach's commitment to "this Lutheran doctrine of service, "says Rose (Ibid.: 119), known as his calling (Wikipedia).
³ Chorales in the early cantatas, Google Books.
⁴ Christoph Wolff, Chapter 2, "Transformative Approaches to Composition and Performance: Three Unique Keyboard Works, in Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2020: 34-43; summary, BCW: "Orgel-Büchlein: Chorale Preludes"), Amazon.com; contents, Google Books. Russell Stinson, Bach: The Orgelbüchlein (New York: Schirmer, 1996: 12-25, Amazon.com.
⁵ Source: Chorale-Song Collections, Student Work Discussions, BCW: "Other Choral-Buch Collections."
⁶ Great 18: Russell Stinson, "New Perspectives on Bach's Great Eighteen Chorales," in Stephen A. Christ and Roberta Montemorra Marvin, eds., Historical Musicology: Sources, Methods, Interpretations, Eastman Studies in Music (University of Rochester Press, 2004: 1); contents, Boydell & Brewer); Anne Leahy, J. S Bach's Leipzig Chorale Preludes, ed. Robin A. Leaver, Contextual Bach Studies No. 3, ed. Robin A, Leaver: Music, Text Theology (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press Inc, 2011), Amazon.com.

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To Come: Leaver, Hymnology, Chapter 9, "Bach and the hymnic aria" (devotional texts), and Chapter 10, "Bach and the letter codes of the Schemelli Gesangbuch definitive hymnbook.

Continue on Part 5