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Thomas Braatz wrote (January 29, 2007):
BWV 37 - Provenance:
The original set of parts (it is unknown what happened to the autograph score) went to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach at the time of the distribution of musical materials took place soon after Johann Sebastian Bach's death in 1750. This set of parts ["in Stimmen", no score is mentioned] is listed among the items in C.P.E. Bach's possession at the time of the latter's death in 1788. The next owner is the Berlin Singakademie until it, along with all the entire original manuscript collection was sold to the Staatsbibliothek Berline [BB = Berliner Staatsbibliothek] in 1854. The Singakademie also notes the existence of a 'score' which in all likelihood was a score created for internal use from the existing parts. [There is only a slight possibility that C.P.E. Bach may have created a score from the parts and that this might be the one that the Singakademie mentioned.] There were also a few extra parts which were likewise created at that time. Both score and additional parts (both not being original) have been lost.
Timeline:
May 18, 1724 (Ascension) The cantata was composed for a performance on this date and a full set of parts had been copied out. All that remains from these original materials are the 3 doublet parts: Violino 1mo, Violino 2do and Continuo (transposed and figured). Since the Violino 1mo is a doublet part, it does not contain the obbligato violin part for BWV 37/2.
Between 1724 and 1731, the autograph score and a simple set of parts [excluding the 3 doublets previously mentioned] for this cantata were lost so that a new set of parts needed to be copied from the then still existing autograph score. The NBA conjectures that the loss of these parts might have been similar to situation with one of the scores that Johann Elias Bach, in a letter dated January 28, 1741, referred to when he stated:" .die Partitur aber will er [J. S. Bach] nicht aus den Händen geben, weil er auf solche Art schon um viele Sachen gekommen." ["he does not want to part with the score because this is the way he already has lost many things {compositions}."]
1731 (Ascension) Faced with the loss of parts which most likely had not or could not be returned for a performance of this cantata, Bach now had Johann Ludwig Krebs recreate the missing parts from the autograph score. These are the parts now considered to be the 'original' set of parts: Canto, Alto, Tenore, Baßo, Hautbois 1, Hautbois 2, Viola, Continuo. The NBA editors have determined by comparing the doublets from 1724 with these parts copied in 1731 that Bach made little or no changes in the composition. This is quite apparent from comparing the two continuo parts. Also, it appears that the obbligato violin part Violino 1 [the primary copy, not the doublet] and the Violino 2 part had been lost after this performance in 1731. It is even possible that BWV 37/2 was composed for 2 obbligato violins since these are the parts that would contain such obbligato parts which are not available anywhere else except in the autograph score which is also lost. |
