Arioso aus einem Passions-Pasticcio BWV 1088
General Discussions
Bass in BWV 1088
David Glenn Lebut Jr. wrote (November 2, 2004):
Could anybody point out to me what the progression in the Figured Bass is for BWV 1088? The copy I have of it (which comes from the NBA edition) does not put down the figures for the Continuo.
Bradley Lehman wrote (November 2, 2004):
[To David Glenn Lebut Jr.] I don't have a copy; is one readily available somewhere outside the NBA?
Looking at the first three bars in the BWV (catalog), it appears to be (over a tonic pedal point): i, v (6/4), i, viio (#7/4/2), i. And those are decorated with suspensions in the middle voice. That second harmony in there is arguably 6/4/2 instead of 6/4, since it touches on the A briefly in the top voice, but really it's the same overall effect: tonic, sliding to subdominant, back briefly through tonic (in passing) to the diminished 7th degree, then sliding back to tonic. Pretty typical stuff. See, for example, the similar beginning of the SJP (BWV 245) "Herr, unser Herrscher", decorating its tonic with the same basic progressions and suspensions.
Derivation of missing continuo figures isn't all that difficult: just count up diatonic notes from the bass, write down the positions that identify the chord uniquely enough (see Bach's manuscripts teaching this...), and include any accidentals that have modified it. So many of these progressions are stock harmonic patterns anyway, they hardly need to be written down...so, they aren't.
Seems to me that our resident anti-academics (i.e. those who claim already to know everything relevant about music theory and performance practices, while disdaining instruction) should get together, working from the NBA as a clean score, and compose a fully figured, fully realized performing edition. It would be a good exercise, and really shouldn't take more than an hour (seriously!) as the piece is short, if coming to it with the same basic skills that Graun's players obviously had. This is all improvisatory stuff, just play through the piece a couple of times and know how it goes...no need to write it down, really, except maybe to codify some realization that turned out well.
[Sorry, a little grouchy this morning....]
In that same Graun pastiche-passion, what are the changes he made in the borrowing of the first movement of BWV 127?
Thomas Braatz wrote (November 2, 2004):
Bradley Lehman wrote: >>In that same Graun pastiche-passion, what are the changes he made in the borrowing of the first movement of BWV 127?<<
NBA I/41 on BWV 127/1(Variant); BWV 1088 and BWV deest "Der Gerechte kommt um"
On p. VI of the foreword to NBA I/41, there is the following summary:
[>>Of all the works originating from Bach's tenure in Leipzig, the 'Cantata for Passiontide' "Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt" is one the most puzzling. It turns out to be a rather extensive redesigning/reshaping/rearrangement of Carl Heinrich Graun's Passiontide Cantata, "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld," which has been expanded by adding 11 movements by other composers. There is no conclusive evidence which would explain how much of this adaptation/revision by Johann Christoph Altnickol might have relied upon an older adaptation/revision which might possibly be one of J. S. Bach's own reworkings of this material. In any case, as late as 1865 there was still a copy of the score of Graun's Passiontide Cantata in the library of the St. Thomas School in Leipzig. Carl Hermann Bitter, at that time, believed he might have uncovered/discovered a few entries in Bach's own handwriting. The chorale chorus movement taken from BWV 127/1 (mvt. 19) together with the bass arioso movement (BWV 1088){mvt. 20} stand at the opening of part two of this pasticcio; the choral movement "Der Gerechte kommt um" (mvt. 39) was added at the appropriate point after Jesus' death. The latter composition consisting of a five-part chorus appears to be a reworking/arrangement of a motet "Tristis est anima mea' perhaps incorrectly attributed to Johann Kuhnau. There is no definite proof that either the recitative (BWV 1088) or the arrangement of the motet are by Bach, although stylistically it might seem to be so. It could, however, be possible that all three movements were originally taken from a lost, late Passion by J. S. Bach.<<]
The NBA I/41 KB pp. 56 ff. indicates the primary source as a copy of a score of these three movements by Johann Christoph Altnickol completed c. 1755. After the latter's death, it was passed by Altnickol's wife to her half-brother CPE Bach. Georg Poelchau, a manuscript collector in Berlin, acquired it from the heirs of CPE and in 1844 it came to the BB (State Library in Berlin.) In the 1780's shortly before his death, CPE wrote the title "Passion | von | Graun;" and added later: "with some excellent choruses and 4- and 5-voice fugues." Poelchau, after acquiring the score, wrote a note as follows: "This manuscript came from the collection of CPE Bach and probably was copied by him while he was still very young; the title page stems from the last years of his life."
Altnickol copied all of BWV 127/1 (mvt. 19) and the 1st 5 measures of the arioso, BWV 1088 (mvt. 20); all the rest he delegated to another unknown copyist after he established the key signatures and instrumentation. Later he made corrections and added movement titles.
Mvt. 19 'Chorus': "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott" definitely Bach's own composition, a reworking of BWV 127/1, an Estomihi cantata.
Mvt. 20 'Recitativo': "So heb ich denn mein Auge sehnlich auf." At the top of the mvt. "Recit." and at the end of the mvt. 'Aria' (this is in keeping with Bach's habit of indicating at the end of one mvt. The following mvt. still to come.
Mvt. 39 'Chorus': "Der Gerechte kommt um" - only the vocal parts are indicated, no further instrumentation is given, but in mss. 12-13 above the Soprano I part, the words "Travers. Con Soprano" are noted. From all appearances, this is a choral mvt. that Bach adapted or modified.
For the latter mvt. (39), Poelchau and another unknown copyist prepared a set of parts (prior to 1836). Along with the vocal parts, there are also 2 violin parts, a viola part, a 'Fondamt.' (probably the bc. part) - the two oboe parts that had been prepared were still missing.
Missing sources:
1. a copy of the score of Graun's Passiontide Cantata - lost/destroyed 1943 in Leipzig. Concerning the latter there are two bits of documentary evidence: Christian Theodor Weinlig, (1780-1842) prepared a catalog of the works in the library of the St. Thomas School in 1823. There were 8 passions in score form and with parts: one by Graun, one by Fasch and 6 by unknown composers. In 1865, Carl Hermann Bitter (1813-1885) wrote: "At first we were told that there were no more compositions by Bach in the library, but upon closer inspection we found the following:
an Oratorium Passionale by Graun (from the years 1725-1735, composed in Braunschweig) which had the title and list of instruments, there were corrections and several additions as well as the conclusion (concluding chorus?) Also the titles of a recitative and 2 arias in the appendix; also the title, music and text of a chorale, which was probably set by Bach for this purpose and without a doubt stem from his hand.
It is questionable whether the Graun's Passion listed by Weinlig and the passion music referred to by Bitter are one and the same composition, but they may both have been referring to something similar. Somewhat less probable would be a situation where the St. Thomas School had 2 or more manuscript copies of Graun's Passiontide Cantata and that one of these would have been a pasticcio-version of the original.
The NBA editors suspect that there is no direct connection (a dependency relationship) between the Altnickol and Weinlig/Bitter versions, so that it mean that mvts. 19, 2, 39 of the Altnickol copy were not contained in the Weinlig/Bitter version. In any case, Telemann's chorus "Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt" (this is mvt. 1 of Altnickol's copy) would not have been contained in Graun's Passiontide Cantata. It is more likely that the Graun's "Oratorium Pasionale" referred to by Bitter is the less admirably arranged version of Graun's Passiontide Cantata "Ein Lämmlein geht." The Weinlig/Bitter version is very unlikely as far as having supplied the source for Altnickol's version.
There must also have been another variant of the pasticcio-version original that Altnickol used as a source. This is borne out by the printed text for a performance of Graun's Passiontide Cantata from the time soon after 1757. This text shows variants of the text recorded by Altnickol.
For mvt. 19 "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott", the editors used for comparision Bach's autograph score of the same music along with the original set of parts.
Alfred Dürr wrote an article for the Bach-Jahrbuch, 1988, pp. 205 ff. on the adaptation/reworking/arrangement of BWV 127/1 as it appears in the pasticcio.
Dürr claims that only Bach could have undertaken all the changes involved. Many of the mistakes are caused by simple transposition errors. The reasons for the transposition become clear upon closer inspection, but there does not seem to be a really compelling reason for undertaking this transposition. Possibly it became necessary for the sequence of keys moving from C minor (mvt. 18) to F major (original of BWV 127/1) or Eb as mvt. 19 of the pasticcio; to G minor/Eb major in mvt. 20 and Eb major in mvt. 21. But it does not make much sense to have the transverse flutes playing in Eb major, a key rarely used by this instrument:
1st version (2/11/1725) 2nd version (1730s or 1740s?)
Key F major Eb major
Two recorders two transverse flutes
No dashes Dashes over repeated 8th notes
The bc bass line drops to a low c
Bass remains at higher
octave,does not touch Bb
Text:
There is a textual connection in word choice and rhyme between the text of the bass arioso "So heb ich denn mein Auge sehnlich auf" and the tenor accompagnato "O Schmerz! Hier zittert das gequälte Herz" of the SMP (BWV 244). It might seem that Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici) could have been the author, but this still needs further confirmation.
Conclusion:
It is uncertain whether Graun's Passiontide Cantata "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld" or even the pasticcio version (Altnickol's copy) were ever performed under Bach's direction. We can not be certain about Bitter's qualifications to render an opinion on what was in Bach's handwriting or not. However, it is still possible that Bach may have performed Graun's above-named cantata with a few unsubstantial changes during the last years of his (Bach's) life and that it was Altnickol who undertook the major changes (as contained in his score copy) around 1755 for a performance in Naumburg. This might mean that the 3 mvts. under scrutiny here (mvts. 19, 20, 39) were added for this occasion from other sources at his disposal. He may have lifted these mvts. from a lost Passion by his father-in-law, J. S. Bach. If this were the case, then such a 'final' Passion by Bach would have been 'composed' after 1733. It is clear that the chorale mvt. 19 in Altnickol's version was not copied directly from Bach's autograph score of BWV 127/1. It is therefore more likely that mvts. 19 and 20 came from such a late Passion. This would make it much more likely that BWV 1088 (mvt. 20) was a genuine composition by Bach. The composer of the motet "Tristis est anima mea" can not yet be determined with any degree of certainty. Kuhnau's authorship still remains in question. Nor can it be determined what the reason for the adaptation of the choral mvt. "Der Gerechte kommt um" from the motet "Tristis est anima mea" might have been. The use of the obbligato instruments in mvt. 39 parallels the use of instruments in the choral mvts. O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht" BWV 118. This might make it more likely that Bach himself was the arranger and not one of his students. If this is the case, then this arrangement could be included in the list of similar arrangements by Bach of works by Johann Kaspar Kerll, Antonio Caldara and others.
The complete version of the Passiontide cantata, "Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt" (Pasticcio) appeared in print in 1997 as volume 1 of the edition called "Denkmäler Mitteldeutscher Barockmusik" Series II, Composers of the 17th and 18th Centuries in Central Germany. This was based entirely on Altnickol's score. The editors were Andreas Glöckner and Peter Wöllny.
The recitative (BWV 1088) has no definite instruments assigned to the parts. Possibly two violoncellos, or two violas da gamba or two bassoons could be used as obbligato instruments. Since a solo bassoon is used later on for the tenor aria (mvt. 32 of the pasticcio), it seems reasonable to assume that they might have been employed here as well.
Passions-Pasticcio BWV 1088 - Recordings
Aryeh Oron wrote (November 8, 2004):
Following the recent discussion of the Arioso from the Passion-Pasticcio BWV 1088, I have added a page for this work: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV1088.htm
So far I have found only one recording of the Arioso that J.S. Bach composed.
a. Are there any more recordings of the Arioso?
b. Are there any complete recordings of the Passion-Pasticcio (with the music of C.H. Graun, G.P. Telemann, J. Kuhnau, J.C. Altnikol, and J.S. Bach)?
Arie Goud wrote (November 8, 2004):
[To Aryeh Oron]
Complete recording:
PASSIONS-PASTICCIO: "Wer ist der,so von Edom kommt"
M Lins; R Popken; M Brutscher; H G Wimmer,
Rheinische Kantorei und Das kleine Konzert olv Hermann Max
Label Capriccio.
David Glenn Lebut Jr. wrote (November 9, 2004):
[To Arie Goud] Unfortunately, the only copy being sold of this recording (on jpc.com) is no longer available, and the recording itself is out of print.
John Pike wrote (November 9, 2004):
[To David Glenn Lebut Jr.] I ordered a recording at: http://www.achat-cd.com/artist/Bach+_+Telemann+_+Graun/0
Arioso aus einem Passions-Pasticcio BWV 1088
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Last update: ýNovember 27, 2004 ý09:26:10
