Bach's Cello Suites, Volumes 1 and 2: Analyses and Explorations

BACH’S

CELLO SUITES

BACH’S

CELLO SUITES

Analyses and Explorations

Volume I: Text

ALLEN WINOLD

Indiana

University

Press

BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS

This book is a publication of

Indiana University Press

601 North Morton Street

Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA

http://iupress.indiana.edu

Telephone orders 800-842-6796

Fax orders 812-855-7931

Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu

© 2007 by Allen Winold

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Winold, Allen.

Bach’s cello suites : analyses and explorations, volume i : text / Allen Winold.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.

ISBN 978-0-253-21885-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685–1750. Suites, violoncello, BWV 1007–1012.

2. Suites (Violoncello)—Analysis, appreciation. I. Title.

MT145.B14W57 2007

787.4′1858092—dc22

2007000628

1   2   3   4   5   12   11   10   09   08   07

To Helga with love, and with deep gratitude

for her insight and inspiration

Contents

Preface

1. Historical Background

2. The Preludes

3. The Allemandes

4. The Courantes

5. The Sarabandes

6. The Optional Movements

7. The Gigues

8. Summary and Conclusions

Appendix: Analytical Designations

Detailed Table of Contents for Volume I: Text

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Preface

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello have inspired listeners and performers for almost 300 years, and yet there has been no full-length analytical study devoted exclusively to these magnificent works. My first goal in writing this book was to fill this gap by presenting analyses of all the movements of the suites; my second goal was to involve readers actively in the explorations of these works.

I wrote the book for three groups of readers with varied but related interests. I wrote it for cellists and other performing musicians, not to insist that they follow my ideas on how to interpret, perform, and teach these works, but rather to show them how concepts from music analysis could help them form their own ideas on interpreting, performing, and teaching these works. I wrote it for music teachers and for advanced students, not to challenge them with new theories, but to help them explore ways in which traditional analytical techniques and ideas could be made more accessible and meaningful. I wrote it for interested and informed general readers and music listeners, not to give them a superficial survey of the Cello Suites, but to introduce them to the excitement that can come from delving deeply into the study of these works.

To meet these goals and serve these readers, I use analytical techniques from a variety of sources, and I adapt and simplify some of the concepts and techniques to make them easier to understand and apply. All analyses include a set of basic techniques—formal analysis, harmonic reduction, functional harmonic analysis, linear analysis, and melodic analysis. Other specialized analytical techniques are introduced in the analyses of individual movements. The basic analytical concepts used throughout the book are presented in the first two sections of chapters 2 and 3 in conjunction with the study of the Preludes and Allemandes of the First and Second Suites. Readers who wish to focus only on the movements of a single suite should read these sections before reading the discussions of the movements of that particular suite.

The organization of the study reflects an emphasis on active involvement on the part of the reader. Chapter 1 engages readers in an exploration of the historical background of the Cello Suites and presents basic ideas that shape the analytical studies which follow. Chapters 2 through 7 invite readers to explore the individual movements of the suites at the same time they are learning various analytical concepts and techniques. These chapters are organized by movement types rather than by individual suites, to facilitate recognition of common characteristics in each movement type. Chapter 2 discusses the Preludes and introduces basic harmonic and melodic concepts. Chapter 3 discusses the Allemandes and emphasizes concepts of form. Chapter 4 discusses the Courantes and emphasizes detailed investigations of rhythm and melody. Chapter 5 discusses the Sarabandes and introduces some more advanced or speculative ideas. Chapter 6 discusses the optional dances (Minuets, Bourrées, and Gavottes) and explores the relation between music and dance. Chapter 7 discusses the Gigues; and introduces the technique of recomposition. Chapter 8 considers the relations between the movements of the individual suites, and addresses questions of performance practice, textual revision, meaning and emotion in music, and the application of analysis to perception, performance, and pedagogy. A detailed table of contents at the end of volume 1 enables readers to find discussions of specific movements and explanations of specific analytical concepts.

To foster active involvement, the book is presented in two volumes—the first containing the text, the second containing the music examples and analyses. This produces a more readable format for the examples, makes it easier for readers to go back and forth easily between text and music, and facilitates the playing of the examples on cello, piano, or other instruments. The music examples include the complete cello part of all movements of the suites, so that it is not necessary to have a separate copy of the music for the suites while reading the book. Both volumes end with an appendix that presents a summary of analytical designations, symbols, and abbreviations.

I hope that readers, especially theorists, musicologists, and music educators, will play the examples in the second volume, and not just focus on the analytical discussions in the first volume. I hope that readers, especially performers and students, will study the analytical concepts in the first volume, and not just focus on the music examples in the second volume. In this way all readers may experience the fruitful interaction between the analysis of music, with its emphasis on thoughtful exploration of possibilities, and the practice of music, with its emphasis on active realization of these possibilities.

I acknowledge my indebtedness to my colleagues at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and to other scholars and writers from Bach’s own time to the present, whose insights have helped me to understand and value the Cello Suites. I acknowledge my appreciation to Janos Starker, Helga Winold, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Emilio Colon from the cello department at the Jacobs School of Music and to the many generations of cellists whose performances of these works have brought them to the world in such a rich variety of styles and interpretations. I especially want to acknowledge the skill, support, patience, and encouragement of Michele Bird, Dawn Ollila, Jane Quinet, Pam Rude, and Donna Wilson of Indiana University Press, and copyeditor Eric Schramm.

Finally I acknowledge my gratitude to my teachers who helped me find the knowledge to answer my questions, and to my students who helped me find the courage to question my answers.

BACH’S

CELLO SUITES

1. Historical Background

History is philosophy teaching by examples.

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbrooke

When, in 1735, Viscount Bolingbrooke wrote this perceptive definition of history, he was probably referring to significant social or political events as the examples that bring philosophical insight. There is no reason, however, why the composition and performance of works such as J. S. Bach’s Cello Suites, written roughly a decade earlier, could not serve equally well. In this spirit I present some of the historical events related to the Cello Suites, not as mere facts, but as examples that may provide insight into the composition, analysis, and performance of these works.

1.1.0. Early Biographical Documents: The Genealogy and the Obituary

In the same year in which Bolingbroke wrote this definition of history, Bach wrote a genealogy entitled The Origin of the Musical Bach Family; in 1774 his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and others added supplemental materials. This genealogy lists fifty-three members of the Bach family, from Veit Bach, a Hungarian baker who played the cittern, to Johann Heinrich Bach, a good clavier player. The members of the Bach family were well established as musicians in Thuringia and other parts of Germany; indeed, the name Bach was virtually synonymous with the word musician. Here is Bach’s own listing of the positions he held up until 1735:

Court Musician, in Weimar, to Duke Johann Ernst, Anno 1703;

Organist in the New Church at Arnstadt, 1703;

Organist in the Church of St. Blasius in Mühlhausen, Anno 1707;

Chamber and Court Organist in Weimar, Anno 1708;

Concertmaster as well, at the same Court, Anno 1714;

Capellmeister and Director of the Chamber Music at the Court of the Serene Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen, Anno 1717;

Was called hence, Anno 1723, to become Music Director and Cantor at the St. Thomas School, in Leipzig; where, in accordance with God’s Holy Will, he still lives and at the same time holds the honorary position of Capellmeister of Weissenfels and Cöthen.¹

As a young boy, J. S. Bach benefited from association with his musically active siblings and with apprentices who came to live and study in the house of his father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, a Court and Town Musician in Eisenach. When J. S. Bach himself became a father he actively supervised the music education of his children. Of Johann Sebastian’s twenty children, seven with Maria Barbara and thirteen with Anna Magdalena, only ten survived. The six sons—Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Gottfried Bernhard, Gottfried Heinrich, Johann Christoph Friedrich, and Johann Christian—all achieved varying degrees of success and fame as musicians.

In 1750 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Bach’s eldest son, and Johann Friedrich Agricola, one of his most successful students, wrote an obituary entitled The World-Famous Organist, Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer and Music Director in Leipzig, which lists his eight published works and summarizes his unpublished works in sixteen categories. It includes separate entries for Bach’s unaccompanied string works, which may indicate the importance of these works, even if the accuracy of the given titles leaves something to be desired.

(13) Six sonatas [sic] for the violin, without bass;

(14) Six of the same [sic] for the violoncello;²

At the conclusion of the obituary the authors present an assessment of Bach’s musical greatness. I quote four brief excerpts because they give us valuable suggestions for approaching Bach’s music as listeners, performers, and analysts:

If ever a composer showed polyphony in its greatest strength, it was certainly our late lamented Bach. If ever a musician employed the most hidden secrets of harmony with the most skilled artistry, it was certainly our Bach.

His melodies were strange, but always varied, rich in invention, and resembling those of no other composer. His serious temperament drew him by preference to music that was serious, elaborate, and profound; but he could also, when the occasion demanded, adjust himself, especially in playing, to a lighter and more humorous way of thought.

His hearing was so fine that he was able to detect the slightest error even in the largest ensembles.

In conducting he was very accurate, and of the tempo, which he generally took very lively, he was uncommonly sure.³

1.2.0. Bach in Cöthen (1717–1723)

Since the Cello Suites were completed during Bach’s tenure in Cöthen, it is appropriate to focus on this period in his life and to consider briefly his activities in the preceding period in Weimar (1708–1717). There are interesting similarities between the two periods. In both situations Bach enjoyed the admiration and friendship of an enlightened and supportive ruling aristocrat—Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar and Prince Leopold in Cöthen. At the same time, however, other persons at these two courts made Bach’s life more difficult. In Weimar Bach had problems with Duke Wilhelm Ernst, the elder of the jointly reigning brothers. In Cöthen, Bach had problems with two women—Prince Leopold’s mother, who took away a third of the funds available for Cöthen court, and Prince Leopold’s wife, who took away much of the prince’s time for music because of her own lack of interest in the art. An important difference in the two positions was that in Weimar, Bach served as composer and performer for both the court and the church, while in Cöthen, Bach’s duties were limited mostly to secular music for the court. Neither the Calvinist Church at the court nor the Lutheran Church in the town of Cöthen employed elaborate music in worship services.

Cöthen was the main town in the province of Anhalt-Cöthen, which in turn was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a loose configuration of principalities in what would later become the nations of Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and the northern part of Italy. Originally, Cöthen was known as the land between the four rivers, because it was bounded by the Milde, Elbe, Salle, and Fuhne rivers. In the seventeenth century it numbered about three thousand inhabitants. Today, Cöthen is a quiet town of approximately fifty thousand inhabitants, located forty miles north of Leipzig in the east central German province of Thüringen (Thuringia).

Cöthen had an illustrious history in the arts, especially at the time of Prince Ludwig in the first part of the seventeenth century. In 1617 Ludwig joined nine other sovereigns from Anhalt and Thuringia to establish the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (literally the Fruitful Society, but usually translated as the Beneficent Society), an organization based on principles of the societies of knights in medieval times and dedicated to the promotion of humanism and the use of the German language in literature. Ludwig had been led to these ideals by his experiences garnered on an educational trip to Italy he made as a young man.

After Ludwig’s death in 1650 artistic activity was largely neglected at Cöthen until the next century, when it was revived under the leadership of Prince Leopold. Like Ludwig before him, Leopold at age sixteen undertook a grand tour, an educational voyage through several countries of Europe; however, this time the young sovereign’s interest lay more in the realm of the arts, especially music. During the voyage he frequently rented a harpsichord and he was accompanied and tutored for part of the voyage by Johann David Heinichen, a noted composer and music theorist.

In terms of musical achievements, how should we characterize the seven-year period Bach spent in Cöthen? For those who consider Bach primarily as a composer of sacred choral music and as a church organist, the Cöthen period represents a way station on the road that led to the position of cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig, where he could finally work toward the realization of his dream of a well-appointed church music. For those who regard his keyboard and instrumental music as being of equal or greater significance, the Cöthen period represents one of the richest periods in his creative life, for it included not only the Cello Suites, but other instrumental works such as the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part 1, and the six Brandenburg Concertos.

The title of Capellmeister for a royal court was important to Bach, and he kept it even after he had left Cöthen for Leipzig. He also continued to write music for the Cöthen court. For Leopold’s funeral in 1729 Bach wrote music that consisted, in part, of arrangements of movements of the St. Matthew Passion. Despite the curtailment of his support of music at the court, resulting from the influence of his young wife, the prince continued to have the highest regard for his Capellmeister. When Bach finally asked him for permission to leave Cöthen to go to Leipzig, Leopold wrote a complimentary letter on his behalf, referring to him as the Respectable and Learned Johann Sebastian Bach and stating that We have at all times been well content with his discharge of his duties.⁴

Some historians have described the Cöthen years as one of the happiest periods of Bach’s life. Not only did he have a strong supporter in Prince Leopold, but he also had a superb group of instrumental musicians, and adequate time and facilities for rehearsal. For most of his tenure in Cöthen Bach had seventeen soloists (violins, viola, violoncello, gamba, and double bass) and six or more ripienists or section players, who were wind and percussion players from the town. Among the best musicians in the soloist group were six former members of the Prussian court orchestra, who came to Cöthen after Friedrich Wilhelm I, the Soldier King, dismissed most of the members of this splendid ensemble. Of special interest for the history of the Cello Suites are the cellist Carl Bernhard Lienicke and the gambist Christian Ferdinand Abel. Lienicke, a former member of the Prussian ensemble, came to Cöthen in 1716; Abel came at about the same time. Either of these two musicians may have been associated with the creation and performance of the Cello Suites, but there is neither reliable documentary evidence nor extensive anecdotal speculation to support this assertion.

Other historians regard the death of Bach’s first wife as evidence that the Cöthen years were far from happy. Returning from a journey to Carlsbad in 1720 with Prince Leopold, Bach learned of the unexpected death of his beloved wife, Maria Barbara. Less than two years later he found a new wife, Anna Magdalena Wülcken, daughter of the court trumpeter of Saxe-Weissenfels, who provided comfort for the widower and care for his children. She also assumed an important position as soprano and copyist in the Cöthen court with a monthly salary of twenty-six thaler that was second only to the salary of her husband as Capellmeister. Anna Magdalena is of special importance to this study for her role as copyist for the Cello Suites.

Bach’s tenure at Cöthen began in 1717, a year that lies halfway between his birth in 1685 and his death in 1750. It is not possible to survey his entire life in detail in the present study; however, it may be instructive to examine one significant event in his later life. In 1747 Bach became a member of the Society for Musical Science, which had been established in 1738 by one of his former students, Lorenz Christopher Mizler. The purpose of the society was to disseminate information on new compositions and new ideas about the theory and practice of music.

Refer to volume 2, Example 1.2.1.

Bach presented the society with a copy of his Triple Canon, BWV 1076, shown in Example 1.2.1a. At about the same time, Elias Gottlob Haussmann painted a portrait of Bach. In his right hand Bach holds the Triple Canon. Example 1.2.1b shows how the three lines of the canon realized as a marvelously skillful and effective six-voice composition. The bottom line is the bass of the theme (Aria) of the Goldberg Variations (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988. I label the sixth, fourth, and second lines as Dux I, Dux II, and Dux III to indicate that each of these voices is the leader of one of the three canons. I label the fifth, third, and first lines as Comus I, Comus II, and Comus III to indicate that each of these voices is the follower or imitating voice. Each Comus voice represents an inversion of the respective Dux voice—Comus I imitates Dux I at the fourth below; Comus II imitates Dux II at fifth above; Comus III imitates Dux III at the fourth above. If some of these terms are unfamiliar to readers, they should return to this example after studying chapter 2.⁵ For now, if possible, the best thing would be to enjoy performing this canon with six voices, with six instrumentalists, or with three players at a keyboard. When the performers reach bars 3 and 4 they should repeat these as often as wished, ending eventually on the first note of bar 3.

Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach by Elias Gottlob Haussmann

I present this event from Bach’s later life as evidence of his long-standing interest in approaching music as an intellectual activity as well as an artistic activity. At the time he joined the Society for Musical Science he was deeply involved in explorations of the possibilities of melody, harmony, and counterpoint in such works as The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Late works such as these were recognized in Bach’s time and by present-day writers as demonstrating a level of musical invention and musical intelligence equal to or, indeed, surpassing that of any theoretical treatise. These same qualities may be found in compositions from the Cöthen period such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Brandenburg Concertos, the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, and the Cello Suites.

1.3.0. Bach’s Ideas on Composing, Performing, and Teaching

Unlike Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Stravinsky, or other composers who put at least some of their ideas about music into written form, Bach left only a sparse record of his own thoughts on music. Most of the preserved documents in Bach’s own words were dedications, petitions to his employers or possible benefactors, specifications for organ construction, or other items that contain little information on what he thought about composing, performing, and teaching. Exceptions to this general rule may be found in some title pages of scores Bach prepared for presentation or engraving. For the title page of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part 1, BWV 846–869, he wrote:

Preludes and fugues through all the tones and semitones, both as regards the tertia major or Ut Re Mi and as concerns the tertia minor or Re Mi Fa. For the use and profit of the musical youth desirous of learning as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.⁶

For the title page of his Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772–801, Bach wrote:

Upright Instruction, wherein the lovers of the clavier, and especially those desirous of learning, are shown a clear way not alone (1) to learn to play clearly in two, but also after further progress to deal correctly and well with three obbligato parts; furthermore, at the same time not alone to have good inventions [ideas] but to develop the same well and, above all, to arrive at a singing style in playing and at the same to acquire a strong foretaste of composition.⁷

For the title page of the Clavier-Übung, Part 1, BWV 825, he wrote:

Keyboard Practice, consisting of preludes, allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, gigues, minuets, and other galanteries, composed for music lovers, to refresh their spirits.⁸

The texts of these title pages remind us that Bach often had pedagogical purposes in mind when he composed. He had over seventy private students in addition to the scores of young people he taught and conducted at St. Thomas. The title pages also remind us that Bach wrote music not just for purely musical reasons. Bach’s sons and colleagues agreed that he was generally of a serious disposition; writings like these, however, as well as anecdotes from his life and some