Transcript CHAPTER 1 Music in Ancient Greece

CHAPTER 40
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Vocal Music in Leipzig
Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723 where he remained until his
death in 1750. There he assumed the position of cantor
(director of church music) at St. Thomas Church. Among his
duties, those of organist, music teacher, and musical director
in four churches in the city.
• In Leipzig, Bach set about composing a cycle of
cantatas for the entire church year. In a few years
he composed five such cycles, nearly 300 cantatas
in total (only two hundred survive today).
• A cantata was the musical highpoint of the Sunday
Mass. Following the reading of the Gospel, the
cantata served as a musical elaboration upon the
scriptural theme.
The typical structure of choral melodies is AAB. In the case of the
choral Wachtet auf, the musical structure consists of seven phrases
unfolding in a pattern AAB, specifically A (1,2,3), A (1,2,3), B
(4,5,6,7).
Choral cantata: a sacred vocal genre that employs the text and
melody of a preexisting Lutheran choral in all or several of its
movements. In Bach’s choral cantata Wachtet auf, ruft uns die
Stimme (BWV 140), the choral tune appears in the first, fourth and
seventh movement.
• Violino Piccolo: a small violin usually tuned a
minor third higher than the normal violin.
• Accompanied recitative: unlike simple recitative,
a piece for voice and continuo accompaniment,
accompanied recitative includes obbligato
accompaniement parts for the orchestra.
• Colla parte: literally “with the part,” a technique in
which all instrumental parts double the vocal lines.
• Passion: a musical depiction of Christ’s crucefixion
as recorded in the Gospels, traditionally performed
on Good Friday. Bach composed five passions, but
only two survive: the St. John Passion and the St.
Matthew Passion.
• Collegium musicum: an association of musicians,
usually university students, gathered to play the
latest music. Bach assumed the directorship of the
Leipzig Collegium Musicum in 1729, and with it he
had the opportunity to compose and perform
orchestral music.
• Goldberg Variations: Bach’s virtuosic set of thirty
variations for keyboard, based on simple air that
precedes and follows them.
• Musical Offering: Bach’s collection of one trio sonata,
two fugues, and ten puzzle canons, based on a melody
composed by King Frederick the Great of Prussia.
• The Art of Fugue: Bach’s collection of fuges and
canons, all derived from the same subject (Bach’s own)
and all apparently intended for keyboard.
• B-Minor Mass: Bach’s last composition, a complete
setting of the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass. While Bach
had composed the Kyrie and the Gloria years earlier, in
1748 Bach composed the Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus dei,
in part borrowing from earlier compositions of his.