At 11:52 PM -0400 9/3/07, Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
I've read Andrew Parrott's book, and from the way I understand it, there should be hundreds of parts floating around in libraries, but that's just not the case!
OK, I'm negative on this whole concept. (This should surprise anyone?!) But even attempting to be objective, this kind of argument strikes me as nothing but a straw man.
WHY and HOW should there "be hundreds of parts floating around in libraries"? None of Bach's vocal/choral works were published in his lifetime. They were written for immediate use (like "next Sunday"!) at a breakneck pace in his first 3 years in Leipzig. They were probably recycled on a regular basis over the years he spent there. Yes, he probably traded music with other Kantors from time to time, but nobody seems to think that was a major part of his practice. In the case of the Johannespassion there were, if I remember correctly, 3 different sets of parts, all of them (or maybe all but one) incomplete. Changes were inserted in those parts by being sewn into the existing parts. NOBODY MADE MORE COPIES OR MADE MORE WORK FOR THEMSELVES THAN THEY ABSOLUTELY HAD TO! In this, Bach's musical world was much like the 20th century commercial musical world, where arrangements written for the recording studio typically exist in a single set of parts, were never intended for publication and were never published, and are subject to the same laws of entropy under which parts do get lost, damaged, and otherwise disappear.
SO WHY SHOULD THERE BE "HUNDREDS OF PARTS"?!! Heck, we know that Mozart performed his C minor Mass K427 in Salzburg in an attempt to reconcile with his father, with his new wife as one of the soprano soloists, but neither a complete score nor a complete set of parts survive. Unique works do disappear, and have throughout history.
I don't know how true it is, but I've heard John Eliot Gardiner even had some of the manuscript parts that survived examined for fingerprints or any signs of being used extensively, shockingly-- the parts show hardly any sign of use. If anyone knows more about this, could you post links please? I'd be most appreciative.
No, I haven't read anything about that, which doesn't mean it isn't true. Thirty years ago I was on the cutting edge of Bach research, but I haven't been there for years. But just try to put yourself in Bach's musical world. Yes, we know that he often tinkered with a composition when he went to repeat it, but I suspect that when he recycled cantatas (and passions and oratorios) every couple of years they would be passed out for a rather short time and then filed away again. If we picture him as taking 3 months to rehearse for a Fall Concert, that simply is the wrong picture. Remember that in his first 2 years at Leipzig he turned out a new cantata EVERY SINGLE WEEK! Those boys and those musicians could sightread, folks. No question about it!!
It wasn't until after his death that his sons looked through his manuscripts trying to find something they could make some money from, and what they decided on was the collection of chorale settings, not the large scale works. So, no incentive to take the time and trouble to make "hundreds of copies."
John -- John R. Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
