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CHAPTER 10

1. Compare and contrast the biographies and careers of Bach and Handel. What influences
did their career paths have on the types of works they composed?

Although they each belong to the class of 1685, and were born within 100 miles of one
another, Bach and Handel lived remarkably different lives, employed in remarkably different
careers. Handel was a true cosmopolitan, living and studying in Germany, Italy, and England,
absorbing the disparate national styles and learning to cater to audiences of all types. He would
eventually come to dominate the operatic world: a German-speaking composer producing a
string of Italian-language operas for a primarily English-speaking audience. Bach, by contrast,
never once left Germanic lands, confining himself mostly to the cities of Weimar, Cthen, and
Leipzig. His work, too, bears this stamp: robustly German in character, drawing heavily upon the
Lutheran chorale tradition.

2. Compare and contrast the reputations that Bach and Handel had among their
contemporaries and their reputations in modern times. What aspects of the music by the
class of 1685 still seem familiar or modern today?

Handel was, at the height of his powers, a character of international renown. He was courted by
one of the most affluent of the German nobles, the Elector of Hanover, and had his works
performed in the most prestigious theaters of England. To this day he enjoys considerable
popularity, especially among speakers of English, for his masterly oratorios. The trajectory of
Bachs career was quite different. Although the Bach family name commanded some prestige
(and was actually used as a synonym for musician in some quarters), Bach was considered by
many of his time to be something of a mediocrity: The position he eventually assumed in Leipzig
was originally offered to Telemann, who declined. Bachs reputation has, of course, risen since
then, and he is now often considered the greatest composer of instrumental music in the Baroque
period.

Between these two composers, much can be found which is seemingly modern. Both were
capable of varied, and even eclectic, styles, and seemed to exercise a disdain for national and
stylistic borders that we associate with an age far beyond their own. Bach practiced in a
harmonic idiom almost unthinkable in his time, and Handels theatrical sensibilities were very
similar to our ownno doubt in part because they have been so greatly shaped by him.

3. Using Bachs and Buxtehudes settings of Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt, discuss the
chorale prelude. How does Bach depict Adams fall into sin, and how is this related to
Baroque conventions of madrigalism?

The chorale prelude is a single-stanza setting, performed by a keyboardist and meant to prepare a
chorus to sing the chorale in question. As the first line of Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt
details the commission of Adam and Eves sin, it is fitting that both Bach and Buxtehude would
fashion their chorale preludes in a suitably despondent fashion. Bach even turns to a technique
similar to the madrigalisms previously discussed, putting drops of a dissonant seventh in the
prominent pedal part. The imitation of the word painting heard in earlier madrigals is clear,
even if the lack of a text in this prelude means that it is less than obvious.

4. Describe the contrapuntal procedure known as the fugue, including definitions of the
following terms: subject, answer, countersubject, episode, stretto.

The fugue (variously called a form, a texture, and a device) revolves around contrapuntal
imitation. It begins with the exposition of a subject, the first and most important theme. This is
followed by an answer, the restatement of the subject in another voice. As the answer is stated,
the voice which had originally sounded the subject begins performing the countersubject, a
subsidiary theme which is fixed around the subject. After a statement of the subject in every
voice (usually there are three or four), the fugue enters an episode, a period of music which
indulges in free counterpoint without statement of the theme. There are countless other devices
typically employed in the fugue, such as the strettoa gesture, typically made at a fugues close,
in which the subject and answer are stated in a shortened and stacked form by all voices, which
close in with a tightened frequency to bring the work to an end.

5. Describe the tempo and metrical characteristics of the following dances, as reflected in
Frobergers suites: (a) allemande, (b) courante, (c) sarabande, (d) gigue. In what ways was
Bach influenced by Frobergers suites? How do Bachs French-style works differ from
those of Couperin?

The allemande is a quick dance in 4/4; the courante a slow triple-meter dance, much like the
sarabande in this regard; and the gigue a fast dance usually in 6/8. Bach seems to have been
influenced by Froberger in his selection: He typically chooses from the core dances which had
been established as de jure in the dance suite by Frobeger before Bachs birth. The difference
between Bachs French-influenced works and the authentically French dances of Couperin lies in
their attitudes toward the galant spirit. For Bach, pleasant amusement was a trait of the broader
dance style, and yet not its raison detre. Couperin, by contrast, thoroughly indulges himself in
galanterie, going so far as to insist, in his scores, upon the strict use of frothy ornaments, and
even turning some of his dance works into miniature character pieces.

6. In what ways are Bachs Brandenburg Concertos a fusion of Italian, French, and
German elements?

The Italianate character of the Brandenburg Concertos can be heard in their operatic or madrigal-
like expressivity. In their imitation of dance styles, and their affinity for the harpsichord, it is
possible to hear the influence of the French; and their robust counterpoint, a by-product of the
chorale tradition, is a sign of Germanic influence.

7. Describe some examples of unusual instrumentation and uses of instruments in these


concertos. How might these unusual uses of instruments be interpreted? What do these
concertos suggest about the eighteenth-century relationships between the individual and
society, the soloist(s), and the ensemble?

In the Brandenburg Concertos, Bach employs several instruments which were nearly antiquated
even in his own time, such as the violino piccolo and the clarino trumpet. At other times, his
instrumentation calls for more conventional instruments in unusual usage, as is seen in the
decision to use a harpischord in the concertino of the Fifth. As this harpsichord part becomes
more and more prominent, eventually culminating in a cadenza of unusual length, a social
interpretation of the work as a whole begins to invite itself. The concerto is, as has been
previously discussed, easily heard as the conflict between individual and societal forces. But in
this concerto, the individual, if we are so to term the soloist, acts in a violently anti-social
fashion, dominating the work with a willfully bizarre interjection. Some have interpreted this as
Bachs own self-asserting statement of individuality, a minor revolt on his part against the social
mores of the seventeenth century.

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