Wave Maker: Aria Ready?

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Thursday, June 09, 2005

Aria Ready?

Stories like these (few and far between) are why I read the newspaper:

Michael Maul, a researcher at the Bach Archiv foundation discovered previously unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach while sorting through a crate of 18th-century birthday cards removed from the Duchess Anna Amalia library in the eastern city of Weimar shortly before ithe library was devastated by fire. He said the two pages were among several hundred poems and greetings written by officials and clerics to honor the 52d birthday of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxony-Weimar, whom Bach served as a court organist.

The composition, dated October 1713, is "an exquisite and highly refined strophic aria, Bach's only contribution to a musical genre popular in late 17th-century Germany," said Christoph Wolff, the foundation's director and a professor at Harvard University.

Specialists say the aria for soprano and string or keyboard accompaniment is the first new music from the composer to surface in three decades.

How extraordinary for Mr. Maul, while rummaging through box after box of musty old birthday cards, the drudgery of his profession before him, to come upon this extraordinary discovery!!

The period during which this music was written appears to have been a significant one in Bach's professional development:

Wilhelm Ernst (1662-1728) was a Lutheran ruler and a sponsor of the court music. He hired Bach as organist and member of the orchestra, and encourgaged Johann Sebastian to exploit his unique talents for the organ. Bach was also on friendly terms with Ernst August (1688-1748) and his younger half-brother Johann Ernst Jr. (1696-1715). In the long run, Johann Sebastian ran into some trouble with this double loyalty, because there were lots of tensions, intrigues, and even open hostilities between the courts of the two dukes, Wilhelm Ernst and Ernst August. Especially, Johann Ernst Jr., who died when he was only 19 years old, was musically gifted. He took composition lessons from Bach's friend and relative in Weimar Johann Gottfried Walther. Johann Ernst also had the the good idea to make a trip to Amsterdam, to return in 1713 with a rich collection of Italian music. Johann Sebastian Bach made various organ transcription of the Italian material, and particularly Vivaldi's 1712 collection of concertos, L'Estro armonico had a profound influence on Bach's style of composition. This was in fact a decisive moment in Bach's development: from now on he combined his earlier counterpoint style, with its northern German and French influences, with Vivaldi-like harmonic planning and thematic development.

Posted by: Wave Maker / 4:45 PM/ |