Not by Bach:Things I Learned on My Way to an Audition
by Steve Robinson
It will not come as a revelation to music historians that three of the most common pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach encountered by beginning piano and organ students are not by Bach at all. I learned this first hand. As a total beginner to keyboard instruments, it was my desire to find pieces by Bach that were within my grasp for a local AGO scholarship audition. I found three pieces in the wonderful Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach, but learned that none of them was actually written by Johann Sebastian, despite the fact that many modern editions still attribute them to the legendary composer. Because I am so new to the organ, it was my desire to learn as much as possible about the pieces I had chosen for my scholarship audition. The information I uncovered is by no means news to Bach scholars, but it appears to be largely unknown to the general music community and particularly many music publishers. What I learned on my way to the audition helped me to prepare informed, albeit beginner-level, performances of these pieces for the AGO judges for the scholarship.
Gifts for a Teacher, Not a Student
The famous clavier books given to Anna Magdalena Bach by her husband provide a rich glimpse into the musical life of the Bach family during the Leipzig period. The manuscripts survive in very poor condition, and only thirty percent of the sheets from the albums remain. The two books date from 1722 and 1725. Anna Magdalena was a professional musician and considerably younger than Johann Sebastian. For much of Bach's career as a composer, Anna Magdalena often served as a copyist. Soon after the family moved into their new apartment on the grounds of St. Thomas School in Leipzig, Bach presented the books to his young wife as gifts. While the purpose of the books may have been to help Anna Magdalena practice and improve her playing, many of the pieces in the books suggest that she already possessed considerable keyboard skills. In fact, some evidence exists that the notebooks were used in her instruction of the younger Bach children. Pieces appear in the hand of Johann Sebastian and the hand of Anna Magdalena, who recorded most melodies in her familiar soprano clef. In some instances, pieces are copied in the hand of the many musical children in the home. The short pieces include examples of "galantrie" such as minuets, polonaises, and marches. Additions were made to the notebook well into the 1740s.
Doting and Musical Parents
The first piece I encountered is an aria in d minor that appears as number 20a in the Notebooks. I imagine that I am not alone, for it appears as the first two-manual composition in Gleason's Method of Organ Playing. While many modern editions (including Gleason) attribute this piece to Johann Sebastian, the real story behind the aria's likely composer is interesting and touching.The contemplative aria, entitled "So oft ich meine Tabakspfeife" (BWV 515), has not been positively attributed to any single composer. It has been suggested by Bach scholars--most recently Christoph Wolff--that the song is the work of Anna Magdalena's first son, Gottfried Heinrich (1724-1763), who showed promise on keyboard instruments as a young child. The Bach family genealogy Johann Sebastian began to compile in the 1730s informs us that Gottfried Heinrich was "inclined toward music, particularly clavier-playing." Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach called him "a great genius who didn't fully develop." It is now thought that the boy was developmentally disabled or perhaps autistic. He was the only one of the Bach children not to attend St. Thomas School, and when Bach died in 1750, an adult guardian was appointed to him by the estate. According to Woolf, Gottfried Heinrich's "parents evidently tried to further his unquestionable musical talents." BWV 515 provides possible evidence for this assertion. The composition was entered into the notebook in "an anonymous, youthful hand" hand somewhere around 1735, making Gottfried Heinrich the best possible candidate for its composition.
BWV 515
A close reading of the actual manuscript suggests that Gottfried Heinrich's loving parents spent hours with him at the keyboard working on this little piece. An improved version of the composition (BWV 515b) exists on the same leaf. Transposed from d minor to g minor, the melody of the improved version appears in the hand of Anna Magdalena in soprano clef, while the new and much improved bass is unmistakably the work of her husband, Johann Sebastian. A sheet with additional lyrics was added later. The text is a thoughtful and solemn ode to pipe smoking; the narrator makes an allegorical connection between mortality and the use of tobacco that seems ironic from a twenty-first century perspective.
Dances from Dresden
Another famous mis-attribution from the Notebooks has a particularly interesting history for organists. What beginning piano student has not played the famous minuets in G Major and g minor (BWV Anh. 114 & 115), supposedly by Johann Sebastian? Clearly composed as a pair, these dances are copied in Anna Magdalena's hand. The first piece contains what is arguably the most famous melody from the notebooks. Yet these famous Bach pieces, which appear in nearly every edition of Bach piano compositions for early grades, are definitively not the work of Johann Sebastian. These pieces have been attributed to Christian Petzold (1677-1733). Hans-Joachim Schulze discovered that Petzold's minuets were actually "part of a Suite de Clavecin in G and were intended to be performed... in alternation." A contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Petzold held two very desirable organ positions in Dresden: he was the organist at St. Sophia's Church, as well as the Dresden court organist. Petzold was also a partner in Bach's publishing business and a likely visitor to the Bach home. It is possible that Petzold recorded these works in a guest book kept by the Bach family. The simple melodies could have been used for a variety of purposes in the Bach home, including dancing, instruction of pupils, or pure enjoyment. It is interesting to note that, after his death in 1733, Petzold was succeeded in his organist position at the Dresden court by Bach's son Wilhelm Friedmann (the recipient of another of Bach's famous clavier books). Johann Sebastian was, of course, instrumental in securing this position for his son.
What first attracted me to these pieces was the fact that they were accessible compositions by the master of Baroque organ, a fact that turned out to be untrue. But I was not disappointed when I learned the real history behind this music. Rather, the complicated and fascinating story behind this musical family album has sparked even greater interest in me for clavier music of the eighteenth century. Indeed, I learned some very interesting cultural and musical context on the way to my AGO audition. For authoritative texts of the music contained in both Notebooks, I highly recommend the Urtext edition by Bärenreiter (BA 5164). A facsimile edition of the actual manuscripts is also available from the same publisher. Recordings on period instruments are also a valuable resource. A double CD of highly authentic and sensitive performances of music from both Notebooks was made by Igor Kipnis in the early 1980s (Nonesuch 79020). Finally, an incomparable portrait of musical life in the Bach's Leipzig home may be found in Christoph Wolff's "A Singing Bird and Carnations for the Lady of the House," chapter 11 of his one-volume biography Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician.
ENDNOTES
- Wolff, Christoph. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (JSB). New York: Norton, 2000. p. 398.
- Marshall, Robert L. The Anna Magdalena Notebook (AMN). Igor Kipnis, harpsichord/clavichord; Judith Blezen, soprano; Benjamin Luxon, baritone; Catharina Meints, viol de gamba. Nonesuch 79020-02.
- von Dadelsen, Georg. Klävierbuchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725 (KAM). Urtext of the New Bach Edition. Basel: Bärenreiter 5164. p. 3.
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