Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
Students in Germany in the 18th century, as part of their education in the ‘liberal arts’, were encouraged to join with their professors in the imaginative expression of ideas, which a rhetorical tradition turned into characters speaking, debating each other, even singing. University ceremonies turned into a kind of entertainment, where ritual could be dramatic, and elaborate resources were brought into play: dressing up, processions, music. This is the setting of Bach’s ‘Dramma per musica’ United discord of changing strings or Discord of strings and ideas reconciled, forming part of the ceremony surrounding the inaugural lecture at Leipzig University, on December 11, 1726, of the new professor of Roman Law, Dr. Gottlieb Korte. Korte had to give his lecture from memory, having left his manuscript at home! The final chorus of Bach’s composition for the occasion contains the words ‘Long live Korte! good health to Korte!’. The structure of this chorus, with instrumental interludes, and its rhythm, suggest it was a processional, during which the students marched (briskly) around the hall. Vocal and instrumental groups may have been spatially separated, and in the opening line of the ‘Cantata’, the ambiguity of the word ‘Saiten’= ‘strings’, and ‘Seiten’= ‘sides’ may have been suggestive to Bach. A later line in the same chorus, referring to ‘redoubled volume’, may have been illustrated by the music echoing around the hall.
A ceremonial music drama, then, but not an opera. The characters represented by the solo singers are allegorical figures: Diligence (tenor), Honour (bass) Fortune (soprano) and Gratitude (alto). They utter praise and homilies directed at Korte and at the students – unpromising material for dramatic interaction. The format and the text for the ceremony (by an unknown author) were presumably decided on by the University authorities.
One of Bach’s very extensive responsibilities, as Kantor of St. Thomas Church and civic director of music, was to provide music for the University, for worship and other occasions. By 1726 he had also composed congratulatory cantatas for two Leipzig professors. The quasi-operatic form such pieces took was not unfamiliar to Bach. Though Leipzig did not have an opera house, operas had been played there in the Fair seasons up to 1720, with players and singers recruited from the students of St. Thomas. And church cantatas, including those of Bach, adopted the recitative and aria form derived from Italian opera, as did his Passions and oratorios, clearly influenced by dramatic forms. Leipzig was conservative, as witness the story of the old lady in church when Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was given, who exclaimed ‘God help us! ‘tis surely an Opera-comedy!’. Bach’s own attitude to the Italian opera can perhaps be found in his bending to his sons’ enthusiasm for the new fashions. In Leipzig, not far from Dresden and its Italian opera house, he would say to his eldest son, ‘Well, Friedemann, shall we go over to Dresden to hear the pretty tunes [lit. little songs]?’. Adopting some of the musical forms is as far as Bach goes here towards opera – there are no costumes, no actions, no ‘production’.
The opening chorus of Bach’s in effect celebrates music while handing the floor to the characters who will say their edifying words for the occasion, with music’s help. The text plays on a paradox: the discord you’d expect from differently vibrating strings is brought into a harmonious unity. Then comes the ‘crash of the rolling drums’, which were added by Bach when he revised an earlier piece, adapting it with words. Many will recognise here the second Allegro of Bach’s First ‘Brandenburg’ Concerto, composed before coming to Leipzig, in Cöthen. The horns have been replaced by trumpets and drums, the music transposed from F to D, flutes have been added, and of course voices, the words necessitating a slight change in the rhythm. Bach always worked under pressure of time, often borrowing from himself, but sometimes adapting his music in ways which must have required as much work as a new composition. This chorus shows that he was excited by the larger than usual orchestra available to him for the occasion (as the multiplied parts in the surviving performing material confirm). The reduced scoring in the middle sections of this opening number suggest that these were sung by the soloists, who then step forward in their allegorical roles.
Diligence, in a recitative with continuo, praises ambition and industry, calling on youth to take up the task with application, which will ensure peace of mind once old age is reached. Bach livens up the theme in the aria, his music suggesting that diligence can be lighthearted, with cross rhythms and runs suggesting the path isn’t straight. Honour’s recitative is joined by Fortune – Honour’s rewards will go only to those with ‘ever-stirring blood…ready for every labour’, Fortune’s gifts will be bestowed only where merit warrants. They then join in a duet with continuo – at least the lively music may have distracted the listening students from the non-stop earnestness of the text! The most intriguing thing here is the direct passage from the duet into a Ritornello for the orchestral forces heard in the opening chorus. This too comes from the First Brandenburg Concerto (the second trio of the fourth movement Minuet), with trumpets replacing horns – what part of the ceremonial took place to this music one can only guess.
Gratitude’s harping on the theme of jealousy may reveal that the appointment to the Chair of one so young as the 28-year old Korte caused grumbling among the other candidates. The imagery of the text, in the following aria, is a difficult challenge for a composer. Bach creates an ongoing texture of two flutes with the voice, and if the text is illustrated at all, it is in the constant punctuation by a dotted figure for violins and violas in unison, possibly to illustrate the solemn dignity of the memorial in marble. As the end of the cantata draws near, the characters focus on the new professor by his name, Korte. W.G. Whittaker in his study of Bach’s Cantatas is exasperated by the text: ‘Is it to be wondered at that Bach was soured by the attitude of the University authorities towards himself…when such ridiculous nonsense was lavished upon a young man and his own colossal genius unappreciated?’ Fortunately, Bach was able to respond in the best possible way, by the quality of his music. Perhaps some of the ‘drowsy ones’ amidst the student body really sat up and listened in the rousing final chorus, where on the tail of the phrases comes a little chuckle for the flutes, scarcely in keeping with the dignity of a Professor of Roman Law, but delightful when the ceremony is a concert, and all praise can go to Bach!
First published in a program booklet for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, 2005