Var levde johann sebastian bach

Scheibe had described Bach's output as "altogether too much art" and had referred to the canons as outmoded follies "Thorheiten".

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In June he entered the Society for the Musical Sciences He presented to the Society the chorale "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her" completely worked out, and this was afterwards engraved in copper. In the autograph manuscript, it becomes the central variation, comparable to the role played by the central large-scale sixteenth Goldberg variation.

In June , Bach was admitted as the fourteenth member of the "Correspondierende Societät der musicalischen Wissenschaften" Corresponding Society for the Musical Sciences , a society devoted to musical scholarship founded in Leipzig in by Lorenz Christoph Mizler. The heavenly hosts soar up and down, their lovely song sounding out over the cradle of the Infant Christ, while the multitude of the redeemed "join the sweet song with joyful hearts.

It is also not clear which of the remaining two canons was prepared specially for Mizler's Society.

Lorenz Christoph Mizler , [3]. The running figures in the first variation can be found in Toccata No. The canon in the second variation is close in spirit to the Canons Mélodieux for two instruments of Georg Philipp Telemann. Butler has examined the surviving manuscripts in detail to determine the manner in which the Canonic Variations were composed and published. These [variations] are full of passionate vitality and poetical feeling.

In English translation this reads [1]. In BWV a, the variations occur in the modified order 1, 2, 5, 3, 4. The exuberant Canon with Inversions Variatio V builds up to a cumulative climax, but originally did not contain the passing reference to the BACH motif in its closing bars. Nuremberg, published by Balthasar Schmid. Bach also used the hymn melody in earlier chorale preludes , notably BWV Orgelbüchlein , , and , with accompanying motifs above and below the melodic line that were to recur in BWV There are also similarities with several of the Goldberg Variations, notably the third and thirteenth, with shared motifs, keyboard technique and general structure.

In the case of the earlier harpsichord work, however, the variations are written over a fixed bass line, while BWV is based on a melody. The brilliant scale passages not only represent the ascending and descending angels, but sound joyous peals from many belfries ringing in the Saviour's birth. Various stylistic elements in the Canonic Variations recall the compositions of Bach's predecessors and contemporaries.

The Canonic Variations are based on the Christmas Hymn " Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her ", for which text and melody, both by Martin Luther , were published in [5]. Only in , after a year had elapsed, was Variatio IV engraved. In this later version Bach modified the order of the variations, moving the fifth variation into a central position, and wrote out all the parts in full, with some minor revisions to the score.

Combining complex counterpoint with the spiritual associations of Advent and Christmas, Bach's harmony and keyboard technique produce a musical style "at times strangely new, at others very approachable" yet "elusive enough to prompt admirers to search outside music for suitable expressive metaphor. To mark his admission he not only presented a version of the Canonic Variations, but also a portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in which Bach holds a copy of his canon triplex a 6 voci BWV towards the viewer.

A similar process was determined by Breig The only sources were Balthasar Schmid's engraving and Bach's autograph manuscript, a much larger collection referred to as P In addition there were further manuscripts of Bach, used for rough working and sketches, which have not survived. As Breig speculates, it might have been that the first three variations initially comprised some form of presentation; one suitable festive occasion, appropriate for such a performance, would have been the baptism of Bach's grandson Johann August, celebrated in early December The engraved version was also probably devised to minimize page turns and economize on space, so the combination of these factors speaks against any particular significance in the order of the movements.

The variations were prepared as a showpiece for Bach's entry as fourteenth member of Mizler's Music Society in Leipzig in The original printed edition of , in which only one line of the canon was marked in the first three variations, was published by Balthasar Schmid in Nuremberg. The Canonic Variations seem to have been composed, not necessarily in their final form, in or at least for the New Year's Fair of In the engraved version the first three variations, written in annotated form, could not be performed directly from the copy, since only one part of the canon was provided, the other having to be worked out "with the pen at home".

During this period Bach had been criticized vociferously by the Danish composer Johann Adolph Scheibe for producing music that was too old-fashioned, abstract and artificial. The elaborate ornamentation of the fourth variation uses many devices from his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach 's treatise on keyboard technique , ; the final pedal point harks back to those of the chorale preludes of Dieterich Buxtehude , for example in his setting of "Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verdebt", BuxWV The walking pedal-bass beneath the canon at the beginning of the fifth variation is similar to Georg Friedrich Kaufmann 's setting of "Vom Himmel hoch" in his Harmonische Seelenlust c.

This variation in three separate sections was engraved after variations 1—3; it might have been intended to be placed between the 2nd and 3rd variations; and with four variations now at Bach's disposal, that marked a new stage in Bach's development, with the flourish in Variatio V starting to gain a sense of finality.

The Life and Legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach

Nürnberg in Verlegung Balth: Schmids. The galant figures of the free line in the third variation are similar to those promoted by Joachim Quantz in his treatise on flute playing. For variations 1—3, the annotation of canons involved suppressing the second canonic entry, so that the scoring becomes a puzzle, sometimes referred to as an "enigma" or a "riddle". The work has an element of solemn thankfulness, like the gaze of an old man who watches his grandchildren standing round their Christmas tree, and is reminded of his own childhood.

However, despite the logic of the canon that underlies the Canonic Variations, Bach succeeded in producing a work which, far from being abstract and severe, was imbued with an affect of "beauty" and "naturalness", quite modern for its time and in keeping with the spirit of galante music.