Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Talle, Andrew James

Titel

J. S. Bach's keyboard partitas and their early audience

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Between 1726 and 1731 Johann Sebastian Bach published the first installment in his Clavier-Übung series, the six keyboard Partitas (BWV 825–830). Bach himself arranged for the engraving and sale of this collection, which he labeled his “Opus 1.” His having selected these works for such special treatment accords them a significance which is further magnified by abundant evidence that the Partitas were well received. The present study illuminates the composition, sale and reception of these works. In the first chapter I establish a context for the Partitas through an account of the growth of amateur music making between 1660 and 1760. Chapter two details the sale and distribution of Bach's Partitas. In chapter three I offer an account of the composition of the Partitas based in part on previously unknown early versions and musical borrowings. This is followed by a discussion of Bach's adaptation of his style for publication, addressing differences between these and his earlier collections of Suites. Chapters four and five provide biographies of those who can be connected with documented prints and manuscripts of the Partitas before 1775. Chapters six and seven detail and interpret the numerous literary and musical allusions to the Partitas made before 1775. In the final chapter I offer generalizations as to Bach's relationship with his audience. The principal findings of this study include the discovery of an early version of the Giga from the first Partita which sheds light on the genesis of that work, the identification of Bach's personal, corrected print of the Partitas and the identification of several previously anonymous owners of prints and manuscripts before 1775. A number of these, including Fructuosus Röder, Lorenz Sichart, Christoph Graupner jr. and Bernhard Christian Kayser, are of significance not only for their connections with the Partitas but also because they are figures of central importance in the transmission of Bach's keyboard music more generally. Christoph Graupner jr., son of Darmstadt's famous Kapellmeister, produced the only surviving copy of the early version of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue while B. C. Kaiser, previously known as Anonymous 5, produced the earliest surviving manuscripts of such canonic works as Bach's English Suites and the Well-Tempered Clavier part 1.