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| Who is Johann Christian Bach? | ||
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1. Who is Johann Christian Bach? 2. J.C. Bach's works |
The years 1735-1750: in Leipzig, with his father J.S. Bach... and future premonition
of musical greatness (Link) The years 1750-1755: in Berlin, with his half-brother C.P.E. Bach... a passion for keyboard concertos, opera and female singers (Link) • The piano concertos and the female singers of Berlin opera (Link) • J.C. Bach's journey to Italy in mid-1755: from Hasse to Litta (Link) • C.P.E. Bach behind J.C. Bach's journey to Italy and padre Martini? (Link) The years 1755-1763: with padre Martini & working for Milan... sacred music and again the strong call for opera (Link) • J.C. Bach studies with padre Martini and wants to attain an ecclesiastical position (Link) • The dilemma: Church or Opera? The first opera of J.C. Bach. Hasse. (Link) • The Milan authorities enraged with J.C. Bach (Link) • The international success and the first London contract (Link) • J.C. Bach's correspondence with padre Martini (Link) The years 1763-1782: the London years (Link) • J.C. Bach's operas success. Bach remained without contracts both in Italy and in England (Link) • J.C. Bach music master to Queen Charlotte of England,... also thanks to C.P.E. Bach's intervention (Link) • Another friend from Germany: Abel, a pupil of his father J.S. Bach (Link) • With Abel, J.C. Bach established the legendary Bach-Abel Concerts in London. The first pianoforte in London played by J.C. Bach. The decline of Bach-Abel Concerts (Link) • J.C. Bach as opera composer (Link) • An enigmatic judgement by Abbé Vogler on J.C. Bach (Link) • J.C. Bach as opera composer: the third man in the insane Paris dispute Piccinni vs Gluck (Link) • J.C. Bach's marriage and death in poverty (Link) • J.C. Bach's last projects (1781) (Link) • J.C. Bach's death and resting place. The Laurence Sterne of music. (Link) J.C. Bach's music innovations, style and scores publishing difficulties (Link) • J.C. Bach, a point of reflection for Historical Informed musicians (Link) • The triumph of pianoforte: solo music and piano concertos (Link) • The triumph of bel canto: the instruments sing like opera singers (Link) • A sophisticated orchestration and towards the enlargement of the form (Link) • Operas, opera orchestration and form innovations (Link) • The difficulties with copyists and music publishers: the unfaithful notes (Link) J.C. Bach and Mozart I: London 1765 (Link) J.C. Bach and Mozart II: Paris 1778 (Link) A legislation landmark: J.C. Bach v Longman for Copyright infringement (1773-1777) (Link) Dedication to Queen Charlotte, patroness of the German composers, by the 8yo Mozart, who wants to become a new J.C. Bach (Link) J.C. Bach's selected discography (Link) J.C. Bach's Works (Link) ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ |
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The years 1735-1750: in Leipzig, with his father J.S. Bach... and future premonition of musical greatness The music education of J.C. Bach started soon. Beside his famous father, J.S. Bach, whom young J.C. Bach, at certain point, helped, as a secretary, due to J.S. Bach's poor health conditions (D. Heartz), he had another two music teachers from his own family: his cousin J. Elias Bach and Altnickol, the husband of Elisabeth Juliane Friederica, daughter of J.S. Bach. His favourite brother was Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, a chamber musician at Bückeburg, while his relationship with Friedemann and C.P.E Bach apparently was not particularly happy. It is a fact, that J.S. Bach, at his death, left three claviers to J.C. Bach (now 15yo), probably having well recognized the musical ability of his last and youngest son. Nonetheless, both Friedemann and C.P.E Bach did not appreciate the excessive gift left by their father to the too young J.C. Bach, a gift, that now, instead, appears like a future premonition of musical greatness. To understand the complicated dynamics of the Bachs family in those years, the death of J.S. Bach left his second wife (Anna Magdalena, the mother of J.C. Bach) in very serious difficult economic conditions. J.C.F. Bach and C.P.E. Bach tried, as they could, to sent as much money as possible, to support Anna Magdalena in Leipzig, who was to die in poverty in 1760. The years 1750-1755: in Berlin, with his half-brother C.P.E. Bach... a passion for keyboard concertos, opera and female singers After J.S. Bach's death, Friedmann and C.P.E. Bach decided, that J.C. Bach had to live with C.P.E. Bach in Berlin, while receiving further musical education in composition from his own half-brother C.P.E. The five years spent in Berlin were particularly profitable and intense. J.C. Bach started a music production already characterized by a peculiar personal style: • he wrote songs for the odes genre; • he wrote his important series of keyboard concertos, by developing the genre, that his half-brother C.P.E. Bach had already improved to a new level; • he was entirely conquered by the world of opera, by regularly attending the Berlin theatre, and enjoying, in particular, the works by C.H. Graun. The piano concertos and the female singers of Berlin opera The role of his brother C.P.E. Bach was, in any case, fundamental and decisively important, since C.P.E. revised and corrected all the piano concertos, written by J.C. in that period. But it was the opera, that, in the end, completely conquered the heart of J.C. Bach at such extent, to make J.C. decide for a drastic change in his life. According to his biographers, J.C. Bach befriended several female singers, working at the Berlin opera, and one of them convinced J.C. Bach to follow her in Italy. J.C. Bach's journey to Italy in mid-1755: from Hasse to Litta The details of J.C. Bach's journey to Italy are not very clear and are subject of scholarly dispute. In any case, thanks to recent studies, it's almost sure that J.C. Bach left Berlin in mid-1755 and not in 1754 (as erroneously annotated by C.P.E. Bach in 1780s), so that J.C. had the possibility of attending the successful performance of Graun's masterpiece Tod Jesu, conducted by his brother C.P.E. on 26th March 1755. There's also some speculation on, how J.C. Bach received sufficient money for such an expensive journey: probably it was an intervention of Hasse (he himself practically the patron of young Jommelli, too), that led the Dresden court to support J.C. Bach. It is a fact, that Hasse actively watched J.C. Bach's career in Italy. And probably the real aim of Bach was to reach Naples, the country of Jommelli, and where Hasse had studied, but, for some reason, he rather settled in Milan, with the old noble Litta family. C.P.E. Bach behind J.C. Bach's journey to Italy and padre Martini? Even though, many scholars considered the Italian journey of J.C. Bach, as a breaking point of J.C. with his own family and his conversion to the Catholicism a form of aversion to his Lutheran family, a close investigation of the network of social connections seems to reveal, that, in reality, after all, C.P.E. Bach might have had some role in this Italian arrangement for J.C. Bach. As a matter of fact, count Agostino Litta was a friend of prince P.F.P. Lobkowitz (patron of Gluck in Milan in 1740s) and Lobkowitz was a confidant of Frederick the Great and C.P.E. Bach in Berlin. Moreover, J.C. Bach immediately started his composition lessons with padre Martini in Bologna, when he reached Italy in mid-1755 (see on this the letter 10 January 1756). The years 1755-1763: with padre Martini & working for Milan... sacred music and again the strong call for opera J.C. Bach studies with padre Martini and wants to attain an ecclesiastical position If J.C. Bach, in January 1756, was already saluted, in Milan in Litta's palace, as an important pupil of the most famous padre Martini in Bologna (the Maestro dei Maestri), it is evident, that some previous arrangement must have been made, before J.C. Bach's departure from Berlin in mid-1755. Count Agostino Litta was extremely enthusiastic about J.C. Bach and supported J.C. Bach, in any occasion, always forming a rich budget for all J.C.'s necessities, from his lessons with padre Martini in Bologna to his subsequent journeys to the various Opera Theatres in Italy... and then in London. The relationship teacher/pupil with padre Martini was intense with works and exercises in composition, with padre Martini spending his time correcting all scores, that J.C. Bach used to send him regularly, while, from time to time, they met each other in Bologna for full lessons in presence. It is almost sure, that J.C. Bach decided to abandon the Protestantism of his family, under the impression of his studentship with padre Martini. Even more, J.C. contemplated for various years the idea of becoming mainly a composer specialized exclusively in Sacred Music (even by entering some Catholic order to attain an ecclesiastical position). As a matter of fact, practically almost all his Church compositions belong to this decade of his life, and they were regularly performed in Milan. But, as Daniel Heartz correctly pointed out, J.C. Bach never abandoned the Catholicism, even after 20 years spent living in England (and probably not the best one of choices if it was just a matter of opportunism). The dilemma: Church or Opera? The first opera of J.C. Bach. Hasse. After 5 years, studying with padre Martini, composing Sacred Music for Milan, and symphonic and chamber music for his patron Agostino Litta, in the end, J.C. Bach received an appointment in Milan: second cathedral organist in the Duomo of Milan. However, J.C. Bach's passion for theatre and opera was not entirely tamed: since 1756, J.C. had kept attending opera theatres across Italy and spent some time, meeting with female singers and dancers. Moreover, thanks to both padre Martini and his opera journeys, J.C. managed to make important acquaintances with the most famous composers and musicians of his time: Naumann, Anton Raff (who, in 1781, created the famous Idomeneo for Mozart), the most successful opera composer Piccinni, the almighty Bologna castrato Farinelli, the Neapolitan genius Francesco de Majo (literally adored by the Sturm und Drang, with the other Neapolitan Germany-based genius composer Jommelli), and the other master of the Sturm und Drang Traetta. In conclusion, in 1760 J.C. Bach received (in great part, thanks to Hasse himself) also the first commission for an opera and, on 26th December 1760, in Turin at Teatro Regio, his Artaserse premiered. The fact is, that Hasse from Dresden practically designated J.C. Bach to accept the commission of an opera, that had been offered to Hasse by the Turin Opera Theatre: Hasse, the Great Saxon, could not reach Italy from Germany, because of the extra-complicated situation caused by the War of the Seven Years! The Milan authorities enraged with J.C. Bach At this point, the perfect clash with the Milan authorities was ready. The rather obtuse mentality of the Milaneses had a clear expectation, that, once you have received a (even small) room to live in and some (even poor) money to live with, you do not have to complain and you must not ask to have anything more! It is a fact, that Jommelli, in sign of contempt for the well-known Milanese poor mentality, in those years, famously called all Milan people The Busecconi (the trippa people, after a famous dish of the Milanese peasants). To complete his opera assignment, J.C. Bach started skipping his duty, at Duomo in Milan, as second organist, to such an extent, that he regularly hired a substitute to work in Duomo for him. Despite the enraged and indignant Milan authorities' complaints, J.C. Bach, from 1761 to 1762, practically lived in other towns and cities, to complete other two important opera commissions for Naples: Catone in Utica (4 November 1761) for the king of Spain Charles III in person and Alessandro nelle Indie (20 January 1762 again for Charles III; another opera commission for Hasse, that ended up, with Hasse's approval, to J.C. Bach). Alessandro was even preceded by an new cantata by J.C. Bach, in honour of Charles III. On 7th April 1762, Agostino Litta, on behalf of Milan authorities, wrote an exacerbated letter of complaints to padre Martini and asked him to tell J.C. Bach, that, despite his opera most successful tour, he had to go back to Milan and his duties: he was paid to play the organ in Milan! The international success and the first London contract In April 1762, J.C. Bach was back in Milan, but, after one month, he asked to leave again for 1 year. Thanks to the 3 successful operas in a row (Turin and Naples), the international opera theatres considered J.C. Bach a composer to have under contract, and various proposals of further jobs were conceived by Naples theatres, by Venice theatres and by London theatres. J.C. accepted the London rich offer: he had to become the official composer of the King's Theatre and to write 2 new operas for London from November 1762 to June 1763: Orione and Zanaida. J.C. Bach sent a request of leave for London to the Milan authorities, on 27th May 1762, by using these very words: «Having been offered the opportunity to go to London to compose two operas for an excellent stipend and at great personal advantage». In the end, J.C. received the permission to reach London and, after 9 June 1762, left Milan and never came back, even though his agreement with Milan authorities was, that he should have been back to his duties in Milan for the season 1763-1764! But it is a fact, that Bach was recorded, in 1762, in the Masonic Lodge Nine Muses No. 235 (London)... probably he knew, his intention, in the end, was to remain in England... J.C. Bach's correspondence with padre Martini An important consideration about these years 1755-1763: J.C. Bach always maintained a very friendly relationship with padre Martini, despite the unpleasant situation in Milan. And even, after he left Italy for London, and during his years in England, J.C. Bach kept writing letters to his friend in Bologna. Unfortunately, the letters of J.C. Bach to padre Martini before 1757 do not survive, but most of J.C.'s letters after 1757 are available. See also: Schnoebelen, Padre Martini's Collection of Letters, 1979 Moreover, when padre Martini was reached by the news of the success of his old pupil in Mannheim with his two operas Temistocle (1772) and Lucio Silla (1775), Martini wrote to J.C. Bach, to invite him to send his portrait. A long tradition of the padre Martini was that of collecting the portraits of the important composers of his time and also Mozart received that invitation. J.C. Bach had his portrait painted by his friend, the great Gainsborough. Even if painted in 1776 (letter to Martini, 22 May 1776), J.C. Bach managed to have it transmitted personally to padre Martini in Bologna only in 1778, through an opera singer, that carefully (and safely) transported with him the painting from London to Bologna. The years 1763-1782: the London years J.C. Bach's operas success. Bach remained without contracts both in Italy and in England Despite the success of Orione (19 February 1763) and Zanaida (7 May 1763; which both set a new standard for opera in England, thanks to the presence, for the first time, of clarinets and the sophisticated treatment and orchestration for the winds), J.C. Bach's contract was not renewed for another year. Meanwhile, the rather furious Milan authorities were waiting for J.C. Bach's return to his real official post in the world: that of second organist of Duomo Cathedral. But J.C. Bach, even without a contract, remained in England and the Milan Cathedral leave of absence just expired in the summer of 1763. J.C. Bach music master to Queen Charlotte of England,... also thanks to C.P.E. Bach's intervention What really happened in 1763, it is, that the king and the queen of England were overjoyed with the opera activity of J.C. Bach and even attended the premieres of his operas. J.C. Bach himself wrote to padre Martini about the situation (1 July 1763): «It was my intention to go to Italy this year, but the infinite kindness of their Majesties the King and Queen obliges me to obey their request that I should remain here»! Soon after, J.C. Bach became music master to the queen. Recent studies have once more presented interesting evidence of the fact, that probably his illustrious half-brother C.P.E. Bach may have arranged again the career steps of J.C. Bach (as occurred in 1755), by contacting the queen of England, Queen Charlotte. As a matter of fact, the newly created queen of England (wife of King George III, since September 1761) was the German Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and C.P.E. Bach had been her keyboard teacher and the keyboard teacher of other members of the German princely family. Another friend from Germany: Abel, a pupil of his father J.S. Bach In England, J.C. Bach established a close companionship with another German composer, protected by Queen Charlotte: Carl Friedrich Abel. Abel was born in Cöthen (1723) and was another musician, who belonged to the circle of J.C. Bach's father, the great J.S. Bach. The father of Abel, in fact, was a musician of that Cöthen orchestra, of which J.S. Bach was the Kapellmeister in those years. Moreover, it's almost sure, that C.F. Abel became music pupil of J.S. Bach, for some time, in Leipzig. Abel became an important viola da gamba virtuoso, and in spring 1759, he reached England. In 1764, the two great German musicians (strictly linked to the J.S. Bach's circle) were created Chamber Musicians to Queen Charlotte and J.C. Bach (with a salary of £300) and Abel became also business associates. J.C. Bach, Abel and the famous painter Gainsborough became friends and, after 1764, the three great artists (who, apparently, had a common passion in alcohol) even lived in London in close proximity near Hanover Square. Daniel Heartz has investigated the friendship of three artists in details. With Abel, J.C. Bach established the legendary Bach-Abel Concerts in London. The first pianoforte in London played by J.C. Bach. The decline of Bach-Abel Concerts In 1764, Bach and Abel founded the first English subscription concerts, the Bach-Abel Concerts, which became legendary. The first concert of this long and extra-famous Series took place on 19th February 1764: the first tickets were sold at half a guinea apiece at Mr. Bach and Mr. Abel's Lodgings, in Meard's street, St. Ann's Soho; the last one took place, after 17 years of success, on 9th May 1781, seven month before the death of J.C. Bach. The programs of their concerts were mainly their own latest compositions: their symphonies, their concertos, the extracts and arias from J.C. Bach's opera, even some sacred music was performed. Among the various concert activities, J.C. Bach worked also for the concerts organized at the pleasure gardens, the Vauxhall Gardens, substantially by writing arias for the vocal concerts, even by re-arranging his own opera arias and even re-writing them with an English text from the original Italian. This activity was mainly a recent discovery. The first documents reappeared only in 1980s and further investigation is still required, to fully understand the artistic involvement of J.C. Bach. Probably, the most important concert of J.C. Bach, historically speaking, was that of 2 June 1768, when J.C. Bach played, for the first time in England, a new pianoforte, built by Johannes Zumpe (cost of the pianoforte 50 pounds): «After the arrival of John Chr. Bach in this country, and the establishment of his concert, in conjunction with Abel, all the harpsichord makers tried their mechanical powers at piano-fortes; but the first attempts were always on the large size, till Zumpe, a German, who had long worked under Shudi, constructed a small piano-forte of the shape and size of a virginal, of which the tone was very sweet, and the touch, with a little use, equal to any degree of rapidity. These from their low price, and the convenience of their form, as well as power of expression, suddenly grew into such a favour, that there was scarcely a house in the kingdom where a keyed-instrument had ever had admission, but was supplied with one of Zumpe's piano-fortes.» (Harpsichord,in The Cyclopaedia, ed. Abraham Rees, vol. 17) J.C. Bach as opera composer Despite the success of his two first English operas, it's a curious fact, that, in particular, the most celebrated Orione arrived to us in a brutally truncated form, where only ten arias of the original nineteen arias of the opera just survived. The English activity of J.C. Bach had highs and lows, but a good part of his opera production was rather criticized for the undeservedly bad performance of the orchestra and of the singers and not for the music and score themselves. Besides the successful Orione (1763) and Carattaco (1767), his Adriano in Siria (the performance of which both Mozart and Leopold attended in 1765), was not saluted as a success by the audience, but today it is considered one of his masterpieces. Nonetheless, the arias of his operas always proved successful, off the stage, and J.C. Bach frequently rearranged them, as concert arias for his own Bach-Abel Concerts and for the Vauxhall Gardens Concerts. Furthermore, many thought, in London, that, as an opera composers, J.C. Bach had never received a sufficient number of commissions and the right opportunity to shine. As a matter of fact, in reality, in London there was a factious party that thought, that only Italian composers could write music in Italian style, so, in the period 1772-1782, many rather promoted and publicized Antonio Sacchini as King Theatre's main composer instead of J.C. Bach, to whom mostly the international opera commissions were substantially left. Thanks to Wendling, the famous Mannheim flutist (with whom Mozart would have a bitter-sweet experience in 1778), J.C. Bach received an opera commission from Mannheim in 1771. The opera seria Temistocle (4 November 1772) was a success, and J.C. Bach received another commission for a Lucio Silla (premiere only in 1775, after much difficulties of production; the opera that Mozart defended against the insults of Abbé Vogler in 1778). The last great English opera triumph was La clemenza di Scipione (4 April 1778, King's Theater), and the opera was frequently revived and restaged, also posthumously, always to great acclaim. An enigmatic judgement by Abbé Vogler on J.C. Bach In 1778-81, the leader of the Mannheim School since ca. 1771 and Sturm und Drang promoter (especially in a predominantly German taste), the Abbé G.J. Vogler, published the Metastasian cantata La Tempesta by J.C. Bach. Moreover, he knew his operas Temistocle and Lucio Silla (of which he personally had a complete score, that Mozart borrowed from him). Before examining the enigmatic judgements left by Vogler on Bach and his music, we must consider, that J.C. Bach and Mozart were both brilliant pupils of that padre Martini, with whom Vogler (for a while his pupil himself) never managed to find a way of dialogue. Devoted to the music and harmony experimentalism, well into the realm of the extremely difficult harmony and of new types of chords and even to pentatonalism, Vogler rather found in padre Vallotti of Padua, his mentor. It is a fact, that, instead, padre Martini's teaching was principally based on a perfect knowledge of the contrappunto stretto and of his rules, of which he was the absolute international master. Some difficult positions of Vogler with J.C. Bach and Mozart was, without doubt, caused by their being pupil of his personal adversary: padre Martini! Vogler wrote about J.C. Bach and his style: «a mixture of the Italian taste, in which the principal chords are very simple; of the German, which surprises with unexpected turns; of the French, where the minor mode reigns; and of the English, which sometimes produces quite cold, chilling melodies: a mixture that was never heard before». This judgement his true and strange, at the same time, and one has the impression to be before a subtle operation of facts manipulation by a strongly biased man. Not all Italian taste can be defined harmonically very simple: Jommelli and Traetta, models to J.C. Bach's Temistocle, certainly were not, and even Paisiello (the adversary of Jommelli) was not, strictly speaking, that harmonically simple, even though he promoted and publicized the so called neat music and the pure expression of natural in music. Moreover, that consideration on the English cold and chilling melodies (vom englischen, der bisweilen ganz kalte, abkühlende Gesange vorbringt: but the real meaning of this should be better discussed) said of Bach, who was considered the artist of pure sensibility and heart compassion (the Laurence Stern of Music, Abel 1782), makes probably one rather think to those rules of padre Martini on the wise use of counterpoint: once you have a perfect command of all the rules of the music, you always know how to masterly conduct the parts, even when artistic inspiration fails. So, is here Vogler, perhaps, subtly condemning padre Martini's cold methods, through J.C. Bach? According to Mozart well known crazy letters (1777-1778) on Abbé Vogler, Vogler considered the whole opera Lucio Silla filthy stuff and he saved only one aria or two of the whole opera. The scholars tried to comprehend the reality of the quarrel Mozart vs Vogler on J.C. Bach, through much informed speculation, but without reaching any ultimate possible interpretation. The enigma of Vogler is still open, and especially because, at the same time, Vogler called J.C. Bach: one of the greatest composers, a man of whom Germany may be proud! And so the famous judgement, in the end, should be read (even the simple and cold, chilling) completely as statements made in a totally positive and favourable way: an elaborate praise of a successful sound son of Germany! So did a few scholars, considering the cold as a probable reference to J.C. Bach harmonic treatment of Scottish Folk Songs and tunes in his works... However... ... however, it is a fact, that, under the leadership of Vogler in Mannheim, J.C. Bach's Lucio Silla (with its troubled long postponed premiere) remained the last Italian opera commissioned by the Mannheim court, while Vogler rather widely promoted and supported the efforts of establishing a true German opera, by better saluting Holzbauer's German Sturm und Drang opera Günther von Schwarzburg, on 5th January 1777. The theories and new harmonic and orchestral procedures, publicized by Vogler since the 1770s, finally found a fertile soil in the first German Romanticism: Schumann adored and praised Vogler, Brahms even modeled a part of his Ein Deutsches Requiem on Vogler's own Requiem for Haydn, von Weber (the relative of Mozart, with his Freischütz) was an over-enthusiastic friend and composition student of Vogler, and Meyebeer was considered his best pupil ever, that Meyerbeer, whose opera style so much influenced Wagner! J.C. Bach as opera composer: the third man in the insane Paris dispute Piccinni vs Gluck After his triumph with La clemenza di Scipione in England, in 1778 J.C. Bach was called in Paris for a new opera production, in great part to be used as a possible third party in the toxic dispute Piccinni vs Gluck. The premiere of his Amadis de Gaule was in Paris (19 December 1779) and the opera (now considered a masterpiece of J.C. Bach and also of his own Sturm und Drang music writing, with some gloomy visions of sorceries and ghosts and badly treated prisoners: an ominous forecast of the French Revolution?) left the Piccinnians and the Gluckians unsatisfied and the Bach's opera was, finally, heavily cut for the stage, while the audience was even displeased with the old well known Libretto (by Quinault) too much! reworked (!?). However, it was difficult to satisfy such querelle: as the French Revolution had to reveal, behind the Piccinni party and the Gluck party, there were political movements, who supported or refused the role of Marie Antoinette in France (Gluck was, in fact, her long time protegé): the Piccinnians ended up de facto, for various reasons, to represent the Revolutionary antimonarchic French party. Moreover, both Piccinni and Gluck had nothing to do with the political parties, and they, personally, were substantially on friendly terms! Nonetheless, J.C. Bach managed to receive a new opera commission for Paris: the Omphale. From various parts in Paris, apparently, J.C. Bach's music was, in the end, praised, while the real problem with Amadis was a too old, bad and too reworked libretto, treating also a difficult and unpleasant subject, to be set to music! «Enfin, cette composition [by J.C. Bach], malgre ses defauts, annonce un homme de tres grand merite, tres savant en harmonie, & qui, avec un peu plus de connoissance de nos Theatres, est fait pour acquerir parmi nous beaucoup de celebrite.» (Mercure de France on Amadis performance and J.C. Bach's music) J.C. Bach's marriage and death in poverty In late 1773 or 1774, J.C. Bach had married the Neapolitan singer Cecilia Grassi, who had been a regular interpreter of his operas since 1766. They did not have children and in 1778 Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, the son of his favourite brother (Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach), reached them in England, to study music with his uncle. Both Cecilia Grassi and W.F.E. Bach were a precious help to J.C. Bach, when, in ca. 1779, his music business started seriously suffering from a series of unfortunate events. A. J.S. Schroeter, one of J.C. Bach's pupils, acquired the position, in London, of leading pianist and teacher, mostly leaving Bach without new students. Usually, the behaviour of Schroeter is chastized by scholars, as unfair and dishonestly treacherous. However, it is not completely clear, if, in reality, some sort of agreement between the two may have been. In fact, after Bach's death, Schroeter began playing the pianoforte at the Hanover Square, carrying on the cause of the instrument in England (initiated by Bach himself), substituted his teacher as music master of Queen Charlotte, wrote the then famous piano concertos (Mozart wrote cadenzas for three of them), his widow, Rebecca (her husband, Schroeter, died young in 1788), became close friend and student of Haydn in London. Nonetheless, the Schroeters apparently were not with the mourners at J.C. Bach's death bed. B. Unfortunately, the Bach-Abel Concerts became, in the end, one of the causes of the decline of the institution itself. Bach and Abel, with a dance teacher, Gallini owned a building at Hanover Square and Bach and Abel created an expensive concert hall there for their institution. After two years, the debts, Bach and Abel had incurred, became a serious motive of concern, and the two friends were obliged to sold their shares to the extra-rich Gallini. After this financial disaster, their concerts kept taking place regularly, but the revenue were scarce, and Bach had to move to Paddington, in the London suburb. C. After six months from his last concert at his institution, J.C. Bach's debts reached the total of £4000/£5000. J.C. Bach's last projects (1781) In his retirement in Paddington, J.C. Bach tried to figure out, how to cope with his heavy indebtedness. Apparently, he had an opera commission from Paris, Omphale, that could make some profit. Despite some attempt to identify some possible draft papers of this opera, we have no certainty, that he had ever initiated to write music for it. Another music project, he was working on, was a series of chamber music scores publications by subscription. An enterprise, that proved successful in Germany to his brother C.P.E. Bach. J.C. Bach, however, just died, before beginning this new project. A last consideration must be made on his nephew: W.F.E. Bach. Apparently, he worked also, as assistant to his uncle in the period 1779-1781. Therefore, it's almost sure, that, in a few works of his uncle, there must be the hand of his nephew. In particular, the last works, posthumously publicized and published, after J.C. Bach's death, had been, with high probability, in part, completed by his nephew. J.C. Bach's death and resting place. The Laurence Sterne of music. After physically prostrated by the desperate financial situation, J.C. Bach signed his will on 14th November 1781 and one of the witness was his friend Mary Zoffany. During the last hours of life of J.C. Bach, the few mourners were the few close faithful friends in London: the Zoffany (Johan, the painter, who portrayed also young Mozart), his friend Abel, the Papendieks, but apparently not the Schroeters (who were to occupy, dishonestly?, the positions previously held by Bach in London). Abel himself, pressed by the debts, arranged an important obituary, where he defines J.C. Bach the Laurence Sterne of Music, that's to say the master of sensibility in music, i.e. readiness to feel compassion for suffering, and to be moved by the pathetic in literature and art. Sterne, the famous writer, considered the high priest of the cult of sensibility, was an admirer of Bach and Abel. In May 1782, Abel fled from England, due to his problems with his creditors. J.C. Bach died on 1st January 1782, was buried on 6th January 1782 at St Pancras Churchyard, in the same cemetery as the famous artist J. Flaxman and Abel. Both for the funeral and the debts, the intervention of Queen Charlotte was fundamental: she paid all the costs of the funeral and repaid all the debts left by Bach. Moreover, she donated £100 to Bach's wife and Abel organized a benefit concert for her, so that Cecilia Bach (née Grassi) could afford to return to Italy, without financial problems of any kind. Queen Charlotte repaid all the remaining debts of J.C. Bach. J.C. Bach's music innovations, style and scores publishing difficulties J.C. Bach, a point of reflection for Historical Informed musicians J.C. Bach, as C.P.E. Bach and Leopold Mozart, believed in a fundamental truth: «A musician can move others, only if he too is moved». So, is the mid-20th-century fashion for the impersonal, aseptic, motionless and mechanic interpretation of music (and, especially, that of the 18th-century masters) a true path to the performance of J.C. Bach and C.P.E. Bach and even Mozart and Haydn? J.C. Bach was saluted by his friend Abel as the true Laurence Stern of Music (the author of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey), the champion of sensibility in music, of a cosmopolitan Sturm und Drang, of the true expression of heart and gracefulness in music. The label Gallant Music is a misleading label!... ... because these composers all believed, that the true music of the original genius is only the fiery fruit of the Jommellian (and then Goethian/Schillerian) triad: genius, spirit and fire! The triumph of pianoforte: solo music and piano concertos Even though many modern musicians of the Historical Informed Practice adore the shouting harpsichord everywhere, any time, both C.P.E. Bach and J.C. Bach didn't like the harpsichord at all, since it could not convey any expression or expression nuance properly: their favourite instrument was the pianoforte, where feelings and true expression rule. Both the brothers worked to reshape the prototype of the genre of the piano concerto since the 1750s, and it is well known, how the many piano concertos left by J.C. Bach became an absolute model of form and style to Mozart, who started writing keyboard concertos, by arranging keyboard music by J.C. Bach, under the surveillance of Leopold. J.C. Bach's music for solo piano became renowned, thanks to his series of concertos in London, performed on a pianoforte. Another keyboard genre, that J.C. Bach cultivated was the 4-hands keyboard music. Leopold, for some reason, mistakenly considered it an invention of his prodigy son Mozart and that J.C. Bach was influenced by young Mozart to develop the genre. As also Abert has clearly pointed out, the 4-hands keyboard music was probably an old exercise typical of the Neapolitan School and the inventor or promoter of it was Jommelli. The triumph of bel canto: the instruments sing like opera singers A typical and innovative trait of J.C. Bach's music (a trait, that was to profoundly shape the whole artistic development of Mozart) is, that all the instruments and orchestral music must be treated as if an opera singer of bel canto! As in the famous Freeman's statement: «Bach's solo sonatas are distinguished by a melodic sweetness that brought the singing allegro style to its greatest perfection before Mozart»! And J.C. Bach regularly applied such principles to all his works, from all the solo instruments to concertos, to opera itself and to the symphonic music! A sophisticated orchestration and towards the enlargement of the form Apparently, for his institution the Bach-Abel Concerts, J.C. Bach worked with a regular orchestra of ca. 27 or 29 performers: four solo violins, ten ripieno violins, four basses, two cellos, viola (tenor), viola da gamba, two oboes, two flutes, two horns, a harpsichord or pianoforte (as usual probably completing the inner parts of harmony, i.e. viola and/or cellos), a bassoon. If timpani and trumpets were used, unfortunately, the practice of the time was to write the parts (often and mostly) at the last moment, according to the availability or necessities. So it was common fact, that their parts went lost: see, for example, Dittersdorf's Ovid Symphonies, which have even two totally different versions of trumpets and timpani parts on the same strings music! J.C. Bach's original symphonic and opera orchestration was even more sophisticated, with fine and charming parts for the winds section. Unfortunately, the publishers and copyists of his time often altered and distorted original J.C. Bach's orchestration, to make the scores more palatable to smaller and less professional orchestras! That's why a certain degree of reconstruction is required on his orchestral scores. On opera orchestration, J.C. Bach was also an innovator, always discovering new and impressive and pathos effects, like the famously acclaimed utilization of clarinets, with their pathetic human-voice texture! But also other unusual combinations were used: a pair of tailles in Orione and Zanaida (1763); 3 clarinetti d'amore in Temistocle (1772) and Lucio Silla (1774/1775); piccolos to the Tambourin and a trio of trombones in Amadis (1779). Robbins Landon famously stated, that J.C. Bach, with Mozart and Haydn, was one of best composers of finest aria accompaniments! If Symphonies and Piano Concertos were well known, at his time, and shaped the taste and style of young Mozart, who largely developed J.C. Bach's style and innovations, J.C. Bach was also an important composer of Symphonies Concertantes (he wrote ca. 20 of them, a few still lost). Moreover, exactly in this genre (scarcely practised by Mozart) J.C. Bach worked on the enlargement of the music form (in particular, the concerto), by expanding the duration of the movements of the piece, by giving enough room to the solo instruments to develop their full discourse. The enlargement of the form was further greatly improved, in length and quality, by both Mozart and Haydn, and famously, by Beethoven, who reached even the unsurpassed (for the Era) giantism of his Piano Concerto No. 5, of his Symphony No. 9 and of his Missa Solemnis! Operas, opera orchestration and form innovations In opera J.C. Bach was a Neapolitan admirer and he early made personal fundamental acquaintances, such as Francesco de Majo and Traetta. His Temistocle (1772) was generally regarded, as his own original development of Jommelli and Traetta operas, while Amadis (1779) his own version of a Sturm und Drang opera, a personal reply to Gluck's Sturm und Drang. Unfortunately, both the status of the opera scores (the most fundamental largely acclaimed Orione is very seriously mutilated!) and the just few recordings and performances (a few, even not above average!) make still today his opera largely unknown to the great public. On the original opera orchestration of J.C. Bach we have already talked about supra and on its collocation among Mozart and Haydn. We can add here, that J.C. Bach's cosmopolitan way to a syncretism of Neapolitan beauty and grace combined with German substance and structure was, without doubt, the greatest gift he could ever offer to his youngest admirer and pupil, Mozart! On J.C. Bach's treatment of the opera form and of the arias, much has been written by the scholars. The difficulties with copyists and music publishers: the unfaithful notes J.C. Bach's composition work was often plagued by the unfaithful work of copyists and publishers: errors, mistakes in the notes and in the parts of the scores, arbitrary substitutions of entire sections of his music, various attempts to over-simplify his sophisticated orchestration and to alter the characteristic flow of the musical discourse, unfortunately, emerge from the written music. J.C. Bach had to face this situation in various occasions. And, in the end, he went on even with lawsuits, to defend the integrity of his music, with the so called J.C. Bach v Longman case, that led, in 1777, to a landmark judgement on copyright (see infra). J.C. Bach and Mozart I: London 1765 Mozart met with J.C. Bach in London for the first time in 1764/65. J.C. Bach seemed to have taught young baby prodigy Mozart music and music composition in one or more sessions, of what we can call today a series of masterclasses (apparently, not actually formal lessons, see Eisen-Keefe, 2006), a group of them, certainly based on Bach's various scores given to Mozart to analyze and study, under the surveillance of Leopold. Anecdotes exist, highlighting the music prodigies of young Mozart: Mozart, playing at cembalo with J.C. Bach, as if they were old friends and colleagues, with 8yo Mozart even discovering an erroneous note in the score of an aria of Zanaida, at first glance (Jackson, 1882)... Here the famous account by Leopold: «The King placed before him not only works of Wagenseil, but those of Bach, Abel, and Handel, and he played off everything prima vista. He played so splendidly on the King's organ that they all value his organ-playing more highly than his clavier-playing. Then he accompanied the Queen in an aria which she sang, and also a flautist who played a solo. Finally he took the bass part of some airs of Handel (which happened to be lying there) and played the most beautiful melody on it and in such a manner that everyone was amazed. In short, what he knew when we left Salzburg is a mere shadow compared with what he knows now. It exceeds all that one can imagine. He greets you from the clavier, where at the moment he is seated, playing through Kapellmeister Bach's trio [note: J.C. Bach, Trios Op. 2]». Among the amazing exercises practised with J.C. Bach: the two played at keyboard the same piece, but each of them taking a number of bars in turn, so that no one could understand who of the two was really playing (see Nannerl 1792, but also Grimm, 1766 and Jackson, 1882); the two improvised music on keyboard, exploring chords and harmonies, even the most exotic (Jackson, 1882); or J.C. Bach would start a fugue that Wolfgang would then take over and complete (see Barrington, 1769); through an erroneous statement by Leopold (that Mozart, in London, invented, for the first time, the 4-hands keyboard pieces), and someone thought, that J.C. Bach interested in this genre was an effect of his lessons with the young prodigy Mozart, but the fact is heavily disputed (see supra Abert). J.C. Bach and Mozart II: Paris 1778 In August 1778, in Paris, Mozart met with J.C. Bach for the second time in his life, that Bach, whom, for many years, he had regarded as the truest model of music composition, taste and style. The situation is presented by Mozart in his own words (letter, 27 August 1778, from St. Germain): «Mr. Bach from London has been here for the last fortnight. He is going to write a French opera, and has only come to hear the singers. He will then go back to London and compose the opera, after which he will return here to see it staged. You can easily imagine his delight and mine at meeting again; perhaps his delight may not have been quite as sincere as mine-but one must admit that he is an honourable man and willing to do justice to others. I love him (as you know) and respect him with all my heart; and as for him, there is no doubt but that he has praised me warmly, not only to my face, but to others also, and in all seriousness-not in the exaggerated manner which some affect. Tenducci is here too. He is Bach's bosom friend. He also was greatly delighted to see me again. I must now tell you how I happen to be at St. Germain. As you already know (for I am told that I was taken here fifteen years ago, I though I don't remember it), the Marechal de Noailles lives here. Tenducci is a great favourite of his, and because Tenducci is very fond of me, he was anxious to procure me this acquaintance. I shall not gain anything here, save perhaps a trifling present; at the same time I shall not lose anything, for this visit is costing me nothing; and even if l do not get anything, I shall still have made a very useful acquaintance. Well, I must make haste, for I am composing a scena for Tenducci, which is to be performed on Sunday; it is for pianoforte, oboe, horn and bassoon, the performers being the Marechal's own people-Germans, who play very well». Abert reconstructed the event, as the three men merrily spending 15 days in St. Germain playing music and singing with the small orchestra of the Marechal de Noailles. The fact, that Mozart wrote a famous, higly praised, scene for Tenducci (the now lost K.App.3/315b; but witnesses, Burney himself, giving a report to Barrington, in England listened to it performed and highly appreciated it!) during this period, led to think, that probably the stay in St. Germain was a sort of what we call today a masterclass on both singing and composing, as Mozart, in 1778, was trying to get a commission for an opera and to impose himself as opera vocal coach. Moreover, since this lost piece by Mozart was not entirely original, but had a direct model in a similar piece written by J.C. Bach for Tenducci himself (see Otto Deutsch), let us think, with some reason, that the two merry week were, in some way, a sort of last masterclass given by J.C. Bach to Mozart, in the style of those given in London in 1765. A legislation landmark: J.C. Bach v Longman for Copyright infringement (1773-1777) Just few know, that J.C. Bach had a fundamental role in establishing music composer's copyright on his printed works. In 1773, J.C. Bach sued publisher James Longman for violating the copyright of his works. De facto, the case, the first one in these terms, was carried on, through two different lawsuits: 1. 18 March 1773: lawsuit for illegal publication of J.C. Bach's Keyboard Sonatas and Sonata in F Major for Keyboard and Viola da Gamba; 2. 6 May 1773: lawsuit for illegal publication of J.C. Bach's Symphonies Op. 9. On 10th June 1777, the judge, Lord Mansfield decided, that the Copyright Act of 1710, the so called Statute of Anne, well covered also the written music, while Longman published J.C. Bach's music, as if music was not under the protection of Statute of 1710. Lord Mansfield pointed out, that, in the Statute's preamble, the expression books and other writings, with the term other writings, exactly meant also written and printed music. On 8th July 1777, the judge ordered Longman and Lukey to pay profits and court fees to J.C. Bach. The second lawsuit on the three symphonies Op. 9 was a very interesting one, also in musicological terms, because J.C. Bach was not only denouncing Longman's breach of copyright, but pointed out, that the original orchestration of the symphonies had been entirely altered, without his own permission, by freely redistributing the various parts of the symphonies to totally different instruments. As van Allen-Russell found out, through a close analysis of the documents of the lawsuit, the original J.C. Bach's orchestration was much more elaborate, while Longman's was really a deliberate distortion and over-simplification of J.C. Bach's own music. In particular, the parts of the clarinets and bassoons were completely modified or even erased. In 1777, the judgement J.C. Bach v Longman became a landmark, and many composers of that era, in England, could finally see their rights well covered by the legislation. As is well known, the attempts of van Swieten to establish a clear law on copyright within the Austrian Empire failed miserably, and Mozart himself became the victim of this lack of regulatory legislation. Dedication to Queen Charlotte, patroness of the German composers, by the 8yo Mozart, who wants to become a new J.C. Bach «I was, I confess, intoxicated with vanity and ravished with myself when I perceived the Genius of Music at my side. [...] When the Queen deigns to listen to me, I surrender myself to thee and I become sublime; [...] For with thy help I shall equal the glory of all the great men of my fatherland, I shall become immortal like Handel, and Hasse, and my name will be as celebrated as that of [J.C.] Bach. [...] It is said that everything should be allowed to Genius; I owe mine the happiness of pleasing You, and I forgive it its caprices. [...]» From the Title and dedication of Opus 3, London, 18 January 1765 of 6 sonatas for Harpsichord and violin/flute, to the German Princess and then Queen of England Charlotte, by the 8yo Mozart. J.C. Bach's selected discography J.C. Bach: Opera Arias & Concertos in Mozart in London J.C. Bach: Complete Opera Overtures  J.C. Bach: Complete Symphonies Concertantes J.C. Bach: Complete Symphonies  J.C. Bach: 6 Symphonies - 6 Piano Concertos J.C. Bach: 15 Symphonies Opp. 6, 9, 18  J.C. Bach: Complete Piano Concertos J.C. Bach: Woodwind Concertos Vol. 1  J.C. Bach: Woodwind Concertos Vol. 2 J.C. Bach: Salve Regina  J.C. Bach: Vespers and Psalms for Milan J.C. Bach: Requiem  J.C. Bach: Magnificat J.C. Bach: Zanaida  J.C. Bach: Endimione J.C. Bach: Amadis de Gaule  J.C. Bach: La Clemenza di Scipione J.C. Bach: Gioas, Re di Giuda  J.C. Bach: Complete Keyboard Four-Hands Works J.C. Bach & W.A. Mozart: Sonatas Op. 5/2-4 - Keyboard Concertos K. 107/1-3  ______________________________________________ WORKS BY JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH __________________________________________________ Various works by Johann Christian Bach are available at IMSLP: Johann Christian Bach: Scores and here the IMSLP list of his works by composition number: Johann Christian Bach: List of Works A) Compositions by Johann Christian Bach: • Operas: • Artaserse (1760) • Il Catone in Utica (1761) • Alessandro nell'Indie (1762) • Orione ossia Diana vendicata (1763) • Zanaida (1763) • Adriano in Siria (1765) • Carattaco (1767) • Temistocle (1772) • Lucio Silla (1774/1775) • La clemenza di Scipione (1778) • Amadis de Gaule (1779) • Pieces for Operas of other composers, masques, pasticci and arias for theatre comedies; among these pieces: • The Fairy Favour, a masque (1767) • Orfeo ed Euridice, re-elaboration of Gluck's Opera (1770) • Cantatas (not sacred music): • Gli orti esperidi (1765, lost) • Endimione, serenata (1772) • Amor vincitore (1774) • Cefalo e Procri (1776) • La tempesta (1776) • Rinaldo ed Armida (1778) • et cetera • Oratorios: • Gioas, re di Giuda (1770) • Sacred Music, ca. 40 works from 1757 to 1762: • Dies irae, 8 voci & orch. (1757) • Te Deum (1758) • Te Deum (1762) • 3 Magnificat • 3 Laudate pueri • Dixit Dominus (1758) • 2 Gloria • 2 Salve regina • Works for voice and keyboard: • 9 Duetti (ca. 1760) • 6 Canzonette 6 Op. 4 (1765) • 6 Canzonette 6 Op. 6 (1767) • 3 collections of 4 favourite songs for the Vauxhall Concerts (1766, 1767, 1771) • various arias • various arrangements of popular songs • Symphonic Music • 49 Symphonies, among them: • 6 Op. 3 (1765) • 6 Op. 6 (ca. 1770) • 6 Op. 8 (s.a.) • 3 Op. 9 (1785 posth.) • 6 Op. 18 (1785 posth.) • Symphonies Concertantes • 24 Sinfonie Concertanti • Ouvertures • 18 Ouvertures • Concertos: • 36 Concertos for keyboard/fortepiano & orchestras; among them: • 6 Op. 1 (1763) • 6 Op. 7 (ca. 1780) • 6 Op. 13 (1777) • Chamber Music: • Sextet for oboe, 2 horns, vl cello keyboard Op. 3 • 9 Quintets among them: • 6 Quintets Op. 11 for flute, oboe, vl, vla, bass (s.a.) • 29 Quartets among them: • 6 Quartets Op. 8 with flute (1775) • 4 Quartets Op. 19 with 2 flutes (ca. 1785 posth.) • 6 Quartets with flute (1777) • 10 Sonatas for keyboard and other instruments, among them: • 6 Op. 2 with violin/flute and cello (1764) • 4 Op. 15 with violin and cello (1778) • Sonata for keyboard/harp with violin and cello (ca. 1796 posth.) • 48 Sonatas for vl/flute and keyboard: • 6 Op. 10 (1773) • 6 Op. 16 (ca. 1776) • 4 Op. 18 (ca. 1780) • 6 Op. 19 (1783, posth.) • 6 Op. 20 (1783, posth.) • 6 Trios for 2 vls and vla/cello Op. 2 (1765) • 16 Sonatas for 2 vls and bass • 1 Sonatas for vl solo with bass • 3 Sonatas for vl and flute • Trio for 2 flutes and cello (or fl, vl, cello) • Keyboard/fortepiano Music: • 24 Sonatas, among them: • 6 Op. 5 (1766) • 6 Op. 17 (1779) • 4 Progressive Lessons Op. 17 (ca. 1780) • 3 Op. 21 (s.a) • 12 Sonatas 4 hands, among them: • 2 Op. 15 (1778) • 2 Op. 18 (ca. 1780) • 1 Sonata for 2 keyboards: • 17 Military Marches • 2 Entradas for horn |
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