This description of JS Bach is taken from Johann Matthias Gesner’s edition of Marcus Fabius Quintilianus’ Institutio oratorio (1738). Gesner added the description as an illustration of Quintilianus’ point that a person can do many things at the same time. The original is in Latin.
This, Fabius, you would deem to be wholly unimportant if, recalled from the underworld, you were able to see Bach – to mention only him, for not so long ago he was my colleague at St. Thomas’s School in Leipzig-playing with both hands and all fingers out clavier, for example, an instrument that comprises many kitharas. Or that fundamental instrument, the innumerable pipes of which are supplied with air by bellows, how here he hurries with both hands over the keys, and there with swift feet, and alone produces as it were hosts of quite different and yet fitting notes. If you saw him, I say, how, in a manner never attained by many of your kithara players and innumerable flautists, he not only sings one melody like the kithara player maintains his own part, but also pays attention to al simultaneously, and encourages from thirty to forty musicians to observe the rhythm and the beat, this one with a nod, the next by stamping his feet on the ground, the third with a threatening finger, the one his note in the top range, the other in the low range, and the third in the middle. How all alone in the midst of the loudest passages played by the musicians, though having the most difficult part himself, he notices none the less if something is amiss; how he holds them all together, giving a helping hand everywhere; and if they are assailed by doubt, he immediately restores order; how he feels the beat in arms and legs, scrutinising the harmonies with a sharp ear, alone bringing forth all the voices with his own limited throat. In all other things a passionate admirer of antiquity, I believe that friend Bach alone, and those who resemble him, surpass Orpheus several times, and Arion at least twenty times.
Quoted in: Badura-Skoda, Paul, trans. Alfred Clayton, Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993, ISBN 0-19-816155-7, Appendix 3. The source for the quotation is Bach-Dokumente, ii. Fremdschriftliche und gedruckte Dokumente zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs 1750-1800, ed. H.-J. Schulze, Kassel and Leipzig, 1969, p. 332 f.
from → baroque music theory
In this extract the great pianist Edwin Fischer discusses interpretation.
But no amount of studying, no amount of talent, no amount of industry suffices if one’s whole life is not dedicated to the idea of being a mediator of great thoughts and emotions. Every deed, and indeed every thought leaves its mark on the personality. The purity of one’s life should even extend to the food one eats. Thus prepared, that which cannot be taught will come, the grace of the tranquil hour in which the spirit of the composer speaks to us, that moment of the subconscious, of rapture – call it intuition, grace, or what you will – when all ties are loosened, all constraints disappear. One seems to hover. One no longer feels: I am playing. Rather, IT is playing. And lo, everything is right, as if led by the hand of God the melodies stream from you fingers. It streams through you, and you allow yourself to be carried along, humbly experiencing the greatest joy of the recreative artist, of being nothing but a medium, a mediator between the Godly, the Eternal and human beings.
Fischer, Edwin, Musikalisches Betrachtungen, Frankfurt-on-Main, 1964, trans. as Reflections on Music, London, 1951, p.22 (of the translation).
from → music and philosophy
JS Bach wrote these comments on his copy of the Bible. The annotations are here given in German with a translation by Alfred Clayton. The extracts are quoted in Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard by Paul Badura-Skoda. I have also indicated what part of the Bible the annotations refer to, information that Badura-Skoda includes in a footnote.
1. NB Erstes Vorpsiel. auf 2 Chören zur Ehre Gottes zu musicieren.
Translation.
NB First prelude, to be performed on 2 choirs to the glory of God.
Written beside Exod. 15:20.
2. NB Dieses Capitel ist das wahre Fundament aller Gottgefälligen Kirchen Music etc.
Translation.
This chapter is the true foundation of all sacred music etc.
Written beside 1 Chr. 25: 7, 31.
3. Ein herrlicher Beweis, dass neben anderen Anstalten des Gottesdienstes, besonders auch die Musica von Gottes Geist durch David mit angeordnet worden.
Translation.
NB Wonderful evidence that, apart from other kinds of worship, music in particular was commanded by the Holy Ghost through David.
Written beside 1 Chr. 28: 21.
4. Bey einer andächtigen Musique ist allezeit Gott mit seiner Gnadengegenwart.
Translation.
NB In devout music God is at all times present with his grace.
Written beside 2 Chr. 5:13.
Quoted in: Badura-Skoda, Paul, trans. Alfred Clayton, Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993, ISBN 0-19-816155-7, p. 522-523. The source for the quotation is Bach-Dokumente, iii. Dokumente zum Nachwirken Johann Sebastian Bachs 1750-1800, ed. H.-J. Schulze, Kassel and Leipzig, 1972, p. 636.
An eye witness account of a performance of music by Carissimi in Rome in 1659. The three extracts are taken from the Travels of Francis Mortoft, an English traveller who visited Rome in 1659.
1. It beginning to be night, wee went to the Chiesa Nuova, where there is most incomparable Musicke every Sunday and holy day at Night, with Organs and 4 Voyces, and wee heard here such sweete Musicke, that a man could not thinke his paines be il spent, if he should come two thousand mile, if he were sure to be recompensed with nothing else, but to hear such most melodious voyces. (pp.118-19)
2. And at the Evening wee went to the Chiesa Nuova, where wee heard most sweete Musicke and a sermon. And after, saw a kind of Comody acted by 5 little Boyes against the Maskaradoes, who did every part so prettily, that they could scarcely be excelled by Persons of greater yeares. (p.140)
3. Wee went to the Chiesa Nuova where wee heard that never enough to be praised and delightful Musicke. The subject was Made by A Prince of Rome and Composed by Charissima, who for that is accounted the best in the world, and sung by Bonnaventure, Sinesia and the two Vuulpies, all which made so sweet and harmonye, that never the like must be againe expected, unlesse in heaven and in Rome. (p. 146)
Notes
The Chiesa Nuova was an Oratory. “Comody” refers not to a comedy but to the recitation of a spiritual dialogue, a common practice in oratories at the time. Charissima is the composer Giacomo Carissimi. The piece referred to in extract 3 may be Carissimi’s Daniele, an oratorio with an Italian text. But this is not certain.
The extracts are quoted in: Smither, Howard E., A History of the Oratorio Vol. I, The University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-1274-9, Library of Congress No. 76-43980, pp. 162-163.
from → baroque music theory
The text of Monteverdi’s Beatus vir with an English translation. The text is from the Latin Vulgate Bible. The translation is from the King James Bible.
Beatus vir
Beatus vir, qui timet Dominum:
In mandatis eius rolet nimis.
Potens in terra erit semen eius;
Generatio rectorum benedicetur.
Gloria et divitiae in domo eius;
Et justitia eius manet in saeculum saeculi.
Exortum est in tenebris lumen rectis:
Misericors, et miserator et justus.
Jucundus homo qui miseretur et commodat.
Disponet sermones suos in judicio:
Quia in aeternum non commovebitur.
In memoria aeterna erit justus.
Ab auditione mala non timebit.
Paratum cor eius sperare in Domino;
Confirmatum est, cor eius:
Non commovebitur,
Donec despiciat inimicos suos.
Dispersit, dedit pauperibus:
Justitia eius manct in saeculum saeculi,
Cornu eius exaltabitur in gloria.
Peccator videbit, et irascetur;
Dentibus suis fremet et tabescet.
Desiderium peccatorum peribit.
Translation
Blessed is the man who fears the lord:
He delights greatly in his commandments.
His seed will be mightly on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house;
And his righteousness endures for ever and ever.
Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness:
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
Good is the man who is full of compassion and lends.
He will guide his affairs with discretion:
Because he will not be moved for ever.
The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.
He will not be afraid of evil tidings.
His heart is fixed, trusting in the lord;
His heart is established:
He will not be moved,
Until he gazes at his enemies.
He has dispersed, he has given to the poor:
His righteousness endures for ever and ever,
The strength of his soul will be exalted with honour.
The sinner will see it, and will be grieved;
He will gnash with his teeth, and melt away.
from → baroque music theory
