BACH APPETIZERS
1. PASSACAGLIA AND FUGUE IN C MINOR by J.S.
Bach
The
composer, Robert Schumann, described the variations of the Passacaglia as
“intertwined so ingeniously that one can never cease to be amazed“.
“One
of the finest examples (of the Passacaglia) in all musical literature.... few compositions will better repay careful
listening” (Composer Aaron Copland, What
to Listen for in Music).
“In
Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor we find nothing short of total mastery... Bach has made not just a world, but a world
of being in time”. (www.aplublog.com)
“I
would call this work the ultimate sonic creation of the mind of man... if you seek evidence of the existence of the
God of Abraham, you hardly need look further than the music of J.S. Bach. This is the work that defines that
statement. Listen and hear the mind of
God”. (Jeffrey C. Hall, Flagmusic)
“One
of the most imposing (of Bach’s works)...
the audacity of its conception...
one of the greatest works ever written for organ”. (David Yearsley, A Mighty Fortress is Our Bach)
“What
draws many people to this piece is what some describe as the tremendous
momentum; since the piece is composed in slow 3/4 time, it gives it a feeling
of inexorable rotation, a lumbering progression towards a huge climax. Ever since I discovered this piece, it has
consistently remained my top favourite Bach piece. From the first solemn opening theme, it drew
me in as it has every time I have listened to it since. If you haven’t heard it, then I implore you,
if you don’t listen to any other Bach, then listen to this”.
“It
is among Bach’s most soulful work, with majestic ascending and descending
chords and a basic, primal, soulful theme”.
“It’s
in music what a great Gothic cathedral is in architecture – the same vast
conception – the same soaring mysticism given eternal form... It’s one of the most divinely inspired
contrapuntal works ever conceived”.
(Leopold Stokowski, Notes,
Symphonic Bach, BBC Philharmonic on Chando’s label)
“One
of the great monuments of 18th Century art, a unique masterwork, a
synthesis of Christian music and theology with its own distinctive
eschatological message to convey”.
(David Rumsey, 1992, The Symbols
of the Bach Passacaglia)
“One
thing that many enjoy about the Passacaglia is the terrific momentum. Just as you feel like you have finally
climbed the top of the mountain, the fugue begins, taking you to even greater
heights”. Debbie Zufall
(Churchmusic2.weekly.com)
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Nearly
all Bach’s manuscripts begin with the words
Deo Soli Gloria (To God alone be the glory). He believed that the aim and final reason of
all music should be none else but the glory of God and the recreation of the
mind.
The
Passacaglia is no exception. An early
biographer of Bach, Spitta, said that it begins with a painful longing. This
seems to persist to the end. It is
upwardly mobile music ascending to the heights gradually ad inexorably rising
to a climax. It quotes from 6 Lutheran
chorales (including B.W.V. 607 – a representation of Jacob’s vision of a ladder
set up on earth and reaching to the heavens (bars 49-72).
Debbie
Zufall compares the Passacaglia to climbing the top of a mountain, and then
when the fugue begins, one is taken to even greater heights. The great mystics, like St John of the Cross
and St Teresa of Avila, believed that the pilgrimage of life can be compared to
climbing a mountain – for them it was the holy mount of Carmel. Mountains are the place of ascent – not only
outward, but also inward ascent.
St
John Climacus, famous for his “Ladder of
Divine Ascent” compares the soul’s upward longing to climbing a ladder like
Jacob’s, spanning heaven and earth.
To
me, the passacaglia is like someone climbing a ladder or mountain to God,
fuelled by a great divine longing. If it
begins, as Spitta says, with a “painful longing”, to me it seems to end with an
incredible longing – almost like a wave after wave of a great inconsolable
desire for God. It has always been
regarded as a spiritual work.
So
popular is it that it has been transcribed for virtually every conceivable
instrument. I suggest for starters, the
orchestral transcriptions by either Leopold Stokowski or Ottorino
Respighi. It is easier to discern the
different voices with these versions than listening to an organ version. Avoid the versions that leave out the fugue,
as that is like a decapitation! If you
are not familiar with Baroque music, be patient and keep listening.
Available
on Google.
