Laura Buch - Bach Perspectives, Volume 13: Bach Reworked

BACH PERSPECTIVES

VOLUME 13

Bach Reworked

BACH PERSPECTIVES

VOLUME 13

Edited by
Laura Buch

2020 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Buch, Laura, editor.

Title: Bach reworked / edited by Laura Buch.

Description: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2020. | Series: Bach

perspectives; Volume 13. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2020030549 (print) | LCCN 2020030550 (ebook) | ISBN 9780252043635 (cloth) | ISBN 9780252052514 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH : Bach, Johann Sebastian, 16851750Criticism and interpretation. | Bach, Johann Sebastian, 16851750Influence. | Bach, Johann Sebastian, 16851750Influence. | Music18th century History and criticism. | Parody in music. | JazzHistory and criticism.

Classification: LCC ML 410. B 13 B 177 2020 (print) | LCC ML 410. B 13 (ebook) | DDC 780.92dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020030549

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020030550

BY MARKUS ZEPF

BY MOIRA LEANNE HILL

BY ERINN E. KNYT

BY STEPHEN A. CRIST

BY ELLEN EXNER

M uch scholarly analysis and ingenuity has been devoted to the topic of parody and borrowing, with studies tracking the techniques across centuries and genres and with many of them focusing upon the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, well known for his abundant use of parody procedures. This topic inspired the April 2018 conference of the American Bach Society, held at Yale University, from which the present collection takes its title. All of the essays published here stem from earlier versions presented at this conference.

In reexploring such techniques, these essays unfold the subject in five different directions. What (and whom) do we mean by Bach? And what do we mean by Reworked? Both J. S. Bach and C. P. E. Bach are specifically examined; but the composer as symbol or cultural emblemthe lowercase bachalso rises for consideration. Similarly, Bach-reworking-others is counterbalanced by others-reworking-Bach, in performance and composition.

The first two essays remain in the eighteenth century. Markus Zepf reworks our understanding of Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer. While J. S. Bachs borrowings from Fischer are well known, Fischers own background, training, and compositional techniques are less familiar. Zepf explores hearing Bach through Fischer but particularly extends the context for hearing Fischer himself, attending to his contrapuntal techniques in Ariadne Musica and to his own numerous borrowings from others.

Moira Leanne Hill examines the vast bounty of borrowings in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bachs Passions. Drawing upon his own works, as well as on those by many others (including J. S. Bach), C. P. E. Bach reworked both text and music. Hill considers his rationale for both, tracing examples through a representative sample of the twenty-one Passions that Bach wrote for Hamburg performances.

Erinn E. Knyt considers Ferruccio Busonis adaptation of J. S. Bachs Goldberg Variations for the twentieth-century concert hall and examines Busonis choices for restructuring, amplifying, and modifying the work. Her meticulous delineation of the works performance history provides context for Busonis reception during the century that also gave rise to the historically informed performance practice movement.

The remaining two essays investigate, respectively, Bachs appearances in the more recent realms of jazz and funk. Stephen A. Crist discusses Bach reworked by John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet, with particular focus on their 1974 album Blues on Bach. Lewiss integration of Bachs contrapuntal works with the language of blues and his use of harpsichordevoking, as Crist notes, the imagined baroquereflect an important intersection of styles in a notable twentieth-century tribute to J. S. Bach.

Finally, Ellen Exner examines the influence of Bach upon keyboardist Bernie Worrell and the bands known collectively as Parliament-Funkadelic. Documenting Worrells classical, conservatory training, Exner considers both the real and perceived traces of Bach in Worrells keyboard improvisations and addresses the generic invocation of bach as cultural signifier.

I am grateful to the five authors in this collection for their essays and their kind collaboration, to the anonymous readers who reviewed the essays, and to Daniel R. Melamed for his invaluable expertise and advice. I thank the following for generously allowing us to reproduce images from their collections: the Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv; the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin; the Boston Symphony Orchestra; and Columbia Records/Rhino Entertainment Company.

Laura Buch, editor