John Eliot Gardiner - Bach

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright 2013 by John Eliot Gardiner

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. Originally published in Great Britain as Music in the Castle of Heaven by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, London.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gardiner, John Eliot.
Bach : music in the castle of heaven / by John Eliot Gardiner.First American edition.
pages ; cm
ISBN 978-0-375-41529-6 (hardback)
1. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 16851750. 2. ComposersGermanyBiography. I. Title.
ML 410. B 1 G 34 2013
780.92dc23
[B]
2013030398
eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-35198-0

Cover design by Peter Mendelsund

v3.1_r1

To fellow travellers through Bachs landscape

) (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)

FIRST INSET

Georgenkirche, Eisenach (photo: Constantin Beyer)

Neues vollstndiges Eisenachisches Gesangbuch, 1673 (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)

The Whole World in a Cloverleaf (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)

Bunos Dragon (Universittsbibliothek Halle: AB 51 21/ K.22)

Heinrich Schtz (Leipzig, Universittsbibliothek / bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)

Organ tablature transcriptions (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Fol 49/11 [3, 2]. Photos: Olaf Mokansky)

ConcordiaCantata, title page (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)

The Dukes of Saxe-Weimar (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen KGr/04542, KGr1982/00171)

Wilhelmsburg, Weimar, c. 1730 (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen KHz/01388. Photo: Sigrid Geske)

Himmelsburg (interior), c. 1660 (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen G 1230. Photo: Roland Dreler)

SECOND INSET

Thomasschule and Thomaskirche, 1723 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 2808 a)

Thomasschule and Thomaskirche, 1749 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 2708 e)

Six Leipzig burgomasters: Abraham Christoph Platz, Gottfried Lange, Adrian Steger, Christian Ludwig Stieglitz, Jacob Born, Gottfried Wilhelm Kstner (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, Portrt A 1a, A 42, A 76c, A 39, A 48b, A 50a)

Calov Bible: title page and annotation (courtesy of Concordia Seminary Library, St Louis, Missouri. All rights reserved.)

The Lutheran Liturgical Year (courtesy of James Thrift)

Bachs First Leipzig Cantata Cycle, 1723/4 (courtesy of James Thrift)

Bachs Second Leipzig Cantata Cycle, 1724/5 (courtesy of James Thrift)

THIRD INSET

Christian Romstet, The Tree of Life (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)

Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1746 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, XX11/48)

Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1748 (courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey)

Viola damore, with inset of the opening phrase of Erwge (photo courtesy of Catherine Rimer)

Oboe da caccia (photo: Robert Workman)

Violoncello piccolo by A. & H. Amati, Cremona, c. 1600. On loan to the Royal Academy of Music Museum from the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation (photo: Simon Way. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation and the Royal Academy of Music, London)

Violoncello piccolo obbligato (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)

Mendelssohns watercolour of the Thomascantorei, 1838 (courtesy of Sothebys)

TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS

(opposite Acknowledgements) A. F. C. Kollmann, The Sun of Composers (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)

Eisenach and the Wartburg (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)

Johann Hermann Schein, five-part circular canon (Niederschsisches Landesarchiv Staatsarchiv Oldenburg, Best. 297 J, N. 36, Bl. 10)

Adam Gumpelzhaimer, six-part retrograde cruciform canon (courtesy of the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester)

Johann Ambrosius Bach (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv / Carola Seifert)

Georg Philipp Telemann (akg-images)

Johann Mattheson (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)

Crosses inscribed in BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden (courtesy of Mark Audus)

Johann Theile, Harmonischer Baum (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, D-B/Am. B 451)

Heinrich Mller, engraving from Himmlischer Liebes-Kuss, The Battle with Death ( The British Library Board. 1560/303, pl 23)

Leipzig street music (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig)

Endzweck (courtesy of Stadtarchiv Mhlhausen, StadtA Mhlhausen 10/*(Stern) Fach 1/2 No 2a fol. 34)

Extract from the draft charter for the Thomasschule (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 235)

Assessment of thirteen boy altos (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 247 v)

Division of choristers into four choirs for five city churches (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 549)

Bachs MS of the Sanctus, BWV 232iii, with sketched melody for BWV 133, Ich freue mich in dir (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)

Aide-mmoire from BWV 135, Ach Herr, mich armen Snder (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)

Entwurff (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)

Copyists slip in BWV 135, Ach Herr, mich armen Snder (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)

Wilhelm Friedemanns errors in BWV 127, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr Mensch und Gott (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)

Copyist errors in BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)

Sperontes, Singende Muse an der Pleisse (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)

Street lighting in Leipzig (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, S/23/2001)

Market square, Leipzig, with celebrations for Friedrich August II of Saxony (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 802)

Zimmermanns coffee-house (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, M.III/42 b)

Seating plan of the Thomaskirche, 1780 (Courtesy of Breitkopf & Hrtel)

Johann David Heinichen, Musicalischer Circul, with key breakdown of the John Passion (redrawn by James Thrift)

Interior of the Thomaskirche, Herbert Stiehl (Beitrge zur Bach-Forschung, Vol. 3 (1984)) (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)

Matthew Passion, Gerne will ich mich bequemen, with square brackets added (courtesy of Mark Audus)

Jesu, meine Freude, structure.

Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1748: three details (courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey)

Canon triplex 6 voci