johann christoph bach

8/9/2019 Johann Christoph Bach

1/22

Constructing Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)Author(s): Daniel R. MelamedSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Aug., 1999), pp. 345-365Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/855027.

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2/22

()

Oxford

University

Press

CONSTRUCTING

JOHANN

CHRISTOPH

BACH

(1642-1703)

BY

DANIEL

R.

MELAMED

A

FAVOURITE

mage

in music

history

is

the Bach

family

as a

dynasty,

a

long

line

of

professional

musicians

stretching

from

Johann

Sebastian's

distinguished

ancestors

to

his

musically prominent

descendants.In the late

1980s,

a

New York

telephone

utility

could

assume that

concertgoers

knew

this,

if

nothing

else,

about the

Bachs in

promoting

its

'family'

of

companies.'

The

scholarly

literature also

approaches

the

Bachs as a clan: witness the Jew GroveBach

Family,

books on the Bachs

by

the

Geiringers

and

by

Young,

and a

recent

genealogy listing

more

than

one

thousand

Bachs.2

The modem

image

is even

more

specific,

regarding

he

Bachs

not

just

as

a

family

of

musicians

but of

composers;

this view

is

reflected

n the

many

anthologies

and

recordings

devotedto

compositions by

representatives

f various

generations.3

The

perspective

of the Bachs as

composers

has roots

in the

eighteenth

century-

certainly

with Carl

Philipp

Emanuel

Bach and

even

with

Johann

Sebastian-and

has

had a

consequence

for the

treatmentof

the

family by

later

historians.

With

a

premium

on

composition,

there has

been a

special

urgency

o

the

attributionof

musical

works o

Bachs,

particularly

o

older

members of

the

family,

even

when candidate

pieces

are

anonymousor are

ambiguously

ascribed.

No older Bach

has been

more

subject

to

attributional

pressure

than

the

man

J.

S.

Bach describedas a

'profound

composer',

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(1642-1703),

son of

Heinrich

Bach,

brother

of

Johann

Michael

(1648-1694),

and

longtime

church and

court

musician in

Eisenach.

This

Bach

has

developed

a

significant

reputation

as a

composer,

but it

rests on

surprisingly

ittle

evidence.

In

fact,

so

great

has

been

the

desire of

eighteenth-century

Bachs,

nineteenth-century

biographers

and

twentieth-

century

scholars to

identify

a

composer

among

the

older

members

of

the

family

that

they

have,

in

effect,

constructed

the

man

they

needed

in

Johann

Christoph.

A

close

look

suggests

that

many

compositions

have

oined

his

work-list

argely

on

the

strength

of his reputation,and thattheyreflecta desire fora

repertory

hatmatcheshis roleas a

great

composer

in

the

generation

before

Johann

Sebastian.

Johann

Christoph

does

occupy

an

important

place

in

the

Bach

family

of

musicians,

and

he

apparently

did

write

some

very good

pieces,

but

some

of his

legacy

as a

composer

may

be a

wishful

stretchingby

three

centuries

of

admirers.

One

reason so

much

attention has

been

paid

to

the

older

Bach

family, Johann

The

advertisement

or the

NYNEX

Corporation

reproduced

ostensible

facsimile

signatures

of

Bachs of

various

generations

with

the

headline

'Ingenuity

often

runs in a

family'.

2

Christoph

Wolffet

at,

The

New

Grove

ach

Family,

London &

Basingstoke,

1983;

Karl

Geiringer

&

Irene

Geiringer,

TheBach

Family:

Seven

Generations

f

Creative

enius,

London,

1954;

Percy

M.

Young,

The

Bachs,

1500-1850, London,1970;Hermann Kock,

Genealogisches

exikon erFamilie

Bach,

Wechmar,

1995.

3

For

example,

Music

of

the

Bach

Family,

d.

Karl

Geiringer,

Cambridge,

Mass., 1955;

Orgelwerke

er

Familie

Bach,

ed.

Diethard

Hellmann,

2nd

edn.,

Frankfurt,

985;

Die

Familie

Bach

vorJohann

Sebastian',

Archiv

419

253-2;

'Geistliche

Musik

der

Bach-Familie',

Laudate

91.511.

345

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3/22

Christoph

ncluded,

is that the

family

has

long

been

important

o

biographies

of

J.

S.

Bach.

Starting

with Carl

Philipp

Emanuel's

obituary

of his

father

(1754)

and

Johann

Nikolaus

Forkel's

study

(1802)

and

continuing

through Philipp

Spitta's biography

(published 1873-80)

and

beyond,

Bach

biographies

have

typically begun

by tracing

Johann

Sebastian's

ineage

and

implying,

if

not

suggesting

outright,

that

he

was the

productof his ancestry.They account for some ofJ. S. Bach'sabilitiesby his genesand

by

his

upbringing

in a

gifted

family.4

As is

well

known,

the

family's

own

concern with its

history

reached a

high point

in

J.

S.

Bach's

collection and

performance

of music

by

older

members of the

family

and

the

'Genealogy

of the musical Bach

family'

he

produced

in

1735.5This

genealogy,

which

begins

with Bachs

from

the

sixteenth

century,

identifies its

subjects by

occupation:

baker,

carpet

maker,

Stadtpfeiffer,

rganist,

cantor, Raths-Musicant,

tadt-

Musicus

nd so on. But for

just

two members

of the

family

J.

S. Bach used

the word

'composer',

describingJohann Christoph

Bach as 'ein

profonderComponist'

and

his

brother

Johann

Michael as

'ein

habiler

Componist'.

'Componist'was not an occupationor profession n the late seventeenthcentury.

J.

S. Bach's

use of the term reflects

pride

in an

accomplishment

of his

ancestors: he

production

of musical

works. But there was

more than

family

pride

involved,

because

the

writing

(and

later the

publication)

of

musical works

helped

define a

change

in roles

for

musicians.

Composition

was not

necessarily important

to

seventeenth-century

church

or civic

servants ike

town musicians

or

organists,

but became a

central

activity

of

eighteenth-century

Kapellmeisters,city

music

directorsand

independent

artists.

The

Bach

family

spans

this

change.

J.

S.

Bach's father

Johann

Ambrosius was a

town

and

court

musician;

Johann

Sebastianstarted

n this world and never

completely

escaped

it,

and his

eldest

son,

Wilhelm

Friedemann,

depended substantially

on it

throughouthis adultyears.CarlPhilippEmanuel,after eaving he Berlincourt,kepta

foot in

the old

world as

Hamburg

church

music director but also functioned

independently

as a

composer

and musical

entrepreneur.

Johann

Christian left

the

old world behind

in his career as a

composer

and

impresario.

Given

the

importance

of

composition

to

this social

advancement,

t

comes

as

little

surprise

that

in C. P. E. Bach's 1774/5 annotations to

the

family

genealogy,

he

reinforced

his father's

description

of

Johann

Christoph

Bach

as a

composer,

adding

'This is

the

great

and

expressivecomposer',

and

supplementing

Heinrich

Bach's

entry

with the

remark Was

a

good composer

and a

lively spirit'.6

Compositional

egacy

was

important

o

Philipp

Emanuel,

and he was

almost

certainly

aware

that his comments

would reacha larger public and posterity,forthey were addressedto J. N. Forkel,at

work

on his

biography

and critical

appreciation

of

J.

S. Bach.

This

was not the

only

occasion on which

C. P.

E. Bach

promoted

the

compositions

of his

ancestors.

Some

25

years

earlier,

he had

begun

the

obituary

of his father

with

a

discussion

of five

prominent

older members of the

family,

stressing

heir

compositional

4Mozart

and Beethoven

studies have also come

to

emphasize

the

composers'

amilies,

especially

their

professional-

musician

fathers. This reflects

a

tendency

towards Freudian

interpretation

of their

lives,

but

also an

inclination

to

explain

phenomenal

musical talent

by parentage.

5

On the

Altbachisches

rchiv,

ee Daniel R.

Melamed,

J.

S. Bach and

the

German

Motet

unpublished dissertation),

Harvard

University,

1989,

and Altbachisches

rchiv,

d.

Max Schneider

'Das

Erbe deutscher

Musik',

i-ii), Leipzig,

1935.

J.

S. Bach's

genealogy

is

the

'Ursprung

der

musicalisch-Bachischen

amilie',

transcr. n

Bach-Dokumente,

d.

Werner

Neumann

&

Hans-JoachimSchulze,

Kassel

&

Leipzig,1963-72, i/184,

with

additional

notes in iii.

647;Eng.

trans. n

The

New

Bach

Reader,

d.

Hans

T.

David

& Arthur

Mendel,

rev. &

enlargedby

Christoph

Wolff,

New York &

London,

1998,

pp.

283-94.

6

'Dies

ist

der

groBe

und

ausdriickende

Componist';

War

ein

guter

Componist,

und von munterm

Geiste';

see

n.

5,

above.

346




4/22

accomplishments

and

remarking

that

there was extant

music

by

all of them.7

He

reserved his

greatest

enthusiasm for

Johann

Christoph

Bach,

who

had also

been

singled

out

by

his father.

He

praised

him

as

strong

in the

expression

of words

and

in

the invention

of beautiful

ideas

(the

latter

a

good

mid-eighteenth-century

riterion),

and

for

composing

in a manner

that

was

'galant

and

singing,

to

the extentthe

taste

of

his time

allowed',

a

contemporary

value

and

apparently

an

attempt

to

portray

him

as

forward-looking.

He illustrated

these characteristics

with

a

reference

to

a motet

in

which

Johann

Christoph

had

daringly

used an

augmented

sixth. C.

P. E.

Bach

also

praised

his music as

unusually

full-voiced,

citing

a 22-voice

work,

identifiable

as

the

St

Michael's

Day

vocal concerto

'Es erhub

sich

ein

Streit',

which

Philipp

Emanuel

and

his

father had

each

performed.8

Another document

of C. P. E. Bach's

musical

life,

his estate

catalogue

of

1790,

also

celebrates the Bachs as

composers.9

The

catalogue

probably

had a

practical

function-making

known the

availability

of his

own music

for

sale-but

it

also

lists

compositions by J.

S.

Bach,

Wilhelm

Friedemann

Bach,

Johann

Christoph

Friedrich

Bach,

Johann

Christian

Bach, Johann

Bernhard

Bach,

and

several

older

and

anonymous family

members

grouped

under

the

heading

'Alt-Bachisches

Archiv'.

The

compiler

of the

catalogue,

probably

Carl

Philipp

Emanuel

himself,

proudly

described

these oldest

works as

'vortrefflich

gearbeitet',

a

critical

evaluation

that

stands out

in a

mostly

dry

document. It is

difficult to believe

that

the

older music

listed in the

catalogue

had much

commercial

value;

its

inclusion

may

have

reflected

Philipp

Emanuel's

pride

in

the

compositional

accomplishments

of

the

Bachs over

the

years.

Forkel's

study

of

J.

S.

Bach also

began

with the

family

and

emphasized

the

older

members

whom

C.

P.

E. Bach

had

championed.

In the

first

critical

study

of the

Bach

family,

Forkel

established

a

specialrespect

forJ.

S.

Bach's

ancestors

and

an

emphasison their

compositional

egacy.

Given the

statement

n

his

preface

hat

the

works

ofJ.

S.

Bach

represent

a

'priceless

national

patrimony',

t is

unsurprising

hat

in

discussing

older

Bachs

he

emphasized

their own

contributions o

the

'honour

of

the

German

name':

their

compositions.

On

Johann

Christoph

Bach

in

particular,

Forkel

echoed

C.

P. E.

Bach's

citation

of

his

compositional

daring

and

his

full-voiced

tendency,

referring

o

compositions

that

illustrated

hese

traits.

He

reported

hat C.

P.

E.

Bach

had

had a

special

esteem

forJohann

Christoph,

and

fondly

recalled

Philipp

Emanuel's

playing

of

the

older

man's

music

for

him,

smilingly

pointing

out

the

most

daring

and

7

The repertoryn his music collectionshows thathe believedhe owned music by all five.See n. 9, below.

8

'Besonders st

obigerJohann

Christoph

n

Erfindung

chiner

Gedanken

sowohl,

als

im

Ausdrucke

der

Worte,

stark

gewesen.

Er

setzte,

so viel es

namlich

der

damalige

Geschmack

erlaubte,

sowohl

galant

und

singend,

als

auch

ungemein

vollstimmig.

Wegen

des

erstern

Puncts

kann

eine,

vor

siebenzig

und

etlichen

Jahren

von

ihm

gesetzete

Motete,

in

welcher

er,

ausser

andern

artigen

Einfallen,

schon

das

Herz

gehabt

hat,

die

iibermiBige

Sexte

zu

gebrauchen,

ein

ZeugniB

abgeben:

wegen

des

zweyten

Puncts

aber,

ist

ein

von

ihm

mit

22

obligaten

Stimmen,

ohne

jedoch

der

reinsten

Harmonie

einigen

Eintrag

zu

thun,

gesetzetes

Kirchenstiick

ben so

merkwiirdig,

ls

dieses,

daB

er,

auf

der

Orgel,

und

dem

Claviere,

niemahls

mit

weniger

als

fiinf

nothwendigen

Stimmen

gespielet

hat';

Bach-Dokumente,

ii/666. No

motet

using

an

augmented

sixth is

known

today,

and

the

anecdote

has

the

air

of a

family

story

meant to

emphasize

the

composer's

modernity.

On the

vocal

concerto

Es

erhub

sich

ein

Streit'

and

its

sources,

see

Melamed,

7.

S.

Bach

and he

German

Motet,

pp.

67-70.

The

report

ofJohann

Christoph's

practice

of

never

playing

on the

organ

and

clavier

with

fewer

than

five

real

parts,

which

apparently

refers

o

improvisation,

must

have

been

hearsay,

because

C. P.

E.

Bach could

not

have

heard

the

playing

of

Johann

Christoph,

who

died in

1703.

Emanuel

was

familiar

with

vocal

works

attributed o

Johann

Christoph

but left

no

references o

specifickeyboardpieces,

and it

is

possible

that

he

did

not

know

any keyboardmusic. When he

supplied

music

by

Johann

Michael

and

Johann

Christoph

to

Forkel,

he

sent

only

vocal

works.

See

Melamed,

op.

cit.,

pp.

45-6.

9

Verzeichnifl

es

musikalischen

achlasses

es

verstorbenen

Capellmeisters

arl

Philipp

Emanuel

Bach,

Hamburg,

1790;

facsimile

edn.:

The

Catalog

f

Carl

Philipp

Emanuel

Bach's

Estate,

ed.

Rachel

W.

Wade,

New

York,

1981.

347




5/22

noteworthypassages. ?

n Forkel's

account,

surviving

works

document the

man and his

place

in

family

history.

A later

Bach

biographer, Philipp Spitta,

went

beyond

the

praise

of

Johann

Christoph's

ndividual

works

to a

theory

about

German

artistic

history

and his

place

in it.

Spitta

opened

his

chapter

on

Johann

Christoph

and his

brother

Johann

Michael

with

a

portrait

of the German

nation in a state of

profound

culturalexhaustion in the

wake

of the

Thirty

Years

War,

and credited

these men with its musical

revival:

Just

as

[their

ather]

HeinrichBach

ostered,

n the

simple

piety

of

his

childlike

oul,

a

spark

of

that

mysterious

ower

which

was destined o raise

up

the

crushed

ation o

new

ife,

so

we

may say

of

thesetwo

men,

that

that

spirit,

which

n

them

took

the formof art when

all

around

ay

dead

and

void,

was the better elf of the

German

ation.

Spitta

went

on to

portray Johann Christoph

as the

first German

composer

of

'Oratorios'-that

is,

truly

dramatic

vocal

concertos-and,

in

this,

a

forerunner

ofJ.

S.

Bach and

especially Georg

FriedrichHandel. This

forward-looking

iew

continues in

Spitta'sstatement thatJohann Christoph'smotets 'seem as though they might have

been

written

yesterday',12

nd in his assertion

hat the motet

'Unsers

Herzens

Freude',

which

he considered

among

his

finest,

'approaches

ar less

nearly

to

the

form of

the

da

capo

air ...

than it

does

...

to

the modern sonata

form'.13He reserved

he

highest

praise

for

the motet

'Ich lasse dich nicht'

(BWV

Anh.

159),

which he found so

advanced

hat it could

even

be

the work

ofJ.

S. Bach.

Overall,

Spittaportrayed ohann

Christoph

Bach

as a musical

genius,

an

artist

of the

highest

order,

and a

saviour of

German

music

in

a

dark

period.

All

these

assertionsrestedon

his

legacy

as a

composer.

Largely

because

of the survivalof

the

Altbachisches

rchiv,

ohann Christoph

and

Johann

Michael

Bach were

reasonably

well documented as

composers

of

vocal music.

Spittaregardedboth as influentialcomposersof instrumentalmusic as well,but he had

a

fundamental

problem

in

that

so few of their

instrumental works survived. The

demand

for

securely

attributed

works,

especially

to

Johann

Christoph,

exceeded the

supply,

and

this

would have

importantconsequences.14

ven

among

the

more

plentiful

vocal

works,

there

are

many

attributed

o

'Johann

Christoph

Bach' or

'J.

C.

Bach',

but

with this

repertory

comes

a

vexing problem

of the

ambiguity

of the

name,

which was

carried

by

several older

members

of the

family.

Besides our

Johann Christoph

(13),15

others

include

J.

S. Bach's elder

brother

Johann

Christoph

(22;

1671-1721),

active

most

of his

life in

Ohrdruf;

Johann

Ambrosius's

win brother

Johann Christoph(12;

1645-93),

who worked

mostly

in

Arnstadt;

Johann Christoph

(17; 1673-1727),

who

spentmost of his career n Gehren;andJohann Christoph 13)'sown son (b. 1676).In

principle,

pieces

attributed

simply

to

'Johann Christoph

Bach' could

be

the

work of

any

of

these,

in

the absence

of evidence that

distinguishes

hem

or at least

suggests

a

particular

amily

member.

10

Johann

Nikolaus

Forkel,

Ueber

ohannSebastian achs

Leben,

Kunst

und

Kunstwerke:

ur

patriotische

erehrer

chter

musikalischer

unst,

Leipzig,

1802,

p.

2.

Presumably

C.

P.

E. Bach

played

these

pieces

at the

keyboard,

hough

we do not

know

whether

they

were instrumental

or vocal

works.

Philipp Spitta,

Johann

Sebastian

ach,

Leipzig,

1873-80,

i.

41;

Eng.

trans.

by

Clara Bell &

John

Alexander

Fuller-

Maitland

as

Johann

Sebastian

ach:his Work

nd

Influence

n theMusic

of

Germany,

685-1750, London,

1884-5,

i.

40.

12

Spitta,

JohannSebastian

ach,

.

72

(Eng.,

i.

74).

13

Ibid.,

i.

89

(Eng.,

i.

90).

14

Spitta

even

expressed

his frustration

at

the

lack of

Johann Christoph

Bach's clavier music.

Ibid.,

i.

128

(Eng.,

i.

130).

15

The

numbering

system

for

members

of

the

Bach

family

derives

rom

J.

S.

Bach's

genealogy

(see

n.

5,

above)

and

is

expanded

n Wolff

et

al.,

TheNew

Grove

ach

Family.

Henceforth,

he

severalJohann

Christophs

will be

distinguishedby

number.

348




6/22

This

points

up

a

problem:

we have

seen

that

'Johann

Christoph

Bach' was

the

subject

of

family

lore,

but which

Johann Christoph

were

the

stories about?

When

C. P.

E. Bach annotated

the

genealogy

entry

for

Johann

Christoph

13),

he wrote

that

'this

is the

great

and

expressive composer'.

This remark

is

usually

taken

to be

a

reinforcement f his father'scomment

('ein

profonder

Componist'),

but

I

think

Philipp

Emanuel'semphasiswas on the firstword: 'this s the greatand expressivecomposer',

and he

meant to clear

up ambiguity

about

which

Johann

Christoph

was a

great

and

expressive

composer.'6

The confusion

implied

here

has

persisted:

good

pieces

attributed

o

'Johann

Christoph

Bach' continue

to

gravitate

owards

ohann

Christoph

(13),

even

when other

family

members

of this

name are

likely

or at

least

plausible

candidatesas

their

composer.

The

lexicographer

Ernst

Ludwig

Gerber

recognized

his

almost

two

centuries

ago,

cautioning

that

'one has

good

reason

to be

careful

in

collecting

[Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13)'s]

works,

because

in his

day

there

were

several

excellent

composers

and

organists

with

his

name'.17

Because of this

problem,

we need

to

ask how

careful

people

have

been in

assigning

works to a composerwith a big reputationand an ambiguousname. We can quickly

survey

he

worksattributed

oJohann

Christoph

13),

and

the

resultsare

sobering.

See

Appendix

I,

below.)

Two motets

are

transmitted

n

autographs

and

are

probably

his;

the detailed

form of

the attribution

n

'Lieber

Herr

Gott'

makes

it

unambiguous,

but

note that 'Der

Gerechte,

ob

er

gleich

zu

zeitlich

stirbt' is

attributed

merely

to

'J.

C.

Bach'.

Three more

motets

('Der

Mensch,

vom

Weibe

geboren',

'Sei

getreu

bis

in

den

Tod',

'Ftirchte

dich

nicht')

derive

directly

or

ultimately

from

Thuringian

sources

whose

context

arguably

suggests

Johann

Christoph

(13)

as

their

composer,

but

does

not

guarantee

it.

The

attribution

of

'Herr,

nun

lassest du'

stems

from

the

early

nineteenth-century

collector

Georg

Poelchau,

who

first

wrote

and

then crossed

out

another(illegible) attributionon his score. The attributionof 'Ich lasse dich nicht'

(BWV

Anh.

159)

was a

nineteenth-century

peculation.

Merk

auf,

mein

Herz'

(BWV

Anh.

163),

attributed

merely

to

'Bach

in

Eisenach'

in

the

source,

has

come

to

Johann

Christoph

(13) only

in the

last

decade.

Two

more

motets

from

a

Thuringian

source

('Das

kein

Aug gesehen

hat',

'Herr,

wenn

ich

nur

dich

habe')

are

anonymous

and

were

attributed

speculatively

n

the

1980s.

Among

the

vocal

concertos,

'Meine

Freundin'

was

transmitted

n a

copy

by Johann

Christoph

(13)'s

Eisenach

colleague

Johann

Ambrosius

Bach,

lessening

any

ambi-

guity,

but

the

Erfurt

copy

of

'Herr,

wende

dich'

names

'Christoph

Bach'.

There

are

conflicting

attributions

or

'Ach,

daB

ich

Wassers

gnug

hatte':

C.

P.

E.

Bach's

estate

catalogue (and apparently his sources) named Johann Christoph, but a Diiben

Collection

concordance

names

Heinrich

Bach.

Johann

Christoph

(13)'s

most

famous

piece,

the

22-voice 'Es

erhub

sich

ein

Streit',

is

attributed to

his

brother

Johann

Michael

in an

inventory

rom

Ansbach,

and

an

Amalienbibliothek

ource

of

unknown

provenance

also

credits

Johann

Michael.

The

town

council

concerto

'Die

Furcht

des

Hern'

is

anonymous-C.

P. E.

Bach

hazardedno

guess-and

was

attributed o

Johann

Christoph

(13)

by

Max

Schneider

in

1935

because

the

fragmentary

ource

is

in

his

hand.

'Wie

bist du

denn,

o

Gott'

was

listed

in

the

Liineburg

inventory

under

'J.

C.

6

The

bending

of

the

remark

and the

elevation

of

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13)

to

the

pantheon

are

evident in

Max

Schneider's

tatement:

Er

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13)

]

ist

nicht

nur

dergrofe

und

ausdrickende

Componist,

ie

ihn

schon

die bachische Familienchroniknennt, sondern einer der bedeutendstendeutschen Meister iiberhaupt'.Altbachisches

Archiv,

.

vi.

7

'Indessen

hat

man

Ursache,

beym

Sammeln

seiner

Werke

vorsichtig

zuy

seyn,

indem

es

in

seinem

Zeitalter

mehrere

vorziigliche

Tonkunstler

und

Organisten

seines

Namens

gab.'

Ernst

Ludwig

Gerber,

Neues

historisch-

biographisches

exikon

er

Tonkiinstler,

eipzig,

1812-14,

i.

209.

349




7/22

Bach';

a work with this text

is

much

performed

under

Johann

Christoph

13)'s

name,

but its

source credits

Johann

Philipp

Krieger,

and it

may

not

be

the same

piece.

'Der

Herr Zebaoth' s

attributed

merely

to

'Sign.

Bach',

and

nothing

is

known about the

lost

'Strafmich nicht'.

The two arias 'Es ist

nun aus' and

'Mit

Weinen hebt

sich

an',

listed

among

Johann

Christoph

13)'s

works

by

C. P.

E.

Bach,

are each

attributed

merely

to

'JCB'.

Among

the instrumental

music,

the

44

preludes

are

apparently

unambiguously

attributed,

as

are the

Prelude and

Fugue

BWV

Anh.

177. The

chorale

preludes

in the

Neumeister

collection are

likely

to

belong

to

Johann

Christoph

13),

but

in

principle

are

subject

to some doubt. Four

variation sets are

traditionally

assigned

to

Johann

Christoph

(13).

Two,

the Aria

Eberliniana

attributed

o

'Joh.

Christoph

Bach

org.')

and

a

set

in A minor

(attributed

o

'J.C.B.'),

are

transmitted n the hand of

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(22);

Gerber owned an

incomplete

set

in

B

flat,

now

lost.18A

fourth,

the

Sarabandewith twelve

variations,

s

known in

incomplete

form

from the so-called

Borss

manuscript,

and in

complete

form in a

late

eighteenth-

or

possibly early

nineteenth-century opy in a convolutemanuscriptassembledby GeorgPoelchau.'9 t

is attributed

merely

to

'J.

C. Bach'

in

each

source.20

Overall,

he

number

of

pieces

we

can ascribewith

certainty

o

Johann

Christoph

13)

is small. A

surprising

proportion

of the

attributionswere made in the nineteenth and

twentieth

centuries,

and severalseventeenth-and

eighteenth-century

ttributions eave

room

for

doubt.

Many

were

probably

influenced

by

Johann Christoph

(13)'s

reputation,

including

those

made

by

members of

the

Bach

family. Any

attribution

to

'Johann

Christoph

Bach'-to

say nothing

of

'J.

C.

Bach'

or

even

'J.

C.

B.'-is

potentially

ambiguous

without some evidence

pointing

us in the direction of

Johann

Christoph

13).21

n our evaluation

of

Johann

Christoph

13)

as

a

composer,

we

need

to

distinguishhis reputation(well documentedin the Bachfamily)from the significance

of his

compositional

egacy

(a

much shakier

proposition).

And because it

is

not clear

that

we have

a

corpus

of

securely

attributed

works,

we are on thin ice in

making

stylistic

comparisons

to decide

whether doubtful

compositions

are

his.

The

difficulty

is illustrated

by

two

famous

compositions

for

keyboard

that are

traditionally

assigned

to

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13).

In

examining

their

history,

we

encounter

he

strength

of his

reputation

as a

composer,

his

assigned

place

in the

history

of German

music,

the

ambiguity

of

his

name,

and the

difficulty

of

making stylistic

comparisons.

An

equally

likely

candidate for the

composer

of the

pieces,

another

Johann

Christoph

Bach,

turns out

to

have been as little considered as

Johann

Christoph(13) was championed.

The

works

are two

variation

sets for

keyboard,

the one in

A

minor

attributed

to

'J.

C. B.' known

from

a

manuscript

now

in

the Zurich

Zentralbibliothek;

nd the

'Aria

18

Loc.

cit.,

cited

by

Spitta,

Johann

Sebastian

ach,

.

120

n.

42

(Eng.,

i.

130

n.

160).

19

The

first

source,

compiled

c.1703-4

by

Johann

Christoph

Bornss,

is

lost,

but

photographs

survive

as

Staatsbibliothek

u

Berlin/Stiftung

Preussischer

Kulturbesitz,

Musikabteilung

mit Mendelssohn-Archiv

Fot

Bu

124.

See Robert

Hill,

The

Mdller

Manuscript

nd theAndreas

achBook:Two

Keyboard

nthologies

rom

the

Circle

f

the

roung

Johann

Sebastian

ach

unpublished

dissertation),

Harvard

University,

1987,

p.

115 n.

20

and

p.

168.

Hill further

uggests

(p. 170)

that

Bomss's

copying

of this

work

represents

a

connection,

together

with

a

concordance

and the

overlap

of six

composers,

with

the

copying

activities

of

Johann Christoph

Bach

(22).

This

assertion

depends

partly

on

the

identity

of

the

Johann

Christoph

Bach

to whom

the various

works are attributed.

20

Perhapswe should add to the work-lista bourr6ewith text that appears n a portraitsaid to representJohann

Christoph

(13), reproduced

n

Johann

Sebastian ach:

Life,

Times,

nfluence,

d. Barbara

Schwendowius

&

Wolfgang

Domling,

New

Haven, 1984,

58.

21

One

wonders whether

Johann Christoph

(13) adopted

the

long

form

of his

signature,

with

title

and Eisenach

designation,

to

distinguish

himself

from

others with

the same name.

350




8/22

Eberliniana

pro

dormente

Camillo'

attributed

to

'Joh.

Christoph

Bach

org.'

trans-

mitted

in

a

manuscript

now in

the

Bachhaus,

Eisenach.22

See Appendix

II,

below.)

This

second

piece

and

its source

are

well

known;

the work

was edited

for the

Bach-

Gesellschaft n

1940,

and the Neue

Bachgesellschaft

ublished

a

handsome

facsimile

of

its source in

1992.

Both

manuscripts

are

in the hand

of

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(22),

musician

in

Ohrdruf

and J. S. Bach's elder brotherand earlyteacher.23One might

think that he is the obvious

candidate

as

composer,

but

there

has

been a

strong

bias

against

him,

extending

to a

reluctance o

credit

him as

the

composer

of

anything,

let

alone

anything

as

good

as these

variations.

Johann Christoph

(22)

was

long

known

primarily

as the

person

with

whom

the

orphaned

J.

S.

Bach

lived between

the

ages

of

ten and

fifteen. In

recent

years,

Hans-

Joachim

Schulze has

identifiedhim as

the

copyist

and

assemblerof

the

Andreas

Bach

Book

and

M6ller

Manuscript,

two

anthologies

of

keyboard

music

that

document

his

collecting

and

copying

of

keyboard

repertory

nd

that are

crucial

sources

for the

music

of

the

young J.

S.

Bach.24

n

a

biographical

tudy,

Schulze

painted

a

fuller

picture

of

this previously shadowy figure but acknowledged an important gap: no musical

compositions

could

be

ascribed o

him.25

n

fact,

we

do

not

know

whetherhe

composed

at

all. This is not

for lack

of

compositions

attributed

o

'Johann

Christoph

Bach',

as

we

have

seen,

but

the

many

such

pieces

have

automatically

been

assigned

to

the

older

musician with

that

name.

Schulze inclined for

various

reasons

towards

Johann

Christoph

13)'s

authorship

of

our two

sets of

keyboardvariations,

but

cautioned

that

this

should

not

be

taken

as

a

premiss.

He

suggested

that we

should

instead

undertake

a

stylistic

study

that

rules

out

Johann

Christoph

(22)

and

shows

the

pieces

to

be

consistent

with

the

known

music

of

Johann

Christoph

(13).26

This

proves

to

be

difficult

f

not

impossible,

as

the

surveyof Johann Christoph(13)'swork-listshows, because we do not have a secure

repertory

with

which

to

compare

them.

All we

can do

is

investigate

when and

why

the

variations

were

assigned

to

Johann

Christoph

(13).

We

should

also

look at

the

factors

that

have

led

away

from

attributions o

Johann

Christoph

(22),

their

copyist,

and

ask

whether it is

plausible

that

the

younger

man

composed

this

kind

of

piece

at

the

time

suggested

by

the

sources.

The

manuscripts

of

the

variation

sets

have

remarkable

histories.

Philipp

Spitta

owned

both at

the

time

the

first

volume

of his

Bach

biography

was

published

in

1873;

he

probably

acquired

them

from the

collection

of

Hans

Georg

Nageli,

in

whose

1854

estate

catalogue

they

appear.

How

Nageli

acquired

them we

do

not

know,

but

the

A

minor variationscontain a receipt dated 1802 documentingtheir sale on behalf of

Johann

Christian

Bach of

Halle,

the

so-called

Clavier-Bach,

who

also

owned

the

22

Zurich,

Zentralbibliothek,

MS

Q.

914,

headed

'AriaJ:

C:

BachJ:

C.

B.';

the

first

page

is

reproduced

n

Hill,

The

MollerManuscript

nd

heAndreas

ach

Book,

p.

596,

and the

work

published

nJohann

Christoph

Bach,

Aria

a-moll

mit

15

Variationen

ur

Cembalo,

d.

Giinter

Birkner,

Zurich,

1973;

Eisenach,

Bachhaus,

6.2.1.05,

olim

AA

1,

headed

'Aria

Eberliniana

I

pro

dormente

Ca=

millo,

I

variataa

j

Joh.

I

Christoph

Bach

org.

I

Mens.

Mart

ao.

1690.';

the

first

page

is

reproduced

and

the

work

published

in

Johann

Christoph

Bach,

Aria

Eberliniana,

d.

Conrad

Freyse

('Veroffentlichung

der

Neuen

Bachgesellschaft',

xxxix/2),

Leipzig,

1940,

and

the

whole

reproduced

in

Johann

Christoph

Bach,

Aria

Eberliniana

ro

dormente

amillo

ariata

(1690).

Faksimile

er

Handschrift

m

Bachhaus

isenach

mit

einem

Nachwort

on

Claus

Oefner,

eipzig,

1992.

The

watermark n

the

paper

of

both

manuscripts

s

reported

as

an A

with

trefoil n

Hill,

op.

cit.,

p.

114,

and

Hans-Joachim

Schulze,

Studien

ur

Bach-Uberlieferung

m

18.

Jahrhundert,

eipzig,

1984,

p.

52

n.

170.

23

Robert

Hill

considers

that

both

the

Eberliniana

and

A

minor

manuscripts

predate

he

Moller

Manuscript

and

the

AndreasBach Book, that is, beforec.1704: TheMolerManuscriptnd theAndreas achBook,p. 115.

24

Schulze,

Studien

ur

Bach-iberlieferung,

p.

52-6;

see

also

Hill,

The

Miller

Manuscript

nd the

Andreas

ach

Book.

25

Hans-Joachim

Schulze,

'Johann

Christoph

Bach

(1671

bis

1721),

Organist

und

Schul

Collega

in

Ohrdruf ,

Johann

Sebastian

Bachs

erster

Lehrer',

Bach-Jahrbuch,

xxi

(1985),

55-81.

26

Ibid.,

p.

78.

351




9/22

Keyboard

ook

or

Wilhelm riedemannach.It is

likely

that he

received

hat

volume,

the

A minor variations

and

probably

also the

Eberliniana

variations

from

Friedemann,

who

was his teacher.27 he variation

manuscripts

hus

appear

o

have

been

transmitted

for

many

years

within

the Bach

family.28

The

identification

of their

copyist

as

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(22)

is

a

relatively

recent

development.29

The

reigning (and only) opinion

for

years

was

Spitta's,

who

called

the

manuscripts

'autographs'-that

is,

of

Johann

Christoph

(13).30

This was a

decisive

statement,

because with it the

question

of

authorship

was

implicitly

opened

and

closed: an

autograph

s in the

hand of the

composer.

But we

need to

ask

whether

Spitta

actually

knew

Johann Christoph

(13)'s handwriting.

He

did

identify

one other

score,

that of the motet 'Lieber Herr

Gott,

wecke

uns

auf',

as

an

autograph,

but it is

clearly

n a hand different rom that in the two

keyboard

manuscripts.3

I

suspect

that

Spitta

assumed

that the

keyboard

manuscripts

were

autographs

because he

believed a

priori

hat

the

pieces

were

composed

by

Johann

Christoph

13).32

n

any

event,

there is

no

earlier

assignment

to a

particular omposer;

Spitta's

Bach

biography

of

1873 is the

originof the attributions o Johann Christoph(13).

A

twist in

the

history

of the Aria Eberliniana

manuscript

has

probably

contributed o

the continued

acceptance

of the

attribution to

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13).

The

manuscript

s now one of the treasuresof the

Bachhaus

in

Eisenach,

a

museum that

occupies

a house once

said to

beJ.

S.

Bach's

birthplace,

and

the

composition

has

long

been

championed by

directors of the

museum. The first

modem

edition was

by

Conrad

Freyse,

who

wrote that

Eisenach was the

fitting place

for a

manuscript

containing

a

'distinctively

Eisenach

composition'.33

he

facsimile issued in

1992

by

the Neue

Bachgesellschaft

to

mark the

350th

anniversary

of the

birth

of

Johann

Christoph

(13)

was edited

by

a later director

of the

museum,

Claus

Oefner,

who

27

The

informationhere

is

largely

summarized rom

Aria

a-moll,

ed.

Birkner,

and

Aria

Eberliniana,

d.

Freyse.

Both

manuscripts

are

listed

in the 1854

auction

catalogue

of

the

Nageli

collection,

where

the Eberlinianavariationsare

inexplicably

attributed

to

Johann

Ernst

Bach;

see

Schulze,

Studien

ur

Bach-Uberlieferung,.

37 n.

114,

and

Raymond

Meylan,

'Neues zum MusikaliennachlaB

on

Hans

GeorgNageli',

Bach-Jahrbuch,

xxxii

(1996),

45. Both were owned

by

Philipp Spitta

(Johann

Sebastian

Bach,

i.

128

n.

41;

Eng.,

i.

130

n.

159).

The A

minor

variations,

though

not

fully

traceable,

are known

to

have

passed

to Wilhelm

Kraukling;

see

Spitta,

ibid.

(Eng.

only),

i.

130; Schulze,

Studien

ur

Bach-Uberlieferung,.

38

n.

115;

and

idem,

'Sebastian Bachs

Choral-Buch n

Rochester,

NY?',

Bach-Jahrbuch,

xvii

(1981),

127

n.

23.

Spitta

retained he

manuscript

of the

Aria

Eberliniana

at least until

1889;

see

Schulze,

Studicn

ur

Bach-

Uberlieferung,.

38 n.

116,

citing

Max

Schneider,

'Thematisches

Verzeichnis der musikalischenWerke der Familie

Bach',

Bach-Jahrbuch,

v

(1907),

158. The Aria

Eberliniana

manuscript

ended

up

in

the Eisenach

Bachhaus,

perhaps

directly

from

Spitta's

son.

28

Max Schneider

('Thematisches

Verzeichnis',

p.

158) hypothesized

hat

they

had a connection to the Altbachisches

Archiv.Cf. Schulze,Studien urBach-Uberlieferung,. 38.

29

Dietrich

Kilian first

dentified the hand

of

the variationsas that of the

principal

scribe of

the

Andreas

Bach

Book

and

Moller

Manuscript,

and

Schulze

subsequently

identified this

copyist

as

J.

S. Bach's elder brother.

See

Schulze,

Studien

ur

Bach-Uberlieferung,

.

32

n. 94 and

p.

37

n.

110;

and

Hill,

The

Mdller

Manuscript

nd the

Andreas

ach

Book,

pp.

3-6. On

the

possible

reasonsfor

the

overlooking

ofJohann

Christoph

Bach

(22)

as

a

candidate,

see

Schulze,

Studien

zur

Bach-Oberlieferung,.

52,

and Robert

Hill,

' Der Himmel

weiss,

wo

diese

Sachen

hingekommen

sind :

Reconstructing

he Lost

Keyboard

Notebooks of the

Young

Bach and

Handel',

Bach, Handel,

Scarlatti:

Tercentenary

Essays,

ed. Peter

Williams,

Cambridge,

1985,

pp.

161-72.

The connection between

the variationsand the

Miller

Manuscript

and

Andreas Bach Book

long

went

unrecognized,

and

the

supposed copyist

of

the two

large

collections

changed

several

times without

affecting

the attribution

of the variations.

30

Spitta,

Johann

Sebastian

Bach,

.

128

n. 41

(Eng.,

i.

130

n.

159).

31

Berlin,

Staatsbibliothek

u

Berlin/Stiftung

Preussischer

Kulturbesitz,

Musikabteilung

mit Mendelssohn-Archiv

Mus. ms.

Bach P

4/2.

32

At the least, Spitta's decisions about hand and authorshipwere made together.By the time Conrad Freyse

published

his edition

of the Aria

Eberliniana

n

1940,

he

recognized

that the hand was

not that

of

Johann

Christoph

(13),

but

by

then

the

attribution

of

the

composition

was entrenched.

3

Johann

Christoph

Bach,

Aria

Eberliniana,

d.

Freyse,

preface.

Freyse

pointed

to the Eisenach connections

of

both

Eberlin

and

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13).

352




10/22

described

the

manuscript

as

a

'significant

document

of Eisenach's musical

history',

and

accepted

the older Bach's

authorship

as a

premiss.

This

manuscript

s said to

have

found its

way

home

to

Eisenach,

the

adopted

town of

its

presumed composerJohann

Christoph

Bach

(13),

who

lived and worked

there for almost

50

years.

For an

Eisenach

museum

in

possession

of such

a

manuscript,

here

might

be a

great

deal at stakein

an

attribution o the Bach most closely associatedwith the town.34

Whatever

has

encouraged

the

perpetuation

of the

attribution,

t

clearly

began

with

Spitta,

and I

suggest

that

he based it not

on

supporting

evidence

but, rather,

on

his

convictions

about

Johann

Christoph 13).

Along

with

Spitta's

high regard

orthis

man

went

strong

opinions

about these

compositions

in

particular.

First,

he

believed

that

they

were

especially important pieces,

and was

eager

to connect them

and

their

composer

to later

keyboard

music. In

discussing

the Eberliniana

variations,

for

example, Spitta

wrote:

The use of

chromatic

passages

. .

gives

the

harmony

a

strange,

ntoxicating

ffect,

reminding

s of

the most

modem meansof

expression

sed

by

Schubert nd

Schumann.

It mightbe safelywagered hatno one,unacquainted iththe instrumental usic of the

seventeenth

entury,

would

guess

at

this

day

that these

variations ere

composed

n

1690;

rather

wouldhe

imagine

rom heirsoftness

nd sweetnesshat

they

were

by

Mozart.35

Spitta

also

asserted that

J.

S.

Bach must

have

known a

third set

of

variations

attributed o

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13),

citing

passages

rom

the Aria

variata lla

man.

Italiana

(BWV

989)

and the

Goldberg

Variations

(BWV

988)

that

they

influenced.36

Again,

he related the

variations o

later

music:

'Since the

grand

fourth

variation

n

Beethoven's

Sonata

(Op.

109)

can be

pretty plainly

traced to

its

root

in

Sebastian

Bach's

[Goldberg

Variations],

we

may

see in

this

the

indirect

influence

of

Joh.

Christoph

Bach even

in modem

times'.37

Spitta

needed a

composer

for these

pieces

who

belonged

in the

pantheon

that

included

Schumann,

Schubert,

Beethoven,

Mozart

and

J.

S.

Bach,

and

in

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13)

he had a

candidate.

Spitta's

views

on

the

variations

and

their

authorship

are thus

merely

part

of his

broader

perspective

of

Johann

Christoph

(13),

and it

is difficult

o

see how

he

might

have

attributed

he

variations o

anyone

else.

All

subsequent

commentators

have

followed

his

attribution.

The

bias

towards

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13)

as

the

composer

of

these

(and

other)

works

is

matched

by

a

long-standing

prejudice

against

Johann

Christoph

(22)

as

a

composer,

and

again

the views

of the

Bach

family

and

of

Spitta

are

crucial.

The

most

influential

anecdote

about

J.

S.

Bach's

elder

brother is

a

story

in

C.

P. E.

Bach's

obituary

of

his

father,

recounted in

Forkel's

biography.

The

young Johann

Sebastian,

denied

access

to a

manuscript

of

keyboard

music,

secretly

copied

it

out

by

moonlight,

only

to

have

it

confiscated

by

his

elder

brother.38

Spitta

attributed

he

withholding

of

the

moonlight

manuscript

to

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(22)'s 'pride

of

seniority',

and

describes

him

as 'so

hard-hearted

as

to

take it

away

from

him'.39

n

this

story,Johann

4

The

manuscript

of

the

A

minor

variations,

once

owned

by

the

Zurich

publisher

and

collector

Hans

Georg Nigeli,

followed a

circuitous route

through

Philipp Spitta

to its

present

owner,

the

Zentralbibliothek,

Zurich.

In

some

sense,

this

manuscript,

too,

found

its

way

'home',

as

Birkner

Aria

a-moll)

points

out.

5

johann

Sebastian

ach,

.

128

(Eng.,

i.

129-30).

36

The

connection

with

the

Goldberg

Variations

has

persisted;

cf.

Christoph

Wolff,

Kritischer

ericht o

Johann

Sebastian

ach:

NVue

Ausgabe

imtlicher

Werke,

/2,

Kassel

&

Leipzig,

1981,

p.

110.

On

the A

minor

variations,

Spitta

wrote:'The resemblanceto SebastianBach'sA-minorvariations

[the

Aria

variata]

s here still more

conspicuous,

and

cannot be

merely

accidental'.

Johann

Sebastian

ach,

.

128

(Eng.,

i.

130).

37

Ibid.,

i.

127

(Eng.,

i.

129).

38

Forkel,

Ueber

ohann

Sebastian

achs

Leben,

p.

5.

39

Spitta,

Johann

Sebastian

ach,

i.

183-4

(Eng.,

i.

186).

353




11/22

Christoph

(22)

is the

antagonist, portrayed

as a

'provincialorganist

with little

insight

into

his

younger

brother's

gifts'.4

The

biographical

acts,

as

Schulze

has

pointed

out,

do

not

support

the

story's

clear

implication

of a coolness

between

the brothers.4' But

Spitta,

perhaps disposed

to

disconnect

the Bach

brothers,

assertedthat

Johann

Sebastianand

Johann Christoph

(22) did not have much contact afterJ. S. Bach's departure n 1695, and concluded

that,

at least in

C.

P.

E. Bach's

opinion,

Johann Christoph 22)

had had little

influence

on

Johann

Sebastian.

Only Johann Christoph

(22)'s

keyboard

eaching,

about

which

there

was no

information,

seemed

to

Spitta

to have

influenced

his

younger

brother.42

But

Spitta

had

asserted that

our two variation

sets

were

a direct

influence on

J.

S.

Bach's

music.

For that

to be

true in

Spitta's

scheme,

they

could not have been

by

his

brother.43

pitta's

convictions

about

Johann Christoph

Bach

(22)

must have ruled him

out

as a

composer

of these

pieces,

and,

as far as I

know,

no other music

has ever

been

attributed

o him.

The

variations

and theirsources

do offersome

clues to their

authorship,

but most of

them are ambiguousand have been interpretedover the yearsas pointingto Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13).

In the

light

of the

biaseswe have

seen,

the matter s worth another

look.

We can

begin

with the

apparent

connectionof the Aria Eberliniana

with Daniel

Eberlin.

Eberlin

(1647-c.

1713-15),

a

violinist

and

composer,

led a

tumultuous

career

in

Kassel,

Nuremberg

and

mostly

in Eisenach.

Fewof his

compositions

survive.4

t

has

been

routinely

claimed

that the Aria

is a work

by

Eberlin

himself,

and

although

this

is

an

understandable

guess,

I do not think

we

should

trust

it. First,

a name attached

to

an

aria

of this

type

is

not

necessarily

an

attribution;

Pachelbel's

Aria Sebaldina'

from

the

Hexachordum

pollinis,

o cite

just

one

example,

was

apparently

named in honour

of

St

Sebald

or the

St Sebald

Church

of

Pachelbel's

native

Nuremberg.

Second,

the

Aria

Eberliniana s a conventional ittlepiece;withits 4 +4-barbinarystructure, hree-voice

texture

and

rhythmic

regularity,

t resembles

many

other themes

used as the basis

for

variation

sets.

Its

tune

is

stereotyped;Johann

Heinrich

Buttstedt used

a similar

ornamented

melody

for

a set of

variations,

and

a

related

tune

with variations

appears

anonymously

in

the

Mylau

Manuscript.46

The material

of

the

Aria Eberliniana

is

commonplace,

and

the

piece

may simply

have

been named in

Eberlin's honour.

Either

way,

the

question

is

to

which

Johann

Christoph

Bach

the reference

points.

Historians

have

always

looked in

the direction

of

Eisenach,

the town

most

closely

connected

with

the elusive

Eberlin,

and thus

to

Johann

Christoph(13).

Eberlin

is

known

to

have

been

in Eisenach

in

1690,

the

date on the

manuscript,

as was

Johann

40

Hill,

'Der

Himmel

weiss ',

pp.

162-3.

This

story

seems

to

have

become more

pointed

with each

telling.

Karl

and

Irene

Geiringer,

or

example,

wrote

that it

was

'exasperation

with the

young

genius's

unceasing

battery

of

questions

and

a sudden

jealous

awareness

of

Sebastian's

superior

gifts

that

provoked

this

spiteful

outburst'.

The Bach

Family,

p.

122.

41

Schulze,

'Johann

Christoph

Bach',

p.

56.

42

Spitta

noted

that

C. P.

E. Bach's

obituary

of

his

father

mistakenly

reports

hatJ.

S. Bach

left Ohrdruf

or school

at

Liineburg

when

his elder brother

died,

supposedly

n

1700,

and

that laterBach

family copies

of

the

genealogy

misstate

the date

of

Johann

Christoph

(22)'s

death.

Johann

Sebastian

ach,

. 184

n. 7

(Eng.,

i. 186

n.

7).

43

Spitta

conceded

that

J.

S.

Bach

had

probably

been

exposed

to the music

of Pachelbel

because of

his brother's

study

with

him,

but concluded

thatJohann

Sebastian

soon had

no

more

to

learn

from

his

eldest

brother'.

Ibid.,

i.

184

(Eng.,

i.

186).

44

Susette

Clausing,

'Eberlin,

Daniel',

The

New

Grove,

.

813-14;

Richard

Schaal,

'Eberlin,

Daniel', MGG,

cols.

1055-6;

Claus

Oefner,

'Neues

zur Lebens-

und

Familiengeschichte

Daniel

Eberiins',

Die

Musikforschung,

xii

(1969),

464-75.

45

Clausing

(in

The

New

Grove),

or

example,

includes

'Pro dormente

Camillo,

aria'

in Eberlin's work-list.

46

See Ernst

Ziller,

Der

Erfurter

Organist

ohann

Heinrich uttstidt

1666-1727),

Halle,

1935;

and Eberhard

Born,

Die

Variation

ls

Grundlage

andwerklicher

estaltung

m

musikalischen

chaffen ohann

Pachelbels,

erlin,

1941,

esp.

music

example

1,

a

strikingcomparison

of all these

aria tunes.

354




12/22

Christoph

(13),

whereas

Johann

Christoph

(22)

was elsewhere.

But

Johann

Christoph

(22)

lived

most of

the first fifteen

years

of his

life

there,

and

apparently

maintained

connections

with the town

after

eaving

home

c.

1685,

at least

until

his

parents'

deaths

in 1694/5.

Johann

Christoph

(22)

might

have had

reason

to refer

to

Eberlin,

and

we

cannot assume

that the reference

dentifies

Johann

Christoph

(13)

as the

composer.

Perhaps the most puzzling element in the heading is the label 'pro dormente

Camillo',

perhaps

somehow connected

with Eberlin.I

have been unable

to

determine

how.

None

of the members

of the Bach

or Eberlin families

appears

to have had

the

name Camillo

or

any

name

for which

it would

be

a

likely

translation,

nickname

or

diminutive. I can

discern

no

likely

connection

with

the

historical

igures

from

ancient

Rome whose

name was

Camillo,47

or

with

the Italian

noun

camillo

eferring

o

youths

who assisted ancient

priests.4

Giovanni

Bononcini's

II

trionfo

i

Camilla,

laimed to

be

the source of

bothJ.

S. Bach

and

Handel

borrowings,

was

produced

n

Naples

in

1696,

too

late to be

connected

with our

variations.49

n

opera

Camillo

eneroso

roduced

in

Dresden in 1693 is

also too

late

to

be

relevant.50

or the

moment

the

significance

of

'Camillo' is a mystery.5'

The source

describes

the

Eberliniana

variationsas

'variata

a

Joh.

Christoph

Bach

org',

and Schulze

has

argued

that

this

form

of

signature,

n

particular

he

designation

'org[anist]',

s

characteristic

of

Johann

Christoph

(13).

In

March

1690,

too,

Schulze

notes,

this

Johann

Christoph

held

a

position

as

organist,

whereas

Johann

Christoph

(22)

had

recently

quit

his

post

at the Erfurt

Thomaskirche,

was

probably

n

Arnstadt

awaiting

a

better

one,

and

thus did not

hold

the

title

'organist'.52

find

this

evidence

suggestive

rather

han

compelling,

and

sufficiently

mbiguous

that

it

does

not

rule

out

Johann

Christoph

22).

It is

true

that

he was

out

of

ajob

in

1690,

but

his

training

was as

an

organist,

he had

just

left

a

post

where

he

held

the

title,

and

was

apparently

n

search

of a new organist'sposition.Johann Christoph 13)did sign himselfin a characteristic

way,

but the

distinguishing

feature

of

his

signature

seems to

be

that

he

identifies

himself as

'organist

in

Eisenach',

which is

not

specified

in

the

Aria

Eberliniana

heading.

The

attribution

could

thus

point

just

as

easily

to

Johann

Christoph

(22)

as

Johann

Christoph

(13).

The

date

March

1690

might

provide

a

hint

of

the

younger

man's

authorship.

In

June

1690,

Johann

Christoph

(22)

was

installed

as

organist

in

Ohrdruf.53

He

had

spent

most

of

the

years

between

1684

and

1690

in

Erfurt,

briefly

as

organist

in the

Thomaskirche,

and

for

three

or

four

years

as

a

pupil

of

Johann

Pachelbel,

whose

tutelage

provides

a

plausible

context

for

Johann

Christoph

(22)'s

composition

of

the

variations.Variationtechnique playsan importantrole in Pachelbel's

music,

figuring

in

chaconnes

and

passacaglias,

in

variations

on

chorale

melodies

(like

those

in

the

Musicalische

terbens-Gedancken,

rfurt,

1683),

and

in

sets

of

variations

on

arias

transmitted

in

manuscript

and

published

in

his

Hexachordum

pollinis

Nuremberg,

1699).5

47

Marcus Furius

Camillus

and

Lucius

Furius

Camillus:

see The

New

Encyclopedia

ritannica,

hicago,

1995.

48

Grande

izionario

nciclopedico,

urin,

1994. If

the

term

was

applied

symbolically

to

servers

or

other

boys

who

assisted

with

moder

services,

t

could refer

to

anyone.

49

See

Winton

Dean,

'Handel

and

Bononcini:

Another

Link?',

The

Musical

Times,

xxxi

(1990),

412-13.

s0

See

Franz

Stieger,

Opernlexikon,

utzing,

1975.

5s

Christoph

Wolff

pointed

out to

me

the

parallel

between

this

aria

with

variations or

a

'sleeping

Camillo'

and

Forkel'sclaimthatJ. S. Bach's

Goldberg

Variationswereconnected

with

Count

Hermann

Carl

Keyserlingk's

nsomnia.

What

this

might

say

about

the

authorship

of

the

Eberliniana

variations

s not

clear.

2

Schulze,

'Johann

Christoph

Bach',

pp.

77ff.

5 See

ibid.

4

See

the

work-list n

Ewald

V.

Nolte,

'Pachelbel,

Johann',

The

New

Grove,

iv.

53,

and

Johann

Pachelbel:

lavierwerke,

ed.

Max

Seiffert

&

Adolf

Sandberger

'Denkmiler

der

Tonkunst

in

Bayern',

i),

Leipzig,

1901.

355




13/22

Variation

technique

is also

prominent

n the

surviving

music of

Pachelbel's

pupils.

Chorale

variations

by

several of them are

known,

and Buttstedt's

Musicalische

lavier-

Kunst

Leipzig,

1713)

ncludes

an

aria with twelvevariations.55

he

document closest

to

Pachelbel's

Erfurt

eaching,

Johann

Valentin

Eckelt's

ablature,

containsno

variations,

but

the

Mylau

Manuscript

contains

twelve

sets,

including

four

by

Pachelbel and one

by his pupil Nicolaus Vetter.56ohann Jacob de Neufville's Sex melea [ive]Ariaecum

variationibus

n.p.,

preface

dated

1708)

contains

five

arias with variations ollowed

by

a

ciaccona,

and

it is

not difficult

to see it as an emulation of his teacher's Hexachordum

Apollinis,

which consists

of six sets of

variations,

he last the 'Aria Sebaldina'.57

Pachelbel's

pupils

composed

variations

of the

type represented by

the Aria

Eberliniana

and

A minor

variations,

and

Johann

Christoph

22)'s

study

withPachelbel

provides

a context

for his

authorship

of

pieces

like

them.58

We should also note that

Pachelbel's

path

often crossed

with that

of his

Nuremberg compatriot

Eberlin,

which

could

account

for

the Eberlin

reference in

a

composition by

his

pupil.

There

is

no

reason

why

the Bach

variations

ould not

be the

work

ofJohann

Christoph

13),

but

in

Johann Christoph(22), especiallyin the light of his studywith Pachelbel,we have an

equally

plausible

candidate.

One

reason

that this

possibility

has

been little considered s that

Johann Christoph

(22)'s

authorship

would

actually

create

a

historiographic

problem.

Historians

have

debated

the

relation

between the

Dutch,

Italian and Viennese variation raditions

and

the

cultivation

of

variations in

central

Germany, especially

in

Thuringia

among

Pachelbel

and his

pupils.

In

particular,

hey

have wondered where Pachelbel

learnt

variation

echnique. Spitta,

speaking

mostly

of chorale

settings, proposed

that

Johann

Christoph

Bach

(13)

had

influenced Pachelbel.59

He held the view that Pachelbel

himself,

great

as he

was,

had

had little influence on the Bach

family,

which was

'too

innatelyindependenteverto give itselfup entirelyto any externaldirection',and no

perceptible

nfluence

on

Johann

Christoph

(13).60

The

influence,

according

to

Spitta,

johann christoph bach

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