Booklet

,What is an Original? What is an
Arrangement?
>>Faithfulness to the work,< >>original sound,<< >>original text,<< and >>source criticism< are catchwords generally associated with historical performance practice. The principles behind such terms rid the interpreter¡¯s perspective of its romantic baggage and paved the way for a newer, more vibrant approach to music prior to 1800, with investigation of the sources playing a foundational role in this process. A very decisive step was taken when the many arrangements and interpretations from the nineteenth century, an epoch during which >>early music<< emerged as a topic of consideration, came to be seen for what they in fact are and were: products of reception from an era marked by romantic historicizing. In this context xearly music< was first and foremost a space for the projection of one¡¯s own imagination, ideas, and overall state of being. The music of the past was usually processed in arrangements reflecting this world of ideas. Some arrangements are appropriate and even interesting, but others distort the original to the point of absurdity. Consequently, the
>>arrangement<< has been a topic regarded with suspicion from the very beginning in modern, historical-critical performance practice. In contrast, >>original versions<< are viewed as sacrosanct.
The term >>originalx is nevertheless not at all pertinent to Bach¡¯s understanding of art - to name only one example. It is instead a topos from the Age of Sensibility, an epochal trend that made the consideration of one¡¯s own state of mind the central object and subject of artistic production. This topos was founded on the postfeudal view of the individual as the standard of validity. For Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, for instance,
>>originality4x meant expressing things that were irrepro ducible
unrestrainedly subjective, deliberately and almost obsessively unconventional, while resisting the law of form, obliging oneself only to one¡¯s own state of being, feeling, and thinking, and thematizing the same.
In contrast, Johann Sebastian Bach¡¯s thought was firmly anchored in the cosmos of the old order, according to which the whole phenomenal world was contained in a divine structure. Art and music were a copy of this divine order insofar as they endeavored to represent similarly perfectly organized structures analogous to the cosmos and in this way to glorify God. In this view of art, man was present in the ideal-typical representation of his affections, not as an individual but as a species transcending the individual. The individual work of art as well was thus held to be not only a uniquely existing form but also an exemplary manifestation of a self-set mandate. >>Exemplary,< however, did not mean
>>unique.c< What it meant concretely was that a composition could exist in several versions. New instrumentalions, arrangements, reworkings, and transformations represented interesting alternatives. This corresponded entirely to the late baroque-rationalistic view of the world. Just as God manifests himself in the world in various ways but is always one and the same God, so too the work of art occupies itself with subjects that can assume a series of varying forms while speaking about the same thing. Bach himself was his own best
>>arranger<< and occupied himself with the arrangement of many works over decades. It is quite evident that for him >>arrangement<< and >>original,<< instead of forming opposites, were merely different phenomenal forms of the same substance.
It is also the case that not a one of the compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach on this compact disc is heard in its original form. All of them are arrangements ¡ª and are so in a twofold sense. First, the present versions by
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Bach are his arrangements of his own compositions and the result of what was in part a long process of composition during which they assumed a series of different forms. Second, this compact disc presents Bach¡¯s compositions in a performance form that, for its part, has resulted from our own arrangements of the Bach versions. The works have not been transmitted in the per- formance shape that we have given them. It is very probable, however, that these trio sonatas and their instrumental dimensions correspond to an earlier, lost version or at least come very close to it.
The Trio Sonata in G major is a wonderful example of Bach¡¯s own arrangement practice. Fortunately, we here encounter a rare case: both the earlier version for two flutes and basso continuo (BWV 1039) and the later version for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord (BWV 1027) are extant. In the later version Bach simply set the second flute part an octave lower for the gamba and assigned the first flute part to the right hand in the harpsichord part. One very interesting aspect here is that this simple from of arrangement, which would later become a standard practice in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach¡¯s music, meant that many harmonic pecuI liarities rendered by the right hand of the harpsichordist in the trio version were simply eliminated. It appears that for Bach the polyphonic essence was more important than the harmonic-color enrichment supplied by continuo practice. In his transcription Bach changes many little details in the figures, part writing, and ornamentation. Even the movement superscriptions were changed in the later versions. These interventions to a certain extent resulted in the redirection of the expressive content as well. But the substance is identical. The version recorded here is a third variant not present in this instrumentation by Bach. We play the composition with the gamba original part from the BWV 1027
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gamba version, the original flute part of the first flute from the BWV 1039 trio version, and the basso continuo according to the trio version. Trio sonatas with the flute and viola da gamba as the melody instruments were a quite frequently occurring, distinctive instrumental combination around 1740, with composers such as Leclair and Telemann contributing enchanting pieces to this genre. Our version brings with it the advantage that its rendering with a continuo group enhances the harmonic aspect, which is richer than that of the duo version for gamba and harpsichord. When compared to the version with two flutes and basso continuo, the flute, gamba, and basso continuo combination has the advantage that the different upper voices produce a clearer sound picture than two melody instruments of the same kind. What might Bach have said about our instrumental combination? Or does >>our version< per- hops exist - as yet undiscovered - in Bach¡¯s own hand in the holdings of some library or other?
We operated very similarly with the Gamba Sonatas in D major BWV 1028 and in G minor BWV 1029. In the case of these pieces, one can proceed on the assumption that the extant versions for viola do gamba and obbligato harpsichord again represent the final point of a long compositional genesis. Unfortunate- ly, the hypothetical earlier versions for a larger ensemble have not been transmitted to us. The trio sonata instrumentation with two melody instruments and basso continuo may nevertheless be regarded as having been the smallest possible ensemble because both sonatas represent the type of the >>sonato in concerto style,c< that is, a mix of the sonata do chiesa (church sonata) and Italian concerto. This mixed form was already developed to a considerable extent in Corelli¡¯s Violin Sonatas op. 5 around 1700. It nevertheless did not become the fashion until the end of the 1720s in Dres den
Bach must have become acquainted with it during one of his stays at the Saxon court there ¡ª for his sonata compositions are maintained in this style with striking frequency beginning about 1728. Our arrangement again merely involves a few changes: we have a melody instrument play the right hand of the harpsichord part with idiomatically motivated modifications in keeping with the model set by Bach in his G major sonata. The gamba part does not undergo modification, remaining unchanged as Bach¡¯s version. The bass part is figured and executed by a continuo group. The minimalist sound of the gamba and harpsichord is transferred, as it were, to the lavish sound of an ensemble. The text of the score, however, remains practically unchanged. We have decided to play the more intimate Sonata in D major BWV 1028 with the recorder (voice flute), gamba, and basso continuo. The four-part piece is situated more in the poetic-subjective expressive realm of German tradition. The recorder, old-fashioned already around 1730, signals something of decline and departure, and the sound of the recorder, two violas, and harpsichord recalls the consort sound of the seven- teenth century. In contrast, our ensemble for the Sonata in G minor BWV 1029 with violin, viola da gamba, and continuo group does justice to the robust and stormy character of the three-movement work, which is much more reminiscent of a modern and vital Italian concerto than of a German sonata. Drama and passion had always been affections that could be represented espedaIly well with the violin. In these two pieces as well we naturally would very much like to know what Bach¡¯s ear- her versions did or may have looked like. I can imagine the G minor sonata very well as a sort of seventh Bran- denburg Concerto for a larger ensemble - of which only the condensate has survived, in the form of a gamba sonata.
We have expanded our arrangement practice on this CD to include two of the so-called organ trio sonatas. The two sonatas BWV 525 and 527 are extant in a splendid manuscript from around 1728 in Bach¡¯s own hand. They are intended for the organ - above all, for the pedal clavichord or pedal harpsichord. The three voices are notated on three staves: right hand, left hand, and pedal. Large parts ofthem certainly go back to earlier versions for a small instrumental ensemble. Individual movements also appear in other connections in Bach¡¯s oeuvre. A very fine example is the slow move- ment of the Sonata BWV 527. Bach employed this movement about twenty years later as the slow move- ment of the Triple Concerto in A minor BWV 1044. Here the movement is played by the flute, violin, and harpsichord. Since four voices are required for this instrumental combination (the right and left hands in the harpsichord part and two melody instruments), Bach composed an additional accompaniment part for the three-part trio sonata setting and distributed all the voices to the instruments in a colorful, refined mix. Here we do indeed encounter the fortunate circumstances that I dreamed of seeing in the case of the Sonata in G minor BWV 1029: we can see how Bach transferred a mini- malist version for an organist into a chamber music ensemble while adding new musical material. Our version, however, corresponds completely to Bach¡¯s manuscript of the late 1720s. In keeping with the tonal range of the two upper-voice instruments selected by us, the recorder and the violin, we have transposed the piece from D minor to G minor and made some adjustments to the part writing along the lines of those employed by Bach in his own arrangements. We have again enriched the bass part harmonically with a figured bass and executed it with the gamba, lute, and organ. We also present the Organ Trio in E flat major BWV 525 in
a version for transverse flute, violin, and continuo group transposed to G major without further modifications.
Even if only the first four of the six organ trio sonatas absolutely without question go back to earlier versions for a small instrumental ensemble, it is interesting to con-
sider why Bach first joined together the pieces in a cycle in connection with >>ultimate compactingx for a single
musician (in the compacting of the gamba sonatas there are at least still two instrumentalists). Did it involve a
technical and creative-intellectual challenge going I along with the very demanding execution or a pedagogical aspect in the sense of a study of the translata bilit of the trio sonata principle to a xforeign medium< Or was it simply a sort of study score?
Even if the arrangement principle was generally accepted in the eighteenth century and universally practiced, an additional, highly interesting question never- theless remains: Why did Bach so frequently and so thoroughgoingly rework the first versions of his compositions? As the >>original genius era<< of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and his creative-intellectual succession in the romantic period understood it, this process was par- adoxical. In this understanding of art, a composition was fully valid only when it had a one-of-a-kind, unique form issuing from a genial idea. It is striking that Johann Sebastian Bach, in the arrangements in his sonata oeuvre, as a rule undertook a process of compression while neglecting the harmonic component of continuo practice and sacrificing it to pure polyphony. Did Bach in this way want to convey the origin (>origo<<) of his imaginative world in a form that would outlive fashion? Was it his intention to elevate the original product of his genius above the fleetingness of time by submitting it to developmental metamorphosis?
Karl Kaiser, Freiburg
Translated by Susan Marie Praeder
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Camerata Koln
The Camerata Koln ensemble performs baroque and classical chamber music from the period between 1700 and 1800. Music featuring solo woodwind instruments such as the recorder, transverse flute, and oboe plays a particularly significant role in its repertoire.
The Camerata Koln was founded in 1979. It is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in 2009 and thus enjoys a special place among all early music ensembles.
Its founding members Michael Schneider (recorder and transverse flute), Karl Kaiser (transverse flute), Hans-Peter Westermann (oboe), and Rainer Zipperling (violoncello and gamba) continue to perform in the ensemble.
During the past thirty years the ensemble not only has concertized in almost all the European countries and at the most prestigious early music festivals (Innsbruck, Bruges, Herne, Glasgow, Malm but also has frequently been a guest, usually in cooperation with the Goethe Institute, in countries and regions outside Europe such as Israel, North and South America, India, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan.
During these three decades the ensemble has released more than forty CD recordings on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and cpo labels. All of these discs have been produced in close cooperation with the Deutschlandfunk K and have included the recording premieres of the complete Concerti do camera of Viva I- di (for the first time on historical instruments), the Essercizii musici (four CDs) and Getreuer Musikmeister (five CDs) of Georg Philipp Telemann, and chamber music by William Williams and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.
The founding idea of presenting early chamber music with a virtuoso command of the historical instruments and with proper consideration of all the stylistic
criteria while maintaining the greatest possible spontaneity, delight in performance, and artistic independence has repeatedly been named by the public and press as the outstanding feature of this ensemble.
The Camerata Koln also performs programs including the presentation of J. S. Bach¡¯s Brandenburg Concertos in their original instrumental dimensions with a basic formation consisting of stringed instruments. In addition, the Camerata Koln enjoys teaming up with vocal soloists such as Christoph Pregardien, Ruth Ziesak, Nuria Rial, Claron McFadden, Gotthold Schwarz, and Sin Thornhill.
The ensemble specializes in programs focusing on a particular idea and prepared individually for special thematic emphases (festivals, anniversary years such as 2009, etc). All the members of the Camerata Koln are active as professors and instructors at German music colleges (Frankfurt am Main, Freiburg im Breisgau, Cologne, Darmstadt). Almost all of them teach in the Historical Interpretation Practice Department at the College of Music in Frankfurt am Main. Its members also frequently present workshops and interpretation courses together (e.g., at the Jerusalem Music Centre in 1997).
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