Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Part 31 (1/2)

SUMMARY OF BACH'S WORKS

No attempt is here made at chronological sequence. The changes in Bach's style, though clear and important, are almost impossible to describe in untechnical language; nor are they of such general interest as to make it worth while to expand this summary by an attempt to apportion its contents among the Arnstadt-Muhlhausen period, the Weimar period, the Cothen period (chiefly remarkable for instrumental music and comparatively uninteresting in its easy-going choral music), and the last period (1733-1750) in which, while the choral works became at once more numerous and more terse (_e.g._ _Jesu, der du meine Seele_) the instrumental music, though never diffuse, shows an increasing preference for designs on a large scale. (Compare, for example, the second book of the _Wohltemperirtes Klavier_, 1744, with the first, 1722.)

I.--CHURCH MUSIC

A. _With Orchestra_

190 church cantatas: besides several which are only known from fragmentary sets of parts. Of the 190, 40 are for solo voices, about 60 (including some solo cantatas) are more or less founded on chorales, and the rest, though almost invariably containing a chorale (for congregational singing), are practically short oratorios and frequently so ent.i.tled by Bach himself.

3 wedding cantatas: the Easter oratorio (exactly like the above-mentioned oratorio-cantatas; and the Christmas oratorio (six similar cantatas forming a connected design for performance on six separate days).

The Pa.s.sions according to St Matthew and St John.

Funeral ode for the d.u.c.h.ess Eberhardine (now known to be arranged from portions of the lost Pa.s.sion according to St Mark).

4 short ma.s.ses (_i.e._ Kyrie and Gloria only) mainly compiled from church cantatas.

Ma.s.s in B minor. Magnificat in D. A few other ecclesiastical Latin choruses.

B. _Without Orchestra_

5 motets _a capella_ (but there is reason to believe that these, except _Komm Jesu komm_, were intended to be partly supported by the organ). A sixth motet has an obligato figured-ba.s.s accompaniment.

A few early choruses, mostly turned to account in later works.

A large collection of plain chorales, including several original melodies.

II.--SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC

_Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan_ and _Der zufrieden gestellte Aeolus_; both ent.i.tled _Dramma per Musica_, but showing no more essential connexion with the stage than Handel's _Acis and Galatea_.

7 solo and 7 choral cantatas, of which latter three were almost entirely absorbed into the Christmas oratorio and the B minor ma.s.s. Of the solo cantatas two are Italian (one of these being Bach's only developed work for voice and clavier) and two are burlesque.

Several tunes with clavier ba.s.s, almost foreshadowing the modern song.

III.--INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

A. _Orchestral_

7 clavier concertos arranged from violin concertos and other sources.

3 concertos for two claviers (two being arranged from concertos for two violins).

2 concertos for three claviers.

The 6 Brandenburg concertos, for various combinations.

2 violin concertos, and a colossal _torso_ of a concerted violin-movement forming the prelude to a lost church cantata.

1 concerto for two violins.