Page 109 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

The higher processes in the creation of art involve simplification— and so, too, in music history. To cut through the complexities of the music of the late Baroque period (1710–1750) and get to its essence, we could do no better than concentrate on the two imposing figures of Johann Sebastian Bach (Figure 6.1) and George Frideric Handel. Bach and Handel composed seemingly effortlessly in a variety of musical forms, styles, and genres, and with consistent technical mastery. Rankings, too, are a form of simplification; a recent appraisal by the New York Times put Bach and Handel in the top ten “all-time greatest composers,” Bach coming in at number one.
The early Baroque period had witnessed the creation of several new musical genres, such as opera, cantata, and concerto. The late Baroque, by contrast, is a period, not of musical innovation, but of consolidation and refinement. Neither Bach nor Handel invented any new forms, styles, or genres; instead, they gave greater weight, length, and polish to those established by their musical predecessors, such as Monteverdi and Vivaldi. Bach and Handel approached the craft of composition with unbounded self-confidence. Their music has
a sense of rightness, solidity, and maturity about it. Each time we choose
to listen to one of their compositions, we offer further witness to their success in bringing a hundred years of musical innovation to a glorious culmination.
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Attending the high water mark of late Baroque music (around 1725) came a flood of new counterpoint. Composers reintroduced polyphony to add richness to musical texture; specifically, they sought to “bulk up” the middle range of what had been previously a top-bottom (soprano- bass)–dominated sound (see Chapter 5). The gradual reintegration of counterpoint into the fabric of Baroque music reaches its apex in the rigorously contrapuntal works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Figure 6.1
The only authentic portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in 1746. Bach holds in his hand a six-voice canon, or round, which he created to symbolize his skill as a musical craftsman.
For a period of more than 200 years, roughly 1600 to 1800, nearly 100 musicians with the name of Bach worked in central Germany—the longest of all musi- cal dynasties. In fact, the name Bach (German for “brook”) was nearly a brand name, like our Kleenex or “to Google.” “A Bach” meant “a musician.” J. S. Bach was simply the most talented and industrious member of the clan. Although ar- guably the greatest composer who ever lived, Bach was largely self-taught. To learn his craft, he studied, copied, and arranged the compositions of Vivaldi, Pachelbel, and even long-dead Palestrina. He also learned to play the organ, in part by emulating others, once traveling on foot 400 miles round trip to hear a great performer. Soon Bach became the most renowned organ virtuoso in Ger- many, and his improvisations on that instrument became legendary.
Of all instruments, the organ is the most suitable for playing polyphonic counterpoint. Most organs have at least two separate keyboards for the hands and an additional one for the feet (see Figures 6.2 and 3.8). Thus, the instrument has the capacity to play several lines simultaneously. More important, each
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