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The Month of March — An Aubundance of Bach
By Jeffrey Engel, West Cornwall
 | | Johann Sebastian Bach |
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For many Americans the third month of the year signifies "March Madness," when sixty-four college basketball teams battle their way through countless rounds of tournament games in the hope of winning a national championship. March, however, should also be thought of as "Abundantly Bach Month." Not only were Johann Sebastian and his most talented son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, born during it, but the Saint Matthew Passion was performed in 1829 for the first time in a hundred years. That event led to the discovery of Bach, who had been buried in oblivion since his death in 1750.
Today Johann Sebastian is deemed one of music's immortals. It is forgotten how obscure a figure he had become by the end of the 18th century. If he was remembered at all it was as an excellent pedagogue, a virtuoso organist, not as a great composer. When the name Bach was mentioned it brought to mind his better known sons. Only a handful of his compositions were printed during his lifetime and just three between 1750 and 1800. One of them, "The Art of the Fugue" (1751), sold a paltry thirty copies by 1756, greatly adding to a reluctance to bring out anything else. No complete works were published during the rest of the 18th century. The more than two hundred cantatas were rarely performed even at Leipzig's Thomaskirche, where Bach had been cantor for 27 years. His sons, pupils and their friends were alone keeping his name alive.
Berlin—where C.P.E. (shorthand to music historians for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach) resided until 1767—was the center of Bach devotees. Baron Von Swieten, the Austrian ambassador to Prussia, belonged to this circle of admirers. When he returned to Vienna, he held concerts at his house, often programming Bach. It was there in 1782 that the 25-year-old Mozart first heard music by the much neglected composer.
In 1801, "The Well-Tempered Clavier" came into print simultaneously in Munich, Leipzig and Bonn. Johann Niklaus Forkel's biography, the first on Bach, followed a year later and a cantata was finally published in 1821. It was the 1829 performance of the Saint Matthew Passion, however, that ignited a serious interest in Johann Sebastian.
 | | Felix Mendelssohn |
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Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) was a composer, teacher and close friend of Goethe. (That great German writer preferred Zelter's musical settings of his poetry to those by Schubert and Beethoven. So much for Goethe's musical taste!) Zelter became the director of the Berlin Singakademie in 1800 and for nearly 30 years used it to promulgate older sacred music, especially that of Bach. The 1908 edition of Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians states that Zelter bought the manuscript of the Saint Matthew Passion at an auction of goods belonging to a deceased cheese-monger (an account not repeated in subsequent editions).
Although he performed Bach motets, Zelter avoided the Passions, fearing they could never be popular. He possessed an important collection of musical manuscripts and was extremely reluctant to share them with anyone else. His selfishness prevented copies from being made until the advent of Mendelssohn, such a champion of forgotten 18th century composers that Berlioz once quipped, "He loves the dead too much."
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47) had been studying theory and composition with Zelter at the Singakademie since 1819. He sang in the school choir and inevitably came into contact with the Saint Matthew Passion. Mendelssohn managed to have a copy made, and during the winter of 1827 played through excerpts with a small vocal group which met weekly at his house. Edward Devrient (1801-77), an actor, baritone and member of the ensemble, longed to sing the part of Christ in public. He and Mendelssohn approached Zelter for permission to perform the work. Initially, Zelter resisted. Bach could succeed in small doses, but not for an entire evening! Fortunately, the younger men prevailed and obtained Zelter's blessing as well as use of the Singakademie.
News of the rehearsals and the tremendous enthusiasm generated by the score quickly spread. Articles appeared extolling Bach and his music. The hall easily sold out and on March 29, 1829, a 20-year-old Mendelssohn conducted the Passion, unheard since April 15 a century before. Young Felix directed with the right hand and provided keyboard accompaniment with his left. The concert was a triumph and quickly was followed by more. Soon other neglected Bach choral works were performed and published.
In 1850 Robert Schumann participated in the foundation of the Bach Gesellschaft. Its purpose was to produce an edition of the complete oeuvre of Bach to commemorate the first centenary of his death. Fifty years later the forty-sixth and final tome appeared.
It is difficult to imagine a time when C.P.E. and Johann Christian, seldom heard on concert programs now, were more celebrated than their father. Perhaps musical March should be a month of thanks. Without Mendelssohn and his cohorts, who knows how long it would have taken Bach to become the household name he is today.
Recommended recording: Raymond Leppard conducting the NDR Chorus and Symphony Orchestra.
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