An Enigmatic Legacy: Two Instrumental Works Attributed to Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

Abstract

An Enigmatic Legacy: Two Instrumental Works Attributed to Wilhelm Friedemann Bach David Schulenberg Within Wilhelm most a brilliant few Friedemann years of of Sebastian's his Bach death, had children. if come not to during His be viewed next his lifetime, younger as the WilhelmFriedemann Bach had come to be viewedas the most brilliant of Sebastian'schildren. His nextyounger brother, Carl PhilippEmanuel,seems to have consideredhim as such,1 andFriedemann maywellhavebeenhisfather's favorite, as is now generally takenforgranted, althoughthisviewderivesin part fromFriedemann'sown less than generous remarksabout his siblings.2 Friedemann leftrelatively fewcompositions, buttheyare 'For instance, Sebastian's biographer Johann Nicolaus Forkel quoted Emanuel tothe effect that Friedemann "represented their father better than allthe rest ofthem put together." This remark, quoted inEnglish asearly as1870 inDmghťs Journal of Music (Feb. 26,1870; 29:197), first appeared inthe Leipziger Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 2 (1799-1 800): 829; the anonymous reviewer for Dwight's had probably found itinCarl Hermann Bitter's recently published Carl Philipp Emanuel und Wilhelm Friedemann Bach und deren Brüder ,2 vols.(Berlin: Wilhelm Müller, 1868; facsimile inonevolume, Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1973), 154. The review, incidentally, was ofaperformance ostensibly ofafantasia by Friedemann but more likely, asseveral other reports inDmghťs ofthat year make clear, ofa work actually by Johann Wilhelm Hässler, published in1870 by James William Davison as Friedemann's "Grand Fantasia" intheseries Revivals (London: Duncan Davison, 1870-1872). 2Bitter, Carl Philipp Emanuel und Wilhelm Friedemann Bach und deren Brüder ;150,called him Sebastian's Ueblingssohn, but the idea istraceable toposthumous remarks by Carl Friedrich Cramer, whose source was Friedemann himself. Cramer's 1792 report that Sebastian was"satisfied" only byFriedemann isalsothesource for Sebastian's supposed comments about the ephemerality ofEmanuel's music ("it's Prussian blue; itfades") and Christian Bach's "stupidity" (Dummheil). SeeThe New Bach Reader: ALife of Johann Sebastian Bach inLetters and Documents , eds.HansT. DavidandArthur Mendel; rev. and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: Norton: 1998), 413(item 24 W. F.Bach: Two Works 25 originaland well crafted,also challengingand provocative - as Friedemann seemstohavebeenpersonally. Severalsignificant works, including a flute concerto anda fewsonatas, havebeenassigned orreassigned tohiminrecent years. Butsuchattributions carry conviction onlyiftheyproceedfrombothcareful consideration of thesources anddetailedanalysis ofthemusic.3 Friedemann's concertosandotherso-calledorchestral worksare amonghismostinventive. Theybroadly resemble Emanuel's, butthey circulated muchless widely, perhapsbecause Friedemann reserved themforhis own concertuse. Of thehandfulof surviving works, eachisdistinctive, andthekeyboard concertos inparticular revealthe obsessiveoriginality forwhichthecomposerwas noted.4 Hence we wouldlikeverymuchto knowexactly whathe wroteand how his peculiarbrandof ensemblewriting originated. This studyexamines twoensembleworksthathavebeenattributed to Friedemann Bach. One emerges as a clearly authentic composition from thecomposer's maturity. The authorship oftheotherislesscertain, butifitcouldbe demonstrated to be byFriedemann itwouldshedlighton hisearly development as a composer. Л Concerto inG minor for Keyboard andStrings In his 1911 thematic catalogoftheworksofFriedemann Bach, theGermanmusicologist MartinFalckrecognized fiveconcertosby thecomposerforsolo keyboard and strings. Falckalso listeda sixth such work,in G minor,as "uncertain"(unsicher ).5 Untilrecently, no.409). 3As argued by Mary Oleskiewicz in"Wilhelm Friedemann Bach orJohann Joachim Quantz? TheFlute Concerto inBerlin, Archiv derSingAkademie , MS 2637," unpublished paper presented to theBachColloquium at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., May 3,2003. 4For example, Carl Friedrich Zelter, who described the composer's compulsion "to beoriginal and distinguish himself from hisfather and brothers" {original %u sein, sich vow Vater und Brüdern %u entfernen ),letter toGoethe ofApril 6,1829, no.665inMax Hecker, Briefwechsel ^wischen Goethe und Zelter (Frankfurt: Insel, 1987), 3:163. Falck smonograph Wilhelm rriedemann Bach: Sein Leben und seine Werke (Leipzig: C. F.Kahnt Nachfolger, 1913) wasaccompanied bya separately paginated thematic catalog, dated 1911, inwhich theconcertos appear onpp.10-11. Friedemann's works will becited here by "F"numbers taken from Falck's catalog. 26 Bach scholars havefollowed Falckindiscounting Friedemann's authorship of thiswork,and theG-minorconcertoremains virtually unknown todayand apparendy unrecorded, althoughit appearedin printas early as 1935.6Atthiswriting, Grove MusicOnline continues to designateitas "doubtful," suggesting Friedemann's brother-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol as a possiblecomposer,7 although theconcerto is to be includedin thenow-ongoing editionof Friedemann's collectedworks .8 Thenineteenth-century Bachbiographer CarlHermann Bitter had considered theconcertoone ofthe"bestkeyboard compositions of thepreviouscentury."9 Butalthough Falckagreedthatthe"valueof thefirst movement is unquestionable," hewas lessimpressed bythe secondand third movements, whichin hisviewdid not"reachthe heights." His conclusionwas thattheG-minorworkcouldnot"be comparedwithBach'smuchmoremoderngenuineconcertos."10 Yet the...