"Bekennen Will Ich Seinen Namen": Authenticity, Purpose and Context for the Aria BWV 200. Observations on Johann Sebastian Bach's Reception of Works by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel

Abstract

"Bekennen Will Ich Seinen Namen":Authenticity, Purpose and Context for the Aria BWV 200. Observations on Johann Sebastian Bach's Reception of Works by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel* Peter Wollny (bio) Translated by James Brokaw (bio) Johann Sebastian Bach's engagement with the works of his forebears and contemporaries has occupied Bach research time and again from the very beginning.1 The motivating cause and impetus has always has been the desire to gain deeper insight into the genesis of Bach's own compositions and, by uncovering biographical, historical and stylistic as well as purely musical lines of connection, to approach a better understanding of the so "idiosyncratic" ["fremden"] and "similar to no other composer" ["keinem anderen Componisten" ähnlich]2 music of the Thomascantor. To be sure, today Bach's artistic involvement with actual or supposed models is assessed in a more sophisticated fashion than was the case with earlier scholarship. Nevertheless, determining the various "historical and artistic/musical phenomena that had an influence on Bach's life and work"3 still numbers among the most urgent tasks of Bach scholarship. In her study of Johann Sebastian Bach's music library published in 1990, Kirsten Beißwenger systematically surveyed the findings of 150 years of scholarship and, on the basis of this [End Page 36] comprehensive overview, sought to identify the emphases of his collecting and arranging activities which shifted numerous times over the course of Bach's lifetime.4 Shortly after its appearance, it became evident that a study of this kind was by no means the culmination of this branch of research, but rather was the starting point for a new phase of similar investigations—and not only because a considerable number of significant new sources have turned up since then.5 On the one hand, Beißwenger's descriptive catalog made possible for the first time a quick overview of the make-up and dating of the collection of other composers' works assembled by Bach; on the other, however, the newly-acquired mastery of these materials led to the realization that the function and significance of Bach's music collection are far from easy to determine. In fact, only a portion of the collection, at best, can be classified as a study library; the rest seems rather to partake of the character of a usable repertoire selected solely with a view towards actual performance. The Thomascantor seems to have been mainly concerned with being prepared with appropriate music, at any moment for all conceivable occasions and eventualities, including providing the prefects with more modest figural pieces should they be needed as replacements, or for the less capable second choir.6 That is why high-quality works appear beside others of at best average artistic merit, which almost leave us puzzled as to why Bach even bothered to copy them out. The key words "study library" ["Studienbibliothek"] and "repertoire development" ["Repertoirebildung"], and the closely related terms "artistic models" ["künstlerische Vorbilder"] and "musical practice" ["musikalische Praxis"], delineate what is still a gray area in our knowledge. Particularly for Bach's Leipzig period, they reveal how full of gaps our picture of the musical performances [End Page 37] at the two main churches—and thus, ultimately, our knowledge of Bach's daily routine—is. The three cantata cycles that have come down to us, the comparatively small number of oratorical works that have been preserved or that can be documented, the handful of motets—these cannot possibly represent the entire corpus of works performed during Bach's twenty-seven year tenure. These must have been supplemented by a presumably not inconsiderable number of figural works by other composers. If these works were known to us, they could provide valuable clues regarding the relative value Bach accorded his own compositions, as well as the profile of Leipzig church music during the second quarter of the eighteenth century in general. The search for traces of this repertoire has been widespread, but only recently has it resulted in a number of leads and initial successes. They point to a range of repertoire that could scarcely have been imagined before, and that presupposes an exceedingly demanding and critical public. Over the long term...