Daniel Melamed. J.S. Bach and the German Motet Cambridge University Press, 1995. xvi, 229 pp. ISBN 0-521-41864-X (hardcover) Russell Stinson, ed. Bach Perspectives I Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. xii, 226 pp. ISBN 0-8032-1042-6 (hardcover)

Abstract

Daniel Melamed. J.S. Bach and the German Motet. Cambridge University Press, 1995. xvi, 229 pp. ISBN 0-521-41864-X (hardcover). Russell Stinson, ed. Bach Perspectives I. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. xii, 226 pp. ISBN 0-8032-1042-6 (hardcover). In J.S. Bach and the German Motet, Daniel Melamed places Bach's in historic context, proposes a new chronology, and persuasively restores to the category certain that have previously been classified as dubious. Me lamed's book gives us a new picture of the place of the motet in Bach's oeuvre, and underscores the fact that Bach's have not been dealt with very kindly by scholars. Ordinary reference works are not in agreement about the number of motets, their chronological order, their status as authentic or doubtful pieces, or their purpose and function within the Lutheran liturgy; moreover, there is disagreement about instrumental doubling of the vocal parts. Most recordings include only the six familiar motets: Singet dem Herrn ein neues lied, BWV 225, Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226, meine Freude, BWV 227, Furchte dich nicht, BWV 228, Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229, and Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230. J.S. Bach and the German is a revised version of Melamed's dissertation, and is thoroughly documented with proper footnotes and copious musical examples-including many facsimile pages from Bach's manuscripts. In addition, there is an appendix giving lengthy accounts of the motet by Bach's contemporaries. Theorists such as Mattheson, Scheibe, and Walther discuss the kinds of texts that were deemed suitable for use in motets, and they give specific information about the musical style that is appropriate for the genre. These documents, cited in their German originals, serve as the basis for Melamed's first chapter. He uses the documents, in his own careful translation, to trace the history of the motet in Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He shows that Bach was continuing a long-standing tradition when he composed his own motets, and when he chose to use motet style for movements of larger works, such as the Mass in B minor. According to Melamed, the of Bach have, since Spitta's time, been regarded as offshoots of the cantata, and they have been thought to have been strongly influenced by the organ chorale. Melamed insists that when Bach gave the title Motet to a composition or a movement, he had a particular kind of piece in mind: one that combined Biblical Spriiche or Dicta and chorale stanzas, and employed a double choir of voices accompanied by instruments colla parte as well as basso continuo. However, there could also be a single choir, and there could be some independent treatment of the doubling instruments. Melamed documents Bach's own use of the term Motet as appears in his autograph scores. The results are summarised in several useful tables. One of the difficulties with the Bach motet is that only two of the familiar (BWV 225-230) exist in Bach's autograph, and scholars and performers have used information from these two autographs in a negative sense. The original instrumental parts for BWV 226 are a case in point. Since these are the only original extant parts, scholars have argued that the other were either sung a cappella, or with just a basso continuo accompaniment. Melamed observes that it seems almost perverse to take the survival of instrumental parts for BWV 226 as evidence against instrumental doubling in all Bach's other motets (p. 105). Melamed shows-again by compelling manuscript evidence-that Bach composed and performed throughout his career, and did not, as has been claimed by Spitta and the majority of writers since Spitta's time, compose only in Leipzig. The first music by Bach to be printed was the libretto and parts for Gott is mein Konig, BWV 71, in 1708. In the libretto and Bach's autograph wrapper for the parts is called Motetto. …