Reading Bach's Notation: A Guide to the Temporal Structure of the 1733 MlSSA

Abstract

Reading Bach's Notation:A Guide to the Temporal Structure of the 1733 MlSSA1 Don O. Franklin (bio) My ongoing study of Bach's notational practice takes as its point of departure Johann Philipp Kirnberger's discussion of "Tempo, Meter, and Rhythm" in his Art of Strict Musical Composition (1771–76).2 A student of J. S. Bach, Kirnberger sums up the notational system employed by his teacher whose notational practice was considered old fashioned by 1776 when Kirnberger published his treatise. As in seventeenth-century notational practice,3 each time-signature in the system described by Kirnberger is associated with a particular set of note values that represent its ordinary or normal tempo, which he calls tempo giusto, and that frequently is referred to as tempo ordinario. For example, the tempo giusto of , the most common duple meter, includes primarily sixteenth-note motion. (I take the modern equivalent of its tempo giusto to be quarter note=72–80.) Using larger or smaller note values is the primary means to alter its tempo. Notated in values that include predominately quarters, its tempo becomes faster, and with predominantly thirty-second notes, slower. Another means of modifying or altering the tempo giusto is by adding what Kirnberger calls a Beiwort, such as adagio. Commonly regarded in later practice as the primary indicator of tempo, its function, as described by Kirnberger is as a "tempo modifier." Similar to a change in note values, the addition of an allegro or adagio can denote a slower or faster tempo. Each marking, however, needs to be seen in direct relation to the note values with which it is associated. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Time signatures in the Missa in tempo giusto and modified form. Reading the original parts for the Missa (D-Dl, Mus. 2405-D-21) in conjunction with Bach's autograph score (D-B, P 180) reveals the extent to which Bach's notational practice reflects Kirnberger's description of tempo and meter cited above. Composed midway [End Page 77] into his Leipzig tenure, after he had completed his cantata cycles4 and representing his first setting of the Latin text of the Kyrie and Gloria, the Missa also provides examples of Bach experimenting with new notational, as well as compositional, procedures. Furthermore, as the first work in which the majority of its sections are parody movements,5 it also illustrates how Bach adapts the earlier movements to a new temporal context. Figure 1 lists the time signatures Bach assigns to each movement, denoting those he notates in tempo giusto and which he modifies by one of the methods described above. Also essential to consider in any study of tempo in the Missa—or in any of Bach's works that include a series of successive movements—are the following notational conventions that would have been known to composers and performers of the time. 1). the absence of a barline before a change of time signature within a movement signals that the beat should carry directly over into the next section in either a new metrical grouping of the beat or a new notational value. 2). the absence of a fermata performs the same function when it is absent between two movements, signaling to the performer that the beat carries over to the next section or movement, either at the same notational value in a new metrical grouping, or in a proportional relationship with a new set of note values. In Bach's autograph score of the Missa and the Dresden parts, the placement of fermatas is consistent, with the following exception. While Bach does not enter a fermata at the end of the "Qui tollis" in [End Page 78] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Outline of Temporal Structure of the 1733 Missa. [End Page 79] his score, he does enter fermatas at the end of the "Qui tollis" in five of the vocal and instrumental parts.6 Bach's placement of the fermatas in the Missa sets off a series of temporal units (TUs) that share a common pulse or beat, and comprise what I describe as the work's temporal structure. As...