Teaching Figured Bass with Keyboard Chorales and C. P. E. Bach's Neue Melodien zu einigen Liedern des neuen Hamburgischen Gesangbuchs (1787)

Abstract

This article proposes a historically informed method for introducing today's students to figured-bass practice in J. S. Bach's circle. Rather than using Bach's vocal chorales, as is common today, this method imitates Bach's pedagogy by using figured-bass keyboard chorales. C. P. E. Bach's Neue Melodien (1787) are used within a series of six increasingly difficult levels. Soprano and bass are always given, while students supply the middle voice(s). The levels are: (1) add one voice indicated by figures; (2) add two voices indicated by two figures in score order; (3) add two voices indicated by all figures in score order; (4) add two voices indicated by all figures in numerical order; (5) add two voices indicated by abbreviated figures; and (6) add two voices with no figures given. In keeping with the theoretical outlook given in sources near to J. S. Bach (Johann Heinichen, David Kellner, and C. P. E. Bach), root identification via Roman numerals plays no role in this method. Instead, the scale degree of the bass is the analytical focal point. In keeping with the method outlined in Heinichen's Der General-Bass in der Composition (1728), particularly as summarized in Kellner's Treulicher Unterricht (1737), the bass voice's scale degree and type of motion (step or leap) are the two factors that determine the appropriate harmony for unfigured basses. In the absence of Roman numerals, a simplified system of cadential terminology is also proposed. Moreover, figures are moved above the bass staff to conceptualize them better as intervals above the bass voice. The overarching goals of this article are: (1) to take the first steps in developing a curriculum centered around the keyboard chorale, replacing our current focus on Bach's vocal chorales; (2) to strike a compromise between historical accuracy and the needs of today's students; (3) to emphasize contrapuntal considerations equally with harmonic ones; (4) to simplify the current jumble of cadential terminology; (5) to use the keyboard as a means of "performing" music theory; and (6) to argue that J. S. Bach's music requires a greater degree of historical and theoretical differentiation than we tend to give it as part of the so-called "Common Practice Period."