Two Versions of C. P. E. Bach's Magnificat

Abstract

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. (Berlin Version). Edited by Christine Blanken. (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works, ser. V: Choral Music, vol. 1.1.) Los Altos, CA: The Packard Humanities Institute, 2012. [Gen. pref., p. vii-viii; pref.: choral music, p. ix-x; introd., p. xi-xix; libretto, p. xxi; 7 plates; score, p. 3-149; abbrevs., p. 151- 53; crit. report, p. 155-83; appendix, p. 185-200. ISBN 978-1-933280-301. $25.]Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. (Hamburg Version). Edited by Christine Blanken. (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works, ser. V: Choral Music, vol. 1.2.) Los Altos, CA: The Packard Humanities Institute, 2012. [Gen. pref., p. vii-viii; pref.: choral music, p. ix-x; introd., p. xi-xix; libretto, p. xxi; 8 plates; score, p. 3-146; abbrevs., p. 147-49; crit. report, p. 151-68. ISBN 978-1-933280-31-8. $25.]Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Magnificat, Wq 215/H 772, was composed in 1749 and apparently performed in a bid for position of Cantor at St. Thomas's in Leipzig, and it proves that Bach was more than ready to fill his father's shoes. Until recent rediscovery of cantata Ich bin vergnugt mit meinem Stande (Wq/H deest), which dates from 1733-34, was for a long time Bach's earliest known choral work. In it, he demonstrates his command of both latest galant idioms and strict counterpoint, concluding a virtuosic fugue on Sicut erat in principio. Yet politics intervened, and Gottlob Harrer, favorite of Dresden Count von Bruhl, was selected over Bach. Still, Leipzig performance must have made quite an impression: a decade later a former St. Thomas School pupil remembered with pleasure splendid and excellent Magnificat performed by Bach (p. xiv; where neither volume is indicated, page number is same in both volumes).In 1786, Bach programed on a benefit concert, alongside Credo from his father's Mass in B Minor and Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah. This concert was self-consciously retrospective, containing three works all composed in 1740s. That retained such a prominent position in Bach's repertoire is a testament to his high regard for it. As late as 1806, an anecdote in Leipzig Allgemeine musicalische Zeitung described it as the great by C. P. E. Bach, about which one hears a lot spoken by public (p. xv). While this anecdote is plagued by confused chronology and problematic attribution, its publication nevertheless speaks to high regard in which piece was still held over half a century after its premiere. The was eventually published by Simrock in Bonn, ca. 1830.And yet, previous modern editions of this work are thoroughly inadequate, hobbling its modern-day reception. A vocal score edited by Cor Backers (Hilversum: Harmonia-Uitgave, 1962) claims to be on original manuscript, but in reality is more of an arrangement. A full score edited by Gunter Graulich and Paul Horn (Neuhausen: Hanssler, 1971) is crippled by its inaccurate chronology and failure to take into account original vocal and instrumental parts. Furthermore, it is difficult to distinguish two distinct versions of piece, since they are combined in a single score, and second setting of Et misericordia is consigned to an appendix.Just in time for 300th anniversary of Bach's birth, we have editions of both Berlin and Hamburg versions of Magnificat, based for first time on scholarly philological criteria (p. xiii), prepared by Christine Blanken. This is no small feat: Bach is well known for his penchant for revision, and presents a special case, virtually unique in Bach's oeuvre, in that it was premiered in either 1749 or (more likely) 1750, and last performed in his lifetime in 1787, a year before his death. The work therefore has a nearly forty-year performance history under composer himself, and corresponding mountain of scores and performing materials to prove it. …