Capriccio in B flat major (Bach)

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The Capriccio sopra la lontananza de il fratro dilettissimo (" Capriccio on the departure of the beloved brother") in B flat major is an early work for a keyboard instrument by Johann Sebastian Bach ( BWV 992). What is remarkable about the composition are the programmatic subtitles , which are atypical for Bach . They point to possible models, namely to Johann Kuhnau's musical presentation of some biblical histories in 6th sonatas (1700).

Emergence

The work was probably created before 1705, when Bach's older brother Johann Christoph copied it. An autograph has not survived, so the dating must be based on stylistic and extra-musical evidence.

Philipp Spitta suspected Bach's brother Johann Jacob (1682-1722), who in 1704 went as an oboist in the Swedish Army, as addressees of the work and changed the title accordingly ... del suo fratello ... . But the reference to this occasion is now extremely questionable, if only because Bach refrains from imitating any war themes and symbols. It was assumed that Bach's title alludes to his friend Georg Erdmann , whom he probably addressed as “brother” himself. But Bach himself was also named as an addressee; The reason for the creation could have been his departure from Ohrdruf to Lüneburg (1700) or rather the departure from Lüneburg (1702). In the latter case, too, the composition, especially the final fugue, would be a remarkable work for a seventeen-year-old; this fugue not only surpasses corresponding works from the north German school , but also the final fugue of Bach's cantata 131 .

Musical ideas and quasi-improvisational elaboration

The definitions of the Bach contemporaries Friedrich Erhard Niedt , Sébastien de Brossard ( introduced into the German encyclopedia by Johann Gottfried Walther ) and Johann Mattheson for the Capriccio are similar in that they use improvisational or improvisational ideas that do not follow any fixed rule and the unconventional Put the processing of the musical material in the foreground. Bach's Capriccio fully corresponds to this. In addition, there are extra-musical ideas that determined the choice of his musical means.

Single sentences

  • "Is a Schmeichelung friends to prevent the same from his trip."
    Arioso, Adagio
    in B flat major, 4 / 4 -Stroke (C)
    • A homophonically set melody, usually with a second voice in "ingratiating" sixths, is interrupted by a post horn motif and brought to an end.
  • "If an idea different Casuum that could happen to him in a foreign land."
    G minor, 4 / 4 -Stroke (C)
    • The fugue with retained counterpoint modulates via C minor, F minor, B minor, E flat major, F minor to C major as a half-close before the following F minor of the Adagioissimo .
  • "Is a general lament the friends."
    Adagioissimo
    F Minor, 3 / 4 -stroke
  • "Allhier come the friends, because they see but that it can not be otherwise, and say goodbye."
    Sign of B flat major, but constantly modulating, starting from E flat major with circuit in F Major, 4 / 4 -Stroke (C)
    • Full grip set, a scale motif downwards is imitated.
  • Aria di Postiglione
    Adagio poco
    B major, 4 / 4 -stroke (C)
    • The simple melody is repeatedly interrupted by a post horn motif in octave jumps downwards.
  • Fuga all'imitazione della Cornetta di postiglione
    B major, 4 / 4 -stroke (C)
    • The theme with tone repetitions and triad breaks as well as the counterpoint with the octave motif from the "Aria" imitate the post horn.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Werner Breig : Johann Sebastian Bach. In The Music Past and Present . Second, revised edition, Kassel et altera 1999, column 1499
  2. ^ Philipp Spitta: Johann Sebastian Bach. 1873, p. 231.
  3. ^ Christoph Wolff : Johann Sebastian Bach. 2nd edition Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 82f.
  4. ↑ see Bach's letter to Erdmann of July 28, 1726
  5. ^ Siegbert Rampe : Bach's piano and organ works. The manual. Part I. 2007, ISBN 978-3-89007-458-0 , pp. 129ff.
  6. ^ Siegbert Rampe: Bach's piano and organ works. The manual. Part I, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89007-458-0 , p. 134.
  7. ↑ Rolf Damman. Stuttgart 1984, p. 166f.

literature

  • Rolf Dammann : Bach's Capriccio in B flat major. In Werner Breig et al. (Ed.): Analyzes. Contributions to a problem history of composing. Festschrift for Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht on his 65th birthday (= Archive for Musicology . Supplement 23). Stuttgart 1984, pp. 158-179.

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