Bach and his music have long exhibited a fascination on many people. Alive, it was his keyboard-playing which astonished people with its excellence. C.P.E. Bach in 1753 might have written with filial devotion but he was not the only one (see le Huray & Butt in Williams ed. 1985: 185-8) to see his digital dexterity as evidence of musical mastery. By the time he died, J.S. Bach's compositions were seen to be somewhat ‘old-school' (Schulenberg 2006: 365 refers to their "recherché quality") even employing obsolete instruments such as the oboe da caccia and viola da gamba. His use, though, of litui (in BWV 118) was not because he expected ancient Roman trumpets to be used (in 1737), but a coded reference to the profession of the classics teacher whose death occasioned the piece (Rutter ed. 1996: 368). This can make us think of his ingenuity and polyvalent mindset which sees colour as integral to the music pace Adorno (1980: 63) who believes that Wagner invented this particular concept. Bach's interest in counterpoint (shown clearly in Das Musikalisches Opfer) could be seen as obscurantist and archaic, since the prevailing galant style demanded music for drama and dance, but Wolff makes the valuable point (2000: 430) that Das Musikalisches
Opfer is a compendium "from old-style counterpoint… to the most modern mannerisms".
Bach’s own sense and use of a time-perspective made me consider Bach’s music as ripe for a revival, though my techniques are not particularly obscurantist or archaic.
Bach, in common with many composers, recycled music for different occasions. Perhaps the most direct case (for this study) is the very next Prelude in the Well-Tempered Clavier. It is in C minor and is a moto perpetuo, but the initial harmonic sequence is so closely modelled on the previous one (I, IV, V, I then modulation) that it is possible to view it as a reworking of it in the minor mode. My assertion does not rely on any internal proof or outside evidence (and does not need to be true) because even if a particular player has never noticed that before or does not even believe it, the ability to make that connection and draw inferences is a powerful tool in the armoury of a composer. Boulez, in 1954, called criticism the composer's "logbook" (in Nattiez 1996: 110) and while I might not
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write a comparably major-minor piece in Op. 48, applying such a procedure would fit in with following Bach's example. The Kontrafuge und Praeludium exemplifies something of this process, where the loud 'minor' transcription of the Bach is employed to salvage a badly constructed improvised fugue.
That Bach's name itself can create a sequence of notes that can be applied to music was not lost on him, nor, indeed, on others later (e.g. Schumann's Fugues on BACH (1845) and Liszt's Fantasia and Fugue on BACH (1855)). Putting oneself into the frame is a sort of signature (though others can and do write in BACH every so often), and it can become a reference point to acknowledge Bach's presence in the music. Indeed, Kramer (1995: 239) makes the startling point that C.P.E. Bach's recounting that Bach died whilst composing the Art of Fugue (1750) at the moment the fugue subject of BACH appears means we can interpret Bach's life as claimed by the "autonomous artwork", which might even thus count as a sort of suicide. That the notes BACH, or even Bach's music, has an almost talismanic quality to music and to us can heighten our awareness that references and resonances may be in play. Ferneyhough (in Griffiths 1995: 66) believes that art has a real potential to self- reflexivity and I hope to show later how some of this comes about.
In the case of BWV 214 (Tönet, ihr Pauken), there is a wholesale 'reposition' (composition is hardly the right word) into the opening movement of the 1734 Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). Despite the change of verbal text, (the first was for the 1733 royal birthday of the Electress Sophia, the second for the 'royal birthday' of Jesus), the notes remain the same and the mood of general rejoicing is kept. Thus, generic celebration music is hardly dependent on the specific text. This contrasts with, say, Tallis's Contrafacta (e.g. O sacrum
convivium becomes I call and cry) where the majority of notes are retained, but the text and
words are very different indeed. Bach also re-arranged his own works in a slightly more extensive fashion, with the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto in G (BWV 1049) existing as a keyboard concerto in F (BWV 1057). For this I use the word 'translation' as the shift of language requires modifications: matters such as key (often lowered by a tone to ensure the violin's climactic notes can be accommodated on the keyboard), and the shifting of arpeggios to scales show a real concern for practicality. He further amplifies the Third
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out some contrapuntal implications. Many folk, then as now, saw his music as phenomenally difficult, and this helps to explain why it was not played as widely as it could have been.
Bach also extends the emotional import of a work. While, in general, an Affekt pervades an entire movement (the common word 'movement' indicates that one prevailing zone of emotion is in play), in the St Matthew Passion's opening chorus, Bach exploits a double- affekt, which creates a counterpoint within the piece. This is not, though, about a trans- stylisation (constantly flitting between sad and happy) but about melding the two in a process that might be termed bi-stylisation. While the weight of the drama of this work (especially over the years) has led to a portentous and sometimes slow pace for this movement, the chorale is in a different key (metaphorically and literally), and thus affects the general mood too. Ramshaw points out that while Luther saw the emphasis on sacrifice as dangerous (2003: 368), the Crucifixion was the instance that God used to assure salvation. So, far from being a lament, hymns were written celebrating Christ's unjust death as a positive witness to God's glorious plan. That Bach is able to express a multivocality of affekt is a lesson that blending or code-switching might also work for a 'single-Affekt' piece, such as the Bach Prelude.