Parodies in Bach’s Vocal Works
Discussions - Part 4

Continue from Part 3

Chart or catalog of music bach reused?

Phil Athehun wrote (March 30, 2007):
Does anyone know of a source showing all the places Bach reused the same or similar piece of music? Right at this moment I'd like to know where I've heard movement 7 from BWV 249 (Easter Oratorio) before. I'm pretty sure it's in another sacred work but don't know which one.

thanks,

Ed Myskowski wrote (March 30, 2007):
Phil Athehun wrote:
< does anyone know of a source showing all the places Bach reused the same or similar piece of music. >
Whittaker, 'The Cantatas of JSB', vol 1, pp 241-358, in what is called an Interlude, details Bach's borrowings.

A wonderful section in a reference resource which is unfortunately not easy of access or readability, and hence is easily overlooked.

As best I can see from a quick look, Whittaker does not deal with BWV 249 in this interlude.

Dürr agrees with Thomas Braatz analysis of the parody nature of BWV 249. But then, why has Whittaker overlooked it? Dürr gives the first performance of BWV 249 as April 1, 1725, smack in the midst of the chronology we are now trying to follow .

If this is accurate, it seems critically important to the nature of the music composed afresh, around these dates. If I have overlooked something and made a blunder, just point it out, I can cope. Otherwise, I think it is yet another BCML inspired MA thesis topic.

Bradley Lehman wrote (March 30, 2007):
Phil Athehun wrote:
< does anyone know of a source showing all the places Bach reused the same or similar piece of music? Right at this moment I'd like to know where I've heard movement 7 from BWV 249 (Easter Oratorio) before. I'm pretty sure it's in another sacred work but don't know which one. >
The BWV lists two birthday cantatas (BWV 249a and BWV 249b) for which the music has been lost, but for some of the movements they at least have part of the text; and both of these reused movement 7 as follows:

Feb 23 1725, for Herzog Christian von Sachsen-Weissenfels: mvt 7 "Wieget euch, ihr satten Schafe"

August 25 1726, for Graf Joachim Friedrich von Flemming: mvt 7 "Senket euch nur ohne Kummer"

=====

In between those: April 1st 1752, the Easter oratorio (BWV 249) as the cantata "Kommt, fliehet und eilet" with a different 3^rd movement...a tenor-bass duet there, instead of SATB, and with this different text.

Later performances of BWV 249: "jeweils mit Aenderungen um 1738 und um 1743/46, ferner am 6.4.1749" [April 6 1749]

=====

To answer your first question: just get the BWV (catalog of Bach's works), flip it open, and look up stuff like this! It shows these types of interconnections among the pieces, and their different versions. This book:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/bwv-review.htm
It's still available for about $50 (39 Euros), last time I checked.

Ed Myskowski wrote (March 30, 2007):
[To Bradley Lehman]
All interested should note the obvious correction, 1725, not 1752. The information from BWV is also reproduced in Dürr, although in a format which requires a little digging. I am writing because I previously indicated that I was surprised by the April 1, 1725 performance. I wrote in haste, without checking. In fact Wolff (B:LM) clearly indicates in his summary table, performances of both BWV 4 and BWV 249 on that date. This suggests that to get the full impact of Bach's chronology and creativity, we should consider BWV 249 along with the other new works we are discussing for the Easter season of 1725.

Bradley Lehman wrote (March 30, 2007):
Brafley Lehman wrote:
<< In between those: April 1^st 1752, the Easter oratorio (BWV 249) >>
Ed Myskowski >
< All interested should note the obvious correction, 1725, not 1752. >
Yup -- good point, and sorry for the typo the first time. It's better to look directly at the books than to rely on anybody's internet typing or summaries!

Phil Athehun wrote (March 30, 2007):
[To Bradley Lehman & Ed Myskowski] Thanks to everyone for the responses. I'll look into the BWV catalog. I thought I was on to something when I found this link: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/Egbert.Baars/Parodieen/parodie.htm. And I really thought I was onto something when I saw the reference to BWV 249/7 being a parody of BWV 81/1, but it isn't so.

I guess for now I'll just have to listen to every Bach recording I have to try to find what I thought I'd heard. Not that I don't trust what you're saying of course.

Aryeh Oron wrote (March 30, 2007):
[To Phil Athehun] In the following site by Henny van der Groep (who was a member of the BCML from the very beginning; maybe she still is) you can find a comprehensive list of Parodies & Arrangements in Bach's works: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/Egbert.Baars/Parodieen/parodie.htm

I hope this would be of some help.

Parody Texts

Canyon Rick wrote (April 11, 2007):
When Bach parodied his work,
how did he find texts which matched the music he had already written? I'm thinking as an example, "Tonet, ihr Pauken" -->"Jauchzet, Frohlocket" (nomenclature of an old Deadhead :) )

Did he just start going thru texts until, "Aha! This one will work."?
Did he play the tune for Henrici and ask him to write a text that would fit?
Or, were there "rules" (a la Meistersinger) that he could count on poets following, which would already make many poems/texts easily adaptable.

I gather Bach did make musical alterations. But at what point does "simple modification" become "major re-write"? which I assume Bach wished to avoid.

Douglas Cowling wrote (April 11, 2007):
Canyon Rick wrote:
< When Bach parodied his work, how did he find texts which matched the music he had already written? >
Given the frequency with which secular works reappeared with sacred works, I wouldn't be surprised if we discovered that Bach commissioned both sets of texts at the same time.

Julian Mincham wrote (April 11, 2007):
Canyon Rick wrote
< I gather Bach did make musical alterations. But at what point does "simple modification" become "major re-write"? which I assume Bach wished to avoid. >
More than one movement of the B- Mass, including the Agnus Dei would, I think qualify as 'major re-writes'

However as we are presently concerned with the second cycle you may, in this context,like to look at two works shortly to be introduced.

Firstly the opening chorus of Cantata BWV 74 is wrought from a pre-existing duet. And two movements from Cantata BWV 68 have been parodied to quite different extents---the soprano aria (in which a new vocal line has been composed) and the bass aria which demonstrates the most subtle of re-writing in order to accommodate the new text.

A close study of these three movements goes a long way towards answering your question, I think.

Parodies, Posting & Empiricism

Marcel Gautreau wrote (January 23, 2009):
Just a few brief words on recent threads:

(1) Trying to figure the provenance and sequence of parodies is great for musicologists, but I think we're a little too quick to project our 'modern' standards of sacred vs. secular, sanctified vs. blasphemous onto Bach's attitude toward music. I don't think he really thought of music as either/or, nor did his contemporaries or predecessors (Missl'homme armé etc). Even if he did, I'm not sure we'll ever know to what extent, given the available evidence. [OK, briefish...]

(2) I don't post very often because (a) I don't feel I have much to contribute yet (read a couple books a while back...), (b) by the time I read/scroll through all the posts (via digest), everyone's far and away onto something else entirely (like now - I'm just catching up, & posting this at work on my lunch hour, a definite no-on), and (c) I'm a little apprehensive about starting another tempest in a teacup if someone takes offense at a poorly selected word (been there, done that on another list), or that by claiming that my time is limited I may be implying that everyone else on the list has no life outside the list.

[Take a breath...]

(3) In the same vein as (1), trying to ascertain Bach's religious and/or scientific beliefs (or lacks thereof) is also moot. Obviously they had an impact on what and how he wrote, but I again don't think we'll ever know to what extent. Certainly we won't solve the creation/evolution thing here either [didn't they legislate the answer
somewhere?].

from relative obscurity,

Julian Mincham wrote (January 23, 2009):
Marcel Gautreau wrote:
< Trying to figure the provenance and sequence of parodies is great for musicologists, but I think we're a little too quick to project our 'modern' standards of sacred vs. secular, sanctified vs. blasphemous onto Bach's attitude toward music. I don't think he really thought of music as either/or, nor did his contemporaries or predecessors (Missa l'homme armé etc). Even if he did, I'm not sure we'll ever know to what extent, given the available evidence. >
Glad you took the time to add some thoughts.

I tend to agree with you that Bach would almost certainly not have catagorised music in the way that we do today. However is it not somewhat odd that in his parodies of (what we refer to as ) secular and religious music, the traffic seems to have gone pretty much one way only, too consistently to be coincidence? Pehaps this might indicate something attitudinal on Bach's part?

And again agreed, we sure don't have the evidence to be certain of this--or much else about Bach's personal views for that matter!

Douglas Cowling wrote (January 23, 2009):
Julian Mincham wrote:
< I tend to agree with you that Bach would almost certainly not have catagorised music in the way that we do today. However is it not somewhat odd that in his parodies of (what we refer to as ) secular and religious music, the traffic seems to have gone pretty much one way only, too consistently to be coincidence? Pehaps this might indicate something attitudinal on Bach's part? >
That's why it would be interesting to establish if there are two "streams" of parody in this cantata, one towards the sacred version and the other to the secular adaptations. A consistent procedure would support an aesthetic attitude for Bach.

I agree totally that we have real difficulty in understanding Bach's compositional process. For instance, we have a strong modern attitude that "originality" is a hallmark of a great work of art and that "borrowing" is "plagiarism". And Bach is a conservative borrowed compared with Handel whose musical smash-and-grabs elicited contemporary comment!

Marcel Gautreau wrote (January 23, 2009):
Julian Mincham wrote:
< ... is it not somewhat odd that in his parodies of (what we refer to as ) secular and religious music, the traffic seems to have gone pretty much one way only... <
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< ...it would be interesting to establish if there are two "streams" of parody in this cantata, one towards the sacred version and the other to the secular adaptations. A consistent procedure would support an aesthetic attitude for Bach... >
Given Bach's (and his contemporaries') fundamentally religious outlook on everything (however much that may pee off the atheists, myself included), I tend to agree. But what does that say about the strictly secular music Bach wrote? After all, music - the handmaid of theology - was a gift of God. How could it be specifically sacred or secular? On the other hand, a single instance or two of provenance won't provide much support for the hypothesis.

I have heard 'contemporary' tunes that I believe were originally written in a religious context crop up in secular ones, to my surprise (everyone else seemed not to know what I was talking about). And vice versa. I can't say I wasn't surprised in both instances, given the customary hostility with which believers and non-believers seem to greet each others' pursuits. On the other hand, I remember many youthful hours at the piano with a hymn book (yes I did go to church in earlier years) fascinated with the secular tunes that had been drafted into worship services. I'd guess at least a third of its content comprised tunes that were originally secular (which particular brand of Christianity is not important, everybody did it).

Culturally, we're light-years from Bach's time (and I say that without any value judgments); applying our criteria - religious, political, artistic - to his work doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Ed Myskowski wrote (January 23, 2009):
Parodies, etc

Marcel Gautreau wrote:
>I have heard 'contemporary' tunes that I believe were originally written in a religious context crop up in secular ones, to my surprise (everyone else seemed not to know what I was talking about). And vice versa. I can't say I wasn't surprised in both instances, given the customary hostility with which believers and non-believers seem to greet each others' pursuits. On the other hand, I remember many youthful hours at the piano with a hymn book (yes I did go to church in earlier years) fascinated with the secular tunes that had been drafted into worship services. I'd guess at least a third of its content comprised tunes that were originally secular (which particular brand of Christianity is not important, everybody did it).<
A couple years ago Alain Bruguieres (note correct spelling, absent diacritical marks. I have missed the second u on many occasions, including a couple recently) and I exchanged thoughts on this topic.

Alain concluded that pretty much all music originated in France as chansons damour (love songs). When they reached the German border, they were bowdlerized, cleaned up of sexual innuendo, and Luther used them for his chorales. I did not check the BCW archives this instant, but I know the material is there, including some specific examples. If anyone is interested and cannot find it, ask for help on list, it is on-topic.

Marcel Gautreau wrote (January 23, 2009):
Ed Myskowski wrote:
"When they reached the German border, they were bowdlerized, cleaned up of sexual innuendo, and Luther used them for his chorales."
In for a dime, in for a dollar. If I get reprimanded for flaking off & inappropriate internet use, it's your fault. (Kidding.)

I was thinking more about the nineteenth century when so many new flavours of Christian protestantism appeared, but with essentially the same result. I think I remember being told it was because the message was more effective if proselytes (proseltysees?) could participate with something familiar. Then again, I think that was Luther's rationale as well.

Before the Sarabande gained respectability as one of the European suite's 'big four', I seem to recall hearing it was a little faster and a lot racier (oh, those Spanish...).

John Pike wrote (January 23, 2009):
[To Marcel Gautreau, regarding his 1^st message] Many thanks for an excellent contribution.

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (January 23, 2009):
Sarabande [was: Parodies, etc]

Marcel Gautreau wrote:
< Before the Sarabande gained respectability as one of the European suite's 'big four', I seem to recall hearing it was a little faster and a lot racier (oh, those Spanish...). >
The Zarabande (the original name for the dance) originated in South America actually! Here's Grove's entry on it:

The earliest literary references to the zarabanda come from Latin America,the name first appearing in a poem by Fernando Guzmán Mexía in a manuscript from Panama dated 1539, according to B.J. Gallardo (Ensayo de una biblioteca española de libros raros y curiosos, Madrid, 1888-9, iv, 1528). A zarabanda text by Pedro de Trejo was performed in 1569 in Mexico and Diego Durán mentioned the dance in his Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España (1579). The zarabanda was banned in Spain in 1583 for its extraordinary obscenity, but literary references to it continued throughout the early 17^th century in the works of such writers as Cervantes and Lope de Vega. From about 1580 to 1610 it seems to have been the most popular of the wild and energetic Spanish bailes, superseded finally by the chacona (see Chaconne), with which it is frequently mentioned. The dance was accompanied by the guitar, castanets and possibly other percussion instruments, and by a text with refrain.

Most surviving examples of the early zarabanda occur in Italian tablatures for the Spanish guitar, beginning in 1606 with Girolamo Montesardo's Nuova inventione d'intavolatura. Ex.1 shows a reconstruction of the musical scheme that would usually have been repeated for each line of the text, alternating with and without an anacrusis. The top staff shows the melodic framework, which could be varied, and the lower staff (from one of Montesardo's guitar examples) represents major triads to be strummed, the stems showing the direction in which the hand is to move. The refrain text comes from an example in Luis de Briçeño's Metodo mui facilissimo (Paris, 1626). The I-IV-I-V harmonic progression was a constant feature of the early zarabanda and can be found also in the later guitar books of Benedetto Sanseverino (see ex.2), G.A. Colonna (1620), Fabrizio Costanzo (1627), G.P. Foscarini (1629) and Antonio Carbonchi (1640 and 1643), as well as in the guitar works of Spanish composers as late as Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz in 1677. Although the dance seems to have been performed without a text in Italy, the musical scheme of the zarabanda was sometimes indicated for the singing of poetry (in I-Fr 2774, 2793, 2804, 2849 and 2951).

Marcel Gautreau wrote (January 24, 2009):
Now safe at home, free to blather on unrestrained.

"...The zarabanda was banned in Spain in 1583 for its extraordinary obscenity..."
Thanks Kim. If something isn't selling, ban it or burn it. Maybe instead of dishing out billions (or trillions) to failing car corporations, we should just ban gasoline.

"...Not a big deal, exactly, although the spiritual point the proposers of the hypothesis were trying to make was important to them, and is now discredited..."
I can't agree the question is settled once for all (regardless of whatever motivation), at least not yet. Bach always espoused a goal of creating "a well-regulated church music" (I expect the original German is a lot more concise?), so he must have made some kind of distinction between sacred and secular music - just (probably) nothing like the kind of distinction we tend to make. Who knows, despite the effectiveness of the Passions, he might have flopped if he had to earn a living at opera. Until he apparently lost interest, he was able to crank out a huge volume of cantatas despite his other impossibly heavy obligations. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that the recycling went on mostly in one direction?

(I'm truly not trying to play devil's advocate for either side, I just think both have valid points. See, you've created a monster, I may never shut up. :)

Paul T. McCain wrote (January 24, 2009):
Marcel Gautreau wrote:
< Now safe at home, free to blather on unrestrained. >
I thought that was Ed's job here!

: )

Paul T. McCain wrote (January 24, 2009):
"When they reached the German border, they were bowdlerized, cleaned up of sexual innuendo, and Luther used them for his chorales."
A myth, often repeated, is still a myth. Martin Luther did not use "bar tunes" for his hymns, etc.

Please refer to Robin Leaver's most recent book on Luther and liturgical music, etc.

Ed Myskowski wrote (January 24, 2009):
>Please refer to Robin Leaver's most recent book on Luther and liturgical music, etc.<
Title, and publisher? Let me take a wild guess. The publisher is Concordia.

The dances are proceeding alphabetically: Alligator, Barricuda. I guess it will be a few minutes, or more, before we reach the Zaraband?

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (January 24, 2009):
Ed Myskowski wrote:
< Title, and publisher? Let me take a wild guess. The publisher is Concordia. >
Nope, it's Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
http://tinyurl.com/d6fhv6

AND Mr. McCain's book review is there as well.

Ed Myskowski wrote (January 24, 2009):
Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
< AND Mr. McCain's book review is there as well >
EM:
That is quite wonderful for Mr. McCain, I am sure (I usually address him as Rev. or Paul, depending). The most useful information for me would be the book title - you know, those words on the front cover in big letters? There is nothing I enjoy more than marketing folks who talk people out of buying their product, as the Rev. did with his Calov Bible, only the other week.

Harry W. Crosby wrote (January 24, 2009):
When Marcel Gautreau posted this:
< Culturally, we're light-years from Bach's time (and I say that without any value judgments); applying our criteria - religious, political, artistic - to his work doesn't make a lot of sense to me. >
I not only nodded very much in agreement, but I felt moved to add something of a corollary. Bach was not big on writing out his beliefs and philosophy; on the whole, in verbal terms, he was rather laconic. Yet many now seem to be analyzing the recorded attitudes, beliefs, and practices of the people of Bach's time, even though we seem to recognize in other contexts that Bach was in many, many ways one of a kind, as he remains to this day. So why should we imagine that we are reading Bach's mind through documentation relating to others?

Ed Myskowski wrote (January 24, 2009):
My best effort to cut, snip, paste, ed. and Ed these two conflated posts, from my Old Dude (Sr.) pub mate, Harry, and/or our new acquaintance Marcel. Here is my interpretation:

Marcel wrote:
< Culturally, we're light-years from Bach's time (and I say that without any value judgments); applying our criteria - religious, political, artistic - to his work doesn't make a lot of sense to me. >
Harry responded:
< I not only nodded very much in agreement, but I felt moved to add something of a corollary. Bach was not big on writing out his beliefs and philosophy; on the whole, in verbal terms, he was rather laconic. >
EM interjects:
When he was pissed off, he was pissed off. Fairly often, as I read it. See the classic TNT sign-off, just for an example. You could argue that the beer [not the off-list Belgian Ale] put him over the edge. You could as easily argue, as I would, that the beer was his inspiration, and the tight-collared, humorless, Lutheran clerics were the source of his frustration. We have five years to discuss it, in a formal cycle.

Harry, again (I hope I got it right):
< Yet many now seem to be analyzing the recorded attitudes, beliefs, and practices of the people of Bach's time, even though we seem to recognize in other contexts that Bach was in many, many ways one of a kind, as he remains to this day. So why should we imagine that we are reading Bach's mind through documentation relating to others? >
EM responds (as kindly as possible):
I would give those lengthy sentences another read, for clarity and content. I hate when I think I agree, except for the fact that I am not sure exactly what the other guy is saying. I would also give most of my sentences additional ed-and-Ed-itorial thought, if I thought they were headed for permanence.

If the nugget in the middle [Bach was ..one of a kind] is meant to say that Bach was a unique genius, I agree 100%. Clear out the surrounding clutter. The same guy who taught me, almost exactly fifty years ago, to chop oevery word that was not carrying its own weight, and who encouraged me to make a living as an engineer and write peotry on the side, rather than trying to be a professional poet (how naive could I have been?!) ...sentence peters out, without formal closure.

Jane Newble wrote (January 24, 2009):
Paul T. McCain wrote in reply to:
>> "When they reached the German border, they were bowdlerized, cleaned up of sexual innuendo, and Luther used them for his chorales."] <<
< A myth, often repeated, is still a myth. Martin Luther did not use "bar tunes" for his hymns, etc.
Please refer to Robin Leaver's most recent book on Luther and liturgical music, etc. >
The one secular song Luther borrowed was from a popular pre-Reformation (not a drinking tune!) secular song, "I Arrived from an Alien Country," and was used as the melody for the Christmas hymn, "From Heaven on High I Come to You", the first stanza Luther patterned after the folk song. (source: Robert D. Harrell, Martin Luther, His Music, His Message, p. 18)

Somewhere I read that Luther later changed this tune to some extent.

And don't forget, as church historians well know, that Luther (and Bach) lived in the "Age of Faith", not the Age of Scepticism".

Aryeh Oron wrote (January 24, 2009):
Concerto BWV 1053 - Provenance

Thomas Braatz contributed Provenance page of the Harpsichord Concerto in E major, BWV 1053.
See: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Ref/BWV1053-Ref.htm

Ed Myskowski wrote (January 24, 2009):
Jane Newble wrote:
>And don't forget, as church historians well know, that Luther (and Bach) lived in the "Age of Faith", not the Age of Scepticism".<
Is not the phrase Age of Science (i.e. the scientific method) more accurate than Age of Scepricism? In the words of Jesus (concise version) Seek and ye shall find. For the preferred Gospel of Thomas language, see my post the other day.

In order to avoid creating an additional post, and in the process, pissing off the folks who wish to be pissed off even more so: an Ellington and Bach addendum, I fogot to write:

Mozart said words to the effect, <I want the clarinets>. Ellington delivered. Perhaps Mozart was speaking to him, or through him?

Jane Newble wrote (January 24, 2009):
Ed Myskowski wrote:
< Is not the phrase Age of Science (i.e. the scientific method) more accurate than Age of Scepricism? In the words of Jesus (concise version) Seek and ye shall find. For the preferred Gospel of Thomas language, see my post the other day. >
I beg to differ.
Science does not oppose faith. Scepticism does.
Besides, "Age of Faith" versus "Age of Scepticism" is acepted terminology in church history.

Ed Myskowski wrote (January 24, 2009):
[To Jane Newble] I respectfully accept your difference of opinion. One of my friends at Brandeis (Violin 2 in the Lydian Quartet) also runs a program she has titled Music Unites Us. That pretty much sums up my spiritual position, as best I can present it in language which might be acceptable, on-list, for BCML.

Wiulliam Hoffman wrote (January 24, 2009):
Provenance & Sarabande: Fugitive Thoughts

Thank you, Thomas Braatz, for another exemplary Provenance contribution.

Now, we are exploring the great connections between Bach's vocal and instrumental music, all part of one great tapestry. Thank God for these marvelous reconstructions, especially his "Arioso" and the slow movement of the Double Concerto for violin and oboe. There was a time when Bach scholarship suffered from what I call Theodore Adorno's 11^th and 12^th Musical Commandments: "Thou shalt not tamper with the Master" (reconstruction or realization) and "The Master shall not tamper with Himself" (parody or transformation).

As for the Sarabande, the great closing chorus in the St. Matthew Passion in 3/4 time is such. It could have originated in the watershed period of Lent 1725 with Picander's Poetic Passion libretto closing Chorus of the Faithful: "Wir setzen uns bei deinem Grabe nieder." I also believe that this monumental chorus could be Bach's summary of Ecclesiastes 3:4 (not 3/4) "A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;"

Ed Myskowski wrote (January 24, 2009):
William L. Hoffman wrote (Fugitive thought):
>As for the Sarabande, the great closing chorus in the St. Matthew Passion in 3/4 time is such.<
I rather prefer the KPC suggestion of Zarabanda, enabling an <A to Z of Dance for Dummies>, Allemande (just nosing out the Alligator for first listing) to Zarabanda.

Bach's Partita N.2 in C Minor (BWV 826) and any of his Cantatas - Query

Aryeh Oron wrote (May 7, 2010):
I received the message below from Pablo Castro Off-List:

*******************************************
I was visiting your site about Bach Cantatas, and I wanted to know if you have any information about a possible relation between Bach's Partita N.2 in C Minor (BWV 826) and any of his Cantatas. Specifically if there's any use that Bach have made of the first part of the Partita, the Sinfonia, in any of his Cantatas.

That's all for now and congratulations for your very interesting and informing site on Bach.
*******************************************

Any answer regarding this query would be most appreciated.

Julian Mincham wrote (May 7, 2010):
[To Aryeh Oron] In my study of the cantatas I haven't noticed any direct references to the partita. In fact Bach did not generally seem to make use of his keyboard music (other than the concertos) in the cantata canon. I am sure that there is no paraphrase of it although the imperious dotted note introduction might find echos in some of the minor mode French Overtures.

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 7, 2010):
[To Aryeh Oron] William L. Hoffman replies:

The tri-parte Italianate instrumental sinfonia in c minor, opening BWV 826 was never intended to be orchestrated as a cantata sinfonia. Most of the some 30 were either original or transcriptions from concerto movements.The Sinfonia in question probably was composed in the second half of 1725, when Bach took a hiatus from weekly sacred cantata composition to start the Anna Magdalena notebook and the keyboard Partitas to become the Clavier UIebung I publication (Opus 1). Each of the six partitas has a special non-dance introduction: Praeludium, Sinfonia, Fantasia, Praeambulum, Overture, and Tocatta, followed by a suite of dances.

Sacred themes in Bach's secular works

Alan Melvin wrote (July 27, 2014):
Would someone please help me identify a chorale whose identity I've forgotten?

I am once again hearing a fascinating mash-up in my head of two different Bach works, possibly disparate works, but I'd like to study and compare them anyway. Unfortunately I've forgotten the identity of one of them, a cantata movement with choir whose theme begins with the same seven notes as the the other work (Gigue from BWV 1012, an image of which is here):

Also, I would appreciate if someone could point me to any discussion or essay or list of examples on the subject of Bach (arguably or not) referencing sacred themes in other non-choral, non-secular works. I have looked through the great http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/Egbert.Baars/Parodieen/parodie.htm but it does not mention this particular one. I'm especially interested in any examples among the unaccompanied string works.

Thanks in advance!

Continue on Part 5