Constitutional Figments of Bachian Imaginations: Florilegium Compares and Contrasts Compositional Methods of 6 Members of the Bach Family

T    he Bach family has for a long time been the focus of genealogical research. No other musical family of German origin has spanned so many generations and produced such highly talented performers, as well as composers of the highest order.”
  —  Florilegium program notes.

T he Florilegium concert at Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 3 November was both illuminating in the musicological sense and satisfying musically.

• Ashley Solomon - flute 1
  
• Marta Gonçalves - flute 2
  
• Bojan Čičić - violin 1
  
• Jean Paterson - violin 2
  
• Malgorzata Ziemkiewicz - viola
  
• Jennifer Morsches - cello
  
• Tim Amherst - bass
  
• Terence Charlston - harpsichord

• Johann Bernhard Bach - Overture; Marche; Passepied; Air-Lentement; La Joye; Caprice
  
• Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach - Sonata in C major
  
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Sonata in C minor, Wq 161 No. 4
  
• Wilhelm Friedmann Bach - Adagio and Fugue in D minor, Falck 65
  
• Johann Christian Bach - Quintet in D major
  
• Johann Sebastian Bach - Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067

T hey showed through these pieces how each Bach proposed, developed, elaborated, disposed, and decorated each element in structuring his composition.

I   f large-scale form really generates the working-out of inventions located right on the musical surface, then one needs plausible evidence of this [in the score]. In the absence of such evidence, the reverse position—following Occam’s Razor—is more compelling: that Bach first worked out his inventions—his themes which he ordered in permutational arrangements—and then ‘disposed’ them in a conventional scheme...”
  —  Laurence Dreyfus, p. 169.

T hey brought us fresh illustrations of these Bach family members’ working methods, and how they differed from each other. We also learned about the Bachs’ savvy and opportunistic appropriations of French and Italian styles—and about their co-optation of various genres for expressive or programmatic purposes different from their conventional/traditional ones.

T he ensemble played beautifully throughout, and the program was expertly devised to optimize variations in tempi and texture—to maximize dramatic tension, climax, and resolution for the audience—in addition to accomplishing the nominal aim of shedding light on parallels and differences among these Bachs.

T he flutes and viola, for example, in the Johann Bernhard ‘Passepied’ were a lush and serene contrast to the preceding ‘Marche’ and majestic ‘Overture’.

T he flute-violin-harpsichord ‘call-and-answer’ patterns in the Johann Christoph Friedrich Sonata were, for another example, a striking contrast to counterpoint and tutti sectional passages in the surrounding works.

F lorilegium will next perform at the Nicholas Young Society in Lewes, Sussex, on 26 November. The program then promises to be an innovative exposition of Baroque-era trans-national diffusion of musical ideas and is entitled ‘Les Nations’ and includes works by Couperin, Handel, Bach, Purcell, Vivaldi, Marais, Telemann, and Rebel. We look forward as well to future repeats of their fascinating ‘Six Members of the Bach Family’ program.

I n thinking about the various initiatives that Florilegium have taken recently, a unifying concept seems to be ‘innovation’, broadly conceived. Instead of packaging familiar, excellent repertoire in conventional, “safe” concert offerings, they instead differentiate themselves from other first-rate Baroque ensembles by devising novel thematic programs of less-familiar or totally unfamiliar works. Music as ‘international relations’? ‘Nature vs. Nurture’ among Bachs? How was it for Telemann in Paris? Bolivian Baroque? Yes! More, please!

T he program notes and promotional materials for concerts like these are fabulous. They are razor-sharp and provide fresh, engaging copy for print and broadcast and online media, which in turn makes the promotion more effective for these programs compared to more conventional programs, which in turn gets more people buying tickets and into the seats.

A dditionally, the Friends of Florilegium [patrons association] is vibrant and well-managed. The quarterly newsletter (edited by Dame Emma Kirkby OBE [president] and Sir David Lumsden and David Hill [honorary vice presidents]) is a hoot to read, filled with droll humor and exciting news and other bits.

F lorilegium members, led by Director Ashley Solomon, author some of the contributions to the Friends newsletter, and they are informative and engaging. Thank you for the wonderful ‘Bach Family’ concert at Wigmore, and thank you for the Friends’ excellent example of how to foster sustainable financial growth in support of these fine programs and scholarship!

Č   ičić [Florilegium principal violinis], coming from a musical family, was sent as a child to play the violin and promptly sobbed, ‘I want the piano!’ He also then began tennis lessons; Croatia is well-known for producing some fine champions. Bojan sadly wasn’t to become one of them… Finally, managing to produce a sound [on violin] that would melt icebergs and later woo women, he gave up on tennis. ‘The fees are getting ridiculously expensive,’ was the explanation given by his parents. Et voilá, yet another child plunges headlong towards the uncertain future of a musician… In order to find out more about his repertoire, he left his job as a modern musician in Zagreb, packed his things, and moved to Paris to study early music, speaking no French. Ahh, Paris, the world’s capital of kindness to foreigners, where one is always welcomed with open arms. Bojan had only one option to escape this everyday problem: immerse himself fully into the music he studied, which was mostly French Baroque. Today, he admits this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but, together with a bath and some Prosecco, it’s a jolly good way to relax...”
  —  Profile, Friends of Florilegium Newsletter, Summer 2010.

• Florilegium website
  
• Dreyfus L. Bach and the Patterns of Invention. 2e. Harvard Univ, 2004.
  
• Wolff C. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. Norton, 2001.
  
• Yearsley D. Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint. Cambridge Univ, 2008.

Razumovsky Ensemble’s Account of Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat

O ur soul—how like the water! Our Fate—how like the wind!”
  —  Goethe.

It is difficult to find words that could possibly enhance enjoyment of the [Op. 20 Octet] Scherzo: [it is] at once a perfect and sufficient piece of abstract music and the most vivid tone-painting of wind-swept, cloud-wracked Nature: it is all gossamer, filigree, fugitive enchantment.”
  —  Hugh Wood.

The study of Mendelssohn has been ‘hot’ in recent years, and attention has focused on Mendelssohn’s identity. Jeffrey Sposato, professor at Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, in particular discusses Mendelssohn’s response to his Jewish heritage. There are examples of cadences composed by Mendelssohn and their close correspondence to cadences in Jewish ritual chants. It is easy to be reminded of this while listening to this famous early composition by Mendelssohn, presented by the Razumovsky Ensemble tonight at Wigmore Hall in London.

The 1825 Octet] attempted to capture the spirit of the last stanza of the Walpurgis Night dream in Faust: ‘The flight of the clouds and the veil of mist / Are lighted from above. / A breeze in the leaves, a wind in the reeds, / And all has vanished.’ One feels so near the world of spirits...”
  —  Jeffrey Sposato, The Price of Assimilation, p. 111.

It is reflexive, not deliberative; the narrative trajectory of this Octet is dramatic and impulsive. There is an energy of motion that is enhanced by the power of the eight instruments. The extrovertedness of the Octet is amazing—that of the then-16 year-old Mendelssohn—and is unlike the tempered, conciliatory, non-athletic dialogues of, say, Op. 44 and beyond. Larry Todd has a nice analysis of Op. 20 in his Mendelssohn biography, beginning at page 151.

Rather than a mere doubling of a quartet, Mendelssohn approached the writing as if it were an eight-piece orchestra. That much is conventional wisdom. But, to me, it seems that the biographers and historians have, to date, been writing hagiography; none has seriously considered what it must’ve been to write this piece as a teenager.


Mendelssohn composed his Octet for strings soon after his family had moved into a big house in the Leipzigerstrasse on the outskirts of Berlin. On the grounds was a garden house which had a room large enough to seat a sizeable audience for the family’s Sunday morning chamber music performances, which involved a number of Herr Mendelssohn’s musician friends. Mendelssohn presented the Octet to his string teacher, Julius Reitz, as a birthday gift. He wrote the soaring violin phrases at the beginning of the first movement in hopes of pleasing his teacher, but he was careful to provide meaty enough parts for the rest of the ensemble as well. This is the context that is seldom mentioned, in biographies or in program notes for this piece.

Octets for strings show signs of ‘clotting’ into an orchestral style. Spohr hit upon the device of dividing the eight into antiphonal quartets: and his four double quartets are much nearer to the true style of chamber music than his string quartets … But Mendelssohn, in the wonderful Octet, does not find Spohr’s simple antiphonal scheme worth the trouble of specially grouping the players when he can instead use 255 different combinations of the eight without enquiring how they are seated.”
  —  Donald Tovey.

How badly we need a detailed exploration of Mendelssohn’s notes with Fanny or other evidence—to see what frame of mind he was in during those months when this Octet was composed! This Octet is not a narrative of Jewish assimilation into Protestant Berlin; it is instead, I believe, a narrative of a precocious and eager-to-please teen’s assimilation into Leipzig adult culture. It is a story not of Jewish identity per se so much as it is a story of teen identity. Have a look at the books by Deborah Browning and Jane Kroger (links below) to explore this line of thought.

The Razumovsky Ensemble gave an enthusiastic reading of the Octet tonight that lends credence to the contextual importance of teenage identity and exuberance. The Razumovskys are an ad hoc assemblage of different world class soloists who are convened by Kogan for particular programs, based on their individual proclivities and repertoire affinities.

In 1989 Oleg Kogan won the All-Soviet Union Cello Competition. He has performed with orchestras including the Moscow Philharmonic, the Latvian State Symphony Orchestra, the Geneva Chamber Orchestra and London Soloist Chamber Orchestra and has given recitals in France, Germany, Holland, Israel, Switzerland and the U.K. In 1998 he became founded the Razumovsky Ensemble, a group of dynamic soloists and section leaders from world-class orchestras based in London. Tonight’s beautiful and illuminating performance was just one configuration of Oleg’s many friends and colleagues.

Mainstream kids do assimilate more smoothly and easily into social situations and their own neighborhoods, but often it is the children with out-of-the-box characteristics, who have the ability to make a significant and inspiring contribution to their community and the talent and vision to change the world in a positive way.”
  —  Stephanie Lerner, Kids Who Think Outside the Box, p. 3.

• Razumovsky Ensemble website
  
• Razumovsky Ensemble website mirror
  
• Amazon.com MP3s of Mendelssohn Octet Op. 20 movements
  
• ArkivMusic.com Mendelssohn Octet Op. 20 recordings
  
• Stahl S. Felix Mendelssohn: Musical Genius and Jewish Casualty. JewishVirtualLibrary.org, 1998
  
• Braun E, Hertz D, Reimer G. Affirmation/Indifference/Assimilation. Boston College, 2005.
  
• Browning D, ed. Adolescent Identities: A Collection of Readings. Analytic, 2007.
  
• Kroger J. Identity in Adolescence: The Balance Between Self and Other. 3e. Routledge, 2005.
  
• Mercer-Taylor P, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Cambridge Univ, 2004.
  
• Reich-Morris A. The Quest for Jewish Assimilation in Modern Social Science. Routledge, 2007.
  
• Sposato J. The Price of Assimilation: Mendelssohn and the 19th-Century Anti-Semitic Tradition. Oxford Univ, 2005.
  
• Todd L. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. Oxford Univ, 2003.

Politics of Politics: Fretwork Recreates the Cosmopolitan Vision of England ca. 1600

Humanism believes in a far-reaching program that stands for the establishment throughout the world of democracy, peace, and a high standard of living on the foundations of a flourishing economic order, both national and international.”
  —  Corliss Lamont, Humanism Defined.

In 1540, Henry VIII requisitioned musicians from Italy to compose and perform at his court. Two families came—they were not only Italian but clandestine Jews (marranos, or nominally converted ‘New Christians’). The Lupo and the Bassano families thrived in England and served the monarchy for over a century. Yesterday, the ensemble Fretwork performed a program of their music, ‘Birds on Fire: Jewish Musicians in the English Court,’ at Wigmore Hall in London:

• Augustine Bassano: Pavan and Galliard No. 1;
  
• Heironymus Bassano: Fantasia No. 1 in 5 parts;
  
• Joseph Lupo: Pavan in 5 parts;
  
• Thomas Lupo: Two Fantasias in 6 parts; Pavan in 3 parts*; Fantasia for three trebles; Fantasy for three basses; Fantasia in 6 parts; Two Fantasias in 6 parts;
  
• Van Wilder: Fantasia, con e senza pause (“Emmentaler vs. Gruyere”);
  
• Duarte: Two Symphonies in 5 parts;
  
• Salmone Rossi: Hashkivenu; Shir hamma’ a lot (Psalm 128);
  
• Gough: Birds on Fire;
  
• Various: A suite of dances from the Lumley Part Books: Desperada, Pavan and Gallyard, Seconda desperada, Pavan and Gallyard of Albarti, and Terza desperada.

    [50-sec clip, Thomas Lupo, Fretwork Ensemble, ‘Pavan in 3 Parts’, 0.9MB MP3]

The program notes assert that these pieces illustrate the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Tudor and Stuart courts, drawing upon the idioms of Franco-Flemish or Italian music. Although the Jews had been banished from the kingdom of England since 1290, the Italian-Jewish Bassano and Lupo families became composer dynasties, dominating English music between 1550 and 1650. But this program is, I think, far more than nominally ‘cosmopolitan.’ It is a story of international relations and the perennial pitfalls of international politics. More on that below...

Formed in 1986, the group consists of six players. Its repertoire consists primarily of music of the Renaissance period, in particular that of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, arrangements of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, plus contemporary music composed for them.

Fretwork

• Richard Boothby
  
• Richard Campbell
  
• Wendy Gillespie
  
• Asako Morikawa
  
• Richard Tunnicliffe
  
• Susanna Pell

with Jeremy Avis singing the Salmone Rossi Ebreo pieces, ‘Hashkivenu’ and ‘Shir hamma’ a lot’.

In 1997 Fretwork won the French Grand Prix du Disque for their recording ‘Lachrimae, or Seven Teares’ by John Dowland. Fretwork performed for the soundtracks of two Jim Jarmusch movies, ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ (2003) and ‘Broken Flowers’ (2005). Their other film performances include ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, ‘The Crucible’, and ‘La Fille d’Artagnan’. Fretwork’s members’ versatility and musicianship are impressive. And last night the warmth of their playing delighted the Wigmore Hall audience of about 500.

The program was bookended with ‘Birds on Fire’, a three-part piece by Orlando Gough composed for Fretwork in 2001 and based on the novel by Aaron Appelfeld ‘Badenheim 1939.’ The novel is about a group of Jews at a spa outside of Vienna in the spring of 1939. With the Nazi regime’s actions the town gradually becomes a ghetto, and the musicians abandon Viennese schmalz and play klezmer tunes (‘Kandel’s Hora’ and ‘Odessa Bulgarish’) in secret. According to Gough’s program notes, they persuade themselves that the sinister changes around them are ‘improvements’, until summer turns to autumn, the food runs out, and they are reduced to eating absurd delicacies from the abandoned hotel pantry. “A pair of twins give a reading—their words were like birds on fire.”

Visiting England from the U.S. as I am, the Fretwork ‘Birds on Fire’ program was especially apropos and poignant. I imagined the precariousness of the Lupos and Bassanos in English society—this was a backdrop to my comprehending these compositions. The Tudor and Stuart courts—and the broader English society—were, I think, hardly congenial to the clandestine cosmopolitan views conveyed in these compositions. Parallels to today abound in them. To this day it is necessary to be clandestine. The recent postures of the U.S. bring into question whether the low-information voter can ever be persuaded to support a humanistic and cosmopolitan international relations: respect for reason, belief in the possibility of a democratic peace based on discourse rather than military might, the peaceful effect of trade, non-provocative defense policies; the obsolescence of conquest and universal respect for human rights.

A cosmopolitan outlook has also though sometimes been associated in the past with an inclination toward ‘messianic’ interventionism. Thomas Walker (then at Rutgers, now at SUNY Albany) wrote an as-it-turns-out ‘premonitory’ paper on this back in 2000 (see link below).

So cosmopolitans may be sophisticated, world-wise, urbane, intrigued by other cultures, and extroverted—but they may be delusional as well. Radical humanists position themselves opposite realism’s fundamental conception of the international system as inherently anarchical. The idea of international anarchy simply provides justification and ‘cover’ for states to pursue selfish national interests to the detriment of international interests, especially those of developing countries. Regrettably, it’s the idea of the sovereign independent state pursuing its own interests that continues to dominate world politics.

An ‘emancipatory’ discourse on international politics, rather than a rationalizing one, ought to critically analyze the conservative stance of foundational International Relations (IR) theories such as realism (the politics of power) and international liberalism. In particular, such discourse ought to analyze their lack of theoretical focus on the oligarchic structure of IR. With regard to the global, anti-democratic nature of current IR, emancipatory discourses such as feminism and radical humanism differ, for example, on how to replace the present (oligarchic) structure with a fairer system.

Realist views embracing the concept of sovereignty (of the state) and opposing anarchy tend to argue for the “inevitability” of today’s world where a small grouping of states are dominant. According to realists, even a state’s external security is safeguarded by the anarchic politics, since it leaves the state free to defend its security either independently or by becoming a member of a multinational alliance. This conservative and pro-status quo ideology of IR runs counter to critics of the oligarchic structure of IR who see a potential for real change; that is, for international democracy where all are equal participants in a democratic world.

The “one world” liberal humanist call for the democratization and empowerment of the U.N. as a first step to toward democratization lacks real emancipatory potential if the unjust international world economic order is left in place. The scholar Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya typifies the humanist critique of the prevailing mode of IR–a pro-democratic ideology of IR. Bandyopadhyaya is Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Previously he was on the faculty at Columbia University and Professor of International Studies at the American University. The Asiatic Society conferred on him the Biman Bihary Majumdar Award (2006) for his contribution to Political Science and the West Bengal Bangla Academy awarded him the Manas Roy Choudhury Award (2006) for his contribution to Bengalie prose. He has been actively engaged in fighting fundamentalism in India.

T he [realist] paradigm of international anarchy is only an ideological camouflage for the rationalisation, legitimisation and perpetuation of this undemocratic and grossly unjust international sysytem.”
  —  Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya, World Government for International Democracy, p. 9.

What makes this perspective a humanistic one? I think it is especially the optimism that human beings possess the power to solve political problems by relying on reason and political will. It also encapsulates humanism’s stress on freedom and development (economic, political, cultural) of all humankind, regardless of nation, ethnicity or religion.

Listen to the music of the Lupos and Bassanos as rendered by Fretwork and you will hear these strains—a cosmopolitan IR stance embodied by Jewish musicians in England in the late 16^th and early 17^th Centuries. The use of democratic procedures and civil liberties throughout all areas of economic, political, and cultural life is still a feature in humanist discourse today, and the chamber music of the Lupos and the Bassanos contains discursive musical evidence of this. Such humanism today promotes an egalitarian socio-political program and a flourishing economic order. The radicalism of this humanist viewpoint is today positioned outside of liberal internationalism, which is critically viewed as being “blind” to imperialism and its own ethnocentrality. But in 1540, under the auspices of King Henry VIII and others after him, the compositions were not nearly so “blind”.

The virtually unlimited support extended to this oligarchic international system by those very states which proclaim democracy to be a universal principle of political organisation in human society is the most glaring paradox of international relations…The oligarchic international system brought into existence by the ruling classes of the militarily and economically powerful states does not, however, enjoy the support of all sections of world public opinion.”
  —  Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya, World Government for International Democracy, p. 22.

Radical humanist ideology shaped by emancipatory rhetoric is today more problematic than ever, particularly so during the reign of the neo-cons in the U.S. Fretwork’s ‘Birds on Fire’ program is historically-informed and commendable for its aesthetic beauty. But it is also apropos in yet more ways because of the relevance of the political context that gave rise to these pieces—relevance to species of IR today. ‘Birds on Fire’ would make an ideal program for fund-raising by IR organizations and NGOs concerned with the current situation in international politics.

• Fretwork website
  
• Askonas-Holt Management Ltd
  
• Wigmore Hall website
  
• Pliable. Lone voices: Jewish composers. On An Overgrown Path blog, 23-JUL-2008.
  
• Thomas Walker page at SUNY Albany
  
• Walker T. The forgotten prophet: Tom Paine’s cosmopolitanism and international relations. Intl Studies Quart 2000; 44:51-72.
  
• Fretwork. Birds on Fire: Jewish Music for Viols. (HarmoniaMundi, 2008.)
  
• Archibugi D. The Global Commonwealth of Citizens: Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy. Princeton Univ, 2008.
  
• Bandyopadhyaya J. World Government for International Democracy and Justice. Manuscript India, 2002.
  
• Bandyopadhyaya J. IR and Global Equilibrium. Bagchi/JU, 1992.
  
• Beck U, Cronin C. Cosmopolitan Vision. Polity, 2006.
  
• Cabrera L. Political Theory of Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Case for the World State. Routledge, 2006.
  
• Games A. The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560-1660. Oxford Univ, 2008.
  
• Moellendorf D. Cosmopolitan Justice. Press, 2002.
  
• Walkowitz R. Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism Beyond the Nation. Columbia Univ, 2007.
  
• Valerie Barber PR
  
• Viola da Gamba Society U.K.
  
• Henner Harders viols at ViolWerks.de
  
• Lu-Mi Chinese viols (Wendy Gillespie) at LazarEarlyMusic.com