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Discovering Bach's Altos

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Discovering Bach's Altos Discovering Bach’s Altos A document submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the Division of Ensembles and Conducting of the College-Conservatory of Music November 2018 by Aaron Knodle B.A., Luther College, 2011 M.S.M., Boston University, 2016 Committee Chair: Earl Rivers, DMA Abstract This document seeks to uncover identifying characteristics of the alto voices Johann Sebastian Bach might have encountered at Mühlhausen, Weimar, Cöthen, and Leipzig, and provide vocal casting recommendations for the alto voice in modern performances of Bach’s music. Using range and voice type as primary identifiers, this study combines secondary scholarship with analyses from original source material in order to provide sung range expectations of alto voices in works associated with each of Bach’s abovementioned professional positions. This document also employs secondary source material in order to seek an answer to whether Bach used women, boys (unchanged voices), or men (falsettists), and if he used the latter, whether they sang in falsetto throughout or with a mix of head and chest voice. This information concerning voice type and technique combined with actual range requirements is compared to the identifying ranges and characteristics of modern mezzo-sopranos, contraltos, and countertenors in order to provide ideal vocal casting recommendations for contemporary performances of Bach’s music. ii iii Table of Contents List of Tables v I. Introduction 1 II. Background 3 III. Literature Review 10 IV. Mühlhausen 17 V. Weimar 24 VI. Cöthen 35 VII. Leipzig 41 VIII. Altos in eighteenth century Germany 52 IX. Making modern choices 59 Bibliography 66 Appendices 71 iv List of Tables Table 1 52 Table 2 52 Table 3 62 Table 4 63 v I. Introduction Addressing the identity of Johann Sebastian Bach’s altos in 1994, Peter Giles wrote, “It is reiterated that the Bach-alto question: ‘What kind of altos did Bach use?’ has long been argued over. It still is.”1 Joshua Rifkin reflected a similar sentiment in 2016 when he wrote, “Alto parts in Bach are indeed a particular problem.”2 These two scholars suggest that questions concerning Bach’s altos remain current, and though one cannot, realistically, ever uncover or reproduce the actual identity of an alto encountered by Bach, the more information one possesses about such an alto’s identity, the better one can make informed decisions about modern vocal casting choices in contemporary performances of Bach’s music. Specifically, should one engage a mezzo-soprano, contralto, or countertenor to sing Bach’s alto parts? This document investigates potential identity markers of Bach’s altos at several of his major professional positions, cataloging both the notated and actual sung ranges demanded of the alto voice as well as categorizing their voice type. The three research questions guiding this document are 1.) did vocal works from Mühlhausen, Weimar, Cöthen, and Leipzig all demand the same sung range, 2.) did Bach use women, boys (unchanged voices), or men (falsettists), and if he used the latter, did they sing in falsetto throughout, or with mix of head and chest voice, and 3.) what modern voice type best matches these qualifications?3 In truth, no modern voice type likely provides a perfect match for the alto voice that Bach encountered, and the choice between mezzo-soprano, contralto, or countertenor may come down, not to general practice, but to individual singers, their availability, and whether 1. Peter Giles, The History and Technique of the Counter-Tenor: A Study of the Male High Voice Family (Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1994), 92. 2 Joshua Rifkin, e-mail message to author, March 31, 2016. 3 Ibid. 1 or not they can successfully navigate Bach’s range demands at a specific pitch level.4 All of these aforementioned factors can change from one circumstance to the next, complicating any generalized recommendation. Nevertheless, the knowledge of what modern voice type best matches an alto Bach might have encountered can serve as a helpful guide for performance practice. Apart from the guiding researching questions, this document contains examples of written ranges found in extant materials from Bach’s catalogue and presents them at the presumed pitch level of A = 440 Hertz (Hz). Recognizing the relativity of pitch and the understanding that Bach encountered a variety of different pitch levels, the presentation of written ranges at A = 440Hz allows their recalculation into different sounding ranges at various pitch levels (A = 392, 415, or 465Hz, etc.) possibly experienced by Bach and all relative to A = 440Hz.5 4 Rifkin, e-mail message to author, March 31, 2016. 5 Daniel R. Melamed, Hearing Bach’s Passions (NY: Oxford University Press, 2005), 6. 2 II. Background Bach’s oeuvre contains many examples of instruments playing colla parte with the voices, and one need only look at the extant materials from both complete passions (BWV 244 and 245) and the motet BWV 226 to find strong evidence of this.6 These extant materials allow one to investigate whether Bach tended to write for the voice through an instrumental lens or the instruments through a vocal one. Betsy Jerold provided evidence that Bach certainly could write for the voice through an instrumental viewpoint, citing cadential motion in Bach’s treatment of the bass voice in some of his early cantatas. She specifically noted incredibly low bass notes that appear in 22 early cantatas at cadential points, usually the note of the dominant dropping an octave before ascending to the note of the tonic.7 Jerold attested that in these moments Bach treated the voice part instrumentally and did not actually expect bass singers to perform the low octave, but, instead, remain on the note of the upper octave while the accompanying instrument(s) covered the lower octave.8 Christoph Wolff, however, noted that Bach could, in 6 Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 244, D-B Mus. ms. Bach St 110, Faszikel 1, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Bach digital, accessed September 24, 2018, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002445; Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 245, D-B Mus. ms. Bach St 111, Faszikel 1, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Bach digital, accessed September 24, 2018, https://www.bach- digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002447; Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 245, D-B Mus. ms. Bach St 111, Faszikel 2, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Bach digital, accessed September 24, 2018, https://www.bach- digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002448; Daniel R. Melamed, J. S. Bach and the German motet (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 23 and 85. 7 Beverly Jerold, “Pitch in the Vocal Works of J. S. Bach.” Bach, vol. 31, no. 1 (July 2000): 74-95, accessed January 31, 2018, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=99814607&site=ehost-live, 84. 8 Ibid. 3 fact, sing, and that in his youth, Bach sang both soprano and bass.9 This evidence, combined with the reality that Bach both wrote and led performances of hundreds of compositions for voices and instruments throughout his life in the form of cantatas, chorale harmonizations, passion settings, masses, and motets, could suggest that Bach understood the voice and successfully wrote for the singers at his disposal. In either case, Bach wrote extensively for the voice, and a contemporary performance of Bach’s music should include a vocal cast best equipped to render this music as Bach might have heard it, whether the composer actually understood the voice or not. In order to identify the best types of voices for Bach’s music, one must, at least, understand both the notated range written in Bach’s scores as well as the actual pitch level at which vocalists rendered Bach’s music. Unfortunately, little information addressing these exists. Alfred Dürr’s 1951 dissertation, Studien über Die frühen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, documents the overall notated range of each voice part required in thirty-seven of Bach’s early cantatas, but does not provide the range required of individual movements within these same works.10 Dürr also provided no discussion of the actual sung ranges demanded by each of these cantatas.11 Arthur Mendel’s 1955 article “On the Pitches in Use in Bach’s Time – I” only cites the overall written range of each voice part for five works that date from Leipzig.12 Mendel, 9 Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, 1st ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000), 59. 10 Alfred Dürr, Studien über Die frühen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, [2. Auflage], Verbesserte und erweiterte Fassung der im Jahr 1951 erschienenen Dissertation ed. (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1977), 22–58. 11 Ibid. 4 unlike Dürr, did include a discussion concerning the suggested pitch level at Bach’s major posts, but did not recalculate notated ranges into actual sung ranges. In order to get a clearer picture of the notated range demands of Bach’s altos, both the overall range of a specific work as well as the ranges required in individual movements within must be documented, allowing the calculation of both notated range extremes and averages. This does not, however, complete the picture, as the process of identifying the possible range of an alto Bach may have encountered during his lifetime also requires knowledge of the pitch level used at each of Bach’s posts. Unlike information concerning the ranges required in Bach’s vocal works, information pertaining to the pitch level at each of Bach’s posts appears more documented but remains far more intangible and complex. In his book, Hearing Bach’s Passions, Daniel Melamed wrote, “Bach’s musicians used two or three different pitch standards, none of which conform to our concert pitch of A at 440Hz.”13 Melamed’s assertion confirms that knowledge of notated ranges cannot stand alone.
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