Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro for Lute (BWV 998): a Trinitarian Statement of Faith? ANNE LEAHY The Prelude, Fugue and Allegro (BWV 998) is a composition dating from Bach’s maturity. According to the relevant critical commentary of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, published in 1982, BWV 998 was composed in the final decade of Bach’s life.1 More recently, Yoshitaki Kobayashi has pinpointed the date of composition more specifically to ‘um 1735’.2 Although it has always been classified among the secular compositions of Bach, it is a work rich in symbolic potential.3 To date all theological Bach studies have mainly focused on either vocal compositions or instrumental works related to the Lutheran chorale. There may be many reasons to believe that Bach intended to portray a theological message in this piece, which will be outlined below. Firstly, however, it is necessary briefly to consider the autograph score and the instrumentation. Bach’s manuscript bears the title ‘Prelude pour la Luth ò Cembal’.4 Historically, the piece seems to have been regarded as a lute piece, although the composer’s inscription has led to some ambiguity. The date of composition, believed to fall around 1735 (as suggested by Kobayashi) or at least between 1734 and 1747,5 may point to a lute work, as it was around this time that Bach was in contact with the 1 Hartwig Eichberg and Thomas Kohlhase (eds), Kritischer Bericht (1982) for volume V/10, Einzeln überlieferte Klavierwerke II und Kompositionen für Lauteninstrumente, of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, 153. 2 Yoshitake Kobayashi, Die Notenschrift Johann Sebastian Bachs. Dokumentation ihrer Entwicklung, volume IX/2 (1989) of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, 209. 3 The significance of this piece was brought to my attention by my student, Redmond O’Toole, who suggested to me that there might be a theological aspect to the work. 4 The autograph score is held at Ueno-Gakuen Music Academy, Tokyo (Eichberg and Kohlhase, 149). 5 Eichberg and Kohlhase, 152. Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, 1 (2005), p. 33 Anne Leahy lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss.6 However, there are problems with range when this piece is played on the lute and so it remains rather enigmatic. Only the Prelude is playable without much alteration. Nevertheless, the necessary changes to the Fugue and Allegro are no more radical than those found in the tablature version of the Suite in G minor (BWV 995) which is an arrangement of the Cello Suite in C (BWV 1011).7 The last few bars of BWV 998 are in organ tablature, thereby raising further performance issues. The most likely instrument would seem to be the Lautenwerck or Lautenclavier, a small harpsichord with a similarly shaped body to that of a lute. It had gut strings plucked by a quill mechanism.8 According to the inventory of instruments in Bach’s possession made at his death, Bach owned two lute-harpsichords—an instrument we know little about, as no example has survived and there are few documentary sources regarding its structure.9 Johann Friedrich Agricola recalled: ‘around the year 1740, in Leipzig, having seen and heard a lute-harpsichord designed by Mr Johann Sebastian Bach and executed by Mr Zacharias Hildebrandt, which was of smaller size than the ordinary harpsichord’.10 It seems that around 1740 Bach was in contact with Weiss and also owned a lute-harpsichord—factors that do not make the issue of the instrumentation of BWV 998 any clearer. In an article dealing with the instrumental possibilities of BWV 998, Eugen M. Dombois concludes: I have considered the question separately for all three movements, and in all three cases I have come to the conclusion that the whole work is probably more a lute-harpsichord piece than a lute piece. The degree of probability differs, however: it is highest in the case of the Allegro and lowest in that of the Prelude.11 6 Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel (eds), The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, revised and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: Norton, 1998), 204. 7 Malcolm Boyd (ed.), J. S. Bach: Oxford Composer Companions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 276. 8 Boyd, 274. See also Ulrich Prinz, Johann Sebastian Bachs Instrumentarium: Originalquellen, Besetzung, Verwendung (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2005), 645. 9 Boyd, 274; Werner Neumann and Hans-Joachim Schulze (eds), Fremdschriftliche und gedruckte Dokumente zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs, 1685–1750, Bach Dokumente, 2 (Leipzig and Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1969), no. 627. 10 David and Mendel, 366; Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: the Learned Musician (New York: Norton, 2000), 413. 11 Eugen M. Dombois, ‘The Fugue and Prelude from Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat Major (BWV 998)’, The Lute (Journal of the Lute Society) 15 (1973), 37–47: 47. JSMI, 1 (2005), p. 34 Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro for Lute (BWV 998) The problems of instrumentation are perhaps the subject of another study and, for the moment, this article will turn to the possible theological aspects of BWV 998. Why should one suggest that there is a theological aspect to the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, a work for lute or lute-harpsichord and ostensibly not a sacred piece? Whatever the instrument for which Bach may have been writing, there are nonetheless many reasons to believe that Bach was conveying a theological message in this composition and it is interesting to note that in the very few articles written about the work there is little mention of this possibility.12 Theological symbolism in the non-text- based music of Bach was not completely unprecedented. Many authors have commented on the Trinitarian aspects of both the Prelude (BWV 552.i) and the Fugue (BWV 552.ii) in E flat which frame Clavierübung III.13 If Bach showed an interest in theological symbolism in these pieces, then it is highly probable that he might also have done so in other works. This will be explored below. Before looking at the symbolic potential of BWV 998, it is necessary to outline the basic structure and highlight the main musical elements. This is a work in three movements, all in the key of E-flat major. The opening movement is in the pastoral metre of 12/8. The central movement is a da capo fugue, one of the rare instances of this form in the works of Bach (he also used this form in the lute partita BWV 997, dating from around the same time as BWV 998, and in the so-called ‘Wedge’ fugue in E minor, BWV 548, which dates from the period 1727–32).14 The fugue subject is an eight-note chorale-like theme in crotchets. The final movement is a dancing binary- form movement in 3/8. Firstly, it is interesting to examine the tonality. Writers in the eighteenth century such as Johann Mattheson clearly acknowledged that the choice of key could be significant15 and more recently Eric Chafe has shown that there is much tonal allegory 12 See Eduardo Fernandez, Essays on J.S. Bach’s Works for Lute (Montevideo: Ediciones ART, 2003), 29–38 and 45–51, where he explores the rhetorical possibilities of the Allegro and the fugue. Fernandez does not however use any other examples from Bach’s oeuvre to substantiate his views. 13 These include Robin A. Leaver, ‘Bach’s “Clavierübung III”: Some Historical and Theological Considerations’, The Organ Yearbook 6 (1975), 17–32; Albert Clement, Der dritte Teil der Clavierübung von Johann Sebastian Bach: Musik—Text—Theologie (Middelburg: Almares, 1999), 21–34. 14 See Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, second edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 123, where he cites other possibilities while acknowledging that the examples he cites are not pure fugal forms. 15 See Johann Mattheson, Das Neu-Eröffnete Orchestre (Hamburg, 1713), 231–253, where he describes key characteristics. JSMI, 1 (2005), p. 35 Anne Leahy in the sacred vocal works of Bach.16 In his PhD dissertation of 1976, Ulrich Meyer suggested that an investigation into tonal allegory in the organ works was timely.17 However, to date there has not been a comprehensive investigation into tonal allegory in the instrumental works. The key of E flat has been noted to be of great significance in the works of Bach, most notably in the Prelude and Fugue in E flat (BWV 552), the opening and closing movements of Clavierübung III, where it can be strongly associated with the Trinity.18 It is likely, in the light of other possible Trinitarian associations, that the E-flat tonality of BWV 998 may have similar meaning. Further investigation into the other musical aspects of the piece will help to clarify the issue. Another striking feature of the opening movement is the 12/8 metre. Renate Steiger has related this metre to Christ as the Good Shepherd in the cantatas of Bach.19 Traditionally this time signature has had pastoral connotations, used in the context of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Steiger refers to John 10:11: ‘I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep’. Here Steiger suggests 16 Eric Chafe, Tonal Allegory in the Vocal Works of J. S. Bach (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1991). Chafe and Wolfgang Auhagen (Studien zur Tonartencharakteristik in theoretischen Schriften und Kompositionen vom späten 17. bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt am Main, Bern and New York: Lang, 1983)), have both investigated tonal allegory in the vocal works of Bach, but not in his organ works.