On those rare occasions that we actually do play a Baroque piece, we always comment on how much we enjoy it in spite of the difficulties involved. It’s as if the souls of the musicians and the audience were given a thorough cleaning.
This kind of spiritual cleansing, in my view, can be attributed to the completely different atmosphere and requirements made of music and composers, and art in general, from a bygone age.
Most of the important composers of the Baroque period, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) included, maintained close ties with the church. Composition was intrinsically connected to religious activity, such as the Mass—the music serving to heighten the spiritual uplifting of the parish while the confines of the religious doctrine defined the form and purity of the musical composition.
Nowadays the interdependence of religion and music exists only in a few works, having been superseded by a wide variety of forms that have evolved to serve musical expression in a secular society.
This is not to say that secular music did not exist in the Baroque period, but even this musical idiom had strict concepts regarding harmony and also had very clear rules regarding musical forms. Because of these guidelines, even secular works by composers from the Baroque period sound “pure” to our modern ears.
The six Brandenburg Concertos I mentioned before were secular pieces, but really are imbued with a kind of beauty that is truly heavenly.
Both Secular and Religious Works
There are many other secular works by J. S. Bach also worthy of mention, many of which he composed during his tenure as Kappellmeister in Köthen (1717–1723). “The Well-Tempered Clavier” is a famous keyboard piece (which I get out every now and then and have a go at parts of it to get the rust off of my piano fingers).
The six Cello Suites are very well-known. (I also play them on the bassoon; my apologies to the cellists, but it’s very satisfying music to play when you’re on your own).
The Partitas and Sonatas for solo violin are fabulous, and the Concerto for Two Violins is a masterpiece. Actually, all of these works are masterpieces. It’s just that Bach has so many great pieces to his name that you would start to sound repetitive if you qualify all as master works.
Bach’s career revolved around the Lutheran church. Most of the positions held throughout his life involved playing the organ or leading as concertmaster during church services, and composing new music to be played and sung at masses and other feast-day celebrations.
The 200-plus cantatas that survive to this day bear testimony to his inexhaustible dedication to producing religious music. Then, of course, you have the bigger important works such as the “St. Matthew Passion,” the “St. John Passion,” the “St. Mark Passion,” and the “St. Luke Passion,” all intended to be performed as part of the Good Friday services, and each based on its corresponding gospel.
The Mass in B minor is a late mature work. Curiously, it is his only musical setting of the entire Mass, since the Lutheran custom in his day was to only write a Missa brevis where the only parts of the Mass that get set to music are the Gloria and the Kyrie, in Latin.
The choir is and was an essential part of religious music, and four-part choral writing (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) permeates all of these works.
An outstanding characteristic of any choir is that the four voices can move together in harmony (as in a chorale), or they can become independent and each sing its own melody. When different melodies are combined together simultaneously within the rules of harmony, it’s called counterpoint.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series.
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