Event programme

Johann Sebastian Bach, Sonatas for viol and harpsichord

Johann Sebastian Bach did not leave us a series of works for the viola da gamba arranged in a systematic way, as he did with Das Wohltemperirte Clavier for the harpsichord or the cello suites. But this fact should not make us think that this instrument was not important for the German composer. In fact, Bach dedicated many of the most expressive pages of his production to the viola da gamba. In the passions or cantatas such as Actus Tragicus and Trauer Ode the viola da gamba enhances the expressive pathos of the text set to music through its particular timbre. It appears as a solo instrument in four other cantatas. A pair of violas da gamba is also present in the sixth Brandenburg concert and the viola da gamba is mentioned in the Bacchiano autograph as the accompanying instrument of the six sonatas for concerted harpsichord and solo violin BWV 1014-1019.

Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)

Sonata à Cembalo è Viola da Gamba di J.S.B. 
(BWV 1027)
Adagio / Allegro ma non tanto / Andante / Allegro moderato

SONATA a Viola da Gamba e Cembalo obligato di J. S. Bach 
(BWV 1028)
(?) / (?) / Andante / Allegro

SONATA a VIOLA DA GAMBA et CEMBALO OBLIGATO COM, posta da J. S. Bach 
(BWV 1029)
Vivace / ADAGIO / Allegro

Viola da gamba: Magnus Andrea Meyer, Hamburg 1751

Interest in the three sonatas for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord (BWV 1027-1029) and their dissemination has increased to such an extent during the past thirty years in concert life, on CD recordings, and in various practical editions that—from today’s vantage point—one must include them among the ur-repertoire of the viola da gamba. Each sonata was composed and has been transmitted as an individual work. Thus, in contrast to many of Bach’s other chamber music conceptions, they do not constitute a cycle. Nevertheless, the three sonatas are linked by the fact that they consistently display obbligato three-part writing, and that the harpsichord part no longer has the liberties of a basso continuo. Another feature they have in common is that they are arrangements of works originally scored for other instruments. This certainly does not call into question their high artistic value.

The source situation for the three viola da gamba sonatas is not unproblematic since an autograph manuscript has survived only for the G-Major Sonata (BWV 1027). The two other sonatas, in D major and G minor (BWV 1028 and 1029), are available to us today only as copyists’ manuscripts. The most important, and chronologically the closest to the original, are those made in 1753 by Christoph Friedrich Penzel, a pupil at the St. Thomas School. The autograph of the G-Minor Sonata has presumably been lost only since the Second World War; it was still available to Wilhelm Rust, the editor of the first complete edition of Bach works published in 1860. See Andreas Bomba, “Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Obligato Harpsichord,” in the booklet to the CD J. S. Bach: Sonatas for Viola da Gamba & Harpsichord BWV 1027–1029, Edition Bachakademie 124 (Holzgerlingen: Hännsler, 1999), p. 16.

The source situation is possibly also the reason why a facsimile edition of the viola da gamba sonatas has found its way into print only in the second decade of the twenty-first century. A further reason for this late publication presumably has to do with the fact that, according to the editorial understanding of the twentieth century, there are too many “inconsistencies” and “discrepancies” in the available material, which apparently preclude, or at least complicate, a practical realization.

This is why the editors of many of the editions available today have gone through the trouble of cleaning up the scores. The viola da gamba and the harpsichord parts have been corrected in the most conscientious manner, regardless of whether it had to do with adjusted articulations, tacitly added slurs on appoggiaturas, or motivic adjusted staccato dots. Many an editor has even endeavoured to produce a quasi-complete edition from the diverse sources. Yet this is all insufficient for today’s understanding of performance-practice correctness, which presupposes the consciousness that phrasing and articulations in a repeated theme offer the possibility of variation each time, that the “round, pure, flowing performance” (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, Berlin, 1753, p. 117, Vom Vortrage) results from articulation and variation that go beyond the structure of the measures. Not required is a standardization of the performance markings—be it articulation, embellishment, or phrasing signs—in different themes, but rather the possibility of varied realizations of the same thematic and motivic material.

The facsimiles of the three present sonatas—the autograph of the G-major Sonata and the copies by Christian Friedrich Penzel—certainly do not offer “cleaned-up” editions. In their apparent inconsistency or arbitrariness, particularly as far as the application of slurs is concerned, they in fact provide a wonderful opportunity to consider and experience the well-known material in terms of new possibilities of articulation and interpretation.

The autograph of the Sonata in G major is preserved in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz under the call number Mus. ms. Bach P 226. The title page reads: “Sonata à Cembalo è Viola da Gamba di J.S.B.” The autograph is notated on seven leaves measuring 32.5 x 20.5 cm and consists of a viola da gamba part and a harpsichord part. Based on the watermark in the paper, a crowned double eagle with heart-shaped escutcheon, the manuscript can be dated to the period after 1740,    that is to say, to the last decade of Bach’s life.

Contrary to the alternative version of this sonata for two transverse flutes and basso continuo (BWV 1039), the second movement carries the tempo indication “Allegro ma non tanto” and not “ma non presto,” the third movement “Andante” and not “Adagio e piano.” If we assume that Bach consciously made these changes in the version for viola da gamba and harpsichord, this has consequences as regards the tempo: the second movement should therefore not be too fast, with the aspirate (light) accents expressed by staccato dots in the prescribed places, while the hovering-arpeggiated chords of the third movement tend to require lightness and forward thinking over the pedal points. The various slurs in the viola da gamba and harpsichord parts underpin the idiomatic performance characteristics of the respective instruments.

The fourth movement, which in the version for flute is alla breve and labelled “Presto,” that is to say, very fast, has with “Allegro moderato” a reduced tempo in the viola da gamba version—perhaps Bach had the idiomatic character in mind here, too: the viola da gamba and harpsichord should articulate more precisely and bring out a deeper complexity, while on two flutes the thrill of speed can have its own quality.

The copies of the Sonatas in D Major and G Minor made by Christian Friedrich Penzel in 1753 are likewise found in the holdings of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz under the call numbers Mus. ms. Bach P 1057 (D-Major) and Mus. ms. Bach St 163 (G-Minor). The Sonata in D Major is preserved as a score with a separate viola da gamba part. The score is made up of five leaves measuring 34.5 x 21 cm, and the viola da gamba part of two leaves measuring 33.5 x 21 cm. Like the autograph, the G-Minor Sonata has come down to us in individual parts. The harpsichord part is made up of six leaves measuring 34.5 x 21 cm, and the viola da gamba part of two leaves measuring 34 x 21 cm.

What’s exciting about the D-Major Sonata is its transmission as a score with a part. In a comparison of the two parts, the different, indeed even contradictory slurs, which are to be found everywhere, immediately attract attention: whether this is due to carelessness on Penzel’s part or whether it represents the different performance possibilities that he conceivably adopted from the autograph is anyone’s guess. We can only speculate and make our own decisions concerning the realization. It is nevertheless striking that no divergences are to be found in the musical text, and that the trills and suspension are notated consistently throughout. This might just suggest that the copy was carefully made.

Owing to the good legibility of the present material, I would definitely recommend using this edition as a practical edition.

We would like to thank the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz for permission to publish this facsimile edition.

(Hille Perl)

We would like to thank Edition Walhall for permission to publish Prof. Hille Perl's introduction to the facsimile edition free of charge: Johann Sebastian Bach, Drei Sonaten für Viola da gamba und obligates Cembalo, BWV 1027-1029, edition number EW 888.