answers, and it therefore perfectly demonstrates than the organist and clavier player of European

the notion of historical study as an ongoing renown. To Wolff, this succinct piece is Bach’s
source of possibility and inspiration for musical way of saying ‘This is who I am, and this is what I
performance today. stand for: the art of contrapuntal polyphony’.
JOHN BUTT Then, using the music produced by the canon
University of Glasgow and Johann Friedrich Agricola’s description of
doi:10.1093/ml/gcaa063 the unique qualities of Bach’s compositional style
ß The Author(s) (2020). Published by Oxford University in the obituary of 1750, Wolff lays out the
Press. All rights reserved. underlying premiss of his book: that it is the
ongoing application of counterpointças gener-
ator of ‘ingenious ideas’, as producer of ‘all-

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Bach’s Musical Universe:The Composer and his Work. embracing polyphony’, and as liberator of
By Christoph Wolff. Pp. 432. (W.W. Norton, harmony’s ‘most hidden secrets’çthat forms the
NewYork and London, 2020. ISBN 978-0-393- constant in Bach’s output. The prologue is as
05071-4 (hardcover), $40.) much a tour de force as Bach’s canon.
Wolff turns to the obituary once again as a
Bach’s Musical Universe:The Composer and his Work source for grouping Bach’s works, this time using
represents Part II of Christoph Wolff ’s grand the list of published and unpublished
survey of the life and works of Johann Sebastian compositions provided by Carl Philipp Emanuel
Bach. It has been long awaited, and it does not Bach. Wolff begins by looking at the roots of
disappoint. Bach’s passion for compiling encyclopedic
Part I, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned collections as it first emerged in the Orgel-
Musician, issued in 2000 on the 250th anniversary Bu«chlein, Well-Tempered Clavier I, and Inventions
of Bach’s death, focused on the composer’s life. It and Sinfonias. These three pedagogical albums
was a remarkable achievement: a monumental formed the foundation of Bach’s method of
biography that replaced Philipp Spitta’s vener- keyboard instruction, and Wolff speculates that
able nineteenth-century study and presented a Bach submitted them as part of his application
new, updated image of Bach. InWolff ’s account, for the position of St Thomas Cantor in 1723, to
Bach emerged as an independent artist in his last serve as a substitute for book publications in his
two decades, turning his back on the church and academic portfolio. The similarly didactic title-
focusing on secular music-making, private page inscriptions, added to the Orgel-Bu«chlein and
projects, and intellectual pursuits. Spitta’s Fifth Inventions and Sinfonias only around 1723,
Evangelist became Wolff ’s Distinguished support this intriguing notion (the incomplete
Professor. state of the Orgel-Bu«chleinçalmost three-
In Bach’s Musical Universe, Wolff continues this quarters of the scored pages stood emptyçdoes
line of thinking while dealing with the works not). Here and elsewhere,Wolff picks a few repre-
themselves. He breaks new ground by sentative pieces from each collection to illustrate
considering Bach’s accomplishments solely in the compositional principles at work.
terms of the composer’s tireless quest to explore Wolff then proceeds to the instrumental ‘opus
and summarize the major musical forms of his collections’, beginning with the keyboard
day. Freed from the burden of biographical and Toccatas of the Weimar years (or earlier), which
chronological speculation, Wolff cuts across were handed down separately during Bach’s
genres and time periods to show the overarching lifetime but listed as a group of six in the
strategies of Bach’s compositional projects and obituary. He continues with the English and
just how intensely the great contrapuntist strove French Suites, the Unaccompanied Violin
to achieve them. Bach’s music has never been Sonatas and Partitas and Cello Suites, and the
viewed in quite this way. Brandenburg Concertos (cherry-picked from a
Wolff highlights the strategies by organizing much larger group of ensemble works, Wolff
the large works into seven groups and examining believes) of theWeimar and Co«then periods, and
Bach’s specific goals within each. But he first lays concludes with the Six Sonatas for Harpsichord
the groundwork for his approach in a prologue and Violin and the Six Sonatas for organ of the
by considering what he terms ‘Bach’s business Leipzig years. In each case, Wolff shows how
card’: the six-part triple canon, BWV 1076, that methodically Bach tackled a particular genre
Bach holds in the famous Haussmann portraits of and purposefully worked his way through the
1746 and 1748. Resolved by inversion and diverse compositional possibilities. As Wolff
requiring double, triple, and quadruple counter- points out, with the sole exception of the Well-
point, the canon reflects Bach’s desire to present Tempered Clavier, Bach never returned to a genre
himself as the composer of intricate works rather once he had completed a fully rounded set of rep-

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resentative pieces. It was clearly part of a compul- reflects the‘Man of Sorrows’topos first presented
sion to focus on a particular compositional type, in Frater Francke’s influential painting of 1435,
demonstrate its full potential, and then move on. and that the use of solo gamba (‘Es ist vollbracht’)
Wolff covers the cantatas by looking at the was rare in contemporary German Passion
chorale cycle of 1724^25, which he terms ‘The scorings. Similar insights and speculations fill
Most Ambitious of All Projects’. He emphasizes the discussions of the St Matthew and St Mark
the unifying trends within the cycle and Bach’s Passions and the three oratorios as well, including
systematic treatment of specific compositional Wolff ’s thought that the St Matthew Passion was
devices, such as the stylistic diversity and targeted for 1726 but delayed until 1727 because
migrating cantus firmus of the opening choruses Bach’s vision for enlarged forces could not be
of the first five works. The measured variety of fulfilled in the designed venue, St Nicholas

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these opening choruses has been noted by Alfred Church, with its small choir loft and single
Du«rr and others; what is new here is Wolff ’s idea organ. The performance had to be postponed
that Bach carried out a ‘test run’ for the until the immense work could be presented in St
movements in the autumn of 1723, in five works Thomas Church, with its dual choir lofts and
from the first cantata cycle that exhibit large organs.
opening chorale choruses similar to those that In the next chapter, ‘Survey and Review’,Wolff
became the norm in the second cycle. gathers together four seemingly disparate
The four Clavier-U«bung publications make a collectionsçthe ‘Great Eighteen’ Chorales, the
logical grouping for the next chapter, andWolff ’s short Masses, the harpsichord concertos, and the
insightful discussion draws heavily on his past Schu«bler Choralesçand unites them by showing
studies of the series. But here, too, he presents that they have a common genesis: Bach reviewing
new thoughtsçthat Bach may have issued the his existing works late in life and picking out fa-
editions to keep up with the publications of his vourite pieces and movements for review,
academic colleagues at the university, that the revision, and recycling.
series represents a continuation of the teaching Wolff begins the final chapter, ‘Instrumental
materials that Bach may have submitted as part and Vocal Polyphony at Its Peak’, by considering
of his application for the St Thomas cantorship, Bach’s increased interest in intellectual pursuits
and that the incorporation of ‘trendy dances’ during his final decade, including the instruction
such as the Capriccio, Burlesca, Scherzo, and of future theorists (Kirnberger, Agricola,
Echo reflects Bach’s nod to the galant tastes that Mizler), the expansion of Fux’s counterpoint
were coming into vogue. rules to cover five-part texture, and the study of
The centrepiece of the volume isWolff ’s discus- Zarlino, Calvisius, Palestrina, and Gasparini
sion of the Passions and oratorios and his provoca- (verified by the recently discovered performance
tive proposal that Bach may have viewed the six parts to the Missa canonica in Bach’s hand). Wolff
works as a ‘Grand Liturgical Messiah Cycle’ç then twice analyses the Art of Fugue in depth,
an immense multi-year project intended to cover first as a finished project (the autograph manu-
the four principal Christological events of the script of c.1740) and then as an unfinished project
church year: Christ’s birth (Christmas Oratorio), (the incomplete print of the final years). In
death (the Passions), resurrection (Easter between, he takes a detour to discuss the
Oratorio), and ascension (Ascension Oratorio). Fourteen Canons, Canonic Variations on ‘Vom
Wolff sees the cycle as the liturgical equivalent to Himmel hoch’, and the canons of the Musical
the Clavier-U«bung series and involving the Offering, which he terms ‘contrapuntal
fashioning of unifying titles, much in the manner intermezzi’ to the ongoing Art of Fugue project.
of the inscriptions for the instructional volumes The chapter ends with the Mass in B Minor,
of 1723. He underscores that Bach broke all characterized as Bach’s final word on sacred
Leipzig precedents with the St John Passion of vocal writing expressed in a timeless genre. Wolff
1724, the first work in the cycle, by presenting a views the change to six- and eight-part writing in
piece that was almost twice the length of the the Sanctus and Agnus Dei portions as a
hour-long sermon and that moved the Cantor calculated effort to increase the diversity of the
and his ensemble to centre stage in the Good work, rather than an expedient solution to a
Friday Vespers Service. The background and crisis caused by failing eyesightçthe controver-
style of the St John Passion have been well sial theory proposed by Friedrich Smend in the
covered in the recent literature, but Wolff adds a 1950s. And he suggests that the choral fugues in
number of interesting twistsçthat Bach chose the B Minor Mass reflect Bach’s fugal and
biblical text over Brockes’s popular libretto canonic studies of the final years and have no
because the imagery in Luther’s translation was counterpart in his other vocal music or the music
much more vivid, that ‘Betrachte, meine Seele’ of any other composer.

782
 Bach’s Musical Universe is filled with such pendence, however, and the works are miracles
observations, supported by substantive analysis of textural transparencyça quality that, for
and well-documented points. The discussion is better or worse, was not part of Bach’s compos-
accompanied throughout by useful tables and itional vocabulary. Wolff ’s use of the phrase
relevant facsimiles (many of which are poorly ‘Grand Liturgical Messiah Cycle’ for Bach’s
reproduced, at least in my advance copy of the Passions and oratorios then seems to hint that
book). If there is any shortcoming of Wolff ’s Bach was also capable of outdoing Messiah, the
study, it is its hagiographic tone. The terms work that Handel presented as his business card
‘unique’, ‘unprecedented’, ‘unparalleled’, ‘un- in the well-known Thomas Hudson painting of
rivaled’, and similar terms appear every ten 1756.
pages or so, with ‘unique’ evolving to ‘entirely These quibbles pale, however, before the

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unique’ for the St Matthew Passion and‘absolute- overall accomplishment of this book. Christoph
ly unique’ for the fourteenth Goldberg Canon. If Wolff has been changing the way we look at Bach
one is going to amplify unique, which according and his works since the publication of his ground-
to Fowler in Modern English Usage is possible in breaking study Der Stile Antico in der Musik Johann
special cases, this is probably the place. Still, one Sebastian Bachs in 1968. Since then, he has
runs the risk of turning Bach into ‘Saint Sebas- contributed prolifically to Bach research (515
tian’çthe nickname coined by Samuel Wesley entries in the Bach Bibliography website) through
during the nineteenth-century Bach revival. a steady stream of articles, books in English and
But the deep admiration affects other aspects German, editions of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, and
of the narrative as well. Wolff notes that Bach vade mecums such as The Bach Reader,The Organs
preferred to work within established forms of J. S. Bach, and Bach: A Life in Pictures. He also
rather than create new ones (the late Prelude, served as director of the Leipzig Bach-Archiv
Fugue, and Allegro for lute, BWV 998, being an from 2001to 2013, greatly expanding its resources
exception). It would seem, then, that the stimula- and transforming its operations and outreach.
tion of more progressive composers would have The present volume reflects a lifetime of engage-
been vital to Bach, allowing him to stay abreast of ment with Bach, of thinking deeply andcreatively
the latest innovations. But little is said about the about his music and its place in Western culture.
possible influence of Gottfried Heinrich Sto«lzel Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician was
on the obbligato organ parts in the cantatas of nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Bach’s
the third Leipzig cycle, of Johann Bernhard Musical Universe:The Composer and his Work stands
Bach on the use of solo flute in the Orchestral on the same lofty plain.
Suite in B Minor, of Telemann on Bach’s chorale GEORGE B. STAUFFER
cantata cycle (noted in passing but not explored) Rutgers University
and stylistically eclectic keyboard prints, or of doi:10.1093/ml/gcaa076
Jan Dismas Zelenka and other Dresden ß The Author(s) (2020). Published by Oxford University
composers on the Neapolitan style of the Mass in Press. All rights reserved.
B Minor. These colleagues and their forward-
looking compositions were part of Bach’s musical
universe, too. The Cashaway Psalmody: Transatlantic Religion and
There is also the ongoing comparison with Music in Colonial Carolina. By Stephen A.
Handel’s works, seemingly a continuation of the Marini. Pp. 487. Music in American Life.
defence of Bach over his London counterpart (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Chicago,
initiated by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in 1788. and Springfield, 2020. ISBN 978-0-252-
Wolff sees Bach’s Clavier-U«bung I as a response to 04284-3 (hardcover), $65; -05170-8 (ebook),
Handel’s Suites de Pie' ces pour le Clavecin (London, $19.95.)
1720), the Goldberg Variations and its supple-
ment of fourteen canons as an answer to Handel’s Studies of sacred music in eighteenth-century
second volume of Suites de Pie'ces pour le Clavecin America have tended to emphasize activities in
(London,1733), and the collection of eight harpsi- the northern and middle colonies or states. This
chord concertos as a reply to Handel’s Six is a natural consequence of the fact that these
Concertos, Op. 4, for organ (London,1738), with regions of the country were by far the leading
Bach outdoing Handel in each case. With regard centres of tunebook compiling and publishing
to the last, Wolff proposes that Bach was the first during the period. Beginning with the ninth
to give the solo keyboard instrument a truly inde- edition of the Bay Psalm Book in 1698, the
pendent role, with the left hand moving separate- northern sections of the country saw first a
ly from the continuo line. The organ solos in trickle, then a steady stream, and finallyçafter
Handel’s Op. 4 concertos show an equal inde- the RevolutionaryWarça flood of sacred music

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