In this last post on Emanuel Bach's chamber works we will discover the more 'masculine' side of this versatile composer in a number of brief Marches composed toward the end of his tenure in Berlin.
As noted previously, music critics in eighteenth-century Northern Germany took some offense to the 'effeminate' turn music was taking with the dance music of Minuets, Rondos, and Polonaises. 'Masculine' music was more strongly ingrained in the North as demonstrated in the larger works of its composers, including C.P.E. Bach's. Indeed, Bach seldom employed Minuets in his Symphonies and Concertos.
When the critic Daniel Gottlieb Türk (1750–1813) advised that "the character of the true march is courageous, bold, and rousing, and thus the performance must be strong," he described a musical character and performance that was unambiguously masculine in the culture in which the statement was made (and the march composed and performed).(1) The march was masculinely sublime and magnificent.
Emanuel Bach's marches though seem to me rather more about music making than about heroism. The Marcia für die Arche in C major (1763-1767?), H. 621/Wq. 188, is a rousing brass fanfare for three (natural/valveless) trumpets and timpani. We first hear a flawless recording, then a challenging live performance on natural trumpets.
The six short Marches (1767) Wq. 185, each around one minute long, are set for a wind ensemble of two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns. Here they are:
March in D major, H. 614/Wq. 185/1.
March in C major, H. 615/Wq. 185/2.
March in F major, H. 616/Wq. 185/3.
March in G major, H. 617/Wq. 185/4.
March in E flat major, H. 618/Wq. 185/5.
March in D major,, H. 619/Wq. 185/6.
Finally, there are 30 magical Pieces for Mechanical Flute Clock (1775) H. 635/Wq. 193, a sort of eighteenth-century mechanical equivalent to the twentieth-century electronic synthesizer. Flute Clocks (Flötenuhren or Spieluhren in German) were a type of mechanical organ with or without a clock attached to it. Quantz and Emanuel Bach were part of a 'mechanical organ school' in Berlin. They would later be followed by no less than Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. (2)
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(1) Matthew Head, '"Like Beauty Spots on the Face of Man": Gender in 18th-Century North-German Discourse on Genre.'
Journal of Musicology 13/2 1995: pp. 143-67. (http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/764103?uid=3739808&uid=2134&uid=2473869753&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=2473869743&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21104594208563 (08/15/2014))
(2)"The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet – The Lyrichord Years Vol. 1." CD Liner notes, Lyrichord Classical. (http://www.lyrichord.com/linernotes/LYR6018US.pdf (08/15/2014))
(3) Ludvig Altman, "A well-tempered musician's unfinished journey through life : oral history transcript / 1990." UC Berkeley, 1990, 125b. (
http://archive.org/stream/welltemperedmusical00altmrich/welltemperedmusical00altmrich_djvu.txt (08/15/2014))
As noted previously, music critics in eighteenth-century Northern Germany took some offense to the 'effeminate' turn music was taking with the dance music of Minuets, Rondos, and Polonaises. 'Masculine' music was more strongly ingrained in the North as demonstrated in the larger works of its composers, including C.P.E. Bach's. Indeed, Bach seldom employed Minuets in his Symphonies and Concertos.
When the critic Daniel Gottlieb Türk (1750–1813) advised that "the character of the true march is courageous, bold, and rousing, and thus the performance must be strong," he described a musical character and performance that was unambiguously masculine in the culture in which the statement was made (and the march composed and performed).(1) The march was masculinely sublime and magnificent.
Emanuel Bach's marches though seem to me rather more about music making than about heroism. The Marcia für die Arche in C major (1763-1767?), H. 621/Wq. 188, is a rousing brass fanfare for three (natural/valveless) trumpets and timpani. We first hear a flawless recording, then a challenging live performance on natural trumpets.
The six short Marches (1767) Wq. 185, each around one minute long, are set for a wind ensemble of two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns. Here they are:
March in D major, H. 614/Wq. 185/1.
March in C major, H. 615/Wq. 185/2.
March in F major, H. 616/Wq. 185/3.
March in G major, H. 617/Wq. 185/4.
March in E flat major, H. 618/Wq. 185/5.
March in D major,, H. 619/Wq. 185/6.
Finally, there are 30 magical Pieces for Mechanical Flute Clock (1775) H. 635/Wq. 193, a sort of eighteenth-century mechanical equivalent to the twentieth-century electronic synthesizer. Flute Clocks (Flötenuhren or Spieluhren in German) were a type of mechanical organ with or without a clock attached to it. Quantz and Emanuel Bach were part of a 'mechanical organ school' in Berlin. They would later be followed by no less than Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. (2)
C.P.E. Bach's clock pieces were composed during his years as court musician to King Frederick the Great at Potsdam. The King was intrigued with mechanically reproduced music and had organ clocks built for the New Palais and for the City Castle of Potsdam. (3)Listen to the beautiful No. 8 here and here to No. 30 in B flat major performed on the Flauto Traverso stop of a historic organ in Sydney.
__________________________________________________________________________
(1) Matthew Head, '"Like Beauty Spots on the Face of Man": Gender in 18th-Century North-German Discourse on Genre.'
Journal of Musicology 13/2 1995: pp. 143-67. (http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/764103?uid=3739808&uid=2134&uid=2473869753&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=2473869743&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21104594208563 (08/15/2014))
(2)"The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet – The Lyrichord Years Vol. 1." CD Liner notes, Lyrichord Classical. (http://www.lyrichord.com/linernotes/LYR6018US.pdf (08/15/2014))
(3) Ludvig Altman, "A well-tempered musician's unfinished journey through life : oral history transcript / 1990." UC Berkeley, 1990, 125b. (
http://archive.org/stream/welltemperedmusical00altmrich/welltemperedmusical00altmrich_djvu.txt (08/15/2014))