Reconstruction of music by Johann Sebastian Bach

Vocal music#

Reconstructions of Bach’s vocal music are often based on surviving lyrics, such as librettos, which show similarities with those of extant music, so that the variant text can be combined with the known music. In vocal music, recitatives are often a particularly difficult challenge for reconstruction: when Bach parodied his own vocal music, he reused music of arias, duets and choruses for the new work, but recitatives with different lyrics were less suitable for such transcriptions. For example, when he adapted Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten, BWV 207, one of his secular cantatas, into Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten, BWV 207a, for a different occasion, he reused the music of all movements except the music of the recitative movements 2, 4 and 6: he composed new music for the recitatives of the later work. An exception appears to have been when he parodied the Michaelmas cantata BWV 248a, recitatives and all, into the sixth part of his Christmas Oratorio: how exactly he proceeded with this adaptation can however not be ascertained while the text of the BWV 248a cantata went lost. Reconstruction of recitatives may depend on borrowing music of recitatives with somewhat similar lyrics (e.g. Simon Heighes 1995), or re-composing recitatives in the style of Bach (e.g. Ton Koopman 2000). Reconstruction of chorale movements of lost church music is helped by the fact that hundreds of Bach’s four-part chorales survive, including separate chorales such as BWV 253–438 and 1122–1126, which are most likely nearly exclusively chorale settings from otherwise lost larger vocal works. With some educated guesswork Bach scholars such as Friedrich Smend and Klaus Häfner have coupled extant chorale settings with hymn verses in librettos of otherwise lost works.

Cantatas#

Bach likely composed around 300 church cantatas, of which around 200 are extant. In other words, nearly two of his five cantata cycles were lost: the larger part of what is conventionally indicated as his fourth and fifth cycles is lost. For his secular cantatas, less than half of the around 50 known works are fully extant. Several dozens of Bach cantata librettos survive without music, many of these by Picander, published in his Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte: a few of these are at least partially reconstructible based on known works. Examples of at least partially reconstructed Bach cantatas include: * Steigt freudig in die Luft, BWV 36a * Die Freude reget sich, BWV 36b * Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück, BWV 66a * Erwählte Pleißenstadt, BWV 216a * Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen, BWV 249a * Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne, BWV Anh. 9 * Böse Welt, schmäh immerhin, the cantata for Judica of Picander’s 1728–29 libretto cycle, a 1983 reconstruction by Gustav Adolf Theill, based on music of the secular cantata BWV 209.

Passions, oratorios, and church music in Latin#

Reconstructions range from small repairs (e.g. the last measures of laudes “D” of the Magnificat in E-flat major, BWV 243a), to reconstructions of entire Passions (e.g. several reconstructions of the St Mark Passion, BWV 247).

Instrumental music#

Schmieder’s suggestion to add a “R” to a BWV number to indicate a reconstruction was, in practice, nearly only applied to some of the concerto reconstructions.

Solo pieces#

Reconstructions of Bach’s instrumental music include the recasting of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, for organ, as a surmised anterior version for solo violin.

Concertos#

Reconstructions based on Bach’s harpsichord concertos include: * BWV 1050a: the early version of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, BWV 1050, has only been incompletely transmitted. For instance, the violone part of the last two movements of that early version went missing. Alfred Dürr reconstructed the violone part based on a spurious cello part for the later version of the concerto. * BWV 1052R: based on BWV 1052, 1052a and/or on cantata movements BWV 146/1 (Sinfonia) and /2 (Chorus), and/or on what is known regarding the lost opening Sinfonia of BWV 188 (a variant of the third movement of BWV 1052 scored for oboe, strings and obligato organ): ** Violin Concerto in D minor ** Organ Concerto in D minor * BWV 1053R: based on BWV 1053 and/or cantata movements BWV 169/1 (Sinfonia), /5 (Aria) and 49/1 (Sinfonia): ** Oboe d’amore Concerto in D major ** Oboe Concerto in F major ** Organ Concerto in D major * BWV 1055R: based on BWV 1055: ** Oboe d’amore Concerto in A major * BWV 1056R: based on BWV 1056 and/or (for the middle movement) BWV 156/1 (Sinfonia): ** Violin Concerto in G minor ** Oboe Concerto in G minor * BWV 1059R: based on the BWV 1059 fragment and on cantata movements BWV 35/1 (Sinfonia of Part I), 156/1 (Sinfonia) or 35/2 (Aria), and 35/5 (Sinfonia of Part II): ** Harpsichord Concerto in D minor ** Oboe Concerto in D minor ** Organ Concerto in D minor * BWV 1060R: based on BWV 1060: ** Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor ** Concerto for Violin and Oboe in D minor ** Concerto for Two Violins in C minor * BWV 1063R: based on BWV 1063: ** Concerto for Violin, Oboe and Flute in D minor ** Concerto for Three Violins in D minor * BWV 1064R: based on BWV 1064: ** Concerto for Three Violins in D major - id=“BWV 1052R” data-sort-value=“1052.R00” 1052R data-sort-value=“448.154” R data-sort-value=“1970-07-01” 1970 Concerto D min. Vl Str Bc data-sort-value=“VII/7: 003” VII/7: 3 by Fischer; after BWV 1052 data-sort-value=“1236r” - id=“BWV 1055R” data-sort-value=“1055.R00” 1055R data-sort-value=“448.155” R data-sort-value=“1970-07-01” 1970 Concerto A maj. Oba Str Bc data-sort-value=“VII/7: 033” VII/7: 33 by Fischer; after BWV 1055 data-sort-value=“1240r” - id=“BWV 1056R” data-sort-value=“1056.R00” 1056R data-sort-value=“448.156” R data-sort-value=“1970-07-01” 1970 Concerto G min. Vl Str Bc data-sort-value=“VII/7: 059” VII/7: 59 by Fischer; after BWV 1056 data-sort-value=“1241r” - id=“BWV 1060R” data-sort-value=“1060.R00” 1060R data-sort-value=“448.160” R data-sort-value=“1970-07-01” 1970 Concerto C min. Vl Ob Str Bc data-sort-value=“VII/7: 075” VII/7: 75 by Fischer; after BWV 1060 data-sort-value=“1245r” - id=“BWV 1064R” data-sort-value=“1064.R00” 1064R data-sort-value=“448.164” R data-sort-value=“1970-07-01” 1970 Concerto D maj. data-sort-value=“Vlx3 Str Bc” 3Vl Str Bc VII/7: 103 by Fischer; after BWV 1064 data-sort-value=“1250r”

Further reading#

• Butt, John. “Reconstructing Bach.” Early Music. November 1998, 673–675.