The
Minuets in
G major and
G minor,
BWV Anh. 114 and 115, are a pair of
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
s from a
suite
Suite may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition
** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach
** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó
** ''Suite' ...
for
harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
by
Christian Petzold, which, through their appearance in the 1725 ''
Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach'', used to be attributed to
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
. These minuets, which are suitable for beginners on the piano, are among the best known pieces of music literature. The 1965 pop song "
A Lover's Concerto", of which millions of copies were sold, is based on the first of these Minuets.
History
In the late 17th century
Christian Petzold became
organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...
at the () of
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
. By the time
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
started to visit Dresden, Petzold was well acquainted with several of the city's musicians, including the violinist
Johann Georg Pisendel
Johann Georg Pisendel ( – 25 November 1755) was a German Baroque violinist and composer who, for many years, led the Court Orchestra in Dresden as concertmaster, then the finest instrumental ensemble in Europe. He was the leading violinist of ...
, with whom Bach was also acquainted. In 1720, Petzold composed the music for the inauguration of the new
Silbermann organ of the . Bach gave a concert on that organ when he visited Dresden in September 1725. Petzold died in 1733: as organist of the he was succeeded by
Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann.
In the ''Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach''
The second ''
Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach'' was started in 1725. It opened with two harpsichord suites, that is, the
Partitas BWV
827
__FORCETOC__
Year 827 ( DCCCXXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* June 14 – Euphemius, exiled Byzantine admiral, asks for t ...
and
830
__NOTOC__
Year 830 ( DCCCXXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
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By place Britain
* King Wiglaf of Mercia regains control from Wessex, and returns to the throne.S ...
, composed and written down by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Anna Magdalena Bach
Anna Magdalena Bach (née Wilcke or Wilcken) (22 September 1701 – 22 February 1760) was a professional singer and the second wife of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Biography
Anna Magdalena Wilcke was born at Zeitz, in the Electorate of Saxony.
Whi ...
likely received the notebook from her husband in the autumn of 1725, as a present for either her birthday (22 September) or their wedding anniversary (3 December). Nos. 3 to 11 in the notebook are keyboard pieces written down by Anna Magdalena, likely shortly after she was given the volume. No. 3, the first piece after the two seven-movement Partitas, is a Minuet in
F major
F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor.
The F major scale is:
:
F major is th ...
by an unknown composer (likely not Bach), adopted as
No. 113 in the
second annex (, Anh.), that is the annex of doubtful compositions, in the (BWV). Petzold's Minuets in G major and G minor, BWV Anh. 114 and 115, are the next two entries in the notebook (Nos. 4 and 5). These pieces may have been brought back from Dresden by Johann Sebastian when he visited this city in September 1725.
Bach likely intended the simple binary dances contained in Anna Magdalena's notebooks, including the Minuets entered without composer indication, as teaching material, likely rather for his younger children than for his wife.
Petzold's harpsichord music
From the early 1720s Petzold owned a state-of-the-art harpsichord manufactured by Silbermann. In
Johann Gottfried Walther
Johann Gottfried Walther (18 September 1684 – 23 March 1748) was a German music theorist, organist, composer, and lexicographer of the Baroque era.
Walther was born at Erfurt. Not only was his life almost exactly contemporaneous to that ...
's ''Lexicon'', published in 1732, Petzold is mentioned as a composer of "good keyboard pieces" (). Some of Petzold's harpsichord music appeared in 1729 collections:
*
Georg Philipp Telemann included a harpsichord suite by Petzold in the last five issues of .
* A collection of 25
concertos for unaccompanied harpsichord by Petzold was copied as .
Heinrich Raphael Krause was a student in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
from 1720, before becoming
cantor in
Olbernhau
Olbernhau is a town in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, 35 km southeast of Chemnitz, and 23 km north of Chomutov, Czech Republic.
History
Presumably, the town's name arose from ...
in 1725. Johann Benjamin Tzschirich was a student in
Grimma when he started to copy harpsichord pieces collected by Krause in an album in 1726. Tzschirich came to study in Leipzig in 1729, and became a lawyer in
Bitterfeld in 1736. Meanwhile he had continued to add pieces to his harpsichord music manuscript, including compositions by Bach (part of
BWV 914),
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow or Zachau (14 November 1663, Leipzig – 7 August 1712, Halle) was a German musician and composer of vocal and keyboard music.
Life
Zachow probably received his training from his father, the piper Heinrich Zachow, o ...
, Telemann,
Johann Kuhnau and others. One of the last pieces he entered, likely around the time when moving to Bitterfeld (1735–1736), was a Suite by Petzold containing, together with eight other movements, the G major/G minor combined Minuet, otherwise only known as Nos. 4 and 5 of Anna Magdalena Bach's second notebook. Tzschirich may have had access to a score of Petzold's Suite via the Bachs.
Description
In Tzschirich's manuscript, the Minuet pair in G major and G minor is preceded by five other movements of Petzold's Suite, respectively a
Prelude
Prelude may refer to:
Music
*Prelude (music), a musical form
*Prelude (band), an English-based folk band
*Prelude Records (record label), a former New York-based dance independent record label
*Chorale prelude, a short liturgical composition for ...
, an
Allemande, a
Courante
The ''courante'', ''corrente'', ''coranto'' and ''corant'' are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically paired ...
, a
Sarabande
The sarabande (from es, zarabanda) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance.
History
The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance cal ...
and a
Bourrée
The bourrée ( oc, borrèia; also in England, borry or bore) is a dance of French origin and the words and music that accompany it. The bourrée resembles the gavotte in that it is in double time and often has a dactylic rhythm. However, it is ...
. After the double Minuet, Petzold's Suite continues with a
Gigue and a
Passepied
The passepied (, "pass-foot", from a characteristic dance step) is a French court dance. Originating as a kind of Breton branle, it was adapted to courtly use in the 16th century and is found frequently in 18th-century French opera and ballet, ...
with
Trio. According to the manuscript, the Minuets are to be performed
da capo, in this order:
* (=first Minuet, G major)
* (=second Minuet, G minor)
* (repeat the first Minuet)
Both the G major and the G minor Menuets, in
time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
, consist of 32
measure
Measure may refer to:
* Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event
Law
* Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States
* Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England
* Mea ...
s, each with a repeat sign at the end of the 16th measure (for a repeat of the first half of the piece), and another at the end of the Menuet (for a repeat of the second half). There are a few minor differences between these Minuets as they appear in Tzschirich's manuscript and how they are written down in Anna Magdalena's second notebook.
The first eight measures in modern notation:
\header
upper = \relative c''
lower = \relative c'
\score
Reception
In 1880,
C. F. Peters published Nos. 4 and 5 of Anna Magdalena Bach's second notebook as two of "twenty easy piano pieces" () from that manuscript. The
Bach-Gesellschaft published the Minuets in 1894. After the publication of several anthologies, all the pieces of the second notebook were published in a single volume in 1904.
In 1904,
Max Seiffert published a description of Tzschirich's harpsichord music manuscript, however, without substantial analysis of its content: the correspondence of Petzold's double Minuet contained in it with the G major/G minor Minuets of Anna Magdalena Bach's notebook remained unnoticed. In the first edition of the , published in 1950, the two Minuets were included as doubtful compositions in
Anh. II, along with nearly 20 other anonymous keyboard compositions of Anna Magdalena Bach's second notebook (BWV Anh. II 113–132). In 1957, Anna Magdalena's notebooks were published in Vol. V/4 of the
New Bach Edition
The New Bach Edition (NBE) (german: Neue Bach-Ausgabe; NBA), is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): New Edition of the Complete W ...
. Without having access to other primary sources for the G major and G minor Minuets than Anna Magdalena Bach's notebook,
Georg von Dadelsen
Georg may refer to:
* ''Georg'' (film), 1997
*Georg (musical), Estonian musical
* Georg (given name)
* Georg (surname)
* , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker
See also
* George (disambiguation)
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* ...
, the editor of the New Bach Edition volume, remarked that the Minuets and 115 appeared to belong together.
Outside the context of scholarly literature, and despite being marked as doubtful in the BWV, the Minuets were still generally considered as compositions by Bach. The melody from the 1965 pop song "
A Lover's Concerto", written by American songwriters
Sandy Linzer and
Denny Randell, was based on the Minuet in G major. The song was recorded by
The Toys and reached number 2 in the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 5 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
. "A Lover's Concerto" sold more than two million copies and was awarded
gold record certification by the
R.I.A.A.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
Hans-Joachim Schulze published an article, dedicated to Georg von Dadelsen, in the of 1979 (issued 1980), in which he described Petzold's (harpsichord suite) contained in Tzschirich's manuscript, and its Minuet pair corresponding to BWV Anh. 114/115. Consequently, from the next edition of the (1990), the Minuets were attributed to Petzold and moved from Anh. II to
Anh. III, that is the of spurious works, their full BWV numbers thus becoming and .
In the 1984 film ''
Electric Dreams'', the piece is the basis for a duet, or a friendly musical duel, between cellist Madeline and Edgar, the computer. This song from the movie soundtrack, titled "The Duel," was composed and performed by
Giorgio Moroder
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...
.
Notwithstanding their status as pieces for beginners, the Minuets and 115 were recorded by renowned performers (on harpsichord unless otherwise indicated), including:
[Johann Sebastian Bach: Solo Keyboard](_blank)
at ArkivMusic website.
*
Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Maria Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments.
Leo ...
recorded "2 Minuets ... BWV Anh. 114 & Anh. 115: Also attributed to Christian Pezold (...)" in September 1988 (issued 1989).
*
E. Power Biggs
Edward George Power Biggs (March 29, 1906 – March 10, 1977) was a British-born American concert organist and recording artist.
Biography
Biggs was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England; a year later, the family moved to the Isle of Wi ...
, performing the Minuets on organ, included in ''The Biggs Bach Book'' (issued 1990).
*
Igor Kipnis
Igor Kipnis (September 27, 1930January 23, 2002) was a German-born American harpsichordist, pianist and conductor.
Biography
The son of Metropolitan Opera bass Alexander Kipnis, he was born in Berlin, where his father was singing with the Berlin S ...
, included the Minuets in ''The Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach'' (issued 1992).
*
Richard Egarr recorded "2 Minuets, BWV Anh. 114–5 (from Clavier-Büchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach
725
Year 725 ( DCCXXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 725 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the ...
" in 1995 (issued 1997).
In 1988, Dadelsen published a facsimile of Anna Magdalena's second notebook.
Richard Jones published the short pieces, edited with piano fingering, of Anna Magdalena's 1725 notebook in 1997.
ABRSM – ''J. S. Bach et al.: The Anna Magdalena Bach Book of 1725''
at . In 21st-century publications the Minuets BWV Anh. 114 and 115 are usually correctly identified as Petzold's. In the 2010s, digital facsimiles of the Minuets as written down by Anna Magdalena Bach became available at Bach Digital and at the website of the Berlin State Library.
References
Sources
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External links
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{{Authority control
Bach: spurious and doubtful works
Compositions for harpsichord
Compositions in G major
Compositions in G minor
Articles containing video clips