Bach's Tempos and Rhetorical Applications PDF

BACH'S TEMPOS AND RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS
Author(s): E. Fred Flindell

Source: Bach , Spring-Summer / Fall-Winter 1997, Vol. 28, No. 1/2 (Spring-Summer /
Fall-Winter 1997), pp. 151-236
Published by: Riemenschneider Bach Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/41640438
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BACH'S TEMPOS AND RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS
E. Fred Flindell
A. INTRODUCTION
During the years in which I took part in performing Bach's

works I frequently experienced a kind of ingenious, spontaneous
rhythm that seemed to spring up overall. Sometimes revealing itself in a
discreet, almost dance-like way and possessing an exhilaration and
vitality all its own, it was inexplicable. I could not account for it, induce
it, nor anticipate it.
While these baffling, but fascinating, Bachian rhythms could

be traced to notes, pitches, bars, and tempos, inspecting the scores
involved afforded no clues to the hidden basis of this quintessential
freshness in Bach's rhythm.
What follows hçre is the report of an investigation which took

me down several unexpected paths. In seeking some explanation of this
rhythmic phenomenon, I chanced upon one of Albert Schweitzer's most
imaginative characterizations of Bach's music. "Bach's music," he said,
"is Gothic." His observation appealed to my imagination, bringing to
mind ascriptions of a similar nature which I had previously encoun-
tered. However, I probably would have passed over the remark with a
bemused countenance had not the author offered some further explana-
tion.
When one reads the immediately following interpretation, one

gains a somewhat clearer conception of what originally was, at best, a
rather tenuous conjecture. Interestingly, however, in the ensuing expli-
cation we find a complex outline, indeed a promising idea.1 But at first
Schweitzer's stylistic designation seems a curious and unfounded
anachronism.
Nevertheless, it is certainly fair to say that many music histori-

ans, essayists, and critics have, like Schweitzer, entertained such
'José Ortega y Gasset, Concord and Liberty, trans. Helene Weyl (New York: Norton,
1946), p. 99.
151

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152 BACH
sweeping views - impr

the imagination." Qui
other truths: those th
those they can record
ence. Only rarely do a
mate integration, a sta
arresting concinnity.
such unexpected accor
One thing should n

critical and wary of g
nation," such statemen
queries, which can lea
truths. These, in turn
"truths of the imagin
find something impel
must limit, emend, d
them do bestow a rich
shadowy at first, but
the following remark
sight of a notion to b
ness, here discerned i
form."
When Albert Schweitzer claimed that "Bach's music is

Gothic,"2 most musicians would agree that he was expounding a classic
example of a "truth of the imagination" - one incidentally that was not
entirely new.3 And, as if he had known Ortega y Gasseťs observation
(cf. note 1), he immediately qualified his remark and obliged us with a
brief afterthought; this was not intended to be complete nor could it
even be indicative of the full scope of his original assertion. He contin-
ued his analogy as follows: "The great formal delineation grows out of
a simple motive unfolding in a wealth of detail; it is quite free of any
2Albert Schweitzer/. S. Bach (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1908), p. 336 "Bachs Musik
ist Gotik." Schweitzer's broad generalizations include the following statements: "Bachs
Musik ist also malerisch . . . (p. 443); Beethoven und Wagner dichten in Musik, Bach
malt. Auch Bach ist ein Dramatiker, aber so wie es der Maler ist," (p. 436). See also the
English version of Schweitzer's J. S. Bach , trans. Ernest Newman (Leipzig: Breitkopf &
Härtel, 1911): "Bach's music is Gothic," (vol. I, p. 363); "Bach's music is thus pictorial
. . ." (vol. II, p. 48); "Beethoven and Wagner poetise in music; Bach paints. And Bach is a
dramatist, but just in the sense that the painter is," (vol. II, p. 41).
3Cf. Ernest Hutcheson, The Literature of the Piano (New York: Knopf, 1948), p. 32; Dok
III = Hans-Joachim Schulze, ed. Dokumente zum Nachwirken Johann Sebastian Bachs
1750-1800 (Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1972), III, pp. 357-359.

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BACH'S TEMPOS AND RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS 153
prescribed or rigid design. Like [the Gothic], the realization of the ov

all form is attained only when all the details are really alive. Hence, t
impression a piece of Bach's makes upon the listener will depend upo
whether the performer communicates the form as a whole and its deta
in a clear and lively manner."4 Although Schweitzer's use of the wor
"Gothic" may appeal to one's imagination, it is far too general;
remains an anomaly in our scholarly and specialized music- writing.
it stands, the statement has no immediate or coherent meaning. I find
to be simply a kind of amorphous signal. Nevertheless, the collateral
ideas in the adjoining declaration are informative, as if Schweitzer s
about clarifying his own intuitive impression in all possible haste. T
complement the widely experienced observations to which we original
alluded, it may be relevant to reconsider a historically documented sta
ment which also touches upon Bach's composing.
I am referring to Abraham Birnbaum's defense of Bach against

J. A. Scheibe' attack. Although the account is often quoted, it has no
always been fully accepted or completely understood. It was not at a
apparent to me that upon examining it, I would find evidence th
would throw light upon Bach's extraordinary rhythm. This is the pa
sage in question: "Die Theile und Vortheile, welche die Ausarbeitu
eines musikalischen Stücks mit der Rednerkunst gemein hat, kennet
[Bach] so vollkommen, daß man ihn nicht nur mit einem ersättigend
Vergnügen höret, wenn er seine gründlichen Unterredungen auf die
Aehnlichkeit und Übereinstimmung beyder lenket; sondern m
bewundert auch die geschickte Anwendung derselben, in seine
Arbeiten.5
Upon examining this statement, one identifies Bach's exper-

tise as being in the partes of Rhetoric [Theile], in the disposit
[Ausarbeitung] explicitly, and those areas of both Rhetoric and musi
that have similarity and correspondence with one another. The infer
ence is clear: Bach made skillful use of rhetorical praecepti wh
composing [or possibly arranging] his music- that is, he applied them
in working out his musical material. From Birnbaum's point of view
Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 318.

5Bach-Dokumente Fremdschriftliche gedruckte Dokumente zur Lebens geschieht e Joh
Sebastian Bachs 1685-1750, Dok II = Werner Neumann; Hans-Joachim Schulze (Leipz
Deutscher Verlag für Musik und Kassel, Bärenreiter, 1969), II, p. 352: "Bach knows
partes and merits which the composing of a piece of music has in common with rhetor
[in fact] so completely, that one not only listens to him with satisfaction and plea
when he directs his enlightening [lit. thorough-going] conversations to the similarity
correspondence of both [music and rhetoric], but, also, one admires the skilled applicat
of the same in his works." (Translation mine.)

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154 BACH
Bach's knowledge (of

remarkable - a source
Some modern writers have concluded that Bach was versed in

the musico-rhetorical concepts described in Baroque music theory.6 In so
doing they have not emphasized, and thereby not specified, those ele-
ments of classical Rhetoric which are intrinsic and germane to his music.
It is these areas, however, which will claim our attention in this study.
Actually, Birnbaum indirectly limited his description of

Bach's expertise. He drew attention to those areas in classical rhetoric
which had, through analogy, a parallel connotation in music. This
means that Birnbaum did not point to already existing rhetorical-
musical applications, i.e., those reflecting the scattered notions of
rhetoric found in the musico teorica of the Baroque. Birnbaum does not
refer to a rhetoric that others had already applied and interpreted in
treatises about music. Schweitzer implied this in his remark: "In der
Rhetorik, wie man sie damals lehrte, war er [Bach] bewandert . . ."7 It is
crucial to an understanding of Bach's music that one realize that Bach,
through his spokesman Birnbaum, neither emphasized nor referred to
an already exemplified and applied music theory.
6Hans Pischner, "Zur Interpretation der Sinfonien für Cembalo von Johann Sebastian
Bach," Bericht über die Wissenschaftliche Konferenz zum III. Internationalen Bach Fest
der DDR (1975), p. 261; Ahlgrimm, Isolde and Fiala, Erich, "Bach und die Rhetorik,"
Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, Jahrg. 9 (1954): 343: "Bach hat auch tatsächlich ... die
Ansicht vertreten, daß ein gründliches Musikstudium auf den Regeln der Rhetorik aufge-
baut sein muß. Dies beweist der Titel der 'Inventionen'. . . ." Both authors, nevertheless,
direct many of their remarks to specific aspects of classical rhetoric.
7(a) Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 173: "Bach was versed in rhetoric as it was taught [in school]
in that time." (b) Birnbaum expressly points this out in his second defence. Cf. Arno
Forchert, "Bach und die Tradition der Rhetorik," KB Stuttgart (1985), Bd. 1, p. 173. In
the course of this article we shall endeavor to emend assumptions made by this author
concerning Bach's rhetorical instruction. The use of Heinrich Tolle's Compendium brevis-
simum Rhetoricae, Göttingen (1680) and its list of definitions was only an ancillary
adjunct to Bach's instruction, one compiling ready and needed definitions, not the sole
content of instruction. Forchert has left out the specific identification of tropes and
schemata in the Unterprima, the reading of Cicero's oratio IV, twice a week, as well as
Vergil's Aeniad, Cicero's letters, de Officiis and Horace's "electa Carm" and the rare and
wide scope of offerings in Greek, including the orations of Isocrates with Konrektor
Elfeld. Cf. Table I infra. Forchert omits mention of the regular preparations in private
hours given by both the Rektor and Konrektor, enabling the studiosi to present their oratio
valedictoria. Cf. G. Fock, (n. 9), pp. 62-66. Forchert's "Musik und Rhetorik im Barock,"
Schütz- Jahrbuch 7/8. Jahrg. (1985/86), pp. 5-21, on the other hand, has many apt obser-
vations: If one reads, however, Athanasius Kircher's "Explicatio figurarum" in his
Musurgia universalis, II, 144-145 (quoted . . . below) one gains an entirely different
impression. Kircher's influence in Baroque music circles was enormous. The book has
many musical examples as well.

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Such a realization frees us from considering extant Baroque

musico-rhetorical theory as basic to Bach's way of composing (or
essential to his musicianship), permitting us to seek in classical rhetoric
viable links to Bach's arranging and composing practices. For this rea-
son the reader will find us turning to the primary sources of rhetorical
theory in antiquity rather than to sources contemporaneous with Bach's
time or applicable to the early Baroque Era. Hence, we shall dismiss
from the start Rolf Dammann's conjecture in reference to Birnbaum's
statement (supra): "J. S. Bach wird hier als vortrefflicher Kenner der
musikalischen Rhetorik ausgewiesen."8 The words "musical rhetoric"
necessarily refer here to a rhetoric already applied. Research into
Bach's rhetorical applications takes on an entirely unexpected counte-
nance, a different light and perspective once we perceive this - the
basic direction of Bach's rhetorical interest. It means that Bach's
knowledge of ancient rhetoric as taught in its disciplinary form at
school and university levels was "vollkommen" ("complete") - and, for
that matter, "ready at hand" in his subsequent profoundly significant
and artistic applications. It is not just the Necrology alone that reports
that ". . . Bach ließ sich zwar nicht in tiefe theoretische Betrachtungen
der Musik ein" (". . . Bach did not engage in deep theoretical observa-
tions with respect to music"). Birnbaum, at a critical point in his
defense of Bach, quotes Scheibe as saying: "es habe sich dieser große
Mann nicht sonderlich in denen Wissenschaften umgesehen, die
eigentlich von einem großen Componisten erfordert werden. Er habe
sich um critische Anmerkungen, Untersuchungen und um die Regeln
der Redekunst und Dichtkunst, welche doch in der Musik so not-
wendig wären, daß man ohne dieselben unmöglich rührend und aus-
drückend setzen könne, nicht sonderlich bekümmert. Er denke daher
weder natürlich, noch ordentlich." (". . . this great man has not con-
cerned himself particularly with those scholarly matters which actually
are requisite for a great composer. He has not paid attention to critical
comments, investigations, and the rules of rhetoric and poetry which
are so necessary in music, if one is to compose in a moving and expres-
sive way. For this reason he is not able to think in a natural and orderly
way.")
Scheibe is quite correct in stating that Bach had not particu-

larly concerned himself with scholarly matters, critical comments, and
investigations about music. Scheibe was informed , but only up to a cer-
tain degree. Birnbaum is concerned with correcting Scheibe's false
assertion regarding Bach's presumed ignorance of ". . . the rules of
"Rolf Dammann, Der Musikbegriff im deutschen Barock (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1984),
p. 180.

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156 BACH
rhetoric and poetry .

complete knowledge.
übrigen viel zu wenig
knows] in other respec
Hence, if we wish to
Bach's and Birnbaum 's
cational tradition for
teaching of rhetoric. In
text of Heinrich Tolle
was used by Rector Jo
the Upper Prima at Lü
pedagogical tool - a co
nary. It did not compris
As for sources of in
the Germany of Bach
Philipp Spitta and G
universally conversan
of Josef Dolch, Frie
baum - all of which
detailed facts concern
century German rhet
several findings, we
9(a) Friedrich Paulsen, Das

lung, in: Aus Natur und G
40-47, 64-73 and Bibliogr
Dolch, Lehrplan des Abe
1982), pp. 207-209, 278-28
nungen (Gütersloh: Bert
149-153; 760-775; 795-797
1702 (Hamburg: Mersebur
baden: Breitkopf & Härt
remarks about Lüneburg,
Friedrich Agricola, nam
Francesco Tosi 's Anleitung
ideas respecting rhetorical p
Agricola recommended (in
sult "... Gottscheds Redeku
In this way he supplemen
sound necessary to express
through the oral instructio
orator's delivery. This, of c
recall that Agricola studied
versy. Agricola, who was
Bach's collegium musicum
direction.

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punctions about teaching Latin at the Thomasschule; after all, he had

spent most of his school-days in excellent Latin schools, starting as
early as Eisenach and continuing at Ohrdruf and Lüneburg - a training
that clearly provided him with the expertise in classical rhetoric to
which Birnbaum refers, as well as the Latin required at the Thomas-
schule the ready currency which is preserved in his letters.
As for the application of rhetoric to music (either consciously

or unconsciously), it is my opinion that Bach himself was largely the
author of this transfer. He may, however, have gained insight into the
process during the years he spent in Weimar, when he had frequent
contact with his friend and distant relative, J. G. Walther. This may
explain many of the Weimar transformations and "improvements"
made in his organ works to which Manfred Bukofzer and Heinrich
Besseler have alluded.10
Bach seems to have been fully aware that parallels existed

between rhetoric and music - a matter of general knowledge made
known in the writings of a number of Baroque scholars, performers,
and composers. As we shall subsequently see, this was not a purely
German predilection: although it received exceptionally detailed expla-
nation there (cf. infra.). Moreover, we shall presently find in Johann
Joachim Quantz's writings concurrence with the notion that the alliance
of rhetoric and music was neither a covert nor an arcane matter. Both
singers and instrumentalists had, beginning as early as the fifteenth
century, introduced musical figures into their performances - a state of
affairs that J. G. Walther described as reaching a peak in his time: ". . .
unsere heutige Musik [1708] wegen Menge der Figuren fiigl. einer
Rhetorica zu vergleichen ist."11
l0Cf. Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York: Norton 1947),
pp. 277-278. Also cf. my "Apropos Bachs Inventions," BACH XIV/4 (1983): 13, n. 23.
[Recte: Note 23 belongs to the sentence: "The words 'purified taste' refer in all likelihood
to the development of an 'inner singing' style in his fugai subjects" on page 6.] That note
lists Besseler's articles. This entire subject must be restudied to include the influence of
rhetoric, as well as the development of an "inner singing" style.
"Johann Gottfried Walther, Praecepta der musicalischen Composition, ed. Peter Benary, in:
Jenaer Beiträge zur Musikforschung II: Leipzig (1955), Caput 4, par. 24 (p. 152): ". . .
because of its quantity of figures our present-day music [1708] may be rightly compared to a
rhetorica." For the origin of this remark in Christoph Bemhard's " Ausfihrlichem Bericht von
dem Gebrauche der Con- und Dissonantien " cf.: (a) Hermann Gehrmann, "Johann Gottfried
Walther als Theoretiker," VfMw VII, (1891), pp. 495, 540; (b) Arnold Schmitz, "Die Figuren-
lehre in den theoretischen Werken Johann Gottfried Walthers" AfMw IX, 1952, pp. 80-81;
and (с) J. M. Müller-Blattau, Die Kompositionslehre Heinrich Schützens in der Fassung
seines Schülers Christoph Bernhard (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1926), p. 147; Forchert,
" Bach and the Tradition . . . ," p. 170. Forchert calls Walther a "music writer of encyclopedic
ambition." True, but he was an eminent composer and organist as well.

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158 BACH
The emphasis that W

music may have stirre
tions, particularly int
specifically mentione
and self-sufficient f
emphasis respecting r
early intellectual cur
Jodokus Willich at th
Coclico,
thought that
rich Grimm put it: "
Humanismus geboren
barschaft der Rhetorik
of thinking when cons
For many modern m

as to a number of mu
Bach's remarkable k
something of an en
"minored" in musicolo
that Bach turned to
persons it is still very
apposite, or inner rel
rhetoric. To begin wi
spent in experiencin
practicing, improvisi
person find the time
master, the complex f
when, upon reading
Bach, completed in L
been in his early fift
"similarities and agre
tioned discussion had
ented Bach was still a
prepared and ready to
possession of a far-ra
later years is amazing
l2Heinrich Grimm, Meiste

Berlin: Trowitzsch 1942),
music - a concept originatin
rhetoric [traditionally part o
should] no longer be classif
in the quadrivium"; cf. Geo
l3Dok II, p. 352 (No. 441).

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The study of rhetoric was an essential component of German

education in Bach's time. Spitta has noted that Bach had completed tw
years in the Prima at the Michaelis Partikularschule, finishing his cours
work at eighteen. (Table 1 shows the ages, grade levels, and curricular
offerings of the Grundschule and Humanistic Gymnasia in Bach's time
Please note that from the Sexta upwards instruction was almost alway
given in Latin.)
TABLE 1
Ages and Grade Levels in the Grundschule and

German Humanistic Gymnnasia with Excerpts from Their Curricula
Starting Class
Age Designation Excerpts
6 1 + ". . . wie die Zunge soll formiret werden,
damit sie auch einen
7 2 + anfang in Grammatica, Rhetorica undt Poesi

nehmen kiinnen."
8 3 + "Bißweilen im dritten jähr, fangen sie an

neben den geberden auch
9 4 + figuren zugebrauchen: . .
10 Sexta * a) Declinationes et conjugationes
b) Dictum Latino-Germanicum ex Evangelio
1 1 Quinta * a) . . . cum phraseologia
b) . . . (c) Graecae linguae rudimenta
12 Quarta * Grammatica Graeca dum Evangelii
Graeci analysi; Ciceronis Epistolarum
13 Untertertia * Exercitium styli domesticum vel liberum,
vel Imitatio ex Cicerone (d)
14 Obertertia * Syntax ornata ex Gramm.: Ciceronis episto-
larum; Analysi Evangelii Graeci
15 Untersekunda * (d) . . . vel liberum vel imitatio Autorem
classicum, vel variatio per
16 Obersekunda * figuras aut tropos; (e) Rhetorica Omeisii; Sey-
bold, Syntaxis ornata; Epistolae Ciceronis
17 Unterprima * Exercitium styli ex ore dictandis Latine
excipiendum; (e); Melioris
18 Oberprima * notae Auctores Graeci, Plutarchus, Isocrates
... et alternis vicibus ligatae orationis Autor.
Chria
N.B. These comments are taken from the following sources:

* Catalogus Lectionum in Gymnasio Aegidiano Noribergensi, 1699 (All classes in Latin) and
+ J. A. Comenius, Informatorium der Mutterschule, 1633: Das VIII. Capitel (cf. п. 9 [с]
supra).

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160 BACH
We may draw one

Bach's knowledge of
deepened) through hi
his musical materials.
he would have forgot
tion to apply it to mu
Birnbaum's refer
rhetoric to composing
sis that Birnbaum cle
where could the com
skill?
Finally, we shall ha
pertinent principles o
viable, not simply the
Of course, efforts -
ences in Baroque m
achieved in this regar
of "certain idiomatic
of the " Figurenlehre
be denied that this k
tiae linguae ] helps us
guage, even to focus
we suspect them to "
figurae. 15 This appro
for those of us who c
it had seemed, this in
in the 1960s without
see, the reasons for d
Bach's works were tw
we generally know fa
l4Ibid., Dok III, p. 240 (No.

Theorie der Musik, gehal
Musterbeispiel für die zw
wieder Johann Seb. Bach."
a model for the purposeful
15Friedrich Blume, Synt
Ruhnke (Kassel: Bärenreite
16Blume, Syntagma mus
p. 463; ibid., p. 474 = SM I
German music theory of th
rhetorician'. . . ."
l7Blume, SM II, p. 286.

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it has not been our self-evident possession, as it was in Bach's tim

Perhaps we were disgusted with it in school or on some other occasi
and found it pompous. . . ."18)
The other reason may be that in reading seventeenth- and eigh-

teenth-century music theory (specifically the rhetorical references fou
there) scholars have found little that could be (systematically) used t
clarify further questions in pertinent compositions. With the exception o
specific identifications and their individual and respective applicatio
(as discussed in works by Arnold Schering, H. Brandes, Hans-Heinric
Unger, Willibald Gurlitt, Arnold Schmitz, Rolf Dammann, the Kirk-
endales, and several others,19) rhetoric, as a tool for further investigatio
has finally come to seem a bit worn, as if it had run out of its form
effectiveness, even relevance.20
With respect to Bach: just how reliable and hence, tenable

was Birnbaum's defense? For one thing how could Birnbaum rea
assess and judge Bach's rhetorical applications to music? It is one thi
to discuss mutual interests including rhetorical praecepti , quite anoth
to verify their "skillful applications" in music.
It has been enlightening to locate contemporary clarification

on this point. Lorenz Mizler, famous in Bach's day for his learn
scholarship and for founding the Society of Musical Sciences (Societä
der musikalischen Wissenschaften) made explicit reference to Bi
baum's musical capacities: "Des Herrn M. Birnbaums gründliche E
sicht in die Wissenschaften besonders in die Beredsamkeit ist aus
seinen wohlgerathenen Schriften bekannt, und ich weiß, daß er eine
gute Einsicht in die Musik hat, auch selbstens ein artiges Ciavier
l8A. Schmitz, "Die oratorische Kunst J. S. Bachs-Grundfragen und Grundlagen," KB

Lüneburg (1950), p. 42, (Kassel, Bärenreiter 1951); states ". . . wir allgemein die antike
Rhetorik viel zu wenig kennen, dass sie uns seit langem nicht mehr noch in dem Zeiten
Bachs selbstverständlicher Besitz ist verekelt wurde. . . ." Schmitz unfortunately damp-
ened further research in "rhetorical applications" when he wrote: "Nur in der wortgebun-
denen Musik sind Figuren deutbar." ("Figures are only explainable in the musical setting
of words"), p. 49. Although he recognized the polysemuous (infra) nature of figures
(pp. 46-48) and their use as a genuine artistic means (p. 46), he expected a precision in
their use that does not lie in the nature of analogy, or in the theorist's explanations,
(p. 43). The exclusion of instrumental music in the explanation of figures is pre-emptory,
induced probably by undue caution and a passing over of Baroque musical theory
(cf. notes 25, 36, 37, and 38 infra).
19Buelow, op. cit., pp. 802-803: A bibliography of these authors is listed here.
20Blume, SM II, p. 286; Blume had already raised serious questions. Cf. SM I,
pp. 462-463.

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162 BACH
spielet."21 This high

return to Birnbaum' s statement with renewed interest. There were defi-
nite similarities between the two fields. Moreover, the interrelationships
were well-known to antiquity.22 But before accepting Birnbaum's
authority without reservation it may be well to review some available
statements that could serve as corroboration.
Athanasius Kircher included in his Musurgia Universalis,

written at least eighty-five years before Birnbaum's defense the follow-
ing statement: "Rhetoric is suited to enriching all the compositional
techniques and styles in use in music."23 This does not imply that
rhetoric evokes or creates music, but rather that any given composi-
tional technique or style could be "enriched" by rhetoric's praecepti. In
view of what the Necrology tells us ". . . und in der Composition,
welche er grösstentheils nur durch das Betrachten der Wercke der
damaligen berühmten und gründlichen [those versed in counterpoint].
Componisten und angewandtes eigenes Nachsinnen [where rhetoric,
contrapuntal skills and profound musical genius played a determining
role] erlernet hatte"), it can be seen that rhetoric, when applicable,
came into compositional play at a later point, where Nachsinnen
(reflection) about the work as a whole took place. While we have proof
of a number of Bach's models, it is a pleasure to have Bach's own writ-
ten confirmation of this Betrachten. He wrote in his "Entlassungsge-
such an den Rat der Stadt Mühlhausen" ("Letter requesting resignation
to the City Council of Mühlhausen") that he had acquired a good sup-
ply of the very best church works.24
21Dok II, p. 322 (No. 420): "Magister Birnbaum's profound insight with respect to schol-
arly disciplines, especially rhetoric, is [well-]known through his excellent publications,
and I [also] know that he has good judgment in musical matters. He can play the clavier
in a satisfactory way."
22Q = Quintilian, Marcus Fabius, Institutonis Oratoriae IV, 4, 13; De or = Cicero, Marcus
Tullius, De oratore , III, 174; Or = Orator 18, 57. The general relationships, e.g., the
importance of music for the orator may be seen in Q I, 10, 6; I, 10, 9-33; I, 12, 14; XI, 3,
41-42; XII, 10, 68.
"Athanasius Kircher, Musirgia universalis sive Ars magna consoni et dissoni in X Libros
digesta. (Rome: Corbelletti, MDCL), Tomus II, Liber VIII Musurgia mirifica, Caput VIII
Musurgia rhetorica, par. IV De Partibus Rhetoricae Musurgicae, p. 143: ". . . Quibus qui-
dem tota artificii nostri Musarithmici, forma patet." Cf. Scharlau, Ulf, Athanasius Kircher
(1601-1680) als Musikschriftsteller, Marburg (1969) in Studien zur hessischen
Musikgeschichte, Bd. 2, p. 206: "Die Musica rhetorica ist geeignet, sämtliche in der
Musik gebräuchlichen Kompositionstechniken und -stile zu bereichern."
24(a) "... and in composition which he acquired largely by simply considering the works
of famous contemporary composers, that is, those well versed in counterpoint and then
applying [to their works] his own planning and thinking," Dok III, p. 82 (No. 666).
(b) ". . . einen guthen apparat der auserleßensten kirchen Stücken mir angeschaffet," Dok I,
p. 19 (No. 1).

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
EXEMPLIFICATION - AN EXAMPLE OF BACH'S RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS
A brief look at Example 1 shows how Bach took J. K. F.

Fischer's Fuga No. 5 (found in the latter's Ariadne musica) and remod-
elled its subject for employment in his own Fuga , WTC I/16.25
Bach has altered the first half of Fischer's fugai subject: (a) by
melodically inverting the original diatonic half step (d'-e^), now at a
minor sixth below, rather than at the minor seventh. He thereby creates a
strong rhythmic impulse (briefly arrested by the quarter-notes ff and g)
and an Affekt of dramatic import by contrasting two successive half-tones
now moving in opposite directions with a resolution to g-minor. The
rhetorical analogue in antiquity was called contentio or contrapositum,
coming from the Greek antitheton, a figura verborum that Bach learned to
Example 1. J. K. F. Fischer, Ariadne musica Fugue in E-Flat Major

(After E. V. Werra [Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1901].)
J. S. Bach, G-Minor Fugue Ç WTC 1/16)

(After Bachgesellschaft [Franz Kroll], Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel,
1866.)
25Ichiro Sumikura, "Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer," KB III
International Bach Fest DDR (1975), pp. 236-237; Max Seiffert, Geschichte der Klavier-
musik - Die ältere Geschichte bis zum 1750 (Leipzig: 1899) Reprint (Hildesheim: Olms
1966), p. 230: general influences: R. Oppel, "Über Joh. Kasp. Ferd. Fischers Einfluß auf
Bach," BJ, Jahrg. 7 (1910): 63-67; "Beziehungen Bachs zu Vorgängern und Nachfolgern,
BJ, Jahrg. 22 (1925): 21; E. Fred Flindell, "Apropos Bach's Inventions," BACH XIV/4
(1983): 8-10; Willi Apel, Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700 (Kassel:
Bärenreiter 1967), p. 574.

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164 BACH
identify in his Rhetori

Michaelisschule. In hi
theton, rhetorical rh
intentional effort on
àvTiôeTa nominant, cu
torium necessitate ips
[syntactical entities] a
Greeks call antitheses
out [any] intention, qu
tary linking music to
(b) Vogt, Spieß and Sc
with an Affekt and th
meum vigilat." Althou
tion, he, along with V
instrumental counte
counter-subject or wh
expect consonances.26
Baroque tendency to
the same figure, whic
semuous nature, notin
flexible. . . ."27 This a
in antiquity.28 (b) Sec
pause at the beginnin
Fischer's two corte (th
the subject in "mid-f
//7, had its rhetorica
(Latin):an important f
it had already acquire
said of this figura se
many Baroque musi
including Joachim B
Speer, Athanasius Kir
and M. S. Vogt. The r
26Hans-Heinrich Unger,
Jahrhundert (Würzburg: T
27Brian Vickers, in Defenc
28Ö IX, 3, 60. The relation o
29For an explanation of th
Corta," Musikalisches Lex
ile: Documenta musicolog
Schmitz, "Die Figurenlehr
AfmW IX (1952): 95.
30Cf. Q IX, 2, 54-57; Q VI
figure is discussed by Vic

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new names (such as "tmesis") for its different functions and meanings
Since Hans-Heinrich Unger has erroneously omitted part of Kircher's
explanation of the Figure aposiopesis when used (as was frequently
done in the Baroque) as a sigh (suspirado),31 1 supply here the pertinent
passage in full: "Ad hanc revocari potest aT€va7jxòs sive suspiratio,
dum per pausas fusas, aut semifusas, quae et ideo suspiria vocantur
gementis et suspirantis animae affectus exprimimus." (Kircher typically
links this Figure with an Affekt!)32
Bach was in a position to alter or re-fashion any given material

with rhetorical applications, transforming both the Affekt and, equally
important, the rhythm of the original as illustrated in the above exam-
ple. The latter rhythmic change brought with it a rhetorical rhythmic
component - and this through the apt selection of two appropriate fig-
ures. As far as I know, only Wolfgang-Caspar Printz understood this
intrinsically rhetorical rhythm,33 which Bach seems to have clearly dis-
cerned in his scholastic studies in rhetoric. No doubt, Bach discovered
that a unique liveliness arose from both literary as well as rhetorico-
musical figures, as our first example indicates. Although Kircher lucidly
explains antithesis in his Explicado figur arum ( Musurgia Universalis ,
II, p. 145), he does not include Cicero's very essential description of its
inherent rhetorical rhythm arising by itself (supra). Unfortunately, this
omission led to a theoretical misunderstanding of the true potential of
musical figures in the Baroque Era.
We have now arrived at the main result of our initial inquiry

which points to the existence of an independent and intrinsic rhetorical
rhythm well known in antiquity and rediscovered and recreated by
Bach in countless examples of his music.34 Bach did not read about this
"finding" in Baroque music theory. He was, however, most capable of
shaping musical figures in such a way as to exploit their potential
rhetorical rhythm: and this finding (along with an understanding of his
contrapuntal and harmonic sophistication) is indeed essential in con-
struing and, hence, performing his music. Bach knew how to capture an
inherently rhythmic element in the rhetorical-musical figures he com-
posed. In this way he musically complemented and confirmed Cicero's
31Unger, op. cit., p. 72. For Unger's otherwise informative treatment of the aposiopesi
cf. op. cit., pp. 70-72; (esp.) 140-142; 151.
32Kircher, op. cit., II, p. 144 (Explicatio Figurarum under n. 23).
33Cf. no. 36.
34Cf. Blume, SM I, p. 463: The fact that Bach did not always use figures and their use may
have been frequently unconscious was clearly noted by Blume and coincides with my
findings. But there are many subtle distinctions, e.g., the random use of a figure to give
rhythmic impulse to the rest of the piece, which will be essayed later.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
166 BACH
original observation. H
the ancient orator's rh
To return to the ge
music (now in a musi
Quantz's remarks m
Musurgia universalis.
performer at the cou
tionship to rhetoric i
Here we have, intere
and Birnbaum's notio
trage eines Redners v
haben wohl in Ansehu
als des Vortrages selbs
Herzen zu bemeistern
und die Zuhörer bald
Vortheil, wenn einer
hat."35 From Walther
"Johann Joachim Quantz,

(Berlin: Voss, 1752), Haupt
mance can be compared w
have basically the same pu
performed and in their [re
hearts [of the listeners], to
tener to the respective Aff
cian] if each has some unde
Joachim Quantz, On Play
Faber, 1966), Chapter XI,
tion #1, p. 1 19. Quintilian
ings in a direct comparison
into different moods or di
sical, Renaissance, and earl
observations in " Bach un
Guillaume Boswell dated
docere, delectare et movere
cus quam orator." Cf. And
p. 1 10. For other opinions
de l'éloquence, nous révèle
teur, le pouvoir de gouv
between the clausulae of
(beginning at: "Quemadmo
36Walther, op. cit., Caput 4
of the subsumptio (p. 153),
С lavis ad Thesaurum in ag
1973), p. 46. "Figurae Mus
Rhetorica." This document

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
research)37 we may be sure that in Bach's time both vocal38 and instru-
mental music were affected by rhetoric's figur ae and praecepti.
There are many different categories of rhetorical structure and

rhythm in Bach's music still to be explained (infra). Yet even when all
these applications are clearly evident, rhetoric plays a rather collative
role. As such, it is a splendid adjunct. However, it is never the fans et
origo , the essence and sine qua non of Bach's music.39
Hence, to the great dimensions universally recognized by

scholars and musicians respecting Bach's unparalleled musical mas
tery - the integration of international styles, the prodigious contrapunt
skills, the breathtaking keyboard virtuosity - we now must add his con
summate knowledge and employment of classical rhetoric - and this o
various planes not as yet revealed. Therefore, we still - understand
ably - have to investigate the reasons why Johann Nikolaus Forke
called Bach ". . . the greatest musical poet and greatest musical orator
that has ever existed. . . ."40
B. RHETORIC AND GERMAN EDUCATIONAL TRADITIONS INFLUENCING BACH
Now, after considering various rhetorical parameters (which

were quick to lose their relevance and "dissolve" in the 1740s and
1750s41): that is, rhetoric's extraordinary alliance and, at times, integra-
tion with music - which was reawakened, certainly in the Renaissance,
and was destined to reach a rare peak in the Baroque - we may return
Printz, Compendium musicae (Dresden: Mieth, 1689), Cap. V, par. 2: "Eine Figure ist in
Musicis ein gewisser Modulus, so entstehet aus einer oder auch etlicher Noten Diminu-
tion und Zertheilung / und mit gewisser ihm anständiger Manier hervor gebracht wird"
(trans. "A figure in music [pointing indirectly to a knowledge of figures in literature or
rhetoric] is a certain modulus [= rhythm, musical time, measure, or melody]. It arises out
of one note or even a few notes through diminution and division, and it is produced in a
certain way which is proper to it.") Printz points to both rhythm and melody in defining a
figure: a subtle point. He discusses both instrumental and vocal figures: e.g., par. 29 "the
figure [known as] Bombilans ... is not however used in vocal music."
37Flindell, op. cit., XV/1 (1984): 16, n. 81. Johann Mattheson, Der Vollkommene
Capellmeister (Hamburg, 1739); Facsimile in Documenta musicologica I, V, ed.
M. Reimann (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1954), p. 127. Schmitz, "Die Figurenlehre in den theo-
retischen Werken Johann Gottfried Walthers . . . ," pp. 80, 84, 86.
38Dammann, op. cit., pp. 132-133.
39It is, however, profoundly influential when we consider Bach's Affekt, rhythm, and struc-
ture - to be discussed later.
^Forkel, Über Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke (Leipzig:
Hoffmeister and Kühnel, 1802), p. 69: ". . . der größte musikalische Dichter und der
größte musikalische Declamator, den es je gegeben hat. . . ."
4lDammann, op. cit., pp. 498-499.

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168 BACH
to some questions rais

oughly inwrought and
seems to indicate he di
gogy, the sort based on
the Baroque Era. Much
treatises and not at all
liant exceptions to this
Bernhard, Printz, Wal
aware of their contrib
and colleague, J. G. W
have it, Bach's interest
been initiated and gain
concerning music . . . [
I shall try to verify

follows is an attempt
these matters. Let us t
Just as Bach, throug

Musikus , 2nd ed. [L
"Unpartyische Anmerk
Scheibe 's progressive
defend his use of "new sounds" in his execution of Secondo Prattica
against the charges of the reactionary Bolognese Canon, Giovanni
Maria Artusi, who identified the imperfezioni della moderna musica in
his notorious treatise, U Artusi ovvero delle imperfezioni della moderna
musica (Venice, 1600 ff. 39-44, 7 IV), and this by means of his brother
Guilio Cesare Monteverdi's appendage to the 1607 printing of Mon-
teverdi's Scherzi musicali (Venice: Riccardo Amadino). In this defense,
Guilio mentions the motto of the Secondo Prattica : L'orazione sia
padrona del armonia e non serva. ("Speech [with all its attendant
rhetorical values and qualities] should be the master, not the servant of
the musical harmony.")42 This famous remark43 (sometimes misinter-
42Leo Schrade, Claudio Monteverdi - Creator of Modern Music (New York: Norton 1950),
pp. 202-207 ; see also Oliver Strunk, Source Readings in Music History (New York: Nor-
ton 1950), p. 406; a translation of the Foreword to II quinto libro de' madrigale [1605]:
"My brother says ... it has been his intention to make the words the mistress of the har-
mony and not the servant. . . ." The text here is a translation by Strunk taken from the
original edition, printed at the end of Claudio Monteverdi's Scherzi musicali (Venice
1607).
43Blume, SM I, p. 81: "Monteverdi also does not merely say that 'the word' or 'the poetry'
should be the mistress of music, but "l'orazione" [i.e., also speech, address, oration].
Scacchi, Marco, Breve Discorso sopra la Musica Moderna, (Warsaw: Eiert, 1649),
[p. 22]: ". . . la seconda [prattica], ut Oratio sit Domina harmoniae . . C. V. Palisca,

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
preted by those simply equating l'orazione with la parola or la poesia

proclaimed "speech," or "the word" to be the mistress of music. It is
one of the great orientational hallmark of the Baroque Era, a revoluti
ary concept of extraordinary force, not merely the logical outgrowth
the musica reservata of the Renaissance.44 We must not, however, s
pose that Giulio Cesare Monteverdi meant that Г orazione could
equated with rhetoric or that it was necessarily the source for rhetor
theoretical and practical emphasis in the Baroque. The word l'orazion
is used here in a comparative description of the prima prattica and,
this context, practitioners of the prima prattica are mentioned. Neve
theless, the basic denotation of the term l'orazione is present in
Renaissance; it is its connotation "speech" that slowly came to
emphasized. And with this emphasis came the notions of speech, as
address with its attendant rhetoric.
According to Monteverdi, music should now aspire to a com-

municative level akin to that of speech; like the latter it should descri
convey, and represent the entire gamut of emotional experience. Th
was, of course, entirely novel, unexpected, and quite overwhelming f
the audience. New musical means had to be found for this extraordina
task, and certainly Monteverdi's revolutionary approach to dissonan
and the vertical dimension of harmony - now in the service of
razione - succeeded in this undertaking in an unprecedented way. Th
road to rhetoric, however, lay not solely in dominance of the words,
their illustrations, or even in their underlying meaning or scope. Rath
it was accomplished through Monteverdi's discovery of the power of
the "human voice in moving the affections." Music, still the servant
speech in theory , developed over time the capacity to evoke uns
pected dimensions of passion; it became ". . . [a] tyrant over hum
minds" (de gli animi piacevolissima tiranna).45 This "tyranny" becam
increasingly clear to those privileged to hear Monteverdi's madrigal
and operas.
"Marco Scacchi 's Defense of Modern Music (1649)" in Words and Music: The Scholars
View . . . in Honor of A. Tillman Merritt, (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), pp. 204-205. Palisca
provides a translation, p. 194 f. For most scholars Г oratione means "text" or "word,"
here. Its Latin connotations, however, involve speaking, speech, language, eloquence, or a
set speech: cf. n. 43 supra. Hence, we cannot dismiss Blume 's bold assertion entirely;
orare does mean to speak in the sense of public speaking as opposed to loquor to speak in
conversation. Cf. Q IX, 4, 1 10; X 1, 8, 76. 1 think it best to think of Monteverdi's usage in
the general sense of public (including theatrical) speaking and texts serving this purpose,
as well as the poetic word itself.
"Dammann, op. cit., p. 106; Unger, op. cit., pp. 26-33.
45Schrade, op. cit., p. 209. Coppini's "Preface" to a spiritualized version of a selection of
Monteverdi's madrigals published in 1608 gives us this perspective.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
170 BACH
There were various

cal tremor. An accom
inherent powers, now
pelling musical setti
potential analogue in
destined to aid musici
incurred in composin
Renaissance analogy h
templation to becom
hands of genius this m
of a rare creative force.
Now rhetoric was not being used merely to help explain (and
label) what had already been composed in the late Renaissance, as
Burmeister later did with Orlando di Lasso's works. Now rhetorical
praecepti were used to express the profoundest of feelings mirrored in
orazione. The power lay not only in Monteverdi's explanation, but in
his practice, a situation that prompted theorists increasingly to turn to
rhetoric's legacy and terminology. As we have seen, Kircher (and others
even earlier) identified the power of rhetoric's musical figures to
express the affetti: labeling and identifying the means of expressing
passions, texts, and states of the soul. Rhetoric had always had the
moving of human feelings and passions as a principal aim. As Duke
François La Rochefoucauld's maxim put it: "les passions sont les seuls
orateurs qui persuadent toujours" (Vickers, op. cit., p. 297, n. 9). Now
music was to share and join in this task. Now rhetoric's ancient prae-
cepti (now in the service of music) are a force for creation, discovery,
and musical experiment. Rhetoric is renewed in the Baroque Era: after
a decisive encounter with the artes in the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies, where it showed enormous formative powers, it brought forth
elegant expressions in the Renaissance46 (often linked with the term
musica re servata), becoming a stupendous force in the music of the
Baroque.47 One reads and assesses the meaning of the ars inveniendi,
the figurae, flores , colores , and especially the partes of rhetoric. Yet, it
has taken us a long time to estimate and accept the idea of this employ-
ment in the Baroque.48
It is well, nevertheless, to reconsider in passing why Mon-

teverdi's works were so influential. (Certainly music historians have not
been remiss in uncovering and examining Monteverdi's techniques and
^Unger, op. cit., pp. 26-33. Theorists of this tradition were P. Aron, A. Coclico, Dressier,
S. Calvisius, and J. Burmeister.
47Cf. SM I, p. 80; SM I, p. 72, esp. p. 88.
48Unger, op. cit., p. 16.

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those of a host of composers contributing to the stile moderno.) O

answer may be that Monteverdi uniquely caught the underlying teno
those times - that great clash in perspectives characteristic of a wo
engulfed in a deep-seated crisis of identity, mirrored in opposing
gious, intellectual, and scientific orientations. These conflicts and t
new conspectus touched upon untold ancient loyalties and deep beli
There was a fundamental awareness that a new consciousness had
emerged: the beginning of our pronouncedly rationalistic and scientifi-
cally guided "modern" era had arrived. One could no longer remain
aloof.
During this period drama came to the fore in a wealth of artis-

tic expressions. An ideal portrayer of conflict, drama now plumbed the
innermost, subtlest and, indeed, the most intimate passions of the soul.
Dramatists rose to essay and depict this awesome new dimension of
human experience, confronting and encompassing the entire condition:
Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderon, Christopher Marlowe, John Fletcher,
and William Shakespeare; in the musical sphere it was the madrigals of
Cipriano de Rore, Carlo Gesualdo, and particularly those of that orác-
ulo della musica , Claudio Monteverdi. Rhetoric became increasingly
celebrated as a splendid resource. It could be harnessed to express
Affekten ("zum Wunderhaften, Stupenden, und Übersinnlichen," among
others) of a hitherto unimaginable intensity. It was now introduced to
all levels, styles, and forms of Baroque music.49 This Baroque complex-
ion was illuminated in the writings of René Descartes and Martin
Mersenne, among others.
Incidentally, we must not think of the development of a musical

rhetoric as a purely German intellectual discovery and field of interest,
although a host of German musical theorists obligated themselves to
49Blume, SM I, p. 72 and p. 81. Thomas Morley in his Plain and Easy Introduction to
Music (London: Randall 1771), Part III, p. 209, says succinctly "Moreover; there is no
man of discretion but wil think him foolish who in the precepts of an art wil look for filed
speech, rhetorical sentences." A. Kircher, op. cit., MU I, 550, spoke of the vis et efficacia
of the Affekten in the Baroque: the musica pathetica; cf. Scharlau, Ulf, op. cit., 214-219
and p. 206. Walther's remarks translated into English in note 1 1 simply reiterated Bern-
hard's assertions made "toward the middle of the century . . . ," cf. Bukofzer, op. cit.,
p. 388. Bach inherited the dramatic temper and affective genius of the Baroque epoch -
and its rhetorical propensities. Many of his sublime achievements owe much to the inner
clashes and passions characterizing dramatic experience. It is also true that Bach went
beyond so many contemporary artists in seeking and - eventually, in finding a resolution
to the fissures and tragic conflicts of existence: in his religious experience and his work.
In a sense he transcended both conflict and drama.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
172 BACH
explaining specific p
presently held opinio
ways, much earlier, in
Excursion I: The histo

phonic music
In a recent paper,51
praecepti taken from
and Orator ; as well a
formulation and actua
positional expressions
studies linking Bach t
Magister Leonin had

as is shown in his Hy
the works containing
apply their thesaurus
and musical traditions
part due to the instru
musical clerks in the N
broader context the ap
tury are quite clear:
th
the rhetorical terms
50As to the contributions of

ing music and rhetoric see
ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrh
ing: Schneider 1972), p. 2
J. Titelouze, Mangars, and A
is quite explicit: "... La Rhe
tre en Musique et apprend a
faisant passages, diminut
verselle, Paris (1636) (Facs.
Scientifique (I- III, 1963), I,
"correspond" to oratorical
role of rhetoric in France d
51This topic was aired in m
presented at the Annual B
Glasgow July 12, 1994, and
tus" presented at the Conf
Bangor, Wales. " Schemata
some "rhetorical applicatio
(Dublin: Four Courts, 1996)
"Craig Wright, Music and
Cambridge University Pre
gin of the World."

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longa , brevis, and the numeri (in their connotation as pedes). Th

employment of rhetorical terms in music was symptomatic of rhetor
twelfth-century influence upon a very wide range of contemporary
artes and even other professional fields: the ars dictandi, ars poetica
ars praedicandi, et al. Indeed, rhetoric reached a historically signific
peak in its widespread acceptance in France,53 especially in the Paris
the late twelfth century. Innocent the Third (who lent his name to th
Age) studied not only in Italy, but in Paris, and was known for
unusual mastery of rhetoric and letters.54
This tradition, then, took a firm hold once again in circle

around Cardinal Bembo in Renaissance Italy and also found an echo i
the German Reformation. Philipp Melanchthon, one of many distin-
guished German humanists, strove to have the seven traditional libe
arts renewed and cultivated in order to strengthen and support
Lutheran reforms, a point he stressed in his address, entitled "De ar
ibus liberalis," delivered in Tübingen in 1517. This was done for rath
familiar - indeed, realistic - motives. The value of eloquentia (one
the trivia of the 7 artes) in propagating a new faith had not escaped
Christian attention: in Augustine's - as well as Luther's - eyes.55
importance in training preachers was not only recognized, it w
accorded a high place in the contemporary educational system
it became a cornerstone of Luther's educational policy. Melanchthon
schoolbooks consequently stressed the importance of rhetoric and mu
and even their mutual relationship!56 The influence of both respect
fields in Reformation church services (preaching, singing, et al.) and
the training of ministers and cantors can hardly be underestimated.57 Th
"Sandra Karaus Wertis, "The Commentary of Bartolinus de Benincasa de Canulo on

'Rhetorica ad Herennium,' " Viator X (1979), 285: "The twelfth century north of the A
witnessed a peak in the study of classical rhetorical theory"; John Bliese, "The Stud
Rhetoric in the Twelfth Century," Quarterly Journal of Speech, LX III, (1977): 365, 36
54Augustus Potthast, ed. Regesta Pontificum Romanorum. Reprint Graz 1957, Vol. I, p
Wilibald Gurlitt, "Musik und Rhetorik Arts et Littérature," Helicon V, (1944): 70.
paper mentioned in n. 51 is presently being considered for publication. It is devoted to
extensive influence of Rhetoric in the music of the Notre Dame School.
"Gurlitt, op. cit., p. 79 (Melanchthon); Augustine, Aurelius St., De doctrina Christiana,
Liber II, Caput XXXVII Quae utilitas rhetoricae et dialecticae . . . and especially Liber
IV, V. 8, and Liber IV. Ill, 3; James J. Murphy, "Rhetoric in the Middle Ages" (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1974), pp. 57-59.
56Grimm, op. cit., p. 68. Gurlitt, op. cit., pp. 79-80. Gallus Dreßler in his Praecepta Musicae
poeticae, Magdeburg 1563-64. Modern edition: (Magdeburg: Engelke, 1914-15), in
Geschichtsblätter für Stadt und Land Magdeburg 49/50, 1914-15, 213-250. In the ninth
chapter Dressler links the periodus and comma {infra) of rhetoric (which have their respec-
tive clausulae) to what he calls clausulae in music. Cf. n. 59 infra. Burmeister's affiliation
of music and rhetoric is well-known and will not be examined here. Cf. pp. 15-16.
"Paulsen, op. cit., p. 42.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
174 BACH
German humanist, Ko
tial synthesis of musi
1492.58 Melanchthon
Equally concerned wit
tion, too, stressed the
tial
Since we are investigating here the background of Bach's

involvement with rhetoric, we should mention the expressed aim of
Lutheran educational policy, so important well down to Bach's days:
"sapiens atque eloquens pietas." Like many statements of this kind, the
actual intention and conviction behind the words must be investigated.
In reality it meant the attainment of a knowledge of the arts and sci-
ences and a basic grounding in the new religious teaching. The word
eloquens referred to the Latin language, considered well into the seven-
teenth century (and, in practice, well beyond) as more important than
the mother tongue, the international lingua franca. As a consequence,
pupils in many Latin schools could be punished if they spoke German:
"poenas luet natibus." In the Regulations of the Gymnasium at Herford
in the seventeenth century one reads: "Ubique et perpetuo inter sese
Latine loquantur, secus punientur." At Minden, the school regulations
of the Gymnasium required that when the pupils of the tertia, quarta , or
even quinta classes were in school, in church attending funerals, or in a
procession, they were not to speak German, but Latin. Eloquentia, as
construed in the above Latin motto meant a knowledge and facility in
speaking Latin. The educated man, in fact, was expected to converse in
correct and elegant classical Latin. The means for attaining this level of
verbal skill was to be reached by mastering the regulae and praecepti of
grammar, rhetoric, and poetry, through a reading of classical authors
(the so-called exempla) and their imitatio. Here is where the main peda-
gogical emphasis rested (scholastically speaking, imitatio meant the
sum total of Latin exercises completed).
In carrying out the prescribed reading of classical authors, the

student's attention was directed to the form in which the respective pas-
sages were written and, secondarily, to their meaning and content. This
still existed in Bach's time. The pupil was to collect model phrases,
58Grimm, op. cit., p. 70, n. 53.

59Melanchthon wrote three texts for the instruction of would-be Protestant teachers. 1 ) De
rhetorica 1519, 2) Institutiones rhetoricae 1521, and 3) Elementorum rhetoricae. Hans-
Heinz Unger, op. cit., p. 15. For Baroque theoretical explanations of antitheton cf.
pp. 69-70. For the growth of rhetoric in the 16th century cf. pp. 28-33. For Dressler's ref-
erences to rhetoric and music, see pp. 29-31.
^Gurlitt, op. cit., 80.

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idiomatic expressions, sentences, tropes, and metaphors in his adver-

saria (memorandum book) for later use in his "own" (obligatory) Latin
compositions, where an ornate style was much prized and sought after.
We may well suppose Bach did this. Passing through Aesop, Ovid, Ter-
rence, and Caesar, one was expected to read Vergil and Cicero in th
upper forms.
Other subjects, e.g., arithmetic, geometry, physics, and cos-

mology - much as one might expect - were taught in Latin. Schoo
plays with rhetorical and moralizing emphases were performed before
invited guests and declaimed in (scholastic) Latin poetry. Against this
background, music (slowly) gained in importance; in fact, musical per-
formances were gradually welcomed as substitutes for the otherwise
"requisite" Latin theatrical presentations.
There was singing in the Kloster schulen, too; the school choir
san gfiguraliter in church services. The writer of these lines can confirm
Gurlitt's remark: "Den Hauptstoff des Musikunterrichts in der Schul-
Kantorei der evangelischen Trivialschule bildet das Einüben und Absin-
gen der lateinischen-gottesdienstlichen Motettenkunst, . . . während die
Ordinariums-Gesänge durch das deutsche Kirchenlied verdrängt wor-
den sind."61 One collection of school music, the Florilegium Portense
(Leipzig 1618, 1621), collated by Cantor Bodenschatz, and containin
265 motets, was used by the Thomasschule in Leipzig in Bach's time.62
It is interesting to note that Martin Luther wisely permitted

some schools (for maidens) to teach in the mother tongue, and also mad
compromises with those boys who were to learn a handicraft or trade. In
Germany, the prestige and influence of the Latin schools was immens
and even today humanistic Gymnasia enjoy a certain eminence there.
During the last decade of the sixteenth, and the seventeenth cen-
turies, however, their exclusive standing began to waver as the notion of
the galant-homme took hold. This movement grew with the increasin
prestige of France and its internationally famous court. Moreover, new
academies ( Ritterakademien ) brought an entirely fresh direction to student
life. They enlarged their curricula with modern languages, mathematics
6,My work with German Kantoreien (1971-1991) confirms this. Gurlitt, op. cit., p. 80
"The main subject matter (used for) the instruction of the school choir in Protestant Triv
ialschools was made up of practicing and singing the Latin motet literature used in
church services. In particular [they used] motet arrangements of the Proper and Offic
chants. The chants of the Ordinary were replaced by German church songs."
"Arnold Schering, Bachs Kirchenmusik (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel 1936), p. 121 f.
Gurlitt, op. cit., p. 81.

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176 BACH
and the natural science

read modern as well as
with the fate of modern
son than Leibniz suppo
greatly influence Bach.
This picture of Ge
incomplete if John A
preacher, Wolfgang R
more realistic view to
Reading, writing, an
allowed to come first,
And in learning the la
small sentences and n
rules. Bach's instructio
the result being that h
to Latin. This Ohrdruf
mated; its curriculum
After the Treaty of

akademien were estab
came to play an impor
Edelmann held sway.
(Frequently, Spanish
was an object of study
the scene with the m
include mechanics and
dancing, fencing, ridin
With this brief orie

than an uncovering of
the main accents in Ba
institutions. All were L
progressive quality.
Various sources poi

scholastic) zeal on Bach
63In the Waldeck School Reg

ex propria praxi bezeuget w
primo initio statim ex Lingu
MFock, op. cit., pp. 42-45.
65Cf. my "Apropos Bach's
Wolff, Bach Essays on his L
p. 392; Bach's academic zeal

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offered and required of the pupil who was to be brought up in t

Protestant (Melanchthon) tradition. We have seen the degree of imme
sion in eloquentia and the resulting mastery of Latin that this schooli
required and afforded. This, then, was Bach's absorbing orientation
concentration; his mastery of rhetoric was the outcome. He made hi
own applications to music from this field and, hence, had a far wide
and deeper knowledge to draw upon for the satisfaction of his goal:
"comprehend" something about his art.66 As we shall see, Bach
employed many more rhetorical praecepti in his music than those d
cussed in Baroque music theory books. He eschewed the annotati
and frequently pedantic descriptions and prescriptions found in many
rhetorical-musical tract, as Scheibe quite rightly claimed. ("Er ha
sich um critische Anmerkungen, Untersuchungen . . . der Redekunst
nicht sonderlich bekümmert" [Dok II, p. 352, No. 441] translation an
explanation in Part A.)
But there is more: Fock has pointed out the proximity of the
Ritterakademie in Lüneburg. To be sure, it was restricted to those o
noble birth; yet one of this institution's associates or teachers doubtle
made it possible for Bach frequently to visit the Duke's Capelle in Cel
which performed courtly French music. Bach - with his unmatc
ear - managed to develop more than a smattering of French.67 This m
it possible for him to move easily in various courts, as is quite evident
the Weimar and Kothen periods, at Karlsbad, and later, in Berlin.
Doubtless the Lüneburg-Celle experience contributed to Bach's

mastery of several fields: musica figuraliter composed in the stile anti
Latin grammar, rhetoric and poetry; furthermore, the visits to Hamb
enabled him to make examination of all sorts of non-scholastic and co
temporary music, to hear organ playing, and to inquire into that nov
arcanum: the fashioning of double counterpoint in the developing s
luxurians. Celle gave him precious exposure to French manners, tast
and music and, as a matter of fact, we may justly claim that
when Bach attained manhood he was, in fact, a model representative of
"Ibid.
67Fock, op. cit., pp. '2-'l . Students at the Ritterakademie spoke French with one another.
The scholarship students (Bach included) at the Michaelisschule were obliged to rein-
force the singing at Vespers and Matins for the Ritterakademie services, and they were
housed with the Ritterakademie' s students "in the inner courtyard of the old and narrow
monastery building" (p. 43). Hence, Bach was confronted daily with the French language.
Fock has uncovered a possible key acquaintance of Bach's: the dance master, Thomas de
la Selle, who was at the same time a court musician in Celle (cf. Fock, op. cit., p. 44 and
p. 45, n. 3a). It was this person who most likely made it possible for Bach frequently to
visit the Capelle of the Duke of Celle, as reported in the Necrology (Dok III, p. 82 [No.
666]). He introduced Bach to French music and probably to French taste, as well.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
178 BACH
Latin-Lutheran educa
pietas." This is an imp
career; more particula
and pupils, his identi
move to Leipzig for t
edge of Latin (useful
latter in a manner far
poser. This is what A
Latin rhetoric was "a
In the course of hi
tional aim; however,
upon his life as a com
tual curiosity and his
traditions, curricula
enough, we must also
French taste, and mu
rhetoric and music -
mous components of
application of these t
standing the rare "liv
tlest attributes of an
conducting, and comp
C. SOME RHETORICAL I
A-FLAT, WTC 1/1
Critics, essayists, an
influences, aspects, a
this word, and they
principle in mind. In
to do with oratory. Y
term "rhetorical," the
the reader ends up wit
own interpretation
MCf. Unger, op. cit., p. 1; a

in "Rhetoric and Music," G
itself displays frequent an
stated in Vom Tragischen i
hält sich in den Grenzen de
(". . . this presentation [the
the limits of recitation and

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exception, as her study of the Musical Offering clearly reveals.69) Som

reasons for the general use of the word "rhetorical" have been tenta
tively reported in this paper's Section A (supra).
A somewhat similar situation obtains for two of rhetoric's ter-

mini technici , the figura verborum et sententiarum , which, to be sure,
have been extensively identified, "catalogued," and mentioned as hav-
ing apposite musical configurations. Many of their definitions belie
their actual and fundamental nature, namely their polysemous, affec-
tive, rhythmic, and structural character. Due to their abstract formula-
tion, variant preservations, and sheer antiquity, they have remained
(perhaps by accident) a traditional enigma.
The situation for the figurae of classical Greek and Latin

rhetoric, as identified in Baroque musical treatises, is really no different.
Unfortunately, the definitions provided are not always based upon an
understanding of the original and defining context. Also, their raison
d'être was not always clarified along with mention of their respective for-
mal designs and accompanying musical analogues. Their enumeration
was, like so many sets of variations (of the figurai kind), presented without
the underlying theme: that is, the cause and origin of it all. This may result
from the fact that rhetorical analogy was initially employed in the Renais-
sance, either (a) as an analytical tool for the examination of musical com-
positions (as, for example, in Joachim Burmeister's pioneering work) or
(b) as revealed in those instances of the figura found in sixteenth-century
treatises, which, although clearly concerned with music, do not link the
figurae with any specific musical examples (as in the case of Johannes
Galliculus [1538], Gallus Dressler [1563-64], or Sethus Calvisius [1592].
Calvisius does, however, identify one figure in a musical analogue.70
69See Ursula Kirkendale, "The source for Bach's Musical Offering: the Institutio oratoria
of Quintilian," JAMS, 33 (1980): 88-141; but even here the sweeping assumptions and
quite idiosyncratic applications go too far, as seen in the following: "When Quintilian
alluded to Homer's description of Agamemnon's pulchritudo, he surely had another
memorable passage in mind," p. 112.
70Unger, op. cit., p. 31; Dammann, op. cit., p. 101-103; Burmeister also instructed stu-
dents in composing in his Musica poetica (1606) which involved rhetorical figures. (Our
remark pertains to the Hypomnematum Musicae Poeticae, 1599.) It is logical to suppose
that Burmeister, who had studied Quintilian 's and Cicero's works at the University of
Rostock after his matriculation there in 1586, assumed that students had learned already
the underlying rationale and manifold attributes of the Figurae at the gymnasium level.
Cf. Blume, "Burmeister," MGG II, col. 492. At any rate his use of rhetoric's terminology
in analogy to music is concrete and in this respect it is essentially new. It does not, how-
ever, take on the dimensions of a comprehensive theory of composition: "Freilich liefert
Burmeister nur eine Anleitung. Es kann und soll kein auch nur annähernd erschöpfendes
Lehrsystem sein." (Dammann, op. cit., p. 103.) It does, however, set new goals in the
employment of rhetorical components in music.

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180 BACH
It is important to n
posers developed figur
tioned theorists began
cal terms. Unger belie
sixteenth century was
ble the eventual linking
Concisely put, the

rhetorical figures (as
fact that scholars hav
rationale of these sch
treatises. Moreover, a
gories cannot sui gene
This is true of the anc
musico-poetic counter
One reason for this

nally Greek definition
tions. Furthermore, o
names, even in antiqu
by such ambiguities, e
definitions of specifi
maze of overlapping a
spicacity to assess the
called in Cicero's day)
One source of the f

ern study of the figu
solely as ornaments o
ori a limitation in their essential function.
Actually, this limited conception of the figurae ( ornatus ) was

never seriously entertained in antiquity. Anyone making inquiry into the
denotation and connotations of "orno, ornare, ornavi, ornatus" will find
that the primary meaning was "to equip, accoutre, provide with neces-
saries, fit out," and that only the second meaning carried an implication,
the consequence of the denotation: the familiar "to adorn, decorate, or
embellish."
It is commonly understood that in antiquity there were both

"verbal figures" and "figures of thought": their sheer number has
insured this. But even these general designations or categories were
71Unger, op. cit., p. 25.

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BACH'S TEMPOS AND RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS 1 8 1
lacking in clarity, appearing as they did with different names, as the fol-
lowing Tables 2 and 3 show:
TABLE 2
Verbal Figures
Name Source
figurae orationis Q I, 5, 5
figurae verborum Q IX, 1, 16
figurae elocutionis Aquila p. 23, 6
schemata Q I, 8, 16
conformatio verborum C. De or III, 52, 201
figurae locutionis Mart. Cap. 39, 530
TABLE 3
Figures of Thought
Name Source
conformatio sententiarum C. De or III, 52, 20

QIX, 2,1
conformatio sententiae C. De or III, 39, 136
figurae sententiae Q IX, 4, 117
figurae quae in Q II, 13, 1 1
sensibus sunt Q IX, 1, 19
dictionun figurae Victorinus 21, p. 434, 7
(Fortunately classical writers defined the basic import of the figurae

establishing their reason for existence, before enumerating them.)
Before discussing these classical explanations, we would do

well to examine Bach's actual confrontation with the figures, a
recorded in the scholastic curricula of his time. This we shall do in two
steps: first by recounting the school plan at Lüneburg and elsewhere,
and, second, through discussion of one of Cicero's orations, throwing
light on its respective rhetorical rhythm and syntax.
Excursion II: Pedagogy and Rhetoric in Lüneburg72
Johannes Büsche was Bach's teacher in both the Unter- and

Oberprima; he taught Bach religion, logic, rhetoric, and Latin. Büsche
72Cf. Dammann, op. cit., pp. 100-101. Dammann describes Burmeister's preparation in
rhetoric in Lüneburg about 1581-1585 at the Johanneum (Latin Gymnasium). This fact
may serve as an example of the enrichment provided by the rhetorical tradition, influenc-
ing both Burmeister and Bach.

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182 BACH
seems to have been a c

ical care with his stud
Latin, although formi
exactly what Bach lea
course offerings reac
rhetoricis doctrina de
form] e Tollio, cum mi
schematibus."73 Gustav
lum the of
Michaelisk
rhetoric was the basis
gen, 1670). It must be
brief compendium wit
Upper Form, instructe
lowing entry "Latein:
Vergilio Pars prima IV
Cicero's Orations w
their syntax and id
employed. If we look
chronological order in
teenth century. The co
the Sekunda respecti
domesticum vel liberu
do per figuras aut tro
bold's Syntaxic ornata
In Halle the Schul

("Curriculum of the
quarter-hour of after
this time the tropes a
known with a textboo
read Cicero's "Officia,
undertaken are given
(philologically) the s
esten constructionib
wenn Tropi oder Sch
grammatical construc
appeared").75 In Gre
with Epictetus, Plutar
73Fock, op. cit., pp. 63-64.

74Cf. Reinhold Vormbaum,
derts (Gütersloh: Bertelsm
75Cf. Vormbaum, Die evan
(Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1

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of contemporary curricula affords a comparative perspective to accom-

pany an examination of Bach's studies.
Konrector Elfeld also taught in the "prima," explaining

Cicero's letters and the "De Officiis": as in most Latin schools, Greek
was also given to enable the student to read the New Testament in its
original language. Yet Konrector Elfeld went beyond this frequent cur-
ricular offering and clarified the rhetorical numeri and schemata found
in Isocrates' orations.
In their private lessons, held four days a week, both Büsche

and Elfeld prepared pupils for their public orationes. Since the schools
felt themselves to be in competition with other institutions, the public
displays of student eloquentia had a prestige and importance that we
can only imagine today. They were a source of inspiration for the bright
student, and this motivation led the ambitious to take their rhetorical
instruction quite seriously, indeed. Bach was no exception.76 His interest
in rhetoric and precocious insight developed lasting dimensions. Cicero
had pointed the way in this respect: "Eloquence is one . . . , regardless
of the regions of discourse to which it is diverted." {De oratore III, 22:
"Una est enim . . . quascumque in oras disputationis regionesve delata
est.")
Bach was, in fact, in a position to deliver rhetoric from its

purely scholastic import and employ it as a lifelong adjunct to his own
creativity. He could do this because of his swift apprehension of the
underlying experience that practically coincides with the utterance and
writing of a literary figure. Bach's awareness of this feeling, gained
from the Latin authors mentioned, never became detached from the lat-
ter. The sensation that evoked the verbal "deflection" in the first place
and, of course, its variant figurai expression: this fresh moment of spon-
taneity was what Bach understood in a volkommen way.77
He did not think of the Latin or Greek figure as an old-

fashioned and "shopworm" device: as a handed-down abstraction, fortu-
itously arising in some person's ancient experience and long since codi-
fied and denatured over the centuries. For Bach and the studiosi , a figure
was not simply a literary "action" that had occurred in antiquity and was
now learned in a "required" Latin course. These spicilegii were avidly
written down for the valedictory orations. One had to employ each in
proximity to its original context and meaning: that is, with its original
76Cf. n. 5.
77Cf. n. 14.

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184 BACH
raison d'être rooted i

without conventional
Bach understood th
rât verborum et sente
connotation. They w
assumption one encou
emotional states."79 I
lishing an Affekt}0 Th
Explicado figurarum
Affekten .81
78(a) Paulsen, op. cit., p. 44: The pupils gathered the specilegii in their Adversarienbiicher
(Notebooks). Forchert, "Bach und die Tradition der Rhetorik," p. 171, assumes that the
method and intensity of the Melanchthon tradition with respect to Rhetoric and Latin
instruction was "... gradually becoming torpid . . freezing up: "Denn im Gegensatz zu
der ständig Neues hervorbringenden musikalischen Praxis des 17. Jahrhunderts war die
Geschichte der Schul- und Universitätsrhetorik, sofern sie auf der lateinischen Sprache
beruhte, die einer allmählich erstarrenden und in Verfall geratenden Disziplin, die in glei-
chem Maße an Bedeutung verlor, wie die Volkssprachen sich in Kunst und Wis-
senschaften durchzusetzen begannen." Also, pp. 170-171: "Auch durch die Entwicklung
der Rhetorik selbst war die Lehre von den Redefiguren obsolet geworden." The writer is
referring to the beginning of the 18th century. The series of articles here take the opposite
view (cf. Summary Article G). Forchert totally underestimates the extraordinary persis-
tence of the Melanchthon tradition in Germany. Cf. Paulsen, op. cit., p. 46. (b) Vickers,
op. cit., p. 302 states: "The link between rhetoric and real life remained unquestioned
until the 1800s at least" and p. 301: ". . . for the rhetorical tradition flourished vigorously
right through the eighteenth-century." In the last forty years research has accumulated
evidence supporting an entirely different view toward rhetoric, contradicting views enter-
tained (and gathered from experience) in the years between 1850-1950.
79Vickers, op. cit., p. 296: "In anger human beings will cry out, appeal to some stander-by,
to God, or to part of the scenery to bear witness to their sufferings. This gesture came to
be known as apostrophe or exclamatio. Thus the lore of rhetorical figures could be seen
as deriving originally from life." If we take this approach to Bach's understanding of the
figures with their immediacy of impact in the cantatas and Passions especially, we shall
take a giant step in appreciating his work.
80Vickers, op. cit., p. 300. A parallel to Bach's use of models and rhetorical reflection
( Nachsinnen ) as a way of composing may be seen in: John Dryden, "A Defence of the
Essay on Dramatick Poetry," The Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dry-
den (London: Baldwin, 1800) I, Part II, p. 160: "It is true, that to imitate well is a poet's
work, but to affect the soul, and excite the passions, and above all to move admiration,
which is the delight of serious plays, a bare imitation will not serve. The converse, there-
fore, which a poet is to imitate, must be heightened with all the arts and ornaments of
poesy; and must be such, as, strictly considered, could never be supposed spoken by any
[person] without premeditation." Tropes and figures are mentioned, ibid., Vol. I, Part II,
pp. 166-167.
%xMusurgia universalis, II, pp. 144-145.

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BACH'S TEMPOS AND RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS 1 85
New and important for us here is the fact that Bach recognized
that the figurae could have an intrinsic and (theoretically explained)
rhetorical rhythm of their own. This made possible a subsequent building-
up of rhetorical structures (infra) that could impart feeling and a com-
plex rhythmic liveliness to any given work when considered in sections
or as a whole. Schweitzer, as we have seen, hinted at this. Every figure,
originally an instant reaction to direct experience, expressed something
fresh and creative. New for our modern understanding (and Bach
research in particular) is the recognition that each figure could have its
own inherent and frequently unique rhythmic element, its own idiosyn-
cratic pulsation, as it were. Because of its "longs" and "shorts" the
ancient Latin language made this possible. This fact, today little under-
stood, has only belatedly been given systematic treatment in modern
linguistic circles. In fact, classical philologists have only recently
directed their attention to this secret of ancient oratory, giving it appo-
site attention in the past fifty to seventy years.82 Bach's ear discerned a
potential; in fact, an inherent rhythmic moment especially in the figures
of the emphatic ( repetido ) classification - a pulse that seemingly arose
by itself. It occurred, both in the original Latin rhythmic context,
employing breves et longae, and in Bach's own cognate musical ana-
logues.
All of these facets of the figurae and other rhetorical expres-

sions were common knowledge in antiquity. Crowds applauded the
adept and corruscating clausulae of the great orators. Aristotle essayed
Georgias' brilliant speech; as is well-known, rhythmic oratory was
investigated with sovereign perspicacity by Cicero in his master work
De oratore (on the level of general theory) and in his Orator (providing
detailed exemplification, cf. supra). Unfortunately, this subject has suf-
fered from all too brief and summary explanation. Quintilian's discus-
sion of tropes and figures is a fascinating, but complex topic not readily
explained.
Cicero's conceptions of rhythm in oratory have proved chal-

lenging intellectual stuff for classical scholars; thankfully, their elucida-
tion has been addressed by a few in this century. But for a long time the
exceptional character of rhetorical rhythm (exceptional in terms of our
language) in ancient oratory was treated as an ancillary topic.
The word schemata (which appears in the orienting Table of

Verbal Figures [supra] and which formed a significant part of the cur-
82Cf. Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Orator, ed. Bernhard Kytzler (Munich: Heimeran, 1975),
p. 237.

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186 BACH
riculum of the Michae

tions by Quintilian. Th
acquired his remarkabl
assist us in finally brid
ever recurring problem
ogy.83
What is a figure? Quintilian says: " 'figura,' sicut nomine ipso

patet, conformado quaedam orationis remota a communi et primům se
offerente ratione." ("A figure, as its name discloses, is an element of the
oration that departs from the generally accepted usage, i.e., the one that
would have been obvious and expected and that aids in forming the
speech as a whole") Conformatio, coming from conformo , contains the
notion of "forming" and "arranging" as well as the idea of an individual
figure of speech - as such, it is similar to the German Gestaltung .84
Rather than focussing on a catalogue of figures of speech or thought
(figurae verborum et sententiarum ), which would assume an under-
standing of the basic nature of individual figures, as such, we shall go
one step further and seek fundamental characteristics common to all
figures - a process that Quintilian thought necessary before enumerat-
ing and explaining a long list of specific figures individually (Q IX,
chapters 1-3).
Quintilian states that the Latin term figura stems from the
Greek word schema (axtjixa), which means both (a) the turn of speech,
phrase or verbal figure of speech itself, as well as (b) posture, air, man-
ner, character, or fashion. This etymology of the word figura in schema
would be incomplete if we did not mention Quintilian 's discernment of
two basic sorts of figures: (1) the figure of speech = figura orationis
sive verborum (Latin) = schema Xe^ews and (2) the figure of thought =
figura sententiae (Latin) = schema ôtavaias.85 With these derivations
and the general remark above (concerning conformo ), we may proceed
83Cf. n. 27. In his study of Bach's Sinfonien, Hans Pischner, op. cit., p. 261, says respect-
ing analogy: "Das ganze Reich der Verzierungen [in Musik] ist jedoch ohne die letzten
Ende auf René Descartes zurückgehende Lehre von den Affekten nicht zu denken, wurde
doch gerade aus der Antike über die Renaissance übernommene Begriff der Affekten mit
neuem Leben erfüllt." Bach simply took this potential in figures and brought it to dimen-
sions of rhythmic life and expression that the world had not heretofore experienced:
"Verzierung als Erhöhung des Affektausdrucks."
MQ IX, I, 4; Kennedy pointed to the psychological effect of the figure (as did Longinus in
antiquity), giving, or better, instilling a certain disposition to the speech as a whole, inten-
sifying thought. Cf. George Kennedy, Quintilian (New York: Twayne, 1969), pp. 86-88.
850 I, I, 16. Quintilian reinforces this very clearly at Q IX, I, 17. There are two sorts of
schemata, one sort is grammatical, the other rhetorical: Q IX, III, 2. The first sort pro-
vides relief from the boredom of every day speech and its conformance.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
to one of Quintilian's very subtle conceptions, which is equally va

and informative in both music and oratory: "ergo figura sit arte aliq
novata forma dicendi."86 The figure should be a form of expression.
should be an expression that strikes one as being something new and
refreshing, and hence it elevates speech to the level of art. Neverthele
Quintilian warns us against being too categorical and apodictic in our
definitions of "figure" (Q IX, I, 10: "Est autem non mediocris inter auc
tores dissensio, et quae vis nominis eius et quot genera et quae qua
multaeque sint species").
However - following Quintilian - if we think of plain straight-

forward unadorned speech (the ancient Attic penchant) as being analogo
to a statue of a person standing (expressionless) with "his face lookin
straight forward, his arms hanging down, his feet in place, flat next to ea
other,"87 and, then by comparison, of speech employing figures (or
schemata) as being a statue in one of "a thousand sorts of expression; many
showing a running position or impulsive posture; others sitting or reclinin
. . . nude or dressed or disclosing] a mixture of both possibilities"88 (Qui
tilian uses as an example Myron's statue of the discus thrower),89 we gain
striking and clarifying explanation, that reflects, incidentally, the two mea
ings of schema mentioned above under (a) and (b). If, when we think of th
figurae, we can picture Quintilian's statue articulated in different attitude
and postures, we come to a further conclusion, one already made by Vic
ers: namely, that the figures expressed instances of real life, human intera
tion, thought, and emotion.90 The import of Vickers' finding was to prov
that a figura or schema conveyed, at least originally, a direct and immedi
experience - one not yet lost in a denomination or label, in a variant nam
or an ingenious theoretical explanation.
Quintilian sums up the effect of figures saying: "quam quidem

gratiam et delectationem adferunt figurae, quaeque in sensibus quaeq
in verbis sunt."91 "The figures of Speech offer [the listener] charm an
delight when both the sound of the words and their meaning is [per
ceived and understood]."
86ö IX, 1, 14.

87ß II, 13,9.
88Ô II, 13, 10.
89Ibid.
^Quintilian confirms this same basic conception in his sentence "altero, quo proprie
schema dicitur. in sensu vel sermone aliqua a vulgari et simplici specie cum ratione muta-
tio, sicut nos sedemus, incumbimus, respicimus" (Q IX, I, 11).
9]Q II, 13, 11.

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188 BACH
Bach saw that mus

sort to deepen our un
activated statue) or, i
particular compositi
explanation, the unad
tion (the statue at res
construction, a contra
conversation.92 Intrin
other attributes. For o
tion, and set the tone
conception of the fig
exemplify all the def
stated in ancient rheto
To understand thi
Bach's Praeludium in
of a musical figure th
bowing technique. T
Quintiliano basic con
any conception, as sa
form), may, at any g
includes the notion of
body.) This meaning
forma sententiae, sicu
posito, utique habitus
tions, involving figur
tion to their single in
the case of Bach's wor
(Q IX, 1, 94) mention
aliqua novata forma
figures in the light o
tion about the figur
approach much of B
Example 2.)
92Quintilian tells us that the figures provide variation and ensure that the speech will not
become monotonous IV, 2, 118; IV, 5, 4; V 14, 32; VI, 1, 2. typical are various devices
that repeat or omit words, as seen in these essays and in Bach's musical analogues (IX, 3,
28).
93Quintilian spends much space in dealing with the fact that the figures are capable of
stimulating Affekte: IX, I, 21, 23; IX, 2, 3; 26; 54; 64; Q IX; 3, 46-47; 54. Figures stand
out in a speech: IX, I, 37 and, as we shall see (especially in Article (G), in Bach's music.

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Example 2. Bach, A-Flat Major Prelude ( WTC 1/17)

1866.)
As we have indicated, the subject and lore of musical figures is

likewise complex.94 For example, there are Baroque musical figures with no
apparent basis in rhetoric.95 Our intention here is not to explain each one but
to continue our search for original meanings and their basic raison d'être.96
If we return to the Prelude, we find the short figure (in

rhetoric: of komma length) repeated ubiquitously, exceptions being in
the cadences (bars 15-16; 34; 43^4) and the brief passage work, (bars
39-40). From the rhetorician's point of view there are several sorts of
repetition here, readily identifiable within the figure itself.
The ancients gave different names to repetition depending upon

its specific employment. For example [see Example 2], the a-flat repeats
itself: a kind of geminatio (up-beat and following note). Its repetition at the
end of bar 1 would have been called redditio, that is, repetition considered
within the figure itself. The repetition of the figure taken as a whole was
known as repetitio91 used here in both ascending sequence (left hand
bars 3-5) - anabasis - and descending fashion - katabasis ,98
94Buelow, op. cit., p. 795, states: "Attempts by writers such as Brandes, Unger, and
Schmitz to organize the multitude of musical figures into a few categories have not
proved successful." Dammann, op. cit., p. 144. See Quintilian's warning supra. One of the
subtler aspects of the Figurae is mentioned by Quintilian just before his definitions "...
tam enim translatis verbis quam propriis figuratur oratio" (IX, I, 9) ("For oratory may be
fashioned with figures (employing) words that are used [both] in their actual and figura-
tive meanings .")
95Ibid., p. 794: "For more than a century a number of German writers, following Burmeis-
ter, also borrowed rhetorical terminology for musical figures, with both Greek and Latin
names, but they also invented new musical figures by analogy with rhetoric but unknown
to it." Cf. Dammann, op. cit., pp. 145-146.
96Vickers, op. cit., pp. 298-299. One effect of the figures was to work against normal
everyday syntax.
97See Appendix. Also: Dammann, op. cit., p. 141 f, and Vickers, op. cit., p. 305.
98These terms are special forms of hypotyposis and have no direct roots in literary
rhetoric. Dammann, op. cit., p. 140; Printz, op. cit., cap. V, par. 9-14.

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190 BACH
Intervalli changes occ

2, leading to beat 3 res
ments in other interva
paronomasia or annom
rhetoric, or "clause"), w
Latin poets of the twel
passages repeated as a w
(I) Bars 22-23: A/B

(II) Bars 9-15 A/B
analogues for the n
involving symmet
Baroque manifestat
the stile luxurians.
The modulation to e-flat and back to a-flat (bars 17-18 and

34-35 respectively with final cadences) has a rhetorical analogue, Sec.
A (bars 1-17 with cadence) being equal to Sec. В (bars 18-34 with
cadence); they offer a splendid example of repetition identifiable with
the rhetorical notions involving numerosum100 and symmetry. 101 The
cadences correspond to the conception of rhetorical clausulae (as a cate-
gory) and are varied as the praecepti of eloquentia in antiquity required.102
Sec. С has interesting symmetrical equations. Bars 35-36, 37-38, as well
as bars 39-40 are examples, in miniature form, of anabasis and katabasis,
respectively. Beats 2 and 3 in bar 43 and the final a-flat chord are identical
in the left hand with the cadence in bars 34-35. The right-hand cadence
"Cicero, Or 49, pp. 164-167; Walter Schmid, Über die klassische Theorie und Praxis des
antiken Prosarhythmus, (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1959), pp. 29-31.
l00Adolf Primmer, Cicero Numerosus Studien zum antiken Prosarhythmus (Wien: Böh-
laus, 1968) in: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische
Klasse , Band 257, pp. 13, 64, 67-68, 81. One of the best studies is J. May, Der redner-
ische Rhythmus mit besonderer Beziehung auf Ciceros "orator" (Leipzig: Fock, 1899),
p. 15: "Nun spricht Cicero den Satz aus, den wir schon oben verwerteten, dass das
numerosum der Rede nicht immer durch den numerus, sondern manchmal allein 'concin-
nitate aut constructione verborum' entstehe." I think we have all felt this in performing
Bach, perhaps without knowing just why or how.
I01lbid., pp. 65-67; Or 65, 219: "Et quia non numero solum numerosa oratio, sed et compo-
sition fit et genere, quod ante dictum est, concinnitas." ". . . Now, indeed, prose is made
rhythmic not only by means of rhythms [based on long and short syllables-pedes] but also,
as already mentioned, by arrangement and symmetry." The fact is that, through antitheses,
isocola, and large symmetrical structures, a kind of rhythm arises by itself without any
conscious intention on the orator's part. Or 52, 175, Or 65, 219: "ordo enim verborum
efficit numerum sine ulla aperta oratoris industria ": "that the rhythm is not intended [by
the orator] but appears to come into being by itself." Our discussion of Example 1 using
Or 50, 166, disclosed this.
mQ IX, 4; Or 59, 200.

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(a-flat-g-a-flat) in bar 43 reiterates the first three notes of the figure in

1 : a kind of extended anaphora brought about through musical augme
do (see the Appendix for definition of these terms).
These parallels show a clever disposition of the musical mater

ial established at the very beginning. The dispositio in rhetoric corr
sponds not only to the fugai working out of the theme but also bea
analogy to the disposition of the Prelude examined here. It was
course, the skill in carrying out the dispositio that evoked rapt attent
and admiration in the Baroque Era as in antiquity.
Our analysis of Bach's dispositio here shows that he integrated

his figure (here the inventio ) with other principles analogously know
from ancient rhetoric, namely those considered under the general he
ing of concinnitas (here symmetries) and the figur ae verborum. Th
application here gives the Praeludium an extraordinary livelines
which eighteenth-century writers steadily refer. This integration o
rhetoric into musical composition was part of what we have hither
understood in the Necrology's term Nachsinnen (reflection).
Sigismund Toduta and Hans Peter Türk have investigated the

Inventions and identified rhetorical Figures found in analogous mu
form there.103 But there is something fascinating here which does n
necessarily strike the eye; it is perceived solely through performan
and listening. It corresponds to a feature of rhetoric long set aside
frequently passed over by philologists: the several simultaneous rhy
mic strata, mentioned by Cicero and uniquely realized here by Bach
Contemporaries of the master, quite independently of each other, u
the word Lebendigkeit when referring to this multi-leveled coincide
of rhythms (infra).
While rhetorical rhythm was cultivated, greatly admired, an

championed by the great orators in antiquity, it is magnificently exempl
in the Praeludium in A-Flat. This may be seen to advantage when w
consider ancient syntax.
Bach's repeated figures, phrases, and musical periods corr

spond in an analogous way to entities known in antiquity as а ко(х|х
(= Latin, incisum , Q V, 4, 22), kwXov (= Latin, membrum , Q IX, 4,
""Sigismund Toduta, and Hans Peter Türk, "Bachs Inventionen und Sinfonien Ästhetis
stilistische Beiträge," Bericht über die wissenschaftliche Konferenz zum III. Inter
tionalen Bach-Fest der DDR, (VEB Leipzig, 1976), pp. 196-197.

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192 BACH
and uepíoôos (= Latin,

circumitus, circumsc
continuano , Q IV, 4
and especially Q IX, 4
(b) KtõXov {colon) a
music, its cadence an
which may have both
ous Latin equivalents f
listing of synonyms.
as the leading around
cuitous. It would take
ludium. But their ar
moment all of its own
rounded-off. (See Tab
This, too, is a result

have ancient preceden
intended subjective ex
Cicero's discussions an
SUMMARY
(1) The main and practically ubiquitous figure in the Prae-

ludium in A-Flat, exemplifying the already enumerated and (rhetori-
cally) defined principles, evokes through its multiple repetition an
emphasis, a "feeling-state," and an independent rhetorical rhythm.
The figure's repetition with cadence builds a structure known

in antiquity as "the period." The result, subjectively speaking, is a uni-
tary Affekt , the scopus, or as Walther called it, the gantze Meinung.105
This comes close to what Schweitzer had intended in his "imaginative
truth": "Bachs Musik ist Gotik" (as explained in his adjoining commen-
tary, Section 1).
(2) What has escaped our attention is the notion generally

assigned to discussions of the term numerus,106 as found in ancient
rhetoric and intrinsic here in Bach's Praeludium. A principal feature,
as well, is the use of (emphatic) iteratio figures. This type of rhetorical
,04Cf. notes 68-70; Or 60, 202; 65, 210-220.

,05This concept is explained by Schmitz, "Die Figurenlehre in den theoretischen Werken
. . . ," p. 99.
mQ I, 10, 22-30; IX 4, 10-13; 22; 27; 45-120. Cf. n. 93.

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figure creates a distinctive rhythm, which arises without the autho

(or the performer's) intention, a rhythm, peculiar to the figure taken
a whole,107 one independent of the micro-rhythm of its Tonfasse (a
Forkel called them). The two sixteenths and four eighths are not he
as a neutral proportionate series but as a unique organic rhythm
entity. This inherent and particular rhythm108 arises and occurs of i
own: a subtle interrelationship caused by pitches and their numerica
proportions, just as it was (by analogy) the case with oratorical figura
This figurai rhythmic expression produces upon repetition an ev
strengthening, spacially perceived concinnitas (or "rounding-off" as
was known in antiquity) until its interruption in bar 9 when a contra
ing but comporting sixteenth-note figure (here as counterpoint) est
lishes a longer (rhythmically experienced) up-beat than that of the in
tial figure in bar 1. Of course, this new figure has its own independe
rhythm. The combining of these two musical elements, which touch
a certain point - this tangential and simultaneous experience - const
tutes a figure, known in Baroque musical treatises as an antithet
The result is a clash in two rhetorically induced pulsations, comi
from two different sources. (See Example 3.) Here, one experiences a
enlivening contrast with the innate and predominant rhythm of the i
tially established figure. This situation appealed to Christoph Nichel
mann so much that he drew attention to another analogous rhythm
experience, in this case in a sarabande composed by Bach.109 Sim
Example 3. Bach, A-Flat Major Prelude ( WTC 1/17)

(After Bachgesellschaft [Franz Kroll], Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härt
1866.)
,07Cf. n. 101.
l08Cf. n. 99-100. Cf. Walter Gerstenberg, "Die Krise der Barockmusik," Aß/lw 10 (19
p. 85: Without entering into explanations, the author observes (as we have, startin
Article A): "Die überragende Bedeutung, die dem Rhythmus bei der Figurationstech
zukommt, liegt darin, daß ein hinter dem tönenden Vordergrund gleichmäßig
unbekümmert schlagender musikalischer Puls die Bewegung weitertreibt."
l09Dok III, pp. 97-98 (No. 668) ". . . der Rhythmus dieser verschiedenen Zusammenst
mungen. . . ."

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194 BACH
stated, we perceive tw
another on the gener
antitheton, an unca
music. Much depende
cal figures that inher
rhythms.
(3) If one listens several times to the work as a whole, one

finds that sections 1 and 2 (described above), taken in a consecutive
hearing, provide a larger structural rhetorical rhythm, a kind of
macro-rhythm arising out of their respective symmetries (and double
counterpoint), a rhetorical and underlying flow or current, a state of
affairs correspondingly defined and understood as one of the notions
of concinnitas. In one of his explanations of this phenomenon Cicero
stated: [Orator 60, 202]: "ita fit ut non item in oratione ut in versu
numerus exstet idque, quod numerosum in oratione dicitur, non sem-
per numero fiat, sed nonnumquam aut concinnitate aut constructione
verborum."110
The first subjective moment above, the unitary Affekt , the

underlying, scopus, or "die gantze Meinung" (as J. G. Walther
termed it) was clearly recognized in the Baroque and is evident in
Kircher's writings. What we experience is not simply one Affekt ,
summoned by an ingeniously repeated and emphasized figure con-
ducive to this one subjective Empfindung: - in this Prelude, joy , per-
haps, light-hearted bouyant pleasure. In addition, there is that inspir-
ited state of mind that rhetorical ornament and delivery can induce,
one that produces a disposition favorable to the reception of the art-
work, namely an inclination to listen, which Quintilian so ably
described: ". . . nam qui libenter audiunt, et magis adtendunt et facil-
ius credunt, plerumque ipsa delectatione capiuntur, nonnumquam
admiratione auferuntur"111 (Q VIII, 3, 5). Aristotle was of similar
opinion.112
Moreover, Cicero said that if eloquence does not awaken

admiration it is not eloquence: "nam eloquentiam, quae admira-
"°"Hence, it happens that rhythm is not as prominent in prose as in poetry. What we call
'rhythmic' in prose does not always arise from the rhythmic order [of feet] but at times
through the symmetry or placement of the words."
UÌQ VIII, 3, 5: "For those auditors who do enjoy listening, [these people] will pay atten-
tion better and will be more readily [in a frame of mind] to believe [what is said]. They
will be won over by the pleasure they experience, in fact, sometimes they are [simply]
swept along by their admiration."
112 Rhetoric , 3, 2 (1404 b II).

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tionem non habet, nullam iudico."113 It is not simply admiration;

something happens in our sub-conscious: a kind of compelling, but
unreasoned logic occurs - felt and not readily understood. Cicero
further noted that our ear discovers this "logic" through an uncon-
scious feeling without reference to theory114 {Or 60, 203). Quintilian
later remarked that many things in oratory could not be intellectually
discerned and identified, and, hence, not be reduced to writing and
conveyed by rules;115 rather, he warned, one must look to the guid-
ance of nature, which can instruct far better than the regulae .1I6
Hence, rhetoric encompasses a law, in fact, a logic higher than that
found on intellectual planes of thinking. It goes beyond ingenious
reasoning and praecepti - a fact not always stressed nor even
acknowledged. (It elevates rhetoric in our eyes.) It is in this sphere of
experience that music and rhetoric are subtly allied. The ancient ora-
tors knew that persuasion - the orator's goal - often depended upon
gradually perceived and subtly experienced feelings: those that give
eventually birth to keen and spontaneous attention, docility, and a
willingness to listen. These mental states are accompanied by a feel-
ing of suspense, which becomes transformed into a state of incipient
and developing conviction. The orator had to awaken interest and
then lead his audience in directions not at all perceived by them.
This, then, was the raison d'être and underlying basis, the essence of
Baroque analogies involving rhetoric and music. Bach was indeed
the greatest master of this art.
(4) The figures capture "... specific and clearly defined emo-
tional states"117 because the musical configuration (or in rhetoric's case
the ornatus) ". . . is indicative of a person's real feelings and state of
mind118 - not merely an abstract literary or musical device, identifiable
on paper through analysis as some later aestheticians assumed. F. W.
Marpurg, a thorough student of counterpoint,119 has left us a description
of a Bach fugue, the one setting the words "Nimm was dein ist, und
mQ VIII, 3, 6. "For eloquence that does not evoke admiration is, in my opinion, no elo-
quence at all." (Quintilian is quoting Cicero.)
u4Or 60, 203: ". . . sed aures ipsae tacito eum sensu sine arte definiunt." ". . . but our ears them-
selves without any [assistance] from theory will determine it through an unconscious feeling."
,l5<2 IX, 4, 117.
U6Q IX, 4, 120.
I17(a) Kircher, op. cit., MU II, 144: cf. Explicado figuram; (b) Unger, op. cit., p. 63;
(с) Vickers, op. cit., p. 319: "Feelings must be expressed in language, as all rhetoricians
know, and the figures are the natural means of doing so."
118Cf. Vickers, op. cit., p. 304. This was written by Joseph Priestly in 1777.
119Dok III, pp. 25-71 (No. 655); Friedrich Wilhelm Marpung, Abhandlung von der Fuge
nach den Grundsätzen und Exempeln der besten deutschen und ausländischen Meister
(Leipzig: Kühnel, 1806), parts I and II.

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196 BACH
gehe hin" (from the i

firms and leaves littl
may be found everywh
D. PERFORMANCE, "
Bach evidently knew

upon a genuine human
ate and striking verb
tion, it was not apt fo
that an innate rhythm
figure, and that it re
were repeated as a w
manner and tempo.121
(The reader will find

throughout the presen
serves as a focal poin
under investigation.)
For many decades m

of tempo, form, and
solutions. A kind of q
somehow have wrung
revealing insight into
achievement is thorny
apt virtuoso technique
One circumstance
us tempo indications
when a tempo mark d
l20Dok III, p. 146 (No. 701).

l2,"Hat jemals ein Tonkünstle
Ausübung gebracht, so war
artistic expression by means
Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Histo
Breitkopf, 1790), entry "Bac
working with word lists tha
genda") as Johann Nucius de
litz, 1613 (also recommended
Speer). Nor can we think that
Vogt's Conclave Thesauri Ma
tive Figurae simplices, purely
ing the throwing of horsesh
"ad inveniendeum et compone

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background of Baroque temperament) just what sort of "Allegro,"

what kind of "Adagio," or what character of "Presto" is to be consid-
ered appropriate. We shouldn't be satisfied with a merely "feasible"
or "plausible" tempo; we all seek an objective orientation, one sup-
ported by reliable criteria. Before suggesting a logical and relatively
objective way of determining Bach's tempos, we may find it worth-
while to examine several early twentieth-century ideas concerning
this matter. Schweitzer came to several conclusions with respect to
Bach's keyboard works,122 the most important being his opinion that:
"Im allgemeinen aber gilt der Satz, daß die Lebendigkeit in den Bach-
schen Stücken nicht auf der Temponahme, sondern auf der
Phrasierung und Betonung beruht. In diesem Sinne möge jeder sich
bestreben, ihn recht temperamentvoll zu spielen."123 A "logical" exten-
sion of this thinking may be found in Schweitzer's conclusion: "Über
das Tempo in den Bachschen Klavierwerken ist wenig zu sagen. Je
besser jemand Bach spielt, desto langsamer darf er, je schlechter,
desto schneller muß er es nehmen.124
Hence, Bach's tempos (in Schweitzer's report) are considered

to be an individual matter, depending upon how well one "naturally"
plays Bach. This question - as in the minds of many cantors - was set-
tled by providence (and training) right from the beginning; Schweitzer
is certainly not alone in believing this.
Over against this widespread opinion, the present writer would

suggest that there is a more objective, more clearly discernable way to
establish valid goals for playing Bach, and even for finding a tempo
commensurate with his tempo: provided one has the ear to hear the
polyphonic voices (both those notated and implied) and can perform
them clearly (a requisite ability mentioned by Bach himself, cf. supra).
There is a purely logical way to discover an adequate tempo for every
'"Schweitzer, op. cit., pp. 301-336 and pp. 256-278 respectively.

123Ibid., p. 334: "In general the following principle is valid: namely, that the liveliness in
Bach's pieces does not depend upon the tempo taken, but upon phrasing and accent. In
consequence of this may each person strive to play [his work] with much temperament."
Schweitzer seems to approach the issue here, as we shall see, by leaving the door open to
finding the correct tempo through phrasing and accentuation. But since "phrasing and
accentuation" can be an anachronistic application, we have chosen another approach.
I24lbid., p. 333: "There isn't much to say about tempo in Bach's works for keyboard. The
better anyone plays Bach, the slower he may do so, the poorer [he plays it] the faster he
must take it." Cf. Hermann Keller, Die Klavierwerke Bachs , (Leipzig: Peters 1950),
pp. 29-30; Bodky proffers a synoptic view, cf. Erwin Bodky, The Interpretation of Bach's
Keyboard Works (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 118: "The fundamental
differences of opinions about tempo among the most widely acknowledged Bach editors
prove only too well that any real foundation for establishing tempi does not yet exist."

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
198 BACH
work involving some r

not possessing the slight
style, or performing tr
To gain some insight

this vexing and perenn
of Bach's contemporari
eighteenth-century st
refer to the pertinent
sehr accurat, und im Z
nahm,überaus sicher."1
remark, coming as it d
guished pupils of Bac
Agricola. als We might
cal rhetoric, had perfo
Secondly, in referring
and multiplicity in style
[the] life spread out over
Coupling these stat

accounts and relating t
theorists whose author
cal proof' to allow clea
lem of selecting appro
reader's patience in ma
gous data, which, take
of observations and res
We mentioned earlie
clearly identifiable fig
a genuine example of B
From all the conclusio
his knowledge of rhet
situation that clearly b
at hand, namely a pass
componentur verba ra
esse alterum aurium d
,25It is amazing to find rapp

performance.
,26Dok III, p. 87 (No. 666).
which he generally took in a
ter]."
niOp. cit., p. 34, Forkel had extensive contact with C. P. E. Bach and performed Bach's
figures admirably. Dok III, p. 339 (No. 846).

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quasi sua sponte, aut quodam genere verborum, in quibus ipsis conc
nitas inest; quae sive casus habent in exitu similes sive paribus p
redduntur sive opponuntur contraria, suapte natura numerosa sunt,
amsi nihil est factum de industria."128 Perhaps feeling the need for c
an earlier authority, Cicero tells us that Górgias was the first orato
practice and concern himself with this sort of symmetry and anti
sis - a condition that found systematic explanation in later rhetor
theory. As an instance of his finding, Cicero quotes one of his
speeches (Milo 10). Even if one has forgotten much of his Latin, he
readily understand this example with its inflected ending: "-mus"
the coupling of "non . . . sed": "est enim, iudices, haec non scripta,
nata lex, quam non didicimus accepimus legimus, verum ex natura
arripuimus hausimus expressimus, ad quam non dočti, sed facti, no
instituti sed imbuti sumus." A kind of prose rhythm establishes it
here.129 In fact, Cicero specifically states that rhythm arises from ant
ses.130 "Semper haec, quae Graeci hvribeTa nominant, cum contrar
opponuntur contraria numerum oratorium necessitate ipsa efficiunt, et
sine industria."131
Quintilian, calling antithesis contrapositum and conten

(Rutilius uses comparado ), discusses several types and usages of
,28"The words should not only be arranged according to reasonable rules, but als
rounded off fashion when they come to an end. Have we not said this is that other sp
where the judgment of [our] ear holds sway? The [words] however gain their ba
(rounding-off) either through apt combination, to a certain degree of and by thems
or through a specific [choice] of words, in which [a certain] symmetry obtains. If th
words have similar case endings or if they correspond to one another in their recep
and equal syntactical length, or form antitheses, then a rhythmic ordering quite natu
results, even when nothing intentionally has been done [to bring this about]." Cf.
op. cit., p. 10.
mOr, 49, 165; Schweitzer's words describing Bach's works correspond in many w
Cicero's recommendations, too numerous to be mentioned here. (A translati
Cicero's text is not necessary.) "Fast noch besser würde man vom architektonischen
Bachs reden. Das was an seinen Werken so elementar ästhetisch wirkt, ist die Har
des Ganzen, in die sich das lebendige und überreiche Detail wie von selbst einf
Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 196. ("It may be even better if we speak of Bach's architec
perception. That [quality] which produces such an irresistible aesthetic [effect]
works is the way in which his lively and extremely rich [musical] detail becomes par
the harmony of the whole - all by itself.") This remark is followed by Schweitzer's
inative Gothic conception: "Bach's [work] is the consummate expression of the Gothi
music." Cf. also, Article A. Primmer, op. cit., p. 55.
mOr, 52, 175-176. Cicero discusses the origins of antithesis in Greece and their rhet
cal rhythm here.
ii]Or, 50, 166: "What the Greeks call antithesis is, a situation in which contrastin
tences are set in juxtaposition to one another; they always produce rhetorical rhy
which comes into being entirely by itself without any real intention [on the part o
orator]."

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
200 BACH
figura verborum just

analogous importance
liberty to locate severa
in music (supra) and a
to express things con
simultaneously. It can
voice part, contrasting
trasting musical texture
Still another sort of

tional effort. This occ
piece of music) that is
Cicero tells us: "Ergo e
explicetur, quale sit, nu
One experiences th
(supra: the seventeen
dance pieces with their
That certain figure

attention, fascinate wh
upon skilled reiteratio
oratorical rhythms of
facts (established supr
was taught in Lünebur
nassus (in his On the A
the power of rhythm
together: "quod si num
tioneea vehementissim
turn to Q IX, 4, 1 1-12
premise for any subse
recorded by the greate
mQ IX, 3, 80-86; 92; May, o

133Buelow, op. cit., p. 799.
]MOr, 50, 168; Primmer, op.
is known and turn now to
with rhythmically ordered p
mQ IX, 4, 13: "If, however
such power, then, this is to
Here is Quintilian 's direc
rhetoric: "The Pythagorean
rousing their spirits to the
lively. Before retiring they
and calm their thoughts in
agitation."

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
by no means ignore it, for it anticipates the Renaissance and Baroq

nexus of music and rhetoric.
Bach never eschewed the Baroque's integration of rhetoric and

music as a principle.136 He rather (as C. P. E. Bach tells us)137 took exist-
ing works, established styles and forms (often as models), and with his
limitless musical ingenium enhanced them by means of uniquely con-
strued principles of rhetoric.138
Schweitzer has made a keen observation describing the force

of figurai and structural counterpoint (which can readily be applied to
the A-flat Praeludium and countless other pieces): "Und es ist ganz
sicher, daß auch der gebildete Hörer ein Thema im Verlauf eines
Stückes nicht als Intervallsukzession, sondern in erster Linie als
Wiederkehr charakteristische Akzente verfolgt , mit welcher sich dann
die Vorstellung der damit verbundenen Intervalle assoziiert."139 We have
quoted ancient authority (see reference to Quintilian's notion of the iso-
colon supra) in confirmation of this subjective and subtle performing
experience. It explains much about Bach's use of rhetorical rhythm.
Returning now to the question of tempo, we find ourselves in

agreement with the notion discussed by Schweitzer: namely, that a
polyphonic composition of Bach must not be taken too quickly. If we
reveal the web of voice-leading in its complex of harmonic, melodic,
and rhetorical rhythms, the chosen tempo will be able to reflect Bach's
characteristic "liveliness." In this way, the appropriate tempo will be
mQ IX, 4, 12; Blume, Syntagma musicologicum I, p. 463.

137Dok III, p. 82 (No. 666). See Article G (summary).
138If we look at the model for Bach's g-minor fugue subject Ç WTC 1/16), in Johann Kaspar
Ferdinand Fischer's Ariadne musica, namely in the E-Flat Fugue, we shall once again -
but now from a different perspective - see that Bach has (1) dramatized the leading tone
and tonic through quarter notes and (2) used the rhetorical aposiopesis (Greek) or reticen-
tia (Latin) before continuing with the paired sixteenth- and eighth-note figure. (The latter
will be used in bars 3 and 4 in the right hand in rising sequence, or, as Ahle would call it,
an epizeuxis [cf. A. Schmitz, "Die Figurenlehre . . . Walthers," p. 92]); Vickers, op. cit.,
p. 295 informs us as to the antique practice: "Breaking off a phrase or sentence in mid-
flow, . . . was recognized as a specific linguistic act, and was called aposiopesis ... [In
antiquity] various types of interruption were distinguished, according to the speaker's
own emotional state. . . ." This example, (discussed in Article A), shows Bach's rhetorical
Nachsinnen and gives us (in Vickers' explanation) the original (emotionally conditioned)
origin of the figure. In Bach's E-Flat Fugue {WTC 1/7) the subject is another splendid
example, marvelously underlined by all 3 voices participating in the figure, in measure
34; cf. Dammann, op. cit., p. 135, for a vocal example; cf. notes 25-32 (Article A).
l39Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 333. "And it is certain that the cultivated listener follows a theme
in the course of a piece - not as a succession of intervals, but primarily as a recurrence of
accents. Only afterwards does the association with musical intervals become apparent."

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
202 BACH
established. When all

for any polyphonic w
rhythm arises of and
the piece will seem to
tion, will, or effort.
work. If we look at b
nalled by the 32nds in
rhythm (sequence; an
himself, but he will e
Printz wisely use

musical figure taken
a conjunction of con
meaning, imply (a di
sure." Printz states th
senting all figures) r
it."140 This, then, is
which underlines and
will study the figure
Manier" - the "fittin
"melody," "rhythm
within it - will come
tempo. Even if we ha
we must still find the
norm. This is reveale
rhetorical figurae wh
larger syntactical stru
and communication of the whole work will suffer unless one does this.
SUMMARY
(1) Bach's knowledge of rhetoric, exceptional for a musician,

and unique with respect to the figurae , was drawn from both the Greek
and Latin traditions. In his "The Art of Rhetoric," Aristotle made it
l40Wolfgang Caspar Printz, Compendium musicae (Dresden: Mieth, 1689), Cap. V, 2,

p. 46: "Eine Figur ist in Musicis ein gewisser Modulus, so entstehet aus einer oder auch
etlicher Noten Diminution und Zertheilung / und mit gewisser ihm anständiger Manier
hervor gebracht wird" cf. Harold Heckmann, "Der Takt in der Musiklehre des 17.
Jahrhunderts," Aßfw 10 (1953), p. 126 and especially p. 130. Th.B. Janovka, С lavis ad
Thesaurum Mag пае Ar tis Musicae (Prag, 1701), p. 46 [following Kircher], links musical
figures to rhetorical ones: "Figurae Musicae idem praestant, quod Tropi, atque varij
dicendi modi in Rhetorica." ("Musical figures stand out in the same [way] that tropes and
various ways of speaking do in rhetoric") Cf. Q IX, 1, 4; 10-1 1; 13-14 and particularly Q
IX, I, 25-26. Musical figures not only stand out, they must be performed in a fitting way,
in the opinion of Janovka and Printz.

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abundantly clear that rhetorical figures must reflect the directnes

real life. This may be seen in his explanation and exemplification of
four types of metaphor. Here is an example: "Also: to say that one 'c
upon dangers to help against dangers' is a vivid metaphor."141 T
affective moment in figurai theory was repeatedly emphasized in t
Greek rhetorical tradition (by Aristotle, Longinus, Dionysus of Helic
nassus, et al.). It was re-discovered in the Renaissance, patient
explained by Kircher (with whom Printz had extensive contact in Ita
and brought to fruition in Bach's remarkable figur ae. This was an in
lectual feat in its own right. Bach's figures express the widest range
Affekten , with a challenging and immediate freshness. This latter q
ity is partly due to an intrinsic rhetorical pulse and rhythmic verve
tinguishing his work from other composers' treatments.
(2) Studies of Bach's earliest works (e.g., the Fugue in e-

minor, BWV 945, the Concerto and Fugue in c-minor, BWV 909, th
Praeludium and Fugue in c-minor, BWV 549, the Fugue in c-min
BWV 575, and the Fugue in G-major BWV 577) reveal a certain prol
ity, as Manfred Bukofzer has put it, a "superabundance of ideas, unb
dled exuberance, and an inconclusiveness with regard to harmony."
As reported in the Arnstadt protocol, an innate virtuosity and extra
gance characterized his accompaniment of congregational chora
"Halthet Ihm vor, daß er bißher in dem Choral viele wunderliche Var
tiones gemachet, viele frembde Thone mit eingemischt, daß d
Gemeinde darüber confundirei worden."143 This subject deserves a se
rate study; here we can only suggest that Bach's relatively long per
of apprenticeship shows periods when an Italian and a rhetorical or
tation were missing - certainly, a condition to be found in the wor
(supra) composed before Bach's Amt in Weimar.
(3) Walther's profound knowledge of Baroque musico-rhetorica

theory must have been inspiring to Bach, and may have been instrum
tal in stimulating him to translate his ready rhetorical (but still acad
cally oriented) insight into direct musical practice: one coming direc
from antique sources and free of the trappings of Baroque musical t
ory. For Bach, it was an awakening to a potentially unlimited empl
ment of the great classical rhetorical thesaurus in refashioning the in
ited musical practice of the day: the models that Bach had so diligen
collected (supra). A developing awareness of the manifold richness
141 Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric: The general principle (Book III. x.7, 1411a) is illustr
with the remark quoted (141b).
142Bukofzer, op. cit., p. 272.
143Werner Neumann, Auf den Lebenswegen Johann Sebastian Bachs (Berlin: Verlag
Nation, 1953), p. 62.

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204 BACH
rhetoric, with its pro

ignited Bach's vast mu
offered a standard fo
musical ideas always p
discovered in ancient
inherited or tradition
structure his vulcanic
challenged, enabled hi
whelming works of th
that Bach used musica
to help orient, balance
speaks of a similar ne
an unsuspecting catal
endeavor, and compan
orientation and confi
These may have someh
unsurpassed musical f
love of music, resolute
addition to his ability
acted as a welcome a
young virtuoso. Of co
experience. We should
pendent awakening t
Roman and Greek con
Walther's promptings
rary, purely musical r
(4) Musicians must

essential nature of Bac
and proper performa
be done, at least initia
tive figures in a separ
establishing the Affect
whole work, as in Bac
tant here is that the r
accentual, proportiona
tempo will arise by it
manipulation upon the
perceive all the notes
his "Honest Introducti
In the following sec

merely a subjective
conclusion. Schweitzer

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
"There is little to be said about the [question of] tempo in Bach's k

board works.'"44 Concisely put, the respective tempo of a work (inc
ing cases where a tempo designation is given) is present (and realiz
when all the aforementioned planes of rhythmic and affective per
tion are experienced in performance. Curiously, this finding is con
firmed in Schweitzer's remark (bibliographical references supra), p
haps without his awareness: "The impression a piece of Bach's m
upon the listener will depend upon whether the performer commu
cates both the large formal design and the details in a clear and liv
manner."145 This tenet (which might apply to the performance of
works of many composers) seems reasonable enough in itself.
However, Schweitzer's statement is in danger of being unde

estimated and misunderstood, simply because of its generality - al
too sweeping to have meanings that comprise relevant and individ
truths of experience. As Ortega y Gasset has told us, an idea ca
stand alone: it needs "ancillary" - if you will, "background" - ideas
requires an anchoring in contemporary testimony.146 Hence, to aff
palpable perspective (which will link us up again to rhetorical cons
ations), I have thought it best to still select and examine those rem
ing eighteenth-century remarks that are concerned with clarity and
liness in Bach's music (see Section E).
(5) The true "liveliness" in Bach's music will not be present

the tempo norm and its shading (Printz's quantitas extrínseca ) is
discovered and understood.
E. CLARITY, LIVELINESS AND CONTEMPORARY WITNESS
To begin with, let us consider again what Bach himself said

about performance in his Aujfrichtige Anleitung , the introduction to his
inventions and sinfonias BWV 772-801. 147 To the remarks about this
topic made in BACH Journal (XV/1-2, 1984), I would like to add some
further details of what Bach meant by "clean playing" (". . . das reine
144Cf. n. 124 (supra). This, of course, is a curious non sequitur.

l45Cf. n. 4 (Article A).
l46For example, we cannot seriously consider Bach's contrapuntal voice-leading as an
abstract idea that stands independent of all other ideas (e.g., the extraordinary voice lead-
ing in the Sarabande of the French Overture with its complex harmonic rhythm) without
keeping in mind certain background observations such as Johann Adam Hiller's famous
remark: "If ever a musician attained the highest artistic expression by means of the deep-
est secrets of harmony, then it was certainly [Bach]. Cf. n. 121. The Necrology uses the
words ". . . die verstecktesten Geheimnisse. . . ." Dok III, p. 87 (No. 666).
147Dok I, p. 220-221 (No. 153).

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
206 BACH
Spielen . . A descript
playing" has been han
Anweisung die Flöte t
fiihrung der laufen
aufheben; sondern die
Theil des Tast[en]s hi
abgleiten. Auf diese A
sten herausgebracht."
example provided by t
performed in this way
index Quantz identifie
such . . . , Register: . .
While this statement

residual danger, name
the attribute of manua
J. M. Forkel (reflected
pp. 30-35), "... das re
touch that could illum
true content and Affekt
One must, of course

chord. The question ha
able, however, in play
upon which a variety o
nor technically produ
fact that within defin
being played with a sli
be extended through t
cially with the use of t
lines can support the t
has to compare the play
148Dok III, p. 18 (No. 651):

traversière zu spielen, (Ber
one must not immediately l
drawn back toward the front
sages will be brought out in
666): "All his fingers were e
the finest purity."
,49Cf. Dok III, p. 225 (No. 7
composition and keyboard
150Carl Philipp Emanuel B
(Berlin: Henning, 1753), p.
15lKeller, op. cit., p. 25; W
Tradition (London: Faber an

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vinced of the validity of Bach's remarks about ". . . achieving a cantabil

style in playing . . the term "clavier" in Bach's introduction (not neces-
sarily the clavichord only as Steglich would have it),152 may apply also t
works that were intended expressly for harpsichord: the "Italian" Con
certo, the "French" Overture, and the "Goldberg" Variations.
Although the adage "all sorts of touch are good at the correct
time" is true, the player's touch should in general find a middle way
between (sounding) too long and too short. Hence, rather than perpetu-
ating the notion that J. S. Bach's articulation consisted simply of a cris
and uniform clarity, we can estimate it now in a relative context - on
dependent upon the given musical content rather than an invariable con-
stant, incapable of being applied with musical discretion. The "musical
thought" has priority; it must be understood and clearly conveyed to th
listener by the player of the harpsichord, the clavichord, or (by interpo
lation) the Hammerklavier. Thus, "das reine Spielen" is actually a con-
cept related to the developed hearing and performing of two, and later
three, parts as the Auffrichtige Anleitung prescribes. Not only must th
fingers play precisely, they must be receptive to the musical ear of the
player; one who is capable of distinguishing and expressing the Affek
as revealed in the voice-leading of the individual parts. Since we have
already discussed these and other conceptions in the Auffrichtige
Anleitung, 153 we shall return to contemporary accounts of Bach's temp
and rhythm.
A reliable and apt description of Bach's own way of perform-

ing was recorded for posterity by his friend, the former Rector, Johann
Matthias Gesner. It confirms the well-known statement concerning
Bach's conducting included in the Necrology. Gesner relates that Bach
felt rhythm in all his limbs (in "membris omnibus rhythmicum"), a mar-
velous description, conveying the thought that Bach's performance and
music was distinguished by a rhythmic verve that seemed exceptional.154
152Keller, op. cit., p. 26; Rudolf Steglich, J. S. Bach, Invention Sinfonien (Munich-
Duisburg: Henle, 1970), p. 7.
,53See my "Apropos Bach's Inventions," BACH XIV/4 (1983), XV/1 (1984), and XV/2
(1984).
l54Dok II, p. 332, (No. 432). Cf. F. Smend, "Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Matthias
Gesner," Gymnasium 57 (1950), 295-298. Genser's remark is a footnote to his edition of
Quintilian's De Institutione Oratoria, Dok II, p. 332 (No. 432). As we have noted, mem-
brum (= Greek kíúXov) means not only a part of the body; it also has the syntactical con-
notation of a "clause," part of a rhetorical period, particularly in Cicero's and Quintilian's
writings. The "clause" or membrum has its own thought and relatively independent
rhythm taken by itself, as Quintilian explained IX, 4, 122-125. It is also a basic element
in the delivery of an oration: Q XI, 3, 39, 110. Gesner's sophisticated use of the term
membrum in this double sense is particularly felicitous and doubtless intended.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
208 BACH
We note that, wh
rhythm and tempo b
raising "a threatenin
members of an audience who had heard and seen Bach conduct the
collegium musicum in the Zimmermannische Caffee-Haus. It was
expressly the composer's Lebendigkeit that was kept salient in the
memory of those reporting their experience.156 These reports are cer-
tainly welcome, as they afford a general indication that gains in
importance when other factors are considered, i.e., the more specific
references to Bach's rhythm as observed by eighteenth-century per-
formers.
Writing within five years after Bach's death, the second cem-
balist at the Prussian Court and a Leipzig Thomasschule student under
J. S. Bach's supervision from about 1730 to 1733, Christoph Nichel-
mann, in referring to the composer's sarabandes, pointed to the variety
of rhythmic feet and their proportion as well as the respective concor-
dance of these unequal and different rhythms. He notes further that
those attributes stimulated the listener's close attention and evoked
astonishment.157
This observation gains in meaningful perspective when we

consider Forkel's later remarks, which provide us with a historical con-
text: "The composers of Bach's time . . . were adept at employing vari-
ous sorts of rhythms: notably in [their] Suitejs], which at that time were
as numerous as our sonatas [are today]. Many French dances and char-
acter pieces could be found in these suites, placed [as they were]
between the prelude and concluding gigue. . . . Each dance melody had
its own time signature, prosody, and rhythm that lent it a distinctive
character and rhythmic disposition. . . . Bach utilized every sort of time
and proportion to differentiate the [individual] character of each piece.
He ultimately gained an adroitness and skill [in employing these char-
acteristic features of the French dance] in such a way that he was even
capable of endowing his fugues (despite the complex web of their dif-
ferent voice leadings) with a strikingly rhythmic quality - characteristic
[of the dance], light and uninterrupted - as if the fugue were only a
minuet."158 Somewhat later, Forkel remarks (as we noted previously)
l55Cf. n. 119. Alfred Dürr, Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (Kassel: Bärenreiter,
1975). d. 70.
l56Keller, op. cit., pp. 29-30, 204; tempo ordinario Dok III, p. 599, (No. 1037); cf. Dok
III, p. 333 (No. 840): Kirnberger emphasizes the rhythmic character of Bach's works
here.
,57Dok III, p. 98, (No. 668).

l58Forkel, op. cit., p. 63.

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that "... a liveliness was experienced by the player or listener

throughout the whole [respective work] which at times led them t
imagine that all the notes had been transformed into spirits."159
If this passage is familiar only to Bach scholars, its analyzed

and reported experience is welcome eighteenth-century testimony - a
true today as when it was written in 1800. These remarks attract even
more serious attention when we learn that Forkel was an excellent key-
board performer. J. G. K. Spazier praised the ". . . skill, precision, and
strength" with which he played his instrument. Apparently Forkel showed
"uncommon facility" in performing Bach's enormously difficult fugues.160
It remains the challenging task of the musicologist to clear

away the imaginative generality of these remarks, filtering out their spe
cific intention. Taken compositely, however, we shall find a common
denominator, establishing a residual hard-core of historical fact. From
the various observations cited so far, we note the constant choice of th
word "liveliness," coupled with the mention of rhythms of a complex
nature. The recurrent tenor of these reports points to a commonly expe
rienced liveliness of an unusual and striking nature, the implicatio
being that this quality stood out when one compared Bach's music to
that of other composers - a remark, frequently made by Forkel.16
Although it would seem that Forkel had difficulty in formulating jus
what he felt and thought, nonetheless, the following salient remarks
may bring us a step further: (1) "Die besondere Beschaffenheit de
Bachischen Harmonie und Melodie war auch noch mit einem sehr aus-
gedehnten und in sich mannigfaltigen Gebrauch des Rhythmus verbun-
den."162 Forkel had just before discussed both Bach's harmony and
melody; that is, "the inner or logical relationship of Bach's harmonic
and melodic ideas. . . ." (2) ". . . diese [melodische und harmonische]
Gedanken erfordern aber ein äußeres oder ein rhythmisches Verhältnis,
wodurch ihre an sich schon große Mannigfaltigkeit nicht nur mannig-
faltiger, sondern auch charaktervoller wird."163 Melody and harmony
159Ibid., p. 65; Or 20, 67. Cicero reports that an overall liveliness was a feature of Plato's and
Democritus' speech: "itaque video visum esse nonnullis Platonis et Democriti locutionem, etsi
absit a versu, tarnen, quod incitatius feratur et clarissimis verborum luminibus utatur,
160Dok III, p. 552 (No. 1001).

l61Forkel, op. cit., p. 65. ". . . ein über alles verbreitetes Leben, ..."
162Ibid., p. 62. "The special quality of the Bachian harmony and melod
very extensive and manifold employment of rhythm, a rhythm showing
rhythm in its own right, so to speak." (This translation is an attempt to c
". . . in sich mannigfaltigen . . ."; see Forkel, p. 32, line 14.)
163". . . these [melodic and harmonic] thoughts, however, require an exter
relationship] by means of which their great and already existing multipl
only still more manifold but also more steadfast."

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
210 BACH
were enhanced [and b

of rhythm which in
notion of (3) "a unity
ual rhythmic feet." H
of rhetorical rhythm
rhythmic feet: that
Numerus and numerus. 1
Having rooted out F

ical rhythm in Bach
eighteenth-century r
(a feature of rhetoric
briefly to Bach's rhet
have learned about th
context. We are most
studies - enough to en
simultaneous planes
much trouble describ
rhetoric was an object
cal rhythm was con
included in classical s
evaluated in late nine
Fock uncovered the h
lyzed for their struct
placed upon the conte
as such was scanned a
then the correspondin
the following examp
VI, I166 (see Table 4).
l64Primmer, op. cit., p. 13

the notion of oratorical Nu
ters concerning syllable len
ration through a parallel st
figures concerned with wo
notions understood by th
the essential characteristic
it" (p. 13). (Italics are mine
and the organization of wo
respective accent. Primme
difference in these essentia
l65Fock, op. cit., p. 64. "For
linguistic and grammatical f
as much." Fock points out he
,66Walter Schmid, "Über
(Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1959)
Heft 12.

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TABLE 4
Rhetorical Symmetry in Cicero's Philippica VI, I
(1) Audita
vo bis esse
X ar bitror Qui ri tes
quae sint acta in senat-u
(5) X quae' fuerit
- ► cuiusque sent - ent-i-a

X res enim ex Kalendis
Janu - ar-i-is agitata
paull0 ante' con - fectast x
(10) rni-nusquidem ilia severe
x quam' decuit
- ► non tarnen om-nin-o dissolut-e
morast adlata bello
non causa' sub - lata x
In this diagram, we have indi

with arrows (lines 6 and 12). Thes
metrical ways to bring out their re
small divisions) at lines 5: quae / fu
tro^ Quirites and 7 / res enim K ex
fluency and surround the membru
átu and 8: Janu - ari - is agitata ha
The membrum at line 12 is fr

ity of line 9: paull0 ante con-fec
Within this framing of the mem
minus . . . and at line 1 3 morast .
From this short sampling of

apparent to us that a "widesprea
being, one clear to Roman auditor

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
212 BACH
Pupils in Bach's t
(cf. supra Table 4) id
This was a recurrentl
century. It was acc
which were written d
exposure the pupil w
hopefully, to the ac
invited guests.
Two considerations may aid us in understanding the artistry -

the genuine virtuosity - that was to be demonstrated in this oration:
(1) The speech was written to be heard.167 One listened to these

groupings; the populace took pleasure in the rhetorical rhythms particu-
larly in the clausula. That such symmetries created rhythmic structures
considered to be of a nature different from the run-off of metrical feet
may be seen in Cicero's clear explanation {Or 60, 202).168 The construc-
tion of symmetrical framing kommata was ingenious and we have only
hinted at its complexity here.
(2) Because Latin was a highly inflected language there was

great flexibility in the placement of words: ". . . construction verborum."
The selection of words, too, seem to have afforded great pleasure to both
reader and audience. In fact, Julius Caesar was known to have said,
"Delectus verborum est origo eloquentiae."169
The fact that Latin was so highly inflected made rhetorically

structured rhythms (those resulting from a subtle arrangement and fit-
ting of the words) quite possible. The great orators, however, made
every effort to conceal this. Hence, the rhythms so arranged (Primmer's
Numerus) seemed to come forth in an utterly natural way: We
encounter here a subtle parallel to the rhetorical rhythms that likewise
arose from the individual figurae verborum without effort or recogniz-
able intention.170
This also occurs in an ideal performance of Bach's polyphonic

works. The performer's quiet and unaffected care in realizing the voices
and metrical accents at a tempo that brings the multiple rhythms into
167Kennedy, op. cit., p. 90; Giles Constable, The Letters of Peter the Venerable (Cam-
bridge: 1967), Vol. II, pp. 29-36 (Middle Ages).
,68Cf. n. 79.
l69Cf. Dryden, op. cit., vol. I, part II, p. 164.
,7O0 IX, 4, 61, IX, 4, 147; L. P. Wilkinson, Golden Latin Artistry (Cambridge, 1963),
p. 125 f.

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being, without a subjective supplementing of the rhythm - this repro-

duces Bach's intention. If Bach's conducting (with its "liveliness" and
great precision) is seen from this perspective, we begin to realize that
the composer was actually upholding a great rhythmic edifice, an archi-
tecture consisting of many simultaneous levels of rhetorically experi-
enced rhythm. He obviously did not want this to become dislodged, dis-
torted, or confused. Along with the perceived harmonic rhythm and the
respective rhythm of the note values themselves, we experience an
extraordinary event when such a work is performed at a proper tempo.
This conglomerate of rhythms - the Lebendigkeitt - was, and remains,
simply overwhelming.
However, a fundamental question arises: When did Bach actu-

ally learn, integrate, and master the musical equivalents of all these
techniques - the formulations that created a music of such untold great-
ness? This question was raised by Blume. Let us approach the question
from a somewhat different angle.
While looking at the recently discovered Chorale Preludes of

Bach, it crossed my mind that Bach's early and middle years at
Weimar would probably afford the most logical answer. We know from
the Protocol at Arnstadt that Bach had been in Lübeck with the inten-
tion of grasping the principles of the musical art, begreifen being an
intellectual process. Why should this desire, so clearly documented,
end in Arnstadt? In Weimar, the vast learning and treatise of his rela-
tive, friend, and colleague, J. G. Walther, was ideally at hand and there
are clear indications of a "lively" mutual sharing: Bach gave Walther
many of his manuscript works;171 the two shared in creating a new cat-
egory of chorale-prelude; both enthusiastically transcribed concertos
for the organ.172 Though their interests (if not their musical gifts) were
quite similar, we must not place Walther in the position of mentor.
Walther, following in the footsteps of such learned musicians as Mario
Scacchi and Christoph Bernhard, must have impressed Bach with his
erudition. Bach may even have found time to read through Walther's
Praecepta der musikalischen Composition - a treatise that explained
many of rhetoric's applications and specific transmogrifications173
l71Dok II, p. 193 (No. 263).

172Kurt Wolfgang Senn, "Über die musikalischen Beziehungen Johann Gottfried Walther
und Johann Sebastian Bach," Musik und Kirche 34 (1964): pp. 6, 1 1, 16-17, 18.
173 Arnold Schmitz, "Die Figurenlehre in den theoretischen Werken Johann Gottfried
Walthers," Aßdw 9 (1959): p. 97, n. 3. Walther's conception of the rhetorical antitheton
and its musical applications may have caught Bach's eye.

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214 BACH
(developed during th
influence in both voca
All told, however, i

personal example was
porary who could inte
proven, but still deve
rhetorical musical the
This achievement, in
knowledge of classic
applied to music in
forming a foundation
somethirty years late
may have insured t
moment from the crea
174Walther's example as a c
music-theoretical literatu
Gehrmann in " Johann Got
wissenschaft 7 (1891): 468
I750f course, the essence of t
directly from Aristotle, Cice
of Baroque music-theorists lo
from around the edges. They
analytical detail of rhetorica
behind it all. Kircher, howev
details and realized that fig
quite unsuspected degrees of
bution and knew of the fig
Numerus) to evoke unsuspect
pupil Printz alluded (supra). I
refashion, figures (as in the
Flat Fugue) for the purpose o
(The Decline of the West , tr
our understanding of many
example) "Searching through
lier creations into a later Cult
few (very few) relations to the
which it makes its own." Ba
which Spengler incidently, m
größte musikalische Dichter
127) ". . . the greatest musica
,76Cf. n. 1 1 (supra, Article
mathematical and philosoph
the modern view) the prac
retician (Benary's Forewor
Bach and Walther shared
Necrology, n. 10 (supra). H
impeded by a disjunction of

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F. bach's "liveliness and rhetorical applications"
"... a unity and multiplicity of styles and rhythms . . ."

(Forkel, op. cit., p. 65).
Instead of beginning our consideration of Bach's "liveliness

and rhetorical applications" with rhetorical principles and praecepti, we
have chosen to examine in some detail the structure of Bach's E-flat
Praeludium (WTC 1/7), in which the reader can immediately identify
two contrasting sections: (I) bars 1-9, containing a freely improvised
and chordally oriented style of music (using a non-affective figure of
seven sixteenth-notes rising and falling in up-beat and down-beat fash-
ion with various focal notes of the scale and chords respectively tested)
and (II) bars 10-24, in which the strict ricercar (plenum ) style of imita-
tive motives with carefully resolved suspensions (i.e., the voice-inte-
grating technique sometimes known as "pervading imitation") is main-
tained in a section that recalls the stile antico. (One notes that this
initial juxtaposition of clearly differentiated styles of music recalls the
toccatas of Andrea Gabrieli: for example, his Toccata del sexto or del
nono tono}11 Claudio Merulo also exploited this contrast in his toccatas,
raising the free-improvisatory sections to a level of genuinely dramatic
intensity.178 Praetorius considered pieces establishing contrasts of this
kind to be "preludes," not "toccatas." Bach's logic in calling this work a
praeludium was, thus, grounded in a well-established nomenclature.179
177(a) On the juxtaposition of styles: (1) Apel, op. cit., p. 216; (2) Gotthold Frotscher,
Geschichte des Orgelspiels und der Orgelkomposition (Berlin: Merseburger, 1959), I,
p. 198; (3) Wilhelm Josef v. Wasiliewski, Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik im XVI.
Jahrhundert (Berlin: Guttentag, 1878), pp. 148-(Beilage Nr. 28); (4) Actually a mixture
of scalar and imitative styles takes place in A. Gabrieli's ricercars as well (e.g., the Ricer-
car upon the Fourth Tone). Cf. Andrea Gabrieli, Ricercari composti e tabulati per ogni
sorte di stromenti da tasti (Bologna: Forni, 1972), pp. 13-17. (b) For a clear picture of the
improvisatory scalar and chordal style of bars 1-9 (section I), cf. Gabrieli, Andrea e Gio-
vanni, Intonatione d'organo (Bologna: Forni, n.d.). (c) For imitation in the ricercar (a) 4,
supra, p. 7 {secondo tuono).
178 Apel, op. cit., pp. 220-221. Apel's descriptions of Merulo's continuous transition
between sections may be seen to advantage in Merulo's Toccata del decimo tono: Luigi
Torchi, L'arte musicale in Italia, (Milan: Ricordi, 1902) III, pp. 109-122.
,79Bach's choice of models for the Praeludium in E-flat may have been found in the toc-
catas of Johann Jakob Froberger, cf. Toccata IX for analogies. Figure A in Bach's work is
repeated constantly in Section III as is a sixteenth-note figure in Froberger's Section III.
Imitative motives in strict ricercar style occur in both composer's Sections II, respectively,
as does chordal improvisation using seventh chords (with ornamented suspensions) and
do scales in Sections I, respectively. See Hans Hering, "Toccata," MGG vol. 13, col. 439;
M. Praetorius, Syntagma musicum Tom III, part I, p. 25 = Syntagmatis Musici, Tomus
Tertius (Wittenberg, 1619), p. 25. Cf. Wasiliewski, op. cit., p. 147, n. 1.

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216 BACH
After the first two

longer section that i
styles - a fusion outwa
creates an extraordinar
the two prior contrast
fusing the strict rice
musical Figure A estab
tion I (bars 1-9).
Figure (A) in bar 2

an independent theme
and continued in bars
theme reappears in t
47-48), is taken up by
soprano part (bars 62-
and 61 or transferred,
made up of three parts
(a) an up-beat of two

(b) a descending octa
(c) an anapaest addit
quarter-note plus a
half-step lower. (A c
occurs in the bass at
and 7, we shall see t
R (in Section I), clea
the upper tetracho
repeated. (See Examp
ure (A) concludes wi
(B) arriving on the h
solves this half-note
is formed in bars 25
Motive Rc is twic
proper - as in bars
role of an emphatic
from the theme, wh
in another voice. Th
fugue, but it is qui
lude because of the
of the ricercar. Mot
alent (but rhythmic
beats 2-4 of bar 25
exactly equivalent
found in bar 7.)

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Example 4. Bach, E-Flat Major Prelude ( WTC 1/17)

(After Bachgesellschaft [Franz Kroll], Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härt
1866.)
Example 5a. Bach, E-Flat Major Prelude (WTC 1/7)

1866.)
Example 5b. Bach, E-Flat Major Prelude ( WTC 1/7)

1866.)

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218 BACH
The constant repet

of the time, is held s
dissonant suspension
only disguises Them
repeating figures em
it intensifies and dri
two leisurely initial
istic affiliation into
Baroque era. Bach co
by keeping it active
slower moving voice
voice leading. The "A
functional, appeari
points, where it su
piece's expressivity
secondary role. Thi
forms, is highly eff
Theme S, derived f
appearances, while t
the key upward leap
"d" in the next meas
Hence, the matrix p
Themes R and S: The matrix contains in itself the idea and material
substance of a future fusion of both Theme R and Theme S realized in
Section III while Theme S is a developed form of the motivic theme
complex which begins Section II (bars 10-11). The leap of the fourth
(B), however, is already touched upon in bars 1 and 2, which along with
Figure A presents the origin - the core musical material for the entire
piece. Musical Examples 4 and 5b make possible a comparison of
Theme S and its matrix. The imitative treatments (with stretto) have
been re-examined recently by Alfred Dürr180 and David Schulenberg.181
The result of these investigations has been to confirm old suspicions
that this final section (starting with bar 25) is a double-fugue. Dürr, in
exploring possible similarities to Bach's Klaviertokkaten , has admitted
that Themes R and S seem old-fashioned when compared to the subject
of the following fugue. He goes on to state: "To be sure Bach treats the
themes (R) and (S) with a certain freedom. Both are not always coupled
with each other. The theme developed from Part II [our Theme S],
180Alfred Dürr, "Das Präludium ES-Dur, BWV 582 aus dem Wohltemperierten Klavier I,"
Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, Bd. 20: Festschrift Lothar Hoffmann-
Erbrecht zum 60. Geburtstag (Tutzing: Schneider, 1988), pp. 93-101.
""David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach (New York: Schirmer, 1992),
pp. 176-178.

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which we may probably consider the main theme . . . appears far mor
frequently than the theme derived from Part I [our Theme R]. . . ."18
This is certainly true.
Theme R (derived from Section I) is freely treated. As a matter

of fact, it appears completely stated only six times. But, interestingly,
Theme R is not the only source of the ubiquitous fugai episodes. Actu
ally, the episodes derive mainly from the matrix Figure A of the firs
section. Hence, Figure A, Theme R, and the fugai episodes serve t
establish a unitary Affekt in the Praeludium' s third section.
Theme S from Section II appears 23 times in 5 full

strettos:
(a) three at the distance of half a bar,

(b) one at the distance of a full bar,
(c) one at the distance of three-quarters of a bar,
and
(d) one incomplete stretto at the distance of a quar-
ter of a bar.
For those familiar with testing a fugai subject for its potential
use in stretto, the testing of the subject at several distances in Section
III would seem to be a compositional query - a didactic exercise, exem-
plifying a search to find out something specific: namely, whether a
stretto can be made with the theme and at what distance. This kind of
searching was one of the ricercar's persistent and characteristic traits
during the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries (cf. infra).
As Brossard has pointed out in his 1703 dictionary: "Ricercata:

Search; a kind of prelude or fantasy played on the organ, harpsichord;
theorbo, etc., in which it seems that the composer is searching out the
details of harmony which he plans to use in the measured pieces to be
played next. This is usually done on the spot and without preparation;
consequently it demands much skill.183 There was always a certain
"learned" aspect to this "searching" in the ricercar. What more obvious
activity could we imagine for a composer like Bach. In composing a
fugue he always had first to "find out" whether or not the selected subject
182Dürr, Das Präludium ES-Dur ... p. 97: "Freilich behandelt Bach in diesem Teil die
Themen mit einer gewissen Freiheit. Beide sind nicht immer miteinander gekoppelt;
vielmehr tritt das aus Teil II entwickelte, das wir wohl als Hauptthema betrachten dürfen
. . . weit häufiger auf als das aus Teil I abgeleitete, . . ."
""Sebastien de Brossard, Dictionnaire de Musique (Paris, 1703) trans. Albion Gruber in
Musical Theorists in Translation, 12 (Henryville-Ottawa-Binningen: Institute of Mediae-
val Music, n.d.), p. 98.

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220 BACH
could form a stretto,

this when touring; h
committee drawn fro
ing-out becomes one
is revealed to student
However, Bach is n
preludiai feature to b
turn to the imitative
those of the succeedin
day organists, must b
point, as the progress
liturgical location r
parishioners results
doubt recalling such a
preludes and ricercars
including a number o
the piece. The follo
cadence key, and num
(i.e., the final cadence
TABLE 5
The E-flat Praeludium, WTC 1/7
Section III
Number of voices
Bar Beat Cadencing to: in the respective final chords

25 1 B-flat 4
35 1 g-minor 3
38 3 f-minor 3
41 3 c-minor 3
46 1 f-minor 4
49 4 E-flat 2
58 3 A-flat 3
68 1 E-flat 3
70 1 E-flat 4
There are a num

characteristic seri
[in] the respective

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TABLE 6
Section III
Number of voices
Bar Beat Cadencing to: in the respective final chords

27 1 E-flat 3
28 4 E-flat 3
39 4 B-flat 3
30 4 B-flat 4
39 3 c-minor 3
58 1 D-flat 3
61 4 E-flat 1
64 4 E-flat 4
67 2 E-flat 4
In Section III t
may serve to ter
lated, while nine
an organist's pro
the chief stylis
namely, its func
work's respective
Bach's decision
only underlines
related keys as su
(in this case a ric
preliminary caden
TABLE 7
Chart Showing Possible Cadence Keys in Section III

2 Flats No. of 3 Flats No. of 4 Flats No. of
Instances Instances Instances
Used Used Used
B-flat 3 E-flat 8 A-flat 1
g-minor 1 c-minor 1 f-minor 2
N.B. There is a temporary modulation to D-flat major as we

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222 BACH
Taking E-flat as the

of leading the way to
having in this case 2,
end in E-flat, allowing
of any following piece
in two places, preparin
textures respectively
cadence only bring not
draws attention to th
larly, bar 66 with the
last bar of the followin
Warren Kirkendale
ricercari that went ".
which could be terminated whenever the desired one had been
reached."184 He quotes Gerle 's remark concerning a "gut Preambel auff
allerley Claves" (1533) with the instruction: "Das magstu kiirtzen, wo
du wilt."185 Bach has written a work here that recalls and exemplifies
this tradition. The ricercar originally had a preludiai function - a use
these cadences in Section III indirectly reveal.
Early ricercari fulfilled still other requisite functions (all of

which return us to the Prelude's Section I): namely, the function of try-
ing-out an instrument's notes to see to whether the instrument can react
satisfactorily, mechanically (note the rapid thirty-second-notes in bars 8
and 9). This preludiai character of ricercari lasted well into Sebastian
Brossard's time (1703). In Johann Gottfried Walther's definition of
ricercata (1732): ". . . es scheine, ob suche der Componisi die harmon-
ische Gänge oder Entwiirffe [here stretti.], so er hernach in den ein-
zurichtenden Pièces anwenden wolle,"186 we find still another attribute
of the ricercar: it serves as an experimental arena for the organist who
must improvise a potential fugai subject that will work in stretto, and
chordal progressions that will fit into the planning and conceptual stage
of the forthcoming musical form. This is literally what happens in the
Praeludium in E-flat.
l84Warren Kirkendale, "Ciceronians versus Aristotelians on the Ricercar as Exordium

from Bembo to Bach," JAMS 32, (1979): 10.
185Ibid., cf. n. 53; "... a good (in sense of practical) preambulum in all sorts of keys . . .
You may shorten it where you wish."
l86Johann Gottfried Walther, Musicalisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1732), p. 526. ". . . it would
appear as if the composer were looking for harmonic procedures or [structural] outlines
which he wishes afterwards to apply in fashioning the succeeding pieces." The chromatic
descents (bars 66-67: alto; bars 69-70: tenor and alto) of the praeludium anticipate the
alto of the succeeding fugue (bar 37).

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A fusion of themes or subjects appearing simultaneously i

clearly evident in bars 25 and 26, 49 and 50, and bar 61 (at ЗУ2, 2Vi an
З/2 beats from the beginning of Subject S). Andrea Gabrieli, renown
for establishing the complex and learned tradition of the ricercar (cf.
Madrigals et Ricercari a 4, 1589), combined themes or subjects a
thus departed from the former sole preoccupation with imitative tech
niques just as Bach (in bars 1-9) does here.187
To reiterate Alfred Diirr's statement: "So bleibt uns das Es-Dur

Präludium des WK I trotz aller Analyse die Antwort auf die Frage nach
dem Woher bislang schuldig."188 We would like to suggest, on the evi-
dence developed here, that the ricercar and the older form of the toccata
serve as the basis of this praeludium. We may, thus, dismiss the hitherto
erroneous assumption that the work is a double-fugue. For one thing,
the creation of a double-fugue would have required a much stricter
management and arrangement of the Theme R. Furthermore, there are
many more obviously pedagogical, experimental, preludiai and learned
traditions at work here than would be present in a formally developed
double-fugue.
If we view the Prelude from traceable rhetorical applications

rather than from its formal disposition, we note that Figure A acts
immediately as a signal, drawing attention at the beginning, establish-
ing the fundamental Affect , and supplying unity to the framing Sections
I and III. Within the tradition of the ricercar's generally slow tempo
(construed in its relation to the Renaissance stylus gravis and rhetoric's
comporting genus grande ("gravem" infra) in the sixteenth century,189
187 Apel, op. cit., p. 175: "In den beiden ersten Werken [Libro terzo 2, 3] dieser Gruppe
werden die beiden Abschnitte dadurch miteinander in Verbindung gesetzt, daß das zweite
Thema als Kontrapunkt gegen die letzte Darstellung des ersten Themas eingeführt wird.
In einem anderen duothematischen Ricercar (III, 5) wird diese kontrapunktische
Verbindung während des ganzen zweiten Abschnitts beibehalten." ("In both [of] the
works beginning this group both [the respective individual] sections are combined with
one another. This is carried out by having the second theme introduced as a counterpoint
against the last appearance of the first theme. In another dual-thematic ricercar (III, 5) this
[sort of] contrapuntal procedure is maintained throughout the entire second section.")
188Dürr, "Das Präludium ES-Dur ..." p. 101. ("Hence, despite all [this] analysis we are
still without an answer as to where the [form of the] E-flat major Praeludium of the
WTC I comes from.")
,89Cf. Rhetorica ad Herennium Liber IV, Caput 8, 10-11: "Sunt igitur tria genera, quae
genera nos figuras appellamus, in quibus omnis oratio non vitiosa consumitur: unam
gravem, alterum mediocrem, tertiam extenuatum vocamus." A description of the three
genera follows. Cf. Q XII, 10, 1-80 especially 61-65; Dammann, op. cit., p. 94. ("There
are accordingly three kinds of oratorical address found in correct discourse. We call the
first the high [level], the second the middle [sort] and the third the low [type of address].")

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
224 BACH
one may establish a m

cal Affekt and the ri
searching for composi
doesnot try out ane
superficial way. The
(the 32nds in bars 8 an
We have drawn the reader's attention to Bach's concealment of

Theme R in bar 25; this theme is also "successfully" hidden when it
occurs as an inner voice in bars 47^8 and 50-51. Theme S is also dis-
guised. The B-flat in the bass of bar 24, which helps to form the
cadence: В к V43-IV64-I, ending Section II, is tied over to the next bar,
forming the first note of Theme S irl Section III (see Example 4). The
overlapping of Theme S, discussed in the explanation of the various
stretti above, consistently serves to conceal this same theme. Kirk-
endale astutely draws a parallel to this ingenious treatment of the voices
in the ricercar, namely to the insinuado as found in the ancient
exordium (explained by Cicero in his De inventione and De oratore ):
"Insinuado est oratio quadam dissimilatione et circumitione obscure
subiens auditoris animum. . . ."190 While this is certainly apposite in the
ricercar, we must not limit the principle of concealment in rhetoric to
the insinuatio , nor in music to the ricercar alone. One might gain this
impression when perusing the termini technici and specific forms that
appear rather ubiquitously in Kirkendale's work.
The principle of disguise and indirection applies to the ora-

tor's employment of prose rhythms, as we have seen in earlier sections
of this article. For example, in his discussion of the dochimus (clearly
explained by Quintilian IX 4, 97), having the pattern u - - u - as in "a-
mi-cos tenes Cicero explains that it is fitting as a rhythm and "useful
at any point" (". . . quovis loco aptus est") in a speech [it is praised
elsewhere when used in a clausulae ], "provided one uses it only once"
(". . . dum semel ponatur"). "If the dochimus is repeated or continued,
it creates an all too obvious and obtrusive rhythmic impression. . . .
One must conceal this ("nec deprehendetur manifesto . . .") through
variations.191
In this broader sense, where the rhythm of the repeated themes

would analogously seem too obvious - even "obtrusive" - Bach dis-
190W. Kirkendale, op. cit., pp. 21-23: "The insinuatio is a speech which by a certain dis-
similation and indirection unobtrusively steals into the mind of the listener . . (The
translation is by W. Kirkendale).
wOr, 64, 218-65, 219.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
guises their severity through the improvisatory figurai Motive A, which

is always used in a variety of keyboard registers (e.g., in bar 52) to try
out the instrument's tuning: ". . . obs gestimmt sey" (in Walther's
words, "whether it is tuned.")
SUMMARY
An examination of the E-flat Praeludium invites a study of

music history, the ricercar, and rhetoric. Among other stylistic traits
this praeludium (like the ricercar) reveals the use of improvisation,
the trying out of pitches and registers, the establishment of many pos-
sible introductory intonations in related keys by means of many sorts
of cadences, the combining of two themes (R and S) contrapuntally,
the subtle disguise of the entrances of the themes as well as their fur-
ther employments by means of stretto, the constant experimenting
with stretti at different distances (of overlap), and the formation of
episodes derived from figure (A), which help conceal the contrasting
entrances and independent employments of thematic material in Sec-
tion III. These technical inclusions, taken severally and as a whole,
point to the imitative organ ricercar and toccata as it was extensively
cultivated during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries in both Italy
and Germany. The praeludium should not be considered a double-
fugue but rather a ricercar, as understood in its earlier Renaissance
function - a prelude. As Warren Kirkendale has noted, "The so-called
'abstract' pieces [of the sixteenth century] which largely fulfilled a
preludiai function, went by a variety of originally more or less inter-
changeable names, such as 'ricercar' and 'fantasia.' "192 Bach's E-flat
Prelude is no exception.
Finally, our thesis is underlined by the fact that Bach, indeed,

calls the first piece {BWV 852), a "Prelude." The succeeding Fugue
(BWV 852) confirms through contrast this preludiai concept, helping us
to distinguish a ricercar from a fugue! The Fugue's notes use those
pitches that have been tried out in the Praeludium (bars 66-67, alto,
bars 69-70, tenor) and the Fugue (bar 38, alto).
Generally speaking, in striving to understand the plan of the

Well-Tempered Clavier, we should recall Cicero's recommendation that
the orator be well-versed in all fields of knowledge.193 Bach analogously
l92Kirkendale, op. cit., p. 2.

mDe oratore II, 5. . neminem eloquentia non modo sine dicendi doctrina, sed ne sine
omni quidem sapientia florere umquam et praestare potuisse." ("No one can ever play a
brilliant and outstanding role as an orator unless he [first] masters rhetorical theory and,
indeed, has universal knowledge")

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
226 BACH
provided the music s

and styles in the coll
Schulenberg speaks o
in Bach's work."194 O
this work (besides the
out the autograph of
have been Bach's searc
thought much depend
That Bach selective

even those he had alr
reflection {Nachsinne
ical praecepti and pr
documented above. In
who thought the or
authors.197 Moreover
one's own creative t
reflect one's own ind
the Necrology (quoted
the source of this pr
tions) has not always
In the E-Flat Prael

scriptions, introduces
first section's homop
noema: "Noema locu
"plenum," and Matth
close motivic imitatio
in the stile antico giv
"fugis,"201 as Dressier
In presenting these
trates the rhetorical p
(cf. article A), in its c
one and the same case
194Schulenberg, op. cit., p.

195Ibid.
mQ X, 1, 14-18.
,97Ô II, 2, 8; III, 2, 3; VIII, pr. 16; 8, 72; X, 1, 3; 19; 108; 122; 126; 5, 8; 19 XI, 1, 92.
mQ X, 2, 4-13.
mQ X, 2, 19-21.
m)Vide Kirkendale, op. cit., pp. 28-29.
201 Ibid., p. 28.
202Q IX, 3, 81-86; 92 comparatio: IX, 2, 101.

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bear resemblance to one another and afford unity to the work as a whole
Their further employment obtains in Section III, which corresponds t
the argumentatio or probatio in its meaning of carrying forward a case
by selectively using statements taken from prior and contrasting repre
sentations of the facts or circumstances of the case at hand.203 The proba-
tio was that part of a speech in which the orator could draw upon facts
and circumstances already produced, using them in presenting his proof
Bach has done this in an analogous procedure. The following Fugue rep
resents the conclusio or peroratio of the speech.204
Until today, Bach successfully concealed the variety of rhetor-

ical regulae , principia, and praecepti at work in this praeludium. Also
the two source types of ricercar were not musicologically clear. If we
continue to study the vast treasure of Bach's music, we shall find Birn-
baum 's remarks concerning "rhetorical applications" amply con
firmed - a discovery that should enhance our perception, understand-
ing, and performance of Bach's oeuvre as a whole.
CONCLUSION
In examining the specifics of rhetorical and musical figurae, it

is well not to push the analogies too far (as we contend J. G. Walthe
was wont to do). Lest the reader be misled: Bach did not go to a book
on rhetoric to compose.205 It is impossible to over-emphasize this poin
Bach simply composed his work outright or, in some cases, selected,
investigated, re-studied, and rearranged previously composed pie
that probably had already employed various rhetorical devices206 tran
lated into music in ways established by music theorists.
Bach knew well the remarkable rhythmic verve and emotional

power of the schemata, of tropes, and of the many other facets of inv
tio, dispositio, and elocution , and effortlessly, perhaps almost unco
sciously, integrated the knowledge he had gained from long scholast
experience into his composing. Judging from the motivation reveale
by his exhausting foot journeys, we can readily assess the intensity
his desire to learn anything applicable and germane to music; in a wor
everything that would enhance his musical creativity.
Johann Abraham Birnbaum 's great contribution to historical

musicology was his revelation in unequivocal terms of one of Bac
203ö V, 10, 19; 80; 11, 2; 35, 12, 8; 14; 35.

2O40V I, 1, 1.
205Cf. Necrology, Dok III, p. 82 (No. 666).
206Cf.n. 11.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
228 BACH
major intellectual att

aspects of rhetoric. I
to clarify his observat
Bach viewed the fig

This may be credited
purpose and the inhe
figurae might be welc
not as an isolated dev
expression, the genera
but also formed a bac
of feeling involved at
musical figures mirr
intrinsic Affekten. Th
figurae for the purpo
Affekt. Perhaps the m
tion has been the unco
rae express their own
Matthias Gesner, on
leagues and a friend
particularly well.207
The figures , taken

creating a pragmat
Schweitzer has claime
design. In Bach's wo
growth of these form
ing attributes, indepe
great, often unsuspec
this resource, this rh
the already existing m
one single composition
ciples. He follows th
Baroque that exhibi
coherent forms.
207"Maximus alioquin antiquitatis fautor, muitos unum Orpheas et viginti Anonas com-
plexum Bachium meum, et si quis illi similis sit forte, arbitror." Dok II, p. 332 (No. 432).
("Although in other respects I'm an enthusiastic and devoted admirer of antiquity, I
believe, nevertheless, that [my] friend Bach alone (and whoever may be similar to him)
surpasses Orpheus many times over and Arion twenty times.") The translations are mine
(with all their faults) except those identified as being by others: I have tried to give an
intrinsic rather than a literal translation, which is often misleading and not quite as exact
as some may believe.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
For those readers still skeptical of later-day assertions,

claims, and proofs of rhetorical influences in Bach's work (for exam-
ple, the perspectives advanced by Arno Forchert and others), we may
now provide positive confirmation supporting Birnbaum 's, Forkel's,
and (by implication) Agricola's remarks. The source of this informa-
tion is one close to Bach himself: writing in Hamburg, probably in
the second half of December, 1774, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach made
the following unequivocal statement. "Altogether, no one has so
felicitously applied every sort of taste, figure, and variety of thought
to contrapuntal pieces and figures as has he [Johann Sebastian
Bach]."208
Sebastian Bach was rhetoric's greatest musical exponent.

His boundless musical ingenium welcomed all that rhetoric could
offer to shape his own limitless imagination. His unmatched mastery
of counterpoint served a similar purpose. It created limits and orien-
tations, and required choices. For genius, this is a most welcome
handmaiden.
Performer, singer, conductor, musicologist- all can and will

perceive these remarkable features in Bach's "figures" - in Schweitzer's
terminology, "Bach's Gothic music." In such music one need not apply
or devise one's own individual rhythmic accents. They are already
there. We encounter them when we find the appropriate tempo and
Affekt for their realization - then they simply come forth on their own.
The performer must be accurate and, of course, maintain the metrical
accents (as noted by contemporary witnesses earlier in this essay).
Furthermore, he must remain alert to various uncanny aspects of
rhythm, amazing, "life" and Schwung (as in the fugue of Bach's
French Overture , where the right-hand Figure in bar 32 is, perforce,
compared by ear to the left-hand figuration in bar 34). Such musical
antitheta add to the substrata of already existing rhetorical rhythms.
(See Example 6.)
In Bach's "French" Overture, too, the various refined

dances are heard over against the prior airing of all the different lev-
els of rhythm. Touching in their simplicity, they rise at times to the
level of poetry. Their characteristic rhythms are of another world,
arising not from oratory and speech but from movement - the other
important rhythmic component developed in the early Baroque.
208Dok III, p. 285 (No. 801): "Niemand hat in Contrapunckten u. Fugen alle Arten des
Geschmacks, der Figuren und der Verschiedenheit der Gedancken überhaupt so glücklich
angebracht, als er."

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230 BACH
Example 6. Fugai Secti

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(The ancients knew, however, that both orders of rhythm were ulti-
mately related to the numeri.)
We must not think of ancient rhetoric simply as a codifica-

tion, a grandiose system. It wasn't that at all. As the encyclopedic stu-
dent of rhythm, Quintilian admitted: "Many things in art cannot be
explained by rules209 and the best way of judging an oration is to [use]
one's ears."210 For the ancients, oratory was a deeply artistic expres-
sion. Above all, it is false to think of rhetoric as a mere body of intel-
lectual abstraction. Fundamental in Roman thought was the convic-
tion that to be a good orator one had to be a good man. Also, the role
of "nature" in rhetoric was a deeply rooted conception, as Quintilian
has reported: "... neque satis forte, quie severům, quid iocundum sit,
intelligent, facient quidem natura duce melius quam art, sed naturae
ipsi ars inerit."211 By searching out rhetoric's secrets - of which,
according to Birnbaum, Bach had a vollkommen knowledge - and by
examining contemporary witness respecting Bach's performance, we
have been able to establish criteria for making logical judgments con-
cerning Bach's "intended" tempos. This is important since Bach sel-
dom gives us explicit tempo indications.212 He simply expects us to
come upon them. By what means can we reinforce our "logical judg-
ments?" Bach's musical figurae provide one useful key for that
important task.
APPENDIX
The following includes a list of some types of repetitive

Schemata, characteristic of Greek and Roman rhetoric (which were
altered in Baroque times to become, or simply interpreted to be, musi-
cal figurae) together with a few introductory remarks and explanatory
examples drawn from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier [Bk. I] and the
209Q IX, 4, 117.

210ÖIX,4, 116.
2"<2IX, 4, 120.
212Cf. Marshall, op. cit., pp. 263-269. 1 have always found the tempo ordinario conception
far too broad, a Vereinfachung as the Germans would say. For Tempo minore it. ordinario,
cf. Walther, Lexicon, p. 598. I am in full agreement with Marshall's optimism: "We may
hope and expect, though, that many of these uncertainties [about tempo] will be satisfac-
torily resolved in time as Bach's music is more closely examined and more extensively
correlated with the terminological [but also rhetorical] evidence than could be attempted
here."

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
232 BACH
Fugue from his Overt

(BWV 831). (See Exam
INTRODUCTION
(A) Repetition was considered a rhetorical and grammatical erro

( vitium ) x:x if it appeared without any functional meaning. If this
were the case, it was simply "pleonasm."
(B) Repetition, however, could function as a means for bringing

emphasis - even urgency - to an address or speech.214 In other
cases it could evoke a sense of pathos.215
(C) Here, the list of various types of repetition reflects the ancient con
notations to which Bach was exposed during his student years in
Latin schools. When ancient authors repeated a Latin or Greek
word, they might be bringing out its inherent (but different) mean-
ings or they might be using the word with different inflections and
hence grammatical differentiation.216
(D) The reader is asked to look again at Birnbaum's testimony of

Bach's expertise in rhetoric (supra). I am convinced that Bach's
superb, natural, and quite unique mastery of musical-rhetorical
Kunstgriffe came to him directly from his knowledge of ancient
rhetoric (i.e., NOT from seventeenth-century musica teorica ): he
made his own fresh and personal interpretation. This is the tenor
of Birnbaum's remarks - clearly and specifically stated. Birnbaum
implies that Bach maintained a repertoire of rhetorical preacepti,
a sort of "ever present knowledge" of this field. This is clearly
evident from the report of his personal conversations with Bach.
When we consider that Bach did not spend time with musica
teorica (as the Necrology stated: "Bach ließ sich zwar nicht in
tiefe theoretische Betrachtungen der Musik ein") we at once gain
an entirely new perspective respecting (1) just why Bach could
have been so conversant in rhetoric in 1738 and (2) why Bach's
2nQ IX, 3, 2; especially Q IX, 1, 1; Vickers, op. cit., p. 297. Unger gives concise explan
tions of the musico-rhetorical figures; op. cit., p. 6-7, 18, 68-97, 99-104 "Affektenlehre."
The author details the main Baroque transmogrifications. It must be clear that Bach
mastery of rhetoric extended far beyond the musico-rhetorical discussion written down
during the Baroque and explained by modern writers. Hence, our attention is of necessity
directed to the ancient sources (which primarily concerned Bach) where one gains a
entirely different perspective.
2l4Q IX, 3, 50, 54.
2l5Vickers, op. cit., p. 305. Cf. RAH 4, 28, 38; conduplicatio.
2l6Q IX, 3, 36, 66. This figure was known as the polyptoton. See also Martianus Capell
41, 535. This figure could take on the length of a book if it were discussed in all its cate
gories (see text below).

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mastery of the musical transmogrifications of rhetoric's praecepti

highly individual, simply unique, and without parallel. Bach
worked with an ancient corpus of praecepti all his life. He simpl
retained these concepts rather than the rhetorical-musical deriva
tions analyzed, discussed, and developed in the Baroque Era. It wa
probably Walther (supra) who aided him in his decision to take thi
course.217 Significantly, Bach shows a mastery of the raison d'êtr
(supra) rather than the mere abstract formulations of rhetoric. I d
not think Bach would have retained his unique and complet
knowledge of rhetoric - evident in 1738 - if he had not regularly
used it in his composing (and performing) over the years.218
I. Geminatio entails 3 possibilities:

(a) iterado : One word is repeated (. . . xx . . .); if no inflection
change occurs, it is called epizeuxis.
(b) repetido: A group of words is repeated (. . . xyz . . . xyz).
(c) anaphora: The greater the number of words interpolated
(xabsdefgx) от the distance between repeated words, the
closer one approaches anaphora .
The fugue subject of the "French" Overture ( BWV 831) con-
sists of iterado and anaphora.
II. RedupUcado.Ř repetition of the last entity of a syntactical group

the next following syntactical group (/ . . . x / x . . . /).
When, coincidentally, the last note of a fugue subject (dux) agrees
with the next note of the (comes), transposed an octave below (see
BWV 831, Fugue, bars 22 and 28, Example 6), the result is know
rhetorically also as anadiplosis. In the same "fugue," if one consid-
ers in the second ending (bar 20) the up-beat f-sharp to be the firs
note of the dux (which Bach does not always observe), then we ha
a coincidence of the final note of the fugue subject with the first no
of the succeeding comes and, hence, not strictly speaking a repeti
tion. Here is a case in which music can modify the rhetorical figur
through coincidence.
217Contra: Dammann, op. cit., p. 180. See arguments in main text and notes 133-135.
2l8This state of affairs, where an abstract body of knowledge was cultivated for pract
use, was ably explained in the Middle Ages by Hugh of St. Victor, and Thierry of Chart
in the 12th century. One learned not only the artes, their principles and concepts, etc.;
applied the same to solve practical, artistic and intellectual problems. Eruditionis di
calicae, Liber Teritus, cap. VI, MPL 176, col. 769-770: "Two separate concerns, then,
to be recognized and distinguished in every art: first, how one ought to treat the art its
and second, how one ought to apply the principles of that art in all other matters what
ever. Two distinct things are involved here: treating of the art and then treating by m
of the art" (trans. Jerome Taylor). Cf. n. 39 of my "Recovering the 'lost' origins
organum purum" awaiting publication; cf. Dok III, p. 240 (No. 772).

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
234 BACH
III. Gradado: This figure is an interesting sub-type of the

reduplicano - a figure implying its continuation (х...у/y...z/
z ... a), etc.
In Bach's musical interpretation this situation occurs when the
fugue subject moves in the same part stepwise (see French Over-
ture "Fugue," bars 32-34-36 [anabasis], and correspondingly, at
bars 129-131-133). It also takes place in the bass of the same fugue
at bars 51-53 and correspondingly in bars 81-83 [ katabasis ], with
the bass involvement here bringing an enormous rhythmic impetus
to the music. The rhetorical rhythm at this point is most evident
when the right tempo is attained.
IV. Redditio: In this case repetition occurs at the beginning and end of
a syntactical entity: a type of verbal parenthesis (x
This figure may be seen in all clarity in the

WTC 1/17 and the "Gavotte I" bars 16 and 18,
tively [cf. Musical Example 6].
V. Anaphora (2): Another meaning of this figur

tation, is the repetition of the same word at th
more kommata or kola (see I supra). (The kom
to express a complete statement.)
Bach brings this type of application of the an
applied to kommata) at the doublings where,
ture "Fugue," the modified subject appears at b
nung ), gradado at 85-86, 95-96, 123, and 1
figures at 47^48, 51-52, and 77-78; and also in
109-111; and 112-113.
VI. Epiphora: The repetition of the same word occurs here at the end
of a kommata or kola (. . . x / . . . x). This may be seen in the des-
cant of the French Overture "Fugue" as follows: at bars 52-53,
82-83; bass, 85-86, 112-113 (2 eighths), and bars 120-121 (des-
cant).
Yll.Complexio: This figure occurs when the same words appear

respectively at the beginning and end of syntactical entities (x . . . y
/ x ... y). It is the result of the combination of anaphora and
epiphora.
Upon reflection we find this to be the equivalent of the employment
of sequence where the identical figure is merely transposed (x . . . y
/х'...у',х"...у"/х"'...у"', etc.).
This may be seen in all late Baroque music and strikingly in the
French Overture "Fugue," e.g., at bars 109-1 1 1 (bass). The running
figure at bars 34-37 is truncated at bars 38-42; while complexio
(right hand) characterizes bars 67-69. Bar 67 has an epiphora in

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
the left hand. When the words (or analogously, pitches) are not
exactly identical in the complexio, we are passing over to the
notion of isocolon. Cf. bass of the French Overture "Fugue," bars
68-69 after the epiphora in 67. This is anabasis.
VIII. Isocolon : When words or groups of words have identical rhythms,

but these very words in themselves are different, then complexio
becomes isocolon.
Bach uses this figure throughout the Preludes WTC 1/7 (the Prae-
ludium in E-flat) and 18 (the Praeludium in G-sharp minor). Here,
it is the juxtaposition of sequences and isocola , that is, their coor-
dinate combination, that makes the rhetorical rhythm so striking.
In the Praeludium in E-flat , the tenor and alto of bar 36 establish
isocolon; the soprano and tenor disguise the parallel fifths
between bass and tenor in bars 37-38.
IX. Polyptoton: A change in the inflection of a word that is repeated.

Simply put, it is a form of variation - that is, where there is a case-
alteration in a noun, pronoun, or adjective. This may be found in all
of the above types, but especially in geminatio, reduplicano,
anaphora, epiphora, and complexio. This phenomenon appears in
the fugue subject, of WTC 1/7 - analogously, at bars 17, 26, and 34.
X. Reflexio : There are many subtle forms in rhetoric. When a dia-

logue takes place between two persons and the same word spoken
by Speaker A is taken up by Speaker B, one experiences reflexio.
The exchange of the isocola in bars 1-5 and 35-38 in the Prae-
ludium in A-flat, WTC 1/17 is an example.
The Fugue of the "French" Overture could well serve as a text-
book of figurai219 applications in music, if we accept Birnbaum's
statements.
2,9For geminatio: Q VIII, 3, 50-51; Q IX, 1, 28; 3, 28, 45-47; De oratore III, 206.
For repetitio : RAH IV, 13, 19; Q IX, 3, 30; De oratore III, 206.
For anadiplosis : Q IX, 3, 29.
For anaphora: RAH IV, 13, 19; Q IX, 3, 30; De oratore III, 206.
For reduplicano: Q IX, 3, 36, 44.
For gradatio: Q IX, 3, 54-57, De oratore III, 207; RAH IV, 25, 34.
Athanasius Kircher ( Musurgia universalis, Tom I, Liber V, Caput XVIIII, p. 366) men-
tions repetitio, aposiopesis, anaphora, climax ( gradatio ) as being among the: "Figurae
minus principales . . . quod Musurgiam nostram lateat aut in qu Rhetoricae cedere videa-
tul." He gives musical examples in his Explicatio figuraum for these figures: Tom II, Lib
VIII, Caput Vili, par. VIII (p. 145) except aposiopesis ("qu" is printed in the text).
For redditio: a) / x . . . x / in De oratore III, 206; Q IX, 3, 34 or b) / xyz . . . xyz / Q IX, 3,
43.

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC
236 BACH
In evaluating Birnba
the fact that he was
with Scheibe. Thus, w
concerning Bach's kno
of the praecepti. Tr
rhetorical application
one's natural desire to
mogrification can bec
principle remains the
One final thought: t

do not bear a single li
ful use" of rhetoric in
and minute correspon

203.78.15.150 on Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:36:10 UTC

Bach's Tempos and Rhetorical Applications PDF

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BACH'S TEMPOS AND RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS

Author(s): E. Fred Flindell

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/41640438

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During the years in which I took part in performing Bach's

While these baffling, but fascinating, Bachian rhythms could

What follows hçre is the report of an investigation which took

When one reads the immediately following interpretation, one

Nevertheless, it is certainly fair to say that many music histori-

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sweeping views - impr

One thing should n

When Albert Schweitzer claimed that "Bach's music is

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prescribed or rigid design. Like [the Gothic], the realization of the ov

I am referring to Abraham Birnbaum's defense of Bach against

Upon examining this statement, one identifies Bach's exper-

Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 318.

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Bach's knowledge (of

Some modern writers have concluded that Bach was versed in

Actually, Birnbaum indirectly limited his description of

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Such a realization frees us from considering extant Baroque

Scheibe is quite correct in stating that Bach had not particu-

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rhetoric and poetry .

9(a) Friedrich Paulsen, Das

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punctions about teaching Latin at the Thomasschule; after all, he had

As for the application of rhetoric to music (either consciously

Bach seems to have been fully aware that parallels existed

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The emphasis that W

For many modern m

l2Heinrich Grimm, Meiste

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The study of rhetoric was an essential component of German

Ages and Grade Levels in the Grundschule and

7 2 + anfang in Grammatica, Rhetorica undt Poesi

8 3 + "Bißweilen im dritten jähr, fangen sie an

N.B. These comments are taken from the following sources:

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We may draw one

l4Ibid., Dok III, p. 240 (No.

l7Blume, SM II, p. 286.

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it has not been our self-evident possession, as it was in Bach's tim

The other reason may be that in reading seventeenth- and eigh-

With respect to Bach: just how reliable and hence, tenable

It has been enlightening to locate contemporary clarification

l8A. Schmitz, "Die oratorische Kunst J. S. Bachs-Grundfragen und Grundlagen," KB

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spielet."21 This high

Athanasius Kircher included in his Musurgia Universalis,

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EXEMPLIFICATION - AN EXAMPLE OF BACH'S RHETORICAL APPLICATIONS

A brief look at Example 1 shows how Bach took J. K. F.

Example 1. J. K. F. Fischer, Ariadne musica Fugue in E-Flat Major

J. S. Bach, G-Minor Fugue Ç WTC 1/16)

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identify in his Rhetori