MUSICAL-RHETORICAL FIGURES IN THE

ORGELBÜCHLEIN OF J. S. BACH
by
Vincent P. Benitez
Tallahassee, Florida
INTRODUCTION
Treatises on the art of musical composition {música poética), which
were primarily written by Lutheran cantors, appeared in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Música poética, a term first appearing in Nicolaus
Listenius's Rudimenta musicaeplanae (Wittenberg, 1533), emphasized the
creativity of the composer with instructions not only in necessary fundamen-
tals but in setting a text to music' Works dealing with música poética bor-
rowed from rhetorical terms of speech in order to define compositional pro-
cesses and structures. George Buelow notes that ' 'such a viewpoint remain-
ed valid well into the eighteenth century." ^

If a musical composition was analogous to rhetoric in its power of

persuasion, then it was a teachable skill. "Music was an art which, like
rhetoric, relied on rules and formulas to be studied, digested, and applied."^
An examination of the work of Johann Mattheson {Der vollkommene
Capellmeister, 1739)'' reveals the following procedures:
(1) Inventio—the invention of the musical idea
(2) Dispositio—ordering of the parts of a composition according to the
rhetorical parts of a speech
The musical dispositio has six parts:
(a) Exordium—preface or introduction
(b) Narratio—statement of the facts
(c) Propositio—thesis of the musical speech
(d) Confirmatio—confirmation of the thesis
(e) Confutatio— refutation or rebuttal, ' 'a dissolution of the excep-
tions," ^ antithesis
(f) Peroratio—conclusion
(3) Decoratio—the elaboration of the musical idea^
(4) Pronuntiatio or Elocutio—delivery of the musical speech
Musical-rhetorical figures were related to rules for preaching (linked to
rhetoric and obligatory for a minister's sermon).^ Luther believed that "a
composition should be -ipredicatio sonora (a musical sermon)."* Cantors
considered musical-rhetorical figures as important elements in the musical
settings of the texts and as the best means of attaining Luther's goal. Thus,
by reinforcing the meaning of the text with musical-rhetorical figures, com-
posers could function as the preachers of musical sermons.
Many German writers who transferred rhetorical terms to musical figures
also invented a number of new independent musical figures without
rhetorical counterparts. On the other hand, there were many rhetorical
figures which were not transferable to music. While some figures shared
common names in both rhetorical and musical use, their functions were dif-
ferent.' Nevertheless, despite conflicts in terminology, the use of musical-
rhetorical figures played an important role in Lutheran music and influ-
enced the thought of its composers:
First presented in an organized manner by Joachim Burmeister
in his Música poética, Rostock, 16O6, musical-rhetorical figures in-
fluenced the art of composition in Lutheran Germany through the
time of Bach,in whose music, along with that of Schütz, the use
of figures is especially prominent. These figures were not an in-
novation of the Lutheran cantors, for Brandes has traced some of
them as far back as the niusic of Dufay, but apparently no other
school of composition assigned them such an important role in
the art of composition as did Lutheran Germany.i°
The present study investigates the use of musical-rhetorical figures and
their possible applications towards the Affections in selected chorale set-
tings (BWV606, 614, 615, 625, 637, 644) of the Orgelbüchlein ofJ. S. Bach,
which was according to Albert Schweitzer, ' 'the lexicon of Bach's musical
speech."" Although the importance of musical rhetoric in Baroque music
is regarded highly today in some musical circles,^^ ¡t ¡s viewed with suspi-
cion in others.^3 j ^ i s study does not purport to be a "blueprint" for ab-
solute truth but seeks a better understanding of the art of J. S. Bach, as seen
through Baroque rhetorical concepts.

BACH AND RHETORIC—BACKGROUND

J. S. Bach's connection with rhetoric began as a student at the
lyceum in Ohrdruf. The curriculum there consisted of studies in Latin, New
Testament Greek, and Theology with some work in rhetoric and arithmetic.
Cicero and Cornelius Nepos were among the Roman authors studied.
Extensive exercises in Latin grammar were emphasized.'*
Bach attended the Michaelisschule in Lüneburg after having left
Ohrdruf. The Michaelisschule probably used Heinrich Tolle's Rhetorica Got-
tingensis to instruct its students.'^ xije curriculum did not differ from that
used in Ohrdruf, with Latin authors—Cicero, Curtius, Horace, Terence, and
Virgil—studied more extensively.'^ When Bach left Lüneburg, he had prob-
ably completed two years in the Michaelisschule's first class."
During Bach's years at Mühlhausen and Weimar, he might have been
exposed to rhetorical treatises hy Johann Georg Ahle, his predecessor at
Mühlhausen, and Johann Gottfried Walther, his cousin and the author of
both the Praecepta der musicalischen Composition and the Musikalisches
Lexikon.^^ Walther borrowed from the Ausführlicher Bericht of Christoph
Bernhard (1627-1692), a student of Heinrich Schütz and writer on musical-
rhetorical figures in writing the sections that deal with musical rhetoric in
his two treatises. Walther also utilizes Bemhard's nine "superficial figures'^—
found in the newer, rhetorical style of composition according
to Bernhard.''^ In addition to borrowing from Bernhard, Walther quotes
Wolfgang Mylius (1636-1712; a student of Bernhard) and Thomas Balthasar
Janowka's Clavis ad thesaurum magnae artis musicae (1701; one of the
early music dictionaries of the Baroque) in his Lexikon.^ Besides being
Bach's cousin, Walther was his exact contemporary (1684-1748), close friend,
and musical colleague, especially during Bach's Weimar years (1708-17). It
is possible that Bach knew the treatises of Bernhard and Janowka—Clark
and Peterson speculate that the Clavis might have been available to both
Walther and Bach in the music library of the Weimar court.2'

Bach taught Latin as one of his duties at the St. Thomas School in Leip-
zig. Philipp Spitta elaborates on his responsibilities:

This consisted in giving five Latin lessons weekly to the third and
fourth classes; in these the course included written exercises, grammar,
the Colloquia Corderii (Leipzig, 1595], and an explanation of Luther's
Latin Catechism.22

In addition to his official duties as Cantor, Bach had several private music
pupils. Johann Nikolaus Forkel might be describing Bach's musical pedagogy
when he writes;

He considered music entirely as a language, and the composer as

a poet, who, in whatever language he may write, must never be without
sufficient expressions to represent his feelings.23

He considered his parts as if they were persons who conversed

together like a selea company. If there were three, each could sometimes
be silent and listen to the others till it again had something to the pur-
pose to say. 2*

Bach might have been influenced further as regards to rhetoric by Johann

Matthias Gesner, a rector during part of Bach's years in Leipzig (1730-34).
who wrote a laudatory description of Bach in note to a Quintilian edition.25
Johann Abraham Birnbaum, a Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Leip-
zig, defended Bach (possibly in consultation with Bach himself) against
Johann Scheibe's diatribes. Birnbaum's defense reveals Bach as a master
rhetorician:

The parts and advantages, which the elaboration of a musical piece

has in common with rhetoric, he [Bach] knows so perfectly, that one
doesn't listen to him only with satisfying pleasure, when he directs his
thorough discourses to the similarity and conformity of both; but one
admires also the skillful application of the same, in his works. His
understanding of poetry is as good, as one can expect from a great
composer. 26
 Bach referred to inventio (discovery of ideas) and elocutio (verbali-
zation of ideas) in the title page of bis two-part Inventiones (1723).^7. Spit-
ta details the relationship between tbe Inventiones and rhetoric as follows:
Having formerly been a first-class scholar in St. Michael's School,
at Lüneburg, he [Bach] had not so far forgotten the terminology of
rhetoric as not to know that collocatio (order) and elocutio (expres-
sion) are indispensable to inventio (invention); and thus, immediately
after his observations on good inventions, we find order or arrange-
ment discussed, and a cantabile handling; otherwise, certain other sec-
tions might have seemed more nearly connected with it. The ancient
rules of rhetoric come in again in another place, when he teaches that
in two-part pieces purity of execution is essential, but in three-part
pieces correct and finished playing—not meaning, of course, tbat purity
is less requisite in three parts, or correctness and finish in two. It is
perfectly clear that these words stand for the emendatum (correct),
perspicuum (pure—i.e., clean and neat) and omatum (finished—i.e.,
winning or graceful) of the old rhetoricians, the three chief requisites
of a good image or statement.^s

Regarding performance (elocutio—expression, presentation). Bach

emphasized adherence to the Affections (AJfekten) of the text when he in-
structed his pupils. Johann Gotthilf Ziegler (1746) comments on Bach as a
teacher:
As concerns the playing of the chorales, I was instructed by my
teacher, Capellmeister Bach, who is still living, not to play the songs
merely offhand but according to the sense (Affect) of the words. ^9
C.P.E. Bach wrote to Forkel in 1774 concerning his father's church works
and the importance that the Affections had on them:
As to the church works of the deceased [J. S. Bach], it may be men-
tioned that he worked devoutly, governing himself by the context of
the text, without any strange misplacing of the words, and without
elaborating on individual words at the expense of the sense of the
whole ....•"'
J. J. Quantz, a colleague of C. P. E. Bach, adds funher insight into eighteenth-
century performance rationale:
Musical execution may be compared with the delivery of an
orator. The orator and the musician have, at bottom, the same aim in
regard to both the preparation and the final execution of their produc-
tions, namely to make themselves masters of the hearts of their listeners,
to arouse or still their passions, and to transport them now to this sen-
timent, now to that. Thus it is advantageous to hoth, if each has some
knowledge of the duties of the
 Musical-rhetorical figures and the Affections were practical guides
and suggestions for German Baroque composers, not sets of rigid formulae.
Bach's superior technique and imagination are the obvious difference be-
tween his use of rhetoric and that of lesser composers.

CHORALE SETTINGS

Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her BWV 606

Published in 1535 and based on Luke 2:8-14, Vom Himmel hoch, da
komm' ich her was described as a children's Christmas song in a Wittenberg
songbook.32 Containing fifteen verses, it is in the form of a dialogue be-
tween "an angel (stanzas 1-5) and the congregation (stanzas 6-15)."33
A suspirans figure (a melodic pattern rebounding from a rest)^* dom-
inates the texture in the manuals, even invading the soprano chorale melody
(see Example 1). The figure itself is derived from the first four notes of the
chorale melody and is presented in both its original and inverted permuta-
tions. The distribution of this figure in the overall texture results in
anaphora.'^^

Catabasts (downward motion)^* is evident in the pedal line, especially

in the first and last phrases; the manual figuration also descends in the last
phrase (see Example 2).
The syncopated pedal phrase of mm. 9-10 resembles the texture of
Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund BWV 621. Clark and Peterson note Anton
Heiller's observation that the mixing of Christmas and Passion elements
represents Christ coming into the world to suffer. They conclude that
"Christ's Incamation and Passion are inseparable, and [that] Bach tried to
express this through musical means."^'^ Perhaps Bach's use of syncopes
(suspensions)^^ in the pedal line of mm. 9-10 demonstrates this Christmas/
Passion relationship.
Das alte Jahr vergangen ist BWV 614
The text of Das alteJahr vergangen ist is a prayer of thanksgiving and
supplication addressed to Jesus for His protection in the old year and
guidance in the new. The melody dates from 1588 and is attributed to Johann
Steurlein (1547-1613).^^ The five phrases of the melody were distributed in
various ways to make a stanza of differing lines. The first and last lines of
each stanza must be repeated in order to fit the Orgelbüchlein melody.
Das alte Jahr vergangen ist is one of the three ornamented preludes
in the Orgelbüchlein. Aside from its coloratura interest, this chorale
demonstrates a fascinating use oipassus duriusculus (chromatic fourth).''<'
This interval appears twenty times in the course of twelve measures, func-
tioning as an imitative counter-suhject to the ornamented melody. Measures
3-4 reveal the.passus duriusculus in cannonic stretto (see Example 3) which
results in anaphora. Brinkman notes the motivic derivation of the passus
duriusculus as used by Bach in this piece:
The ascending chromatic figure that is used in imitation
throughout the prelude is derived by ornamentation of the first four
notes of the third phrase. This relationship is made clear when the
chromatic figure occurs in the cantus firmus in measure 5 [the begin-
ning of the third phrase].*'
Does the chromaticism oí Das alteJahr vergangen ist express melancholy
thoughts or grief at the passing of the year? Clark and Peterson aptly state
that "the assumption that chromaticism automatically expresses grief may
lead to a limited concept of Affekt."*'^ Das alte Jahr vergangen ist is a New
Year's Day hymn according to the Erfurt Gesangbuche, 1611,'" and reflects
an objective utilization of the chromatic fourth.
The ornamented melody exhibits a variety of musical figures** which
are artistically incorporated into the melismas: {\)groppo (a four-note figure
whose initial note is decorated by its upper (second or fourth note) and lower
(second or fourth note) auxiliaries), (2) messanza (a "mixed" four-note figure
containing steps and leaps), (3) mezzo circolo (a figure which moves a^vay
from and back to its initial note), (4) suspirans. This incorporation is an
example of variatio (see Example 4):
Variation, called/»«ssa^io by the Italians and coloratura in general,
occurs when an interval is altered through several shorter notes, so that,
instead of one long note, a number of shorter ones rush to the next
note through all kinds of step progressions and skips. This figure is so
fertile that it is impossible to exhibit all its examples.*5
The last measure is a dramatic illustration of a rising figure which
leaves the outline of the chorale melody. Commonly known as a "sighing
motive," it can he thought of as "a cutting up of the line, a separation of
notes," an example of suspiratio whose "content is enhanced through
written-out, accented suspensions."*®
In dir ist Freude BWV 615

The text oí In dir ist Freude 0. Lindemann, 1598) hecame associated

with a melody derived from a balletto L'innamorato hy G. G. Gastoldi in
the seventeenth century.*^ A two-verse Liebe zu Jesu hymn. In dir ist Freude
was incorporated into a Christmas and New Year's song collection.*8
ResembUng a chorale fantasia,*^ In dir ist Freude displays a unique com-
positional procedure in the Orgelbüchlein where the cantus firmus
is fragmented and passed from one voice to another; it is the most ex-
tended work in the collection. The prelude begins with an incipit of

8
the chorale melody distributed between various parts. Stated fourteen times
in the first twenty-nine measures (mm. 1-12 = mm. 18-29), this incipit il-
lustrates a use ofpolyptoton^° (see Example 5). Bach skillfully incorporates
short figures such as groppo and messanza as an integral part of much of
the eighth-note manual figuration. Striking examples of anabasis (ascen-
ding motion)^' are presented with manual figures ascending three octaves,
reflecting the sense of joy and exaltation in the text (see Example 6).
The second phrase of the cantus firmus is treated like the first with
entrances at measures 30-31 (soprano), 32-33 (tenor), and 34-35 (pedal),
another use of polyptoton. Bach departs from the lenthy manual scales
associated with the first twenty-nine measures and introduces a suspirans
figure into the keyboard texture, producing anaphora (see Example 7).

Bach's cantus-firmus treatment changes after measure 40. The

chorale melody appears primarily in the soprano although ornamented and
imitated in other parts. ^2 An ornamented rendition of the sixth phrase is
treated in stretto beginning at measure 44 (anaphora). The ornamented sixth
phrase overlaps the final statement of the seventh phrase in the soprano (m.
48).

Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV 625

The text of this chorale is Luther's paraphrase of the Easter sequence
Victimaepaschali laudes (verses 4 and 5)^^ and of an eleventh-century hymn,
Christ ist erstanden.^ In fact, the Easter sequence also serves as the melodic
source for both Christ lag in Todesbanden and Christ ist erstanden BWV
627. The mood of Christ lag in Todesbanden is one of great joy: "Life gained
the victory and devoured death."^s
The pedal line of measure 1 contains a descending figure which
dominates the texture of this prelude (see Example 8). This "changing-
note figure idiomatically related to alternate-toe pedaling''^^ is an ex-
ample of superfectio. Brinkman notes the derivation of the figure:
The most important recurring contour in this prelude can be analyzed
as an ornamented descending scale line . . . . This descending line is
related to the contour of the last phrase—the setting of the word
"hallelujah.""

The use of superjectio might reflect exclamations of triumph ("hallelu-

jah"). The distribution of this figure throughout all voices is an example
of anaphora (see Example 9). Use of suspensions (syncopes) and exclamative
leaps (exclamatio),^ especially in the tenor (mm. 11-12), also contribute
to a very vivid picture of the triumph over death. An interesting departure
from the superjectio figure in the pedal occurs at measure 8 with the
introduction of passus duriusculus and two resulting false relations
(parrhesia).^'^
Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt BWV 637

The text of Lazarus Spengler's hynui (1524) expounds upon the "fall
and redemption of the human race."^ Bighley notes its significance to the
Lutheran church:
As one of the earliest Lutheran hymns to present clearly and
powerfully the basic idea of the Reformation, this chorale had much
influence and symbolic importance. It enjoyed wide and general ac-
ceptance and did much to bring an understanding and joyful accep-
tance of the Lutheran
The doctrinal significance of this chorale must have had an impact on
Bach, for this setting reveals an abundant utilization of musical-rhetorical
figures. The first line of the chorale, "Through Adam's fall, the nature and
essence of man is wholly corrupted,"62 is vividly suggested by a series of
descending diminished sevenths in the pedal separated by rests (see Exam-
ple 10). The diminished sevenths are examples of salti duriusculi—harsh
melodic leaps. Harsh leaps, if called for by the text, were a part of stylus
modemus and suggested in seventeenth-century German theory books.^'
The rests separating the series of "falling" diminished sevenths illustrate
tmeses, "serving in its gaps or rests to express the effect (Affekt) 'suspiran-
tis animae,' 'of a sighing of the spirit,' in Athanasius Kircher's words.""

Bach uses many motives which, coupled with chromaticism, create a

vigorous picture of the corruption of man; of special note are the occur-
rences oíparrhesia and figurae cortae (anapest rhythm)^^ which vacillate
between major and minor thirds (see Examples 11 and 12).
The constant diatonic chorale melody contrasts with the "falling"
sevenths in the pedal, illustrating an example of antitheton (musical con-
trast).* The use oí antitheton might express trust in Christ (diatonic melody)
as stated in verses 4-5 and 7-8 of the text, contrasted with original sin
(sevenths) as stated in verses 1-3. Another utilization oí antitheton occurs
in the last two measures, where Bach combines successive descending
sevenths in the pedal with a rising figure in the manuals.

Acb wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig BWV 644

The text of this hymn describes the frailty of temporal existence.
The thirteen verses of Michael Franck's (1609-1667) hymn were published
in 1652. Bighley notes some unique features:
In the original presentation of this chorale, the w^ords Nebel and
Leben in lines 4 and 6 of stanza 1 were set in capital letters to emphasize
the word play (Nebel is Leben spelled backwards). The first two lines
of all the verse in the orignal were not the same, as they are in Schemelli

10
 but rather alternating, the first beginning "Ach wie fiüchtig, ach wie
nichtig," the second "Ach wie nichtig, ach wie fiüchtig," the third "Ach
wie ñüchtig, ach wie nichtig," and so on. Johann Crüger's Praxis
Pietatis mélica, I66I, appears to have been the first to make the first
two lines of all verses identical.*^
Ascending and descending scales permeate the manual texture (see Ex-
ample 13). Illustrating/Mga (literally "flight"),** the scales may relate to the
"evanescence and constant change of fog, cloud and human life"*^ described
in the text. Scale patterns are also used in the opening chorus of Cantata
26 (Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig), perhaps as a sign of association.^"
The pedal motive consists of octave leaps, possibly derived from the
repeated notes in the cantus firmus.'''^ The pedal is enhanced by the
rhetorical use of tmeses (unexpected interruption in a musical texture),
possibly relating to the nichtig (emptiness) of the text (see Example 14).''^
False relations (parrhesia) are particularly apparent in the last three measures
(see Example 15).

CONCLUSION

Aristotle stated that the province of rhetoric has "no particular limited
class of suhjects."^^ The purpose of this study has been to demonstrate that
the fusion of rhetorical concepts with Baroque musical compositional pro-
cedures has direct bearing on the composition of J. S. Bach's Orgelbüchlein
and a subsequent importance to modern performances of the collection.
Analyses of the Orgelbüchlein's musical-rhetorical figures can only serve
as a foundational beginning to any organist. A musician should thoroughly
probe all figures and their implications and not arbitrarily assign tbem
prescribed meanings.
Whether one agrees with the infiuence of musical rhetoric on Bach's
music, or not, one should not dismiss historical evidence. German Baroque
theorists, although not highly noted for their compositional skills, were sub-
jective observers of a common language which derived from a common
cultural background. Tbeir catalogs of devices were not recipes or cryptic
messages hut suggestions from which composers' expressive craftsmanships
evolved.^* Slavish adherence to any historical information provides an ex-
tremely limited hasis for interpretation. What is needed in modern perform-
ance is a creative and vital imagination coupled with a respect and observ-
ance of historic principles.

It is the intent of this writer that this study serve as a point of departure

11
for a better understanding of Bach's music and its performance, as seen
through Baroque rhetorical concepts. Perhaps Spitta's words describe wholly
the obligation of any writer on Bach's music:
We . . .have our duty too, each in his degree, to labour that the
spirit of the great man may be more widely understood and loved, ^s

12
 END NOTES
'Harold E. Samuel, The Cantata in Nuremberg during the Seventeenth
Century (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982), pp. 170-71.
2George Buelow, S.V., "Rhetoric and Music" in The New Grove's Dic-
tionary of Music and Musicians, 20 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Mac-
millan, 1980).
^Timothy Edward Alhrecht, "Musical Rhetoric in Selected Organ Works
of Johann Sebastian Bach" (D.M.A. dissertation, Eastman School of the
University of Rochester, 1978), p. 32.
*Johann Mattheson, Johann Mattheson's Der vollkommene
Capellmeister—A Revised Translation with Critical Commentary
(Hamburg: Christian Herold, 1739; trans. Ernest C. Harriss; Ann Ar-
hor: UMI Research Press, 1981), pp. 469-72.
^Idem, p. 471.
orator relied on the formulae of the decoratio in order to
empower the speech with passionate expression. These formulae were
transferred to music leading to theories of musical-rhetorical figures,
first systematized in the Hypomnematum musicae (1599), Música
autoschediastike (1601), and Música poética (1606) of Joachim
Burmeister (1564-1629) (Buelow, S.V., "Rhetoric and Music," Alhrecht, p. 34).
^Günther Stiller,/oÄ«wn Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig
(trans, from Johann Sebastian Bach und das Leipziger gottesdienst-
liche Leben seiner Zeit, Berlin: Evangelical Publishing Company,
1970, hy Herbert J. A. Bouman, Daniel F. Poellot, Hilton C. Oswald; ed.
Rohin Leaver; St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1984), p. 221.
»Samuel, p. 181.
»Alhrecht, p. 104.
'"Samuel, p. 172.
"Albert Schweitzer, / 5. Bach (French edition, 1905; English
translation hy Ernest Newman, 2 vols.; London: Breitkopf and Härtel, 1911;
reprint ed.. New York: Dover Publications, 1966), 1:284.
'^George J. Buelow, "Music, Rhetoric and the Concept of the Affec-
tions: A Selective Bibliography," Notes 30 (Dec, 1973): 250-59.

Williams, "Need Organists Pay Attention to Theorists of

Rhetoric?," The Diapason 73 (April 1982):3-4.

13
 •''•Phillip Spitta,/oÄ«ww Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on
the Music of Germany, trans. Clara Bell and J. A. FuUer-Maitland, 3 vols.
(London: Novello, 1884-85; reprint ed.. New York: Dover Publications,
1951), 1:187.
'SAlbrecht, p. 16O.
i^Spitta, 1:217.
''''Idem, 1:218.
'^Johann Gottfried Walther, Praecepta der musicalischen Composition
(Weimer: 1708; reprint ed., Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel,
Ti95'5),Musikalisches Lexikon Leipzig: 1732; reprint ed.,Kassel:
Bärenreiter, 1953).
i'Myron Rudolph Falck, "Seventeenth-Century Contrapuntal Theory in
Germany," 2 vols. (Ph.D. dissertation, Eastman School of the University of
Rochester, 1964), 1:137; Walter Hilse, "The Treatises of Christoph Bernhard,"
translated by Walter Hilse in The Music Forum, vol. 3, ed. William J.
Mitchell and Felix Salzer (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973),
pp. 90-91.
Michael Mylius, Rudimenta musices, das ist: eine kurtze
und grand-richtige Anweisung zur Singe-Kunst (Mühlhausen: 1685); see
Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 108; Thomas Balthasar
Janowka, Clavis ad thesaurum magnae artis musicae (Prague: 1701; reprint
ed., Buren: Uitgeverij Frits Knuf, 1973).
21 Robert Clark and John David Peterson, "The Orgelbüchlein: Musical
Figures and Musical Expression," The American Organist \9 (March 1985):80;
Falck, 1:137.
22Spitta, 2:184-85.
23johann Nicolaus Forkel, On Johann Sebastian Bach's Life, Genius,
and Works (1802), trans. A. C. F. Kollmann, quoted in Hans T. David and
Arthur Mendel, The Bach Reader, 2nd ed. (New York: W W. Norton, 1966),
p. 318.
2'^Idem, p. 330.

25David and Mendel, pp. 22, 231; Ursula Kirkendale, "The Source for
Bach's Musical Offering: The Institutio oratoria of Quintilian,"/AW5
33 (1980):132.
2*Johann Adolph Scheibe, Critischer Musikus (Leipzig: Breitkopf,
1745; reprint ed., Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1970),p. 997.

14
 27Albrecht, p. 162.
28Spitta, 2:56.
29David and Mendel, p. 237.
^Idem, p. 276.
3ijohann Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte
traversiere zu spielen, Berlin 1752; trans, and ed. by Edward R. Reilly as
On Playing the Flute (New York: Free Press, 1966), chap. 11, para. 1, p. 119.
Steven Bighley, "The Lutheran Chorales in the Organ Works of
J. S. Bach" (D.M.A. dissertation, Arizona State University, 1985), p. 221.

, Lexikon, p. 244.
35Belonging to an emphasis group (figures of melodic repetition),
anaphora was one of the ways a composer stressed a musical idea (see
Buelow, S.V., "Rhetoric and Music."
^Catabasis is often related to concepts of humility, sadness, and de-
jection (Janowka, p. 56; Walther, Lexikon p. 148).
3'J. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein, ed. Robert Clark and John David
Peterson (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1984), p. 75.
38Buelow, S.V., "Rhetoric and Music."
Williams, The Organ Music ofJ. S. Bach, 3 vols. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1980-84), 2:43.
«HUse, pp. 103-4.
"•"Alexander Russell Brinkman, "Johann Sebastian Bach's Orgelbüchlein:
A Computer-Assisted Study of the Melodic Influence of the Cantus Firmus
on the Contrapuntal Voices" (Ph.D. dissertation, Eastman School of the
University of Rochester, 1978), p. 355.
'»2J. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein, ed. Clark and Peterson, p. 62.
«Bighley, p. 65.
r, Lexikon pp. 292, 401; J. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein, ed.
Clark and Peterson, p. 17.
e, p. 96; see also Walther, Praecepta, pp. 51, 153-54; and
Lexikon, p. 465.

15
 **Albrecht, p. 125; see also Buelow, S.V., "Rhetoric and Music"
*7WiUiams, 2:45.
*8Bighley, p. 148.
*^Spitta regards this work as being influenced by "Böhm and the
northern composers" (1:603).

, S.V., "Rhetoric and Music"

s'Janowka, p. 56; Walther, Lexikon, p. 34.
52Brinkman, p. 365.
53Williams, 2:66.
"James Moeser, "Symbolism in J. S. Bach's Orgelbüchlein, The
American Organist" 48 (April 1965): 15; Bighley, p. 48.

y, p. 50.
5*J. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein, ed. Clark and Peterson, p. 17.
"Brinkman, p. 430.
5*Walther, Lexikon, p. 233.
ssAlbrecht, p. 115.
*<'Bighley, p. 75.
^''Idem, p. 76.
*2lhid.
*3Samuel, p. 186.
**Williams, 2:88. See also Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis
(Rome: 1650; reprinted., Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1970), part 2,
para. 8, p. 144.
^^"Figura corta consists of three fast notes, one of which hy itself
is as long as the other ones" (Walther, Lexikon, p.244).
**Wolfgan Budday, "Musikalische Figuren als satz-technische Frei-
heiten in Bachs Orgelchoral 'Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt,"' Bach-
Jahrbuch 63 (1977): 146.
*7Bighley, p. 26.
6*Samuel, pp. 182-83.

16
 **Clark and Peterson, "The Orgelbüchlein: Musical Figures and Musical
Expression," p. 81.
^WUUams, 2:101.
^iBrinkman notes that this cantusfirmus "has the highest incidence
(by per cent) of repeated notes in the Orgelbüchlein" (p. 568).
7g. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein, ed. Clark and Peterson, p. 132; see
also Albrecht, p. 124.
73AristotIe Ti-eatise on Rhetoric, trans. Theodore Buckley (London:
Henry G. Bohn, 1857), p. 11.
7*Clark and Peterson, "The Orgelbüchlein: Musical Figures and
Musical Expression," p. 80.
, 2:278.

17
 MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Ex. 1: J. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein, BWV 606, mm. 1-2

Ex.2: BWV 606, mm. 9-m

í P " F- 1^
Ei^ ffl^&F LZT ^

Ex. 3: BWV6U, mm. 3-4

j =1
i i- 1 J-
:=¿^" —

Ex. 4: BWV6U, mtn. 1-2

18
Ex. 5: BWV 615, mm. 1-3
I I

Ex. 6: BWV 615, mm. 10-12

I I Î -

Ex.7: ßlTF 615, mm. 31-33

Ex. 8: BWV 625, mm. 1-2

19
Ex.9: 625, mm. 8-10

Ex. 10: BWV 637, mm. 1-2

Ex. 11: BWV 637 (parrhesia), mm. 10-12

Ex. 12: BWV 637 (figurae cortae), mm. 7-9

Ex. 13: BWV 644, mm. 1-3

20
Ex. 14: BWV 644, mm. 6-8

Ex. 15: BWV 644, mm. 8-10

21
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