According to Bach, the true rational vocation of music does not lie in the search for some elaborate abstract concept, but in producing “a resounding harmony to the glory of God and the permitted joy of the soul,” and that “the ultimate aim and final cause of the basso continuo, as of all music, should be nothing other than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul and the spirit. Where this is not observed, there is no true music, but only a devilish noise and racket.” The works on this recording are a tangible example of this musical aesthetic.
The early friendship between Telemann and Bach is attested by C. P. E. Bach in a letter of 1775 to Johann Nikolaus Forkel: “In his younger days he saw much of Telemann, who was also my godfather. He esteemed him highly, especially in his instrumental works.”
Telemann was the undisputed master of the “mixed taste” (Gemischter Geschmack), which arose from the elaboration and blending of Italian, German, and French styles, all of which he had studied in his early years. The two Concerti à 4 on this recording are the surprising result of this new style, which became a model for the next generation of musicians.
The process of self-borrowing or of borrowing already existing music from others in order to stimulate one’s own compositional vein was a widespread—though not entirely uncontested—practice in early 18th-century Germany.
Why, then, should composers not use their own compositions, their most successful ones (the Italians called them musiche da baule), or those of other composers, and rework and reuse them on various occasions?
Bach himself returned to compositions of his youth and reworked them in the final phase of his creative life, especially in the sinfonias of his cantatas: BWV 146/1 is modeled on a lost violin concerto (later reworked as BWV 1052/1), with the organ solo part likely intended for his sixteen-year-old son Wilhelm; BWV 42/1 is based on a lost instrumental concerto.
BWV 156/1 is a reworking of a lost oboe concerto and was reused in BWV 1056/2. Rightly celebrated as one of the composer’s “most memorable, singable melodies,” the oboe solo is essentially based on the first movement of Telemann’s Concerto for Solo Oboe or Flute and Strings in G major (51:G), and Telemann appears to have reused his opening theme for the first movement of the flute solo 41:G9 (Essercizii musici). This modeling process invites us to consider the working methods of Bach and other composers: the transformation of another composer’s music into a distinctive expression of one’s own compositional voice. Bach’s relationship to pre-existing music by others was “less a matter of imitating a model than of becoming aware of its possibilities, expanding his own style, and stimulating his musical ideas. Very early on, elements of the most characteristic and essential parameters of Bach’s compositional art appear: the probing elaboration, modification, and transformation of a given musical res facta, whether by himself or by another composer, with the aim of improvement and further individualization.” (Wolff, Christoph: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, New York 2000)
Why Bach chose precisely this piece from his friend and admired colleague “may simply be explained by the high quality of its musical invention and its potential for elaboration, and possibly motivated by admiration for and friendly competition with Telemann. He may at the same time have wished to pay his friend a compliment (with more than casual interest). Whatever Bach’s motivation for this borrowing may have been, the discovery that one of his most famous melodies owes its inspiration to Telemann not only enriches the musical and aesthetic context in which we understand the achievements of both composers, but also lends a new level of meaning to Adorno’s bon mot: ‘You say Bach, but you mean Telemann.’” (Zohn, Steve: Music for a Mixed Taste, Oxford 2008)
