Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Piano teachers, students and players the world over are familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach of 1722 and 1725, and it is no surprise that there was considerable interest when I reviewed Edition Peters superb new edition of them (the first complete new critical edition for some 60 years). You can read that review here.
Given the universal appreciation of the Anna Magdalena Notebook, it is odd that there is less awareness of the notebooks he compiled for his other family members. Of these, the Notebook for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach has survived fully in tact. Following the success of their new Anna Magdalena Notebook edition, Edition Peters brought out a stunning edition of this also, which I have reviewed here.
We don’t know for certain how many other notebooks Bach compiled, but there is sufficient evidence for a Notebook for Johann Christian Bach, and a probable surviving source. Now Christoph Wolff, the leading Bach scholar responsible for the previous two publications, has pieced this together to complete the trilogy, based on extensive research and compelling evidence to authenticate the material.
Make no mistake: this is a landmark publication. So let’s find out more…
Another Notebook
Johann Christian Bach was the eighteenth of J.S.Bach’s children, and the youngest of his eleven sons. Born in 1735, when his father was 50 and long-established in Leipzig, Johann Christian was 15 when his father died, after which he moved to be with his older brother Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin.
Based on these dates, and given the provenance of some of the music within it, the Johann Christian Bach Notebook must date from the mid 1740’s, towards the very end of J.S. Bach’s life. Christoph Wolff estimates 1745, and in his Preface notes,
“In its internal structure, the notebook corresponds more or less exactly to Johann Sebastian Bach’s organisation of the first part of the Notebook for Wilhelm Friedmann. It opens with pieces for keyboard by the father and continues with some initial attempts at composition by the son. In Friedemann’s case these were allemandes and minuets, in Christian’s – in keeping with the taste of the day – they were minuets and polonaises.”
Expanding on the “taste of the day”, Wolff goes on to note,
“Given the absence of chorale preludes and fugues, this approach by the youngest brother seems to betoken a turning away from the inherited organist tradition, revealing the younger generation adapting to a new era.”
And indeed, these stylistic changes are clear throughout the book, which begins with a few Preludes before giving way to the two dance movements so popular in the mid eighteenth century, the Menuett and Polonaise, almost without interruption.
In fact, of the 45 individual piece in the Notebook, more than half are Menuetts. In addition to a few by J.S. Bach himself, there are several by Johann Christophe Altnickol, by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (fifth son of J.S.) and plenty by the young Johann Christian.
Most of this music was unknown to me prior to this publication, and much of it is very fine indeed. Had this been the Bach family’s sole surviving pedagogic Notebook, I have no reason to doubt that in the twenty first century it would enjoy the popularity that, instead, now belongs to the wonderful Anna Magdalena Notebook.
As for Johann Christian himself, from Berlin, he soon travelled to Italy before finally settling in London, where he became known as the “English” or “London Bach”, and was one of the most successful composers of his generation.
The Publication
Those familiar with the two previous Notebooks publications from Edition Peters will have happy and high expectations for this new issue, and I can report that they are unlikely to be disappointed. As with its predecessors, this is a sumptuously presented production.
Once again appearing in landscape format, the hardback, clothbound cover is emblazoned with gold embossed letting. The 112 cream pages within include a detailed Preface written by Wolff, five pages of gorgeously reproduced colour facsimile illustrations and photographs of the original manuscript sources, and the book concludes with an in-depth Critical Commentary and Table of Embellishments.
I should emphasise that this is a scholarly critical edition, so does not include editorial fingerings or other material aimed at intermediate students; on the contrary, a strict urtext approach dominates.
These scores are, however, a joy to play from, enjoying pristine engraving, thoughtful arrangement on the page, and generous spacing.
And there’s more! In addition to the 45 pieces of the Notebook for Johann Christian Bach itself, Edition Peters and Wolff have included as Appendices J.S. Bach’s Four Short Preludes BWV 939-942 and the Five Preludes and Fuguettas BWV 870.1 and 899-902, as well as alternative versions of two of these.
These bonus pieces are a hugely welcome addition, increasing the ratio of J.S. Bach’s own original music within the book, and offering authoritative editions of these better-known miniatures from his catalogue. Bravo!
Closing Thoughts
I have waxed lyrical about the previous volumes in this series, and have no less praise for this third book. Completing the trilogy and presumably bringing to conclusion Wolff’s present survey of the Bach family Notebooks, this is unquestionably an important publication, as well as a genuinely glorious one.
Though obviously a luxury library item rather than an impulse purchase, the Notebook for Johann Christian Bach now unquestionably belongs on the shelves of every serious piano educator and Bach enthusiast, and deserves a larger place in the performing library of pianists everywhere.
It literally doesn’t get better than this.
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