The Bach Cello Suites by Steven Isserlis

Author:Steven Isserlis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2021-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Following on quite naturally from that hotbed of theories, there’s the question of religious symbolism in Bach’s music. We can affirm without any doubt that Bach was a pretty devout Lutheran. On his death, his library contained two enormous collections of Luther’s complete works, as well as many other theological works and a heavily annotated Bible, one of the annotations in Bach’s hand containing the telling phrase: ‘Music has been mandated by God’s spirit.’ His use of religious symbols in the cantatas, Chorale Preludes, Passions, etc., ranges from word-painting (such as rising scales to represent the Ascension) to – it has been suggested – an actual representation of the Cross through the shape of the notes on the page.

The vast majority of his music was written for the church; as mentioned earlier, only in Köthen – where he probably composed the cello suites – was he required to produce almost exclusively secular music. Throughout Bach’s six years there, he composed fewer than a dozen vocal works (only two of which have survived), almost all of them celebratory works for Prince Leopold’s birthday or for New Year’s Day. Leopold was a staunch Calvinist; and Calvin, though recognising the importance of music, had banned all instrumental and a cappella music from church services, considering that it would distract the congregation from the serious business of worship. At least Bach could attend the local Lutheran church established by Leopold’s mother, as well as sending his children to the Lutheran school she had founded; but any devotional feelings that he might have wished to express in his music would have had to be implied – hidden, even. Not that I am proposing that he was a Shostakovich-like figure, sneaking secret protest messages into his works; but in the absence of sacred text or titles, any religious references would have had, by necessity, to be somewhat subliminal.

In fact, sacred instrumental music would have been nothing new. There were such pieces as Corelli’s Christmas Concerto, for instance, composed in the late 1600s, to be performed on Christmas Eve; and there were also, more unusually, the ‘Mystery’ or ‘Rosary’ sonatas by Heinrich Biber, alluded to earlier. These extraordinary works consist of fifteen sonatas for violin and keyboard, concluding with a Passacaglia for solo violin. Although the manuscript has no title page, we know that the sequence represents the fifteen miracles, or mysteries, of the Rosary, because each sonata is prefaced with a beautiful illustration depicting those miracles. The accompanied sonatas are grouped into three sections, representing five ‘Joyful’, five ‘Sorrowful’ and five ‘Glorious’ mysteries; for instance, the first is (now) entitled ‘The Annunciation’, the sixth ‘Christ on the Mount of Olives’ (denoting ‘The Agony in the Garden’), the eleventh ‘The Resurrection’. Several of the sonatas begin with a ‘Präludium’, which is then followed by movements including dances such as ‘Allaman’, ‘Courente’, ‘Sarabande, ‘Gigue’ – and a ‘Ciacona’ in D. It is highly unlikely that Bach would have seen these sonatas, since, as far as we know, the

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