(rods)

/lDOI\lO/ Tluoelor v\l

/319%; , Mcisia c_l,dr<;e _TJu

.-Var Prfrs (rirttati aiglp

l7"dU~l Pt'?i\;'DETD A-dam/sr ms p<_:u@t=eEs"

1

The view of Bach which prevails today in musicological circles

corresponds to the role assigned to him by the stagnation and
industriousncss of a resurrected culture. in him. it is said, there is
once again the revelation-in the middle of the Century of Enlightenmentof the time-honoured bounds of tradition, of the
spirit of medieval polyphony, of the theologically vaulted cosmos.
His music is said to be elevated above the subject and its contin-

gency; in it is expressed not so much the man and his inner life as
the order of Being as such, in its most compelling musical form.
The structure of this Being, understood to be immutable and in-

exorable, becomes a surrogate for meaning; that which cannot be

other than its appearance is made the justification of itself. This

concep-tion of Bach draws all those who, having lost either the ability
to believe or the desire for self-determination, go in search of

authority, obsessed by the notion of how nice it would be to be

secure. The present function of his music resembles the current
vogue of ontology, which promises to overcome the individualistic
condition through the postulation of an abstract principle which is

superior to and independent of human existence and yet which is

free of all unequivocally theological content. They enjoy the order

of his music because it enables them to subordinate themselves. His

work, which originated within the narrow connes of the theological

horizon only in order to break through them and to pass into

universality, is called back within the boundaries it transcended.
Bach is degraded by impotent nostalgia to the very church coinposer against whose oice his music rebelled and which he tilled
only with great conict. What sets him apart from the practices

of his age, far from being grasped as the contradiction of his substance with them, is made a pretext for glorifying the nimbus of
provincial craftsmanship as a classical quality. Reaction, deprived
of its political heroes, takes complete possession of the composer

whom it long had claimed as one of its own by giving him the
ignominious name of the Thomas Cantor. Dilettante high schools
monopolize him, and his inuence, unlike that even of Schumann
135

and Mcntlelssolin, no longer results from the musical substance of

his music but rather from its style and play, from formula and
symrrietry, from the mere gesture of recognition. ln being placed

"R. "1t'

"-

part the process of rationalizationFr:>ymnheEgi?1nihglfg gijefvc

out
I_n_|-1; - , liyrifti1a;l
.
_ enliagll }5ndi:|id=:::nang_eaE%::
glementi, whose ditier.

which was the basis of his prestige. He suffers the very fate which
his fervent protectors are least willing to admit: he is changed into
a neutralized cultural rnonurnent, in which aesthetic success minglcs

Eeiirlftefligen than to an image Qf 1-he Middle Ogle, Coslij 0 VIE?-

Jarnyl case become highly questionable? One nee<i:eii\;1n1lyI1<;ec'ldll5tlirt=i

-s ia Mgrog
' P05,3]-1l;~E3gl:,P(gl'.l;&li?rit;f1 t2e|first_ book, a fugue once
Compafped
and which is not merely [he direct
e [er s short dance-legend.

ohscurcly with a truth that has losr its intrinsic substance. They
lirtvc made him into a composer for organ festivals in well-prcservetl

Baroque towns, into ideology.

b
" m*"
'"kS
himself
'[ed

TePT@5'B"!dt1on of subjective grace

all the rules

or the - very. fugue. ll't 3 t nac l't
.- .

the work unfmds or mg dos

The most elementary historical reection should arouse doubts
twcttty before that of Beethoven. Even the boldest construction of

though the truth of a phenomenon were ever simply attributable

to its bacltwardncss. Bad individualism and the irrational belief
in timelcssncss converge; isolating the individual from his relation
to the historical stage of consciousness, however polemical that relation may be, can only be arbitrary. To argue that, in his ahistorical
WOli~15liDp-\1t-'l1lC-ll was nevertheless equipped with all the technical
discoveries of the epochBach experienced nothing of its Zeitgeist

;_"lPL11-Fa to the developments as

5,=;,;.;md book whijrh the late seat; uxgpe in gtharp minor from the
.
o en must have known well, and
-which is astonishin g not so much for 'its Cll['0li1;1[1c[$m
b
- Bach but rather for its waverin
. y no means
PEPE
In

. .
_
g,deliberatelv va ch I-

concerning the hisloricist image of Bach. A contemporary of the

Fncyclopcdists, he died six years before Mozarfs birth and only

single ego can conserve what the spirit of the epoch dissolved, as

the w'@H'TmPl"1 Cflavizghbrgglthbilvjsd mlmnf win? has played

into the service of proseiytizing zeal, the neo-religious Bach is

impoverished, reduced and stripped of the specific music-al content

the non-sirnultaneily' of music could not sustain the thesis that a

ii this 5 mmn_" "9 1 P=$'="l than "1 Vloiliese

l
t
I, t
|

1Z3il9T1, Whlch, 'v

.
*- Eu. a,m0n"
e,_,0k.eS
Chopiwsgjnogt lllhel 6.1 3 _ chrlizracter
of the piece,
pievitably
down into Countless CDlU11:l1rl;lglCf\;1'tq. as whole rt is niunc broken

of that nervous sensibility which rii'sit$i3tsiiin~.iiiiiisiE In he PS

Anyone who thinks this argument invalid as 3 *rGn1an;;"i'Ifi7:$(l:tl:.
stantlin must t
'
S.po Ht anheous
g _ relation
1-? for
the musical
5ak'3f 05 idiom
_ihF T|'|915,
himself of
that
to the
and free
its me-ining
a i-eta

i.

lion W ich w
111
:\rIonte\-"erdi toacl1o:nbI:i'emxi"um-[C

_
,
-_
'
0 undemaildmg music fmm

except for the Pietism of the texts he used for his sacred works-

to__hhearh in them nothin

H? sumac
1" the
Such
T1<5i
_ S bftlthogadnge
e r er of Being
and not
I1OS[i]gic

Pietism being anti-iinlightctiinent-is to overlook the elementary

grit; iF|'1t;_tg,i]i{?a:hnf of Suiih an Order nds ] '*dr is *0 stash

fact that Pictism, like all forms of restoration. absorbed the forces
of the very Fnlightcnmcnt that it opposed. The subject which hopes
to attain grace by becoming absorbed in itself through reflected
inwardness. has already escaped dogmatic order and is on its own.

HI

whose sole desire is to neutrajigllgij iinrgerftormeil by Philistines,

to Cmprehcnd it
-c 18} .icL the capacity

aulonoinous in the cltoice of heteronomy. Bachs participation in his

time, horvevcr, is drastically demonstrated by central aspects of his

music. The contrast between Philipp iimanuc-is generation and his
father's often blurs the fact that the latters work embraces the

All
th's, '1 '
whichlavilsnlnlrglg,

entire sphere of the Galant, not alone in stylistic models like the
French Suitc5in which at times it seems as if the mighty hand

amnesia

has in advance given denite shape to the genre types of the nineteenth centurybul also in the large, completely constructed works
like the French Overtures, in wliieh the moments of pleasure and
136

. . ,

anachron r

. ~ Iilgigzglcontmstjtoj
.those fcptures oi Bach
'

' .

'

-rear .as ElI13.Cl1'Onl3liL.Thig

,
,

M left [Pan]? rsponsiblc tor the enigmatic

thus
with incalculabls
Wm as Shrouded for -'ghi" 3""-' Md
music

5 '~'"]5<>q_L1erioes for the history of Western

. ., prevented from taking H5 plaw in the tradition and Min

absorbed ' -|| '
.
E

m J H5 bmadl bi Vlncse Classicrsm. Indeed, not onl)

137

did Bach full the spirit of tiie bn.i".rr_.i coritinao, with its intervallic-

lianrionic mode of thinking, but within that spirit he was also the
polyphoiiist who ci'catcd the form of the fugue from its gI'Opit"ig beginnings in the sevctiicenth century; the tlieory of the tiigue stems
from Bach no less titan that of strict counterpoint from Palestrina,
and he reniained its sole master. Yet it is this very duality of
mind, luirnionic and contrapuntal, circumscribing every one of the
coinpositional problems that Bach pat-adigniatically resolved, whicli
must eiicluile the image oi" hint as the consunimation oi the Middle
Ages. Were the image valid. he would neither have had that duality
of niintl, nor have struggled, especially in the speculative late works.
with a parailox wliich would have been tuithiitliable for tlie old
polyphonic mind, iiariiely_ how, in let-nis of hn.r.i'o coririiiuo harmoity,

music could justify its progression as ineaningful and at tiie same

time orgiiiiixe itself polyphonically, through the siniultarieity of
intlependcnt voices. The expressiveness alone of many of the seemingly archaic pieces should arouse scepticism. The aflirinative tone
of the E-tlat major fugue front the second bool-t of the Weil'J"enipcred Cirii.=i'eiiorr1 is not the iittrnediiite certainty oi a sacral

coiiiinuiiity articiiliitetl in niusic and secure in its revealed truth:

such ailirinatioii anti emphasis are tittcrly alien to the Diitcli. Rather.
iii its siibstaiicccei*tainly not in its subjective consciousncssit is
rellection on the happiness of musical security. the like of which
is possessed only by the cniaiicipated subject, for only it can conceive music as the emphatic promise of objective salvation. This
kind of fugue presupposes the dualism. it says how beautiful it
would be to hring back its riiessiige of happiness from the circumscribed cosmos to niani-rind. To the irritation of todays religious
iieophytcs. it is romantic. although, of course, its vision is far more
exalted than that which the later romantic style could allow itself.
It does not rnirtor the solitary subject as the guarantee of meaning.
but rather aims at its abolition and transcendence in an objective.
comprehensive absolute. But this absolute is evoked, asserted, postulated precisely because and only inasrnuch as ii. is not present in
physical eiiperiencix-; l3aclis power is that of such evocation. He was
no archaic ninstcr crtiftsinan but rather a genius of nteditation. It is
only ti5it'|g barbarisin that limits works oi art to what meets the
eye, blind to the difference between essence and appearance in
tlicnt: such ti confusion of the being of Bach's music with its intention wipes out the very metaphysics which it is supposed to protect.
Since such barbarism blurs not merely the essence, but with it the
obvious as well, it overlooks the [act that the particular polyphonic
tcchiiiqiies used by Bach to construct musical objectivity themselves
l38

pgesupposctl subjectivization. The art of fugue composition is one

o motl '
~
-.
'
.
order tdlliligltgniiniliirt, D-f eiplumng the mmll.B$[ pan of 3 them 1

one could almost s- -0 ilnditluigrfll whc.'le' ll '5, an all of ll5ll"i

hence i11CtJLlllP3lllIllU\~%"':ll1 tllssolvmg He-lg Famed as -tha ienlm and
rainstoitself
mnlnmn
hchcfthe
that
this B-mg
n1i1l""
son
ibis static
techngi rid
U6 I 1-16
yinjged
tliroiigliout
fugue.
By contpgiri.

1_ h

q,

4*; _*~ml*l@5s tlte genuinely medieval one of

130$-p '0ll1C figuration. of imitation, only secondarily in the past-raves

an
r ~ imitation
' '
.'
'
Bqchiiihzhgf
triiimphs---by
Ito means
frequent=1
in
dei1seD
mild rugcS'
35 the e3*tm"n31l"
_ 1| _ i_I'l'lE:l'Ol.l'lrSl:l;
1
L _ Fpdssleh
10111l1B_5ecoltd
book, Such
the venerable
technique
Is pita in the service of a driving, thoroughly dynamic thoroughly
- that the identity
- of' the reeiii-i-mg thgmgs

_ni I.*rn' e Ifect. , The fat.-t

E1:$;l:n'; lflglflto plrcsenre itself at all. under the attack of the

.

.5

P0

l M la ~l"t? that had been set free by polyphony,

518111 es nothing niore static than do the dynamic Beethoven

s nti
it as , lVi|llCl'l
'
faithfully
' I
I adhere to the tectonic
._
'
demands of this
rlprlfci
let of
C"'5 Quilt in order
to develop
the reprise itself out
-)
t
I
I
__-i
_
1
_'

iuht Elli;-Sr {PfBlh(]dBVBlUpl11Ll. in his last book Schoenberg

i.'-l'tiCl'i tllgtbafini
lit Iill-11.|C!|t.{)ll"t[Ili(l.illZliJl'lLll
iChmq 9. "1 it-'
-,~"I~*i"Bin Wiiiv
Clagqiciqm
at cljciellglc
principle
y'i.=;;m5
E6
~
r - a ecipiering of Bach would presuntiibly have
establish the link between the ljEC(}1]"]pf]si[i[jn of 1-he given
the t
r.
.. work
'
cOnlE*:I1'dmtj1l;';lIllll1I0(;1_i;'l.1sub]ci.tive_reflection
on the motivic
1 H
_
, an t e change ll1 the WCll'l{-["i1'(}Q@53 that took
P all '15"lg the 53"": PU<3l1 thriigh the emercence of niariiifacturmg. wl1icli_consistcd essentially in breaking down [113 old craft

l}1"=1ill11$1"i\-' 115 Smaller coinpoiient acts. ll this resultetl in the

fill.
I; '

'
_ f0n?.ll"O"ff
millll
production,
then Bach was the rst to
t_1"_r$ll ll-e the idea of the rationally constituted work oi the testbeIpattprc;
it was noticcideiit that he tiamed his major

_ = \_01' ti iei" the most important technical acliievenieni

of niusical rationalization. Perhaps Bach"; innermost truth is that
in him ii"-1 $0"~'i11l lfiilliil which has dotninatetl the bouraeois er-1 in

ih'---~
-rreected.In
1=_I"'1? tvllrc-is prcservetl hut._by being
vdg I'lE\.OT1Cl ct with the voice of iitimanity whicii in reality was

S e

y tiat trend at the moiiicnt of its inception.

4

If Bach was indeed nio-ilern, then why was hi: arcliaic? For there
can be no iiouht that his forrn-world, especially in the most powerful
139

manifestations of his late work. so grotesquely ntisunderstood

by Hiitdciititlt in recent years. evokes much that even in his own
time souritlcd like something out of the past, and which seems to

darkportal.Noa PP'<"iltoil-..
.. character of il1l.t'p5iii. acoustically
static
chord and or =.
.
r __
.
posmoml Su_5;fl1'i1r;a'iitsg__eI{eg1;*:j1']EI:gc0lIi:a:;;eiI:E.'namisnt of the contrcalizcd as a cresccnd on Yhe in.Sm-mum gr (gr not it could be

have been deliberately aimed at creating pedantic ntistintlerstiindiiig.

It is impossible not to hear the seventeenth century tone in precisely
such magnificent conceptions as the c--sharp minor triple fugue from

as some idly qumiom whether Bach muldshowetiph t1mp.orfeven.

ii crescendo. Nowhere
is it written that t h toi
pug U -such
.
poserbhas of ins music must coincide witheiis
boiig

the rst book of the Weii-'l"eiiipt'rci! C.Tirii=ich0rd, where. in order

theo
jective
H'-- . .- . , " . flit!
I mOlChIl1
'1' '
ma
Sense
givenlaw
to peculiar
that wordtobyit .thel;E\:>l;:;?]{{[llE

to bring out the contrast between the three themes all the more
drastically, Bach leaves everything not directly related to this contrast in a pre-schematic state. so to speak. motivicaily undeveloped
like the rudimentary pre-Bach fugties. one of which. the Riccrenin.
is alluded to by a word-play in the Miisi'ocii Oei-i'iig. Like the
Ricerciirn, the aiiri {irate fugue in E-major in the second book
carries the archaic element down to its very score. as though it had
been written in the vivacious spirit of a highly stylized past, itself
naturally ctitious. the same procedure followed by Bach in writing

Of yCS5_ of we 0r- I
_ _.
_
"TY ttiilrc.t at
reliance on p@r5pe%ti\i:,OrB:;isi;;;1iiLnl1Agtl:.Cl'I6fl to the utino5i_ of

vtihicit inevitably fails in f=XP|iI1|J'ust tl1at1s.}1gictI1irfe_claSl53ica] '

above. all ' his archaic

tendencies . In orderlod Lh HE'
to Etch
_
gsestion of their function within the fabric of {i:omt?iIdsiii:>i|iui11th:
Fiied. And
here one stumbles- u o r l ' bi- u1t'
- ' f
Us
- .
. .
itself
progress
1 one which in the meanwhil \ la P- n. .m am g
.E O

his famous piano concerto in the Italian style. He frequently in-

dulgerl an inclination, entirely incompatible with Existentialist

dignity. to experiment with strange. arbitrarily chosen idioms and
to awake their formative power for music construction. As early
as Bach the rationalization of compositional technique. the predominance of subjective reason, so to speak, brings with it the
possibility of freely chosing from all the objectively available
procedures of the epoch. Bach does not feel himself blindly bound
to any of thern but instead always chooses that which best suits
the compositional intention. Such liberty vis-it-vis the ancient however, can hardly he construed as the culmination of the tradition.
which instead must prohibit just that tree selection of available
possibilities. Even less can the meaning of Buchs recourse to the
tradition be described as restorative. {For it is precisely the archaicsoundirig pieces which are often the most daring. not merely in
terms of their contrapuntai combinations, which indeed draw directly
on the earlier polyphonic arrangements. but also with regard to the
most aclvancetl aspects of the general effect. The c-sharp minor
fugue. which begins as though it were a dense network of equally
relevant lines, the theme of which seems at rst to be nothing more

than the unobtrusive glue that holds the voices together, progressively reveals itself, starting with the entrance of the gured
second theme. to be an irresistible crescendo. composed from beginning to end and clima:-ring with the mighty explosion of the
main theme entering in the bass. the most extreme concentration of
a pseudo-ten-voice srrerro and the taming point of a heavily
accented dissonance. in order then to vanish as though through a
140

res set-em for the sake of giiiidiiiiii of t

E Ur an 0 lie
the name of cominunication of CDllSl(lCIl:ifilFll'leal?lli:gl'iand playfuI.1n
listener who with me dc1in'
to presumptive
- eofthe-olilth I
lost the belief that the formal vocabulary
iliiriiilsrihhiid $180
was binding ' IlCLl1l'10lbt~:tllCI1i'Dt'.i . eithertl
- _ - - ,1 3 0 - er
the
objective
3 1 of the times.
7 . or that
' _ the faculties
. of' 3liurnanY
eloquence
therpri
E
ft th g 5 gt-t free in music ultimately produced a higher
orrno ru.
it
'. ._ to be plpid
. for the freedom of
movcmam
thu rumF:-el5t:1;r=fS~'li1::c;]li.id
thc arliestproducls Ofthcilu k.HedlT'I.l1ltCt'lICO erence of ntusic.I:ven
of Bachts Own mm bow wlttlis
style. most conspicuously, thong
d
1 I _ .
.
1 less to that price. lhe 'El'l1_E._{iTi.lliB(jQ]'[|g5

iii
asW-ii ''= 'Pi$
'
- '6 "@Pm"~*i-1s fvmwl trim
.
concerto and the Sligltg ai1l1hInIBlidL aha mndn of H. Mom Plan
won
_e'til{:ili
ta eliervesccnce,
an L~"@Fl. Despite
its n"\]lt'
F Hcomllsiiioniil
'
-_
ty Cand
Mozart'sallproverbial
min1-_41<:; _r.4-,4

g am 1*. is pure mu5'*-1| P~-""Hi"1!. rather nicchanical 'tritl crass in

'U'Tl'lp3ll50l't with Bach's innitely involulcd unschematic approach

tisa raceofto

.
'
the feign hmnlllcnihggr Tilitll-_<1tf_ score. The cletirerthe outlines of

r 1 ed bl

hep at

ore ttcir dense and pure logic seems to be

y the appeal to a once-established schema Anyone ~.-.-110

as returnedt B
~
-i
- '
soriietiittes feels aeietriiiowg lmer'pm10ngumL Intensive Study of Bach
tive light music \:'hlC(l1u%J llc :2: contrqnd by at kind of dammmund. Such aud cm T1t1~_ Ede culture--:liclu'3_ could coiisitlcr pm.

en is tslortetl and biased, of course, amt

I4]

creep in: they seem to wail with potential fury lest any more humane
impulse bcconte audible in the rendition. The critique directed at
the late Romantics inated and sentimentalized Bach image need
not be challenged, even though the relation to Bach apparent in
Schumann's work proved to be ineoniparuhly more productive than

ltlvtlltcs ertturmtl criteria. It is no :1L'CilEIll that today's l3t:'.'.h apolo-

gi:~LS would endorse it. Yet it still includes elements of the historical
constellation that constitutes Bach's essence. Among his archaic
traits is the attempt to parry the impoverishment and petrifaction
of musical language. the shadow-side of its decisive progress. Such
traits represent Bach's cilort to resist the inexorable growth of the
conmtotlity-character of music, a process which was linked to its
subjectiviisntion, Yet. such features are also identical with Bach's
modernity inasmuch as they always serve to defend the right of
inherent musical logic against the demands of taste. Bach as archaist

the present punctilious purity. What calls for refutation. however.

is that of which the purists are most proud- --their olijcctivit;-,". The
only objective rBprcscntat.ion of music is one which shows itself

to be adequate to the essence of its object. This. however. is not to

including Stravinsky. by his refusal to confront the historical level

be identilicd-as Hindemith, too, took for grantcdwith the idea

of the historically rst rendition. The lact that the colouristic.
dimension of music had hardly been discovered in Bach's time, and

of the material with an abstract stylistic ideal. Rather what was

had certainly not yet been liberated as a compositional technique;

becomes rt means of forcing what is toward a future of its own maliing. The reconciliation oi scholar and gentleman, which, as Alfred
liinstein stressed. set the tone and aim of Viennese Classicism
since I-Iaydtt. is in a ccrlain sense also the dominant idea in Bach.
He was not. however, interested in striking :1 mean between the two

that composers tlltl not malte sharp distinctions between the differ-

distinguisltcs himself from all subsequent classic-ists, up to and

ent types of piano and organ, but rather abandoned the sound in
large measure to taste. points in a direction diammetrically opposed

to the desire to slavishly imitate the customary sounds of the time.

Even had Bach been in fact satised with the orgrins and harpsichords of the epochs, with its thin choruses and orchestras. this

elements. His nmsic strove to achieve the indilference of the eittrcmcs towarcls each other more radically than any other until that
of the late Beethoven. Bach, as the most advanced master of burso
cr:r1rEni.m_. at the some time renounced his obedience, as antiquated
polyphonist. to the trend of the times, a trend he himself had
sltupcd. in order to help it reach its innermost truth, the e|nancipation of the subject to objectivity in a. coherent whole of which
subjectivity itself was the origin. l')o\\-'n to the subtiest structural

would in no way prove their adequacy for the intrinsic substance

of his music. The a1'tists' consciousnessthe idca' they had of their

wort-; cannot, of course, be reconstructedmay, it is true, contribute

to clucidatiitg certain aspects of their work, but it can never supply
the canon. Authentic works unfold their lrutlt-content, which trans-

cends the scope of individual consciousness. in a temporal dimension through the law of their form. In addition. that which is known
of Bach as interpreter absolutely contradicts the musicological style

details it is always a question of the undiminished coincidence of

the ltztrntonic-ftinctional and oi the contrapuntal dimension. The

of presentation and points to a flexibility on the part of the com-

distant past is entrusted with the utopia of the musical subjectobject; anachronism becomes a harbinger of things to come.

poser which would much prefer to renounce the monumental than

give up the chance of atlttpting the tone to subjective impulse. Of
course, Forkel's famous report appeared too long after Bachs death
to claim full authenticity: but what he writes about Bach the pianist

is clearly based on precise statements. and there is no apparent

reason why the picture should he falsied at a time when the con-

This. if true. does not merely contradict the prevailing conception

of B:u.'l1's music but also modies the immediate relation to it. This

troversy had not yet arisen and when there was little syinpathy for

the clavichordI-le loved best to play the claviclierd. The so-called

rclution tlclines itself essentially through the pr:-ixis of performance.

Today, however, under the unholy star of Ilistoricism. the performance of liach has assumed a sectarian aspect. Historicism has

pianos (sc. liarpsichords). despite a crnnpletcly tlierent actionwhich can only mean the register -were too soulless for him, and
the pianofort-as during his lifetime were still too undeveloped and
much too primitive to have satised him. Hence, he held the clavichorcl for the best instrument for study as well as for private musical
diversion. T-Te found it most suitable for executing his nest ideas
and (lid not believe that either the ltarpsichorcl or the piano could

incited a fanatical interest that. no longer concerns even the work

itself. At times one can hardly avoid the suspicion that the sole
concern of todaj.-'"s Bach devotees is to see that no irlautltentic
ilynantics. nto-ziications of tempo, oversize choirs and orcltestras
I42

143

l
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produce as great H variety of tonal nuances as this instrument, which

despite its poor tone was erttraordirtnrily pliable in its details. What
is true, however. for differentiating within the intimate sphere. is
conversely all the more so for the extensive dynamics of the large
choral works. No matter how it was done in the Cl-tut-c|1 of Sr,

Thomas, a performance of the Sr. Martltetv Po.s.s'ion, for instance,

done with meagrt-: tltetls sounds pale and indecisive to the present-

nor to the breadth of rrriatcertrto and dect'iu-rrcrtrfo. The dynamics

consist in the quintessence of all the compositional contrasts. mediations, subdivisions. transitions and relations which constitute the
work: and at the time of Bach's greatest maturity. composition was

no less the art of infinitesimal transitions than in any of the later

composers. The entire richness of the musicral texture, the integration of which was the source of Bac-his power, must be placed in
prominence by the performattce instead of being sacrificed to a
rigid, immobile monotony. the spurious setnblance of unity that
ignores the multiplicity it should embody and surmount. Reection
on style must not be permitted to suppress the concrete musical
content and to settle complaccntly into the pose of transcendent
Being. it must follow the structure of the musical composition that
is concealed beneath the surface of sound. Mechanically St-lueakittg
r:onrr'nnoinstrumenls anti wretched school choirs contribute not to
sacred sobriety hut to malicious failure; and the thought that the
shrill and rasping Baroque organs are capable of capturing the long

day ear, like a rehearsal which a few musicians have by chance

decided to attend, while at the same time it assttmes a didacticpednntic character. Yet even more important is that such zt per-

forntance thereby contradicts the intrinsic essence of Baclfs music.

The only adequate interpretation of the dynamic objectively ennbedded in his work is one which realizes it. True interpretation is
an it-rely of the work; its task is to illuminate in the sensuous pheno-

menon the totality of all the characteristics and interrelations which

have been recognized through intensive study of the score. The
favourite argument of the purists is that all this should be left to
the work itself, whiclt need only be performed ascetically in order
to speak; interpretation. they contend. serves only to unduly em-

waves of the lapidary, large fugue-s is pure superstition. l3achs

music is separated from the general level of his age by an astronomical distance. Its eloquence returns only when it is liberated from
the sphere of resentment and obscuruntism, the triumph of the
subjcctless over sttbjectivisnt. They say Bach, mean Telemann and
are secretly in agreement with the regression of musical conscious-

phasize tnusic which can be expressed simply and which is all the

more powerful without such frills. This ttrguntent completely misses

the point. As long as music requires any kind of interpretation

wltatsoevcr, its form defines itself through the tension between the
compositions essence and its sensuous appearance. To identify the

ness which even without them remains a constant threat under the

v.-orit with the latter is only justifiable when the appearance is ti

ntanifestatiott of the essence. Yet, precisely this is achieved only

through subjective labour and reection. The attempt to do justice
to Bach's objective content by directing this eort towards abolishing the subject is self-defeating. Objectivity is not left over after
the subject is subtracted. The musical score is never identical with
the work: devotion to the text means the constant effort to grasp

it

that which it hides. Without such a dialectic, devotion becomes

betrayal: an interpretation which does not bother about the music's

moaning on the assumption that it will reveal itself of its own accord
will inevitably be false since it fails to see that the meaning is always

constituting itself anew. .\/leaning can never be grasped by the pure

rendition, allegedly purged of all exhibitionism; rather. such a
presentation, which is meaningless in itself and not to be distin-

guished front the unntusical, becomes not the path to meaning, as

which it sees itself, but a vvuli blocking the way. This does not mean,
however. that the monstrously nttitssive performances of Bach which
were the order of the day up until the First World War are any
better. The dynamics. required ttrc not related to the level of volume
l4-l

pressures of the culture industry. Of course, there is also the possibility that the contradiction between the substance of Baclfs compositions and the means for realizing it in sound, both those available at the time and those accumulated since, can no longer be
resolved. ln the light oi this possibility. the much discussed abstractness of sound in the Mu.st'r?o'l Oering and the Art of this
Fugue, as works in which the choice of instruments is left open.
acquires a new dimension. lt is conceivable that the contradiction
between music and sound-material especially the inadequacy of
the organ tone to the innitely articulated st1'ucturchad already
become visible at the time. if this were the case, Bach would have
omitted the sound and left his most mature instrumental works
waiting for the sound that would suit them. With such pieces it is
not even remotely possible for philologists with no affinity for contposition to write out the parts and assign them to ttrlchttttging instruments or groups. What is demanded is that they be rethought for
an orchestra which neither squanders nor sctimps but rather which
functions as a moment of the integral composition. In the case of
the entire Arr of the Fugtte. the only such cllort has been that of
145

Eritz Siiedly, whose arrangement did not survive its New York
premiere. Justice is done Bach not through musioological usurpa-

tion but solely through the most advtttl-t:o:l composition which in

turn converges with the level of Bach's continually unfolding work.
The few instrumeulutions contributed by Schoenberg and Anton von
Webern, especially those of the great triple fugue in E at major
and of the siropart Rit-errata, in which every faoet of the composition is transposed into rt correlative timbre and in which the surface
interweaving of lines is dissolved into the most minute motivic
interrelations and then reunited through the overall constructive
disposition of the orchestrasuch instrutnentations are models of
an attitude to Bach which corresponds to the stage of his truth. Perhaps the traditional Bach can indeed no longer be interpreted. If
this is true, his heritage has passed on to composition, which is loyal
to him in being disloyal; it calls his music by name in producing it
anew.

146

{.
ARNOLD SCI-IOENBHRG E874-195]

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