Germany Music Part 8
JS Bach’s physiognomy is twofold; from a certain point of view Bach appears as a subtle counterpoint who delights in canons, problems and artifices to the point of almost recalling the ancient Flemings; his religious spirit is radically detached from the pietism of his time, from the rhetorical sacred poems then in fashion, to return to the ancient mysticism of the Middle Ages and to the bare words of Luther’s Bible: a giant figure that contemporaries could not understand. Under another aspect Bach shows himself, as Beethoven said, the father of modern harmony, and his audacities precede the romantic technique; his spirit is nourished with such complex feelings, with such varied and subtle sensations that even today they have not touched. But at the bottom of his art these two elements, far from contradicting each other, they prove to be together and inseparable, as aspects of a deeply meditative and religious spirit that seems to come from the distant Gothic period. For his austerely religious spirit, for his concentrated reflexivity, for the so to speak analytical quality of his composition, JS Bach was an isolated person in the musical life of his time. The riches to which he had brought in his work of supreme valorization of counterpoint in modern harmony were not what the taste of the moment demanded. His own son, Ph. Immanuel, is on a road to somewhere else; but these riches must not be wasted: even today they constitute the most precious substance, nor yet fully explored, of the technique of musical art. modern harmony were not what the taste of the moment demanded. His own son, Ph. Immanuel, is on a road to somewhere else; but these riches must not be wasted: even today they constitute the most precious substance, nor yet fully explored, of the technique of musical art. modern harmony were not what the taste of the moment demanded. His own son, Ph. Immanuel, is on a road to somewhere else; but these riches must not be wasted: even today they constitute the most precious substance, nor yet fully explored, of the technique of musical art.
More in keeping with the musical style of his time was the great contemporary of Bach, GF Händel of Halle: while very powerful in the expression of austere and religious ideas and feelings, Handel proceeds in a simpler art towards the immediate synthesis, which he outlines with clearly marked outlines. Harmony and counterpoint, artifices and formal schemes serve him only to increase the variety and power of the overall effects. Hence the triumph of his work as a theatrical musician and of his great oratories, destined to arouse entire peoples in religious or patriotic transport. Handel’s art, which spread especially in German countries and dominated England up to our times (for which nation he composed his major works), is nourished by elements not only German but also Italian,
According to intershippingrates.com, the era of Bach and Handel saw the affirmation, around the two great masters, of numerous very notable musicians, such as J. Mattheson in Hamburg, Germany Ph. Telemann, Chr. Graupner in Darmstadt, GH Stölzel in Gotha, G Walter in Weimar, JF Fasch in Zerbst. Of the most famous of them, Germany Ph. Telemann, for a long time fertility and eclecticism were despised, however the insatiable thirst for novelty and different experiences did not prevent this musician from reaching many times, as in the superb cantata Ino (1775) for soprano and orchestra, a high artistic level. More famous than him, as well as in Germany also in Italy and Austria, was JA Hasse di Bergedorf, who in Italy was also favored by A. Scarlatti and who throughout his life worked for the theater (however he also composed oratorî) on librettos Italians (Metastasio). Indeed, he was one of the most fruitful and illustrious representatives of serious Italian opera. Excellent pages appear both in the works and in the oratories and instrumental pages. Hasse was greatly admired by the King of Prussia Frederick the Great himself, himself a good musician (composer and flute virtuoso), among the best in Berlin together with JJ Quantz and the Graun brothers. At that time, in Munich, the Italians Pietro Torri, opera player and EF, were also distinguished from the Abaco author of instrumental music; in Vienna JJ Constance and fortress (from 1722). Minor masters were Germany Reuter, Germany Muffat and Germany Chr. Wagenseil, whose artistic direction leads up to the first Haydn.
At the twilight of the baroque counterpoint the style undergoes a sudden change, and even in music the new spirit of deliberate ingenuity, of ostentatious feelings of sincerity, of freedom, of a sense of nature, introduced by Rousseau, is felt. Music simplifies and favors the work of amateurs, while professional composers speak only of Stimmung and “sensitivity”.
