How to calligraph a Bach Sarabande

How to calligraph a Bach Sarabande?

For this copy original editions and manuscripts were examined, the modern edition of the Neue Bach Ausgabe has been studied, an exemplary example was chosen for the style of Bach's handwriting, a digital concept score was created for the layout and a part of Bach secondary literature was read for analysis.

Sarabande BWV 828 Fourth keyboard partita by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Sarabande of Bach’s fourth keyboard partita was published in 1728 & part of his first commercial collection. Opus 1 was probably engraved by his student Balthasar Schmid. No manuscript in Bach's hand: an autograph - has been preserved.

A manuscript of an organ piece from 1727 has been chosen as a good example of his writing style. It shows that the golden days of his early 1720s blossoming of his expressive hand were far from over. We can validate and appreciate this as visual art. A comparison with graphic art might clarify this.

A Minoan painter decorated a vase three and a half thousand years ago. A Baroque curly octopus - itself an ink master - looks you vividly in the eye - this is personal. No empty space is left unfulfilled. The artist uses his tools confidently and with elegance. It shares its vibrant & ravishing beauty with Bach's hand.

Original Bach scores are digitalized - together with additional sources, like student copies. 34 copies document the printing history of the engravings. Wear indicates that the editions were in the dozens. Of the additional handwritten copies, two were made during Bach's lifetime. The earliest is by an unknown scribe with an inexperienced hand. The other from 1740 made by Bach's student Ritter is excellent and very interesting.

Bar 14 is a good example to illustrate the fruitfulness of creating a new calligraphy. The engraver wrote a variation in the opening motif: a quarter note divided into 6 units. The unknown scribe ignored this and created a faulty unit of measure. Ritter wrote a correct rhythmic unity by adding thirty-second beams. The modern edition is faithful to the engraver. To explain the differences, we can take a closer look at the publication process.

Towards the end of his life Bach composed his 14th canon of the Art of the Fugue. As in the Sarabande, we see a high voice with a tendency to flourish in thirty seconds above a more steady voice in eights. Fortunately Bach's engraving draft for the engraver has come down to us. We can make a few observations. He doubled the note values, easing the task for the engraver who could make the melody flow in sixteenth notes. He also adjusted his writing style: simpler and more rigid. The engraver follows the example quite closely. Remarkably, the simple notation did not lead to greater clarity everywhere. At the end of this staff line his writing was compromised and a few notes lost their heads. It was no problem for the engraver.

This sheet by Carl Philipp Emanuel is a list of some pages of the Art of the Fugue in which the engraver made an error. On average, there is a mistake on every page. In Bach's personal copy of the Goldberg Variations we see how he dealt with this. It is now faded, but previously red ink would have sparkled on the bleached page. It tells of omissions and misreadings. Sold copies do not show this amendments. Proofreading a prepared copper plate could have solved this, especially taking into account his keen eye. Once a plate was engraved, it was a fixed thing.

So there are reasons to trust and rely on a good modern edition. Yet taking into account a broader perspective and close reading all sources, we can question mark doing so.

Johann Christoph Ritter was a crafted composer. He was in the fortunate position of learning the Sarabande during keyboard lessons from Bach. His opening melody in bar 1 and modulated reprise in bar 13 have their own phrasing. Ritter, engraver and NBA place arcs and embellishment not at the same spots. Bach’s handwritten example of the Sarabande for the engraver is lost. For cost reasons, fairly small copper plates were chosen. The beautiful division of the quarter note into six contributes to the abstract character of the Sarabande. Bach authorized the edition. But insight into the publication process unfolds a possible alternative scenario. Bach's model for the engraving was small and 32nd beams may have interfered with staff lines, making them virtually unreadable. The engraver might have chosen for a creative and unerasable fix. Ritter’s score might document Bach's initial composition in bar 14, authorized by lessons.