155 Days With Bach and Me

Now, this is a quirky little collection of 38 pieces of music. The title (“Notenbuchlein Fur Anna Magdalena Bach”) means Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, Johann’s second wife. According to its entry on Wikipedia:

The title Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach refers to either of two manuscript notebooks that the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach presented to his second wife Anna Magdalena. Keyboard music (minuets, rondeaux, polonaises, chorales, sonatas, preludes, musettes, marches, gavottes) makes up most of both notebooks, and a few pieces for voice (songs, and arias) are included.

The two notebooks are known by their title page dates of 1722 and 1725. The title “Anna Magdalena notebook” is commonly used to refer to the latter. The primary difference between the two collections is that the 1722 notebook contains works only by Johann Sebastian Bach (including most of the French Suites), while the 1725 notebook is a compilation of music by both Bach and other composers of the era. It provides a nearly unparalleled glimpse into the domestic music of the 18th century and the musical tastes of the Bach family.

See? Pretty darn interesting stuff here.

I love this image of the cover of the 1722 book, written in Anna’s hand, with special notation by Johann in the lower right corner, three books the significance of which no one can explain. From its entry on Wikipedia:

The title page is inscribed Clavier-Büchlein vor Anna Magdalena Bachin ANNO 1722 in Anna Magdalena’s hand. For a reason so far unknown to researchers, Johann Sebastian wrote the titles of three books by theologian August Pfeiffer (died 1698) in the lower right corner of the title page:

* “Ante Calvinismus” is a shortened and misspelled title of Anti-Calvinismus, oder Unterredungen von der Reformierten Religion (literally “Anti-Calvinism, or Conversations about the reformed religion”).
*”Christen Schule item” refers to Pfeiffer’s Evangelische Christen Schule (“Evangelical Christian School”).
*”AntiMelancholicus” refers to Anti-melancholicus, oder Melancholey-Vertreiber (literally “Anti-melancholy, or [something or someone used to drive out the melancholy]”).

Hell, I can explain it. Bach’s wife was getting depressed by theological arguments for and against Calvinism. So Johann offered these books to her, especially hoping the third one would guide her through periods of depression that often accompanies discussions regarding the finer points of theology.

Case closed.

Unfortunately, today’s CD combines two of my least favorite sounds in Classical music: The harpsichord and a soprano. So, although I’m learning a lot about Anna’s notebook (and Bach’s thoughts on theology), I’m not thrilled with the vocal pieces. That’s not due to a lack on sporano Johannette Zomer‘s part, either. She’s a gifted singer. But I prefer my singers to be more like Ann Wilson (Heart), Eva Cassidy, and Sandy Denny. Female operatic vocalists have a better than 50/50 chance to leave me cold.

Today’s CD offers a new word to categorize Bach’s compositions: Anhang, which is a German word that means addendum, supplement, attachment, appendage. One such Anhang — Menuet, BWV Anhang 114 — is a famous melody that everyone associates with the Baroque period:

There are 38 tracks on today’s CD. And many, many BWV (and Anhang) numbers, which likely corresponds to many dates of composition. I won’t research them all. Otherwise, I’d be here all day long.