Abstract--
Transient Hermit Crabs:
The inadequate fit of existing shells for chamber music of the Bach family.
Johann Sebastian, Wilhelm Friedemann, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach may be seen as alien life forms in places where musical form, function, and taste were dictated by local authority and preexisting practices. These elements were often fused together into a formidable fortress that would send the merely competent musician-composer into obscurity after just one generation. It is difficult to categorize the music of any particular place and time in music history without encountering exceptions. The chamber music of the Bach family seems to fall into their own non-conforming category. Unless we want to try to make the theoretical elements fit the practical, as Johannes Tinctoris (c. 1435-1511) tried to systematize, categorize, and reconcile all the unusual elements of chant in his De natura et proprietate tonorum, we need to re-examine how we categorize music from the eighteenth to early-nineteenth centuries.
By examining specific, and seemingly non-conformist pieces by each member of the Bach family mentioned above, J. S. Bach’s Allemande from the Partita in a, BWV 1013, W. F. Bach’s Lamentabile from the Duetto a 2 Flauti in F, Fk 57/B4, and C. Ph. E. Bach’s Poco adagio from the Sonata in a, H. 562, and comparing them with specific pieces by their contemporaries, composers whose music was composed within the established models, this essay shows that by working within the established guidelines of their respective time and place, the chamber music of the Bach family thrived and survived, regardless of any criticisms about the non-conformist nature of their compositions. I will also suggest alternative means of categorizing music that exists adjacent to traditional labels.
