Bach, Telemann, and The Process of Transformative Imitation in BWV 10562 1561

Bach, Telemann, and the Process of Transformative Imitation in BWV 1056/2 (156/1)
Author(s): Steven Zohn and Ian Payne

Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 546-584
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/763932
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Bach, Telemann, and
the Process of Transformative
Imitation in BWV 1056/2

(156/1)*
STEVEN ZOHN with IAN PAYNE
The middle movement of Bach's F-m

sichord concerto BWV 1056, easily among the compo
slow concerto movements, has in recent decades e
scholarly discussion as to its origins. In his Tiibinge
546 rich Siegele partially overturned the notion that the c
nally conceived in G minor for violin and strings, de
only the outer movements can have derived from this lo
Rifkin subsequently showed that the slow movement
ment of the introductory sinfonia to the 1729 cant
einem FuB im Grabe" BWV 156, as had been prop
Volume XVII - Number 4 - Fall 1999

The Journal of Musicology @ 1999 by the Regents of the Univer
* A shorter version of this essay was read at the Sixty-

Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Soc
City, November 1999. Portions of it expand upon o
made in Ian Payne, "New Light on Telemann and
Measures," The Musical Times (CXXXIX (1998); 44-
mann's Musical Style c.1709o-c. 1730 andJ. S. Bach
of Borrowing," Bach: TheJournal of the Riemenschneide
tute XXX/1 (1999), 42-64, at 57-59; and Steven Z
Borrowings from Telemann," in Telemann und Bach.
Darstellungen-Uberlegungen. Hans-Joachim Schulze zum
Magdeburger Telemann-Studien, vol. 18 (forthcom
gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments made
drafts by Gregory Butler, Michael Marissen, andJos
1 Ulrich Siegele, "Kompositionsweise und Bearbeitungstechnik

musik Johann Sebastian Bachs" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of
lished as Tfibinger Beitriige zur Musikwissenschaft, vol. 3 (Neuhause
Verlag, 1975), 129-30.
ZOHN sc PAYNE
Fischer, but that both the concerto movement and the sinfon
pendent upon an earlier movement in F major, scored like th
for oboe and strings. This F-major movement, in his view,
originally to a lost D-minor oboe concerto whose outer move
vive in arranged form as the sinfonias in the 1726 cantata
Seele wird verwirret" BWV 35.2 Most recently, Werner Brei
fied the multi-stage process by which Bach revised the rip
parts and embellished the solo part in the slow movemen
1056. He proposes that Bach replaced the slow movement
minor violin concerto with that of the D-minor oboe concerto because
the relatively circumscribed, vocally-conceived line of the latter was bet-
ter suited to a transformation from "cantilena to coloratura" through
the gradual accretion of ornaments.3
Thanks to such source-critical investigations and informed specula-
tion, Bach's reuse, revision, and recontextualization of BWV 1056/2
(156/1) have come more sharply into focus. Still obscure, however, are
answers to the questions of where, when, and why he composed the
movement's original version. The present essay attempts answers from a
new perspective by revealing that BWV 1056/2 (156/1) is substantially
547
based upon a slow concerto movement by Georg Philipp Telemann.
Bach's model, the first movement of a G-major concerto for solo
oboe or flute and strings, is classified as TWV 51 :G2 in the Telemann-
Werkverzeichnis. That the close connection between the movements went
unnoticed for so long is attributable in part to misleading published de-

scriptions of the work's fragmentary state, descriptions which have no
doubt discouraged the appearance of a modern edition.4 As we shall
2 Wilfried Fischer, Kritischer Bericht to Johann Sebastian Bach, Neue Ausgabe sdmtlicher
Werke (henceforth NBA), series VII, vol. 7 (Kassel: Bairenreiter, 1971), 84-86 and 92;
Joshua Rifkin, "Ein langsamer Konzertsatz Johann Sebastian Bachs," Bach-Jahrbuch LXIV
(1978), 140-47. See also Rifkin's liner notes to Pro Arte PAD 153 (1983) and Ulrich
Leisinger, Kritischer Bericht to NBA I/6 (Kassel: Bairenreiter, 1996), 88. The advisability of
reconstructing BWV 35/1 and 5 as fast concerto movements for solo oboe is questioned
in Bruce Haynes, 'Johann Sebastian Bachs Oboenkonzerte," Bach-Jahrbuch LXXVIII
(1992), 23-43, at 38-39. Rifkin's explanation of why Bach abandoned his transcription
of the D-minor oboe concerto BWV 1059 after only nine measures is challenged in
Werner Breig, "Bachs Cembalokonzert-Fragment in d-Moll (BWV 1059)," Bach-Jahrbuch
LXV (1979), 29-36, at 30.
3 Werner Breig, "Zur Werkgeschichte von Bachs Cembalokonzert BWV 1056," in
Bachs Orchesterwerke, Bericht fiber das 1. Dortmunder Bach-Symposium 1996, Dort-
munder Bach-Forschungen, vol. 1, ed. Martin Geck and Werner Breig (Witten: Klangfar-
ben, 1997), 265-82. In a forthcoming study, Gregory Butler further discredits the notion
of a lost G-minor violin concerto by arguing that the outer movements of BWV 1056 can-
not originally have belonged to the same work, and that the third movement was initially
conceived for solo oboe, not violin. We are indebted to Professor Butler for informing us
of his research.
4 The concerto is described as lacking a bass part in Martin Ruhnke, ed., Georg
Philipp Telemann: Thematisch-Systematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke: Telemann-Werkverzeichnis:
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
see, the missing portions of Telemann's concerto do not signific

hinder an assessment of the music, and scarcely affect the first
ment at all.5
The revelation of Bach's modelling is significant on several counts.

Besides adding to the relatively small number of Bach's known borrow-
ings of music by other composers, it considerably broadens our knowl-
edge of his contact with and admiration for Telemann's music. It also
demonstrates that the stylistic influences on Bach's concertos were not
limited to the Italian works of Vivaldi, Albinoni, and Torelli, but included
-at least in one instance-a concerto by a German contemporary.6 But
perhaps most important, the identification of Bach's model allows us
deeper insight into a relatively unfamiliar side of his working method:
the use of transformative imitation to turn preexistent music by another
composer into a distinctive expression of his own compositional voice.
Our study commences with a consideration of the musical and chrono-
logical relationship between Bach's and Telemann's movements, then
explores the contemporary aesthetic context for Bach's borrowing and
the reasons he may have turned to Telemann's music for inspiration.
548 I
Although a precise chronology for the two move-

ments is likely to remain elusive, the notion that the lost original ver-
sion of BWV 1056/2 (156/1) was written in response to TWV 51:G2,
and not the other way around, is strongly supported by musical and
Instrumentalwerke (= Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke, Supplement), vol. 3 (Kassel:

Birenreiter, 1999), 28 (TWV 51:G2); Siegfried Kross, Das Instrumentalkonzert bei Georg
Philipp Telemann (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1969), 127 (Fl.G[1]); and Ingo Gronefeld,
Die F16tenkonzerte bis i850: Ein thematisches Verzeichnis, 3 vols. (Tutzing: Hans Schneider,
1994), 3:226 (item 152).
5 For a critical edition and reconstruction of the concerto, see Ian Payne, ed., Georg
Philipp Telemann: Concerto in G major for Oboe (Flute), Strings and Basso Continuo, Severinus
Urtext Telemann Edition, vol. 95 (Hereford: Severinus Press, 1998).
6 While Vivaldi's influence on Bach's ritornello forms has been treated extensively in
the Bach literature, only recently has the influence of Torelli and Albinoni been recog-
nized. See in particular Jean-Claude Zehnder, "Giuseppe Torelli und Johann Sebastian
Bach: Zu Bachs Weimarer Konzertform," Bach-Jahrbuch LXXVII (1991), 33-95; Gregory G.
Butler, "J. S. Bach's reception of Tomaso Albinoni's Mature Concertos," in Bach Studies 2,
ed. Daniel R. Melamed (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 20-46; and
Robert Hill, 'Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata in G major BWV 916/I: A Reception of
Giuseppe Torelli's Ritornello Concerto Form," in Das Friihwerk Johann Sebastian Bachs, Kollo-
quium veranstaltet vom Institut ffir Musikwissenschaft der Universitfit Rostock 11.-13. Sep-
tember 1990, ed. Karl Heller and Hans-Joachim Schulze (Cologne: Studio, 1995), 162-75.
Discussions of the stylistic parallels between Bach's and Telemann's concertos include Wolf-
gang Hirschmann, "Eklektischer Imitationsbegriff und konzertantes Gestalten bei Tele-
mann und Bach," in Bachs Orchesterwerke, 305-19; and Payne, "Telemann's Musical Style,"
51-59-
ZOHN &c PAYNE
documentary evidence. First, it is significant, and perhaps not entirely

unexpected, that Bach's elaboration and exploration of the musical
material common to both movements is on the whole more sophisti-
cated than Telemann's. This is not necessarily to denigrate Telemann's
movement, but rather to suggest that Bach was able to benefit from a
critical reading of it, in much the same way as Handel often realized-
through various processes of imitation-the full potential of the mater-
ial he himself borrowed from Telemann.7 Had Telemann's movement
been modeled upon Bach's, we would reasonably expect it to reveal

some evidence of a critical reading, which it does not. Further suggest-
ing a Telemann-Bach direction of influence is Bach's well-documented
contact with his friend's concertos at Weimar. Around 17o09 he pro-
duced a set of parts to Telemann's G-major double violin concerto TWV
52:G2, possibly presenting them to the violinistJohann Georg Pisendel
in that year, and in 1713-14 or thereabouts he arranged Telemann's G-
minor violin concerto TWV 51:G1 for harpsichord (BWV 985). Also cir-
culating in Weimar during the 171os, and therefore likely to have been
known to Bach, were the D-major double violin concerto TWV 52:D4
(transmitted in a Rostock set of parts apparently originating at the
Weimar court ca. 1713-14) and three concertos arranged for549 solo key-
board by Johann Gottfried Walther, organist at the Church of St. Peter
and St. Paul and a cousin of Bach's: the C-minor double concerto for
oboe and violin TWV 52:cl (= TWV Anh. 33:2), the B-minor violin (?)
concerto TWV 51:h3 (= TWV Anh. 33:1), and the B-flat violin concert
TWV 51:B2 (= TWV Anh. 43:B1 and Anh. 33:6).8 Bach's close relation-
ship to Telemann during the early Weimar years, when the latter was
7 The literature on Handel's borrowings from Telemann includes Max Seiffert, "G.
Ph. Telemann's 'Musique de table' als Quelle ffir Handel," in Bulletin de la sociiti "Unio
Musicologique" IV (1924), 1-28; revised in Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767): Musique d
table. Ausfiihrungen zu Band LXI und LXII der Denkmiler deutscher Tonkunst, Erste Folge, Bei-
hefte zu den Denkmilern deutscher Tonkunst, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hirtel, 1927
repr. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1960); Bernd Baselt, "Sch6pferische
Beziehungen zwischen G.Ph. Telemann und G. F. Hindel-G.Ph. Telemanns 'Harmon
scher Gottesdienst' als Quelle ffir HWindel," in Die Bedeutung Georg Philipp Telemanns fir
die Entwicklung der europiiischen Musikkultur im i8. Jahrhundert, Bericht fiber die Intern
tionale Wissenschaftliche Konferenz anfilich der Georg-Philipp-Telemann-Ehrung der
DDR, Magdeburg 12. bis 18. Marz 1981, 3 vols. (Magdeburg: Zentrum ffir Telemann
Pflege und -Forschung, 1983), 2:4-14; Ellwood Derr, "Handel's Procedures for Compos-
ing with Materials from Telemann's 'Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst' in 'Solomon,' " an
John H. Roberts, "Handel's Borrowings from Telemann: An Inventory," in Gittinger Hdn-
del Beitrdge, vol. 1, ed. Hans Joachim Marx (Kassel: Birenreiter, 1984), 116-46 and 147
71, respectively; and Chanan Willner, "Handel's Borrowings from Telemann: An Analyti
cal View," in Trends in Schenkerian Research, ed. Allen Cadwallader (New York: Schirmer,
1990), 145-68.
8 On Bach's copy of TWV 52:G2, see Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Telemann-Pisendel-
Bach: Zu einem unbekannten Bach-Autograph," in Die Bedeutung Georg Philipp Telemanns,
2:73-77. Concerning the dating of Bach's and Walther's keyboard arrangements, and o
Konzertmeister and Kapellmeister at the nearby Eisenach court,

tested to by C.P.E. Bach in a 1775 letter to Johann Nikolaus Fork
his younger days he saw a good deal of Telemann, who also stoo
father to me. [crossed out:] He esteemed him, particularly in his
mental things, very highly."9 Another opportunity for Bach to ex
Telemann's early concertos may have come in March 1714, when
mann apparently traveled between Frankfurt and Weimar to stan
father to Emanuel.'o
TWV 52:D4, see Schulze, 'J. S. Bach's Concerto-Arrangements for Organ: Studies o
missioned Works?," Organ Yearbook III (1972), 4-13; and Studien zur Bach-Uberlieferun
Jahrhundert (Leipzig: Peters, 1984), 146-73. It should be noted, however, that th
edly inferior quality of TWV 52:D4 casts considerable doubt on its authenticity a
of Telemann. For details, see Ian Payne, "Doubtfully Bred: Another Telemann Mis
tion," The Musical Times CXL (1999), 37-42. Although only the transcriptions o
52:c1 and 51:h3 survive in Walther's autograph, the transcription of TWV 51:B2
to have stemmed from his pen as well. See Russell Stinson, Keyboard Transcriptions f
Bach Circle, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, vol. 69 (Madison,
Editions, 1992), x. The style of these last three concertos is consistent with a termi
quem of 1713-14, and indeed Wolfgang Hirschmann assigns them to 1708-14 in
zum Konzertschaffen von Georg Philipp Telemann, 2 vols. (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1986),
550 and 187-91; and "Telemanns Frankfurter Konzertschaffen: Quellen- und stilkriti
merkungen zur Datierungsproblematik" (forthcoming). We are grateful
Hirschmann for sharing with us this and another forthcoming article cited below i
43. As Kirsten BeiBwenger reports in Johann Sebastian Bachs Notenbibliothek (Kassel
reiter, 1992), 69 and 378-79, Bach may have arranged another Telemann conc
keyboard, for an Erfurt auction catalog from 1810 includes the following entry
mann, Concerto appropriato all'organo di J. S. Bach, f-dur, geschr." It is possib
ever, that the transcription was Walther's, since the wording "appropriato all'or
precisely that used by Walther in the thirteen concerto transcriptions of D-Bds, M
22541/4, minus the following attribution "daJ.G.W."
9 Hans-Joachim Schulze, ed., Bach-Dokumente, vol. 3: Dokumente zum Nachwirk
hann Sebastian Bachs (Leipzig and Kassel: Barenreiter, 1972), No. 803; translation
The New Bach Reader: A Life ofJohann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, ed.
David and Arthur Mendel, rev. and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: W.
ton, 1998), No. 395. See also Stephen L. Clark, The Letters of C.RE. Bach (Oxford:
don Press, 1997), 74; and the facsimile of the letter in Max Schneider, ed., Bach-Urk
Ursprung der musikalisch-Bachischen Familie: Nachrichten iiberJohann Sebastian Bach v
Philipp Emanuel Bach, Ver6ffentlichungen der Neuen Bachgesellschaft, vol. 17/3
Breitkopf & Hirtel, [1917]), [28-31]. Although Emanuel's reason for deleting
ond sentence remains obscure, one might speculate that on second thought h
this information irrelevant for Forkel's purposes, rather than an inaccurate charact
tion of his father's musical tastes.
11 Though, as Hans-Joachim Schulze cautions, there is insufficient documentary evi-

dence to confirm Telemann's visit. See his "'FlieBende Leichtigkeit' und 'arbeitsam
Vollstimmigkeit': Georg Philipp Telemann und die Musikerfamilie Bach," in Telemann
und seine Freunde: Kontakte, Einfliife, Auswirkungen, Bericht fiber die Internationale Wissen-
schaftliche Konferenz anlBl3ich der 8. Telemann-Festtage der DDR, Magdeburg 15. un
16. Marz 1984, 2 vols. (Magdeburg: Zentrum fiir Telemann-Pflege und -Forschung
1986), 1:34-40, at 34. For the text of Telemann's listing in the Leipzig Town Churc
records, see Werner Neumann and Hans-Joachim Schulze, eds., Bach-Dokumente, vol.
Fremdschriftliche und gedruckte Dokumente zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs 1685
1750 (Leipzig and Kassel: Birenreiter, 1969), No. 67; The New Bach Reader, No. 55-
ZOHN & PAYNE
Our discussion of the two movements proceeds fr

clusion that the musical text of BWV 156/1 differs only
from the lost original version of Bach's movement
the complete sinfonia and opening movement of
without significance is the fact that at twenty-four me
time, Telemann's Andante is only four measures
Adagio. For while such modest dimensions are comm
slow concerto movements composed at Eisenach (17
furt (1712-21), they are most unusual for Bach at a
with the exception of the middle "movement" of t
burg Concerto BWV 1048, Bach's Adagio probably t
perform, on average, than any of his other slow con
Surely the most striking musical parallel betwee
Bach's movements occurs in the first two-and-a-half measures, where
the two soloists play virtually the same melody. Bach's version, however,
includes several substantive differences that could be regarded as im-
provements to an already distinctive melodic line: the elimination of
Telemann's static melodic motion across the barline in measures 1-2
by reproducing the upward sweep of measure 12 in 14, and by leaping
up an octave in measure 21 to provide a registral link to 2 on551
the third
beat of the same measure. Equally striking is the fact that the two pas-
sages share a descending bass line, offbeat chordal string accompani-
ment, and initial harmonic progression (I-V6-IV -V7-I). Although
I Bach's original, if it was indeed the second movement of a D-minor concerto,

would presumably have included the ending of BWV 1056/2, which closes with a half ca-
dence on the dominant of the relative minor. Both BWV 156/1 and Telemann's move-
ment close on the home dominant in anticipation of the following movement in the tonic.
1 In this and following examples drawn from Telemann's concerto, editorial addi-
tions appear in small type, brackets, or as dashed curves; obvious errors have been tacitly
corrected. For a full critical report of the concerto, see the edition cited in note 5. The
text of the Bach movement follows that of NBA 1/6.
'3 Closest in length to BWV 1056/2 (156/1) are the "Andante" movements of the
Second and Fourth Brandenburg Concertos BWV 1047 and 1049. We exclude from con-
sideration the middle movement of BWV 1065, arranged from Vivaldi's Op. 3, No. to.
It would be unwise to make much of a practical distinction between Bach's "Adagio"
("Largo" in BWV 1056) and Telemann's "Andante," for these indications could have
been understood during the early eighteenth century as conveying the same general
tempo and affect. For Johann Joachim Quantz, this tempo and affect was expressed as
"Adagio cantabile" (as opposed to "Adagio assai"), a broad category that included "Poco
Andante," "Cantabile," "Arioso," "Soave," "Dolce," "Affettuoso," and the like. See Johann
Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung die Fl1te traversiere zu Spielen (Berlin, Johann
Friedrich Vo13, 1752; repr. Kassel: Birenreiter, 1992), 262; trans. as Edward R. Reilly, Jo-
hann Joachim Quantz: On Playing the Flute, 2nd ed. (New York: Schirmer, 1985), 284. As
Robert Marshall has shown ("Tempo and Dynamics: The Original Terminology," in The
Music ofJohann Sebastian Bach: The Sources, The Style, The Significance [New York: Schirmer,
1989], 255-69, at 266), Bach seems to have regarded "Largo" as somewhat faster than
"Adagio," and somewhat slower than "Andante." For the sake of convenience, we shall
henceforth refer to BWV 1056/2 (156/1) as an Adagio.
EXAMPLE la. Bach, sinfonia to "Ich steh mit einem FuB im Grabe"
BWV 156.
AdagioSINFONIA
Adagio tr
OboePM
24L tz I i _ - ivo OP OP- _ .-. , - s " . .. # _
ViolaMR9
Violins I. II. m, "

B.C.1F
4 Amtri
fbI
In 0
552
7A
10 _.d[ r
1: j41"1.1, ,.
10 Ufri
A~
A, , m.,
2f . tz.,.:;&
. 1 F -"PE .M
P , ; ,:.r
- ,. I"p
c I
ZOHN & PAYNE
EXAMPLE la. (continued)
13 , " - 3 3 3 3.,
"" -10 -.--J ' k " " -0
16 [tr] (tr.]
553
c- ' ["' 3 "-
16 ItrV n I
VlnI
jVin
!f I
-- 1
do I " - l-------- , I % ,,Emm a I
F
o, A "*-Ir?BC
EXAMPLE lb. Telemann, Concerto in G major TWV 51:G2, movem

Andanteri
Oboe or afuSOP.
Flute
99q 49 dd-- I L
Violins
Viola I, II,=i i: m;"
4 Ilrl [Itl
rotr
OR. . ' 0 , ,
-O #
554
I!.:..
[:~, 1-
~~~doI,
INI FI 1I ,I,'
, i ,, 1,
. .
71
,2_;: 1 , So 0 1-
LMI i gf 1i o .--.,
l-ad
Z -
11 .[trl
ZOHN & PAYNE
EXAMPLE lb. (continued)

14
gm.I... I A - ~ I I II. ,
17
555
tto
--. zi..p.+ . 1w.+

21 A Itri Itri fl-? I trq
2/ + [1_ _ [+ ,} . .. . . .. . . ..-.--- - -- -.-- ., [ M"
[4+ "T t r"'40
here Bach injects Telemann's bass line with an element of rhyth

variety, in BWV 1056/2 he reintroduces the steady eighth-note o
leaps (off rather than on the beat) in the harpsichord's left hand
these parallels in mind, Telemann's "arco" string parts might be
as further evidence that Bach added pizzicato indications to the s
parts in BWV 1056/2 only to avoid obscuring the rapidly decayin
of the harpsichord.'4
Even though the two movements appear to diverge beginnin
the second half of measure 3, there remain significant points of c
between them. In a procedure commonly encountered in his son
especially those in solo scoring, Telemann adopts a modular orga
tion for the remainder of his movement, introducing a variety o
trasting figures that return at different pitch levels and are occasion
extended or altered.'5 Thus a chromatically inflected sighing fi
(measures 3-4) gives way to a passage that initially reverses the rh
of the sighing figure and elegantly outlines V7/V on the way to the
inant cadence in measure 7; slurred pairs of sixteenth notes treat
quentially are followed by a return of the sighing figure, now ex
in order to effect a cadence in the mediant (measure 12); and a r
556
ment of the slurred sixteenths leads to a variation of the sighing
(measures 17-18) and the earlier dominant-seventh figure, whic
leads back to the tonic (measure 21). Virtually lost in the manipu
of these modules is the distinctive opening phrase, of which littl
is to be found later in the movement (but see measure 13). Thro
out, the bass line descends relentlessly, breaking its melodic-rhy
pattern only at cadences.
Bach, by contrast, rarely loses sight of the opening phrase's r
mic profile, departing from it only for the rather galant sixteenth-n
triplets in measures 13-14 (a gesture perhaps more typical of
mann than of Bach), and providing a literal repeat of the phras
the movement's end. But he does seem to retain an element of Tele-
mann's modular conception in the abrupt tonal shifts between
14 However, Leisinger (Kritischer Bericht to NBA 1/6, 95), following Christop

suggests the possibility that the lost performing materials to BWV 156 indicat
cato string accompaniment in the sinfonia, perhaps as a musical depiction o
bells (cf. BWV 198/4). That Telemann might have countenanced a pizzicato ac
ment to his movement is suggested by a similar chordal accompaniment, mar
cato," in the slow third movement of his E-minor concerto for flute and recorder TWV
52:el.
15 On the modular organization of Telemann's solo sonata movements, s
R. Swack, "The Solo Sonatas of Georg Philipp Telemann: A Study of the S
Musical Style" (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1988), 103-22 and 155-60.
similar structures in the trios and quartets, see Steven D. Zohn, '"The Ensemble
Georg Philipp Telemann: Studies in Style, Genre, and Chronology" (Ph.D. dis
Cornell University, 1995), 223-25, 337-38, 358-62, 405, and 421.
ZOHN & PAYNE
phrases, especially that occurring at measure 7, where t

ment from C major to G minor is underscored by the
tween E-natural (3 in C major) and E-flat (6 in G m
abrupt, if less dramatic, is Telemann's shift from B mi
his measure 12.16 We might also note the identical len
Telemann's second phrases, both of which cadence in
the downbeat of measure 7. Moreover, Bach's series of
enth chords leading up to this cadence not only recall
sure 23, but is also redolent of the filled-in arpeggiatio
analogous passage from Telemann's movement. Un
Bach frequently interrupts the descending motion of
taining only the rhythm established at the outset. Yet
sions when he breaks the bass's rhythmic pattern, it is
movement, to introduce steady eighth notes at each of
ate cadences. Notice as well that at Bach's modulation t
he adopts Telemann's solo cadential rhythm (compare
10 to Telemann's measures 6, 12, and 21). Even the fina
very similar. True, the two composers handle the solois
somewhat differently: Telemann provides a V-vi dece
Bach a melodic extension leading from tonic to557 domin
employ contrary melodic motion between the outer v

on tonic and dominant pitches in the solo part-f'
g'-d"-g" in Telemann-over a descending perfect fou
and assign the final cadential motion to the ripieno stri
Bach may not have been the only composer to borr
51:G2/1. Telemann appears to have reused his opening
first movement of the G-major flute solo TWV 41:G9,
Essercizii musici. As Example 2 shows, the opening of
bears more than a passing resemblance to that of the A
melody begins almost identically over a descending bas
large upward leap in the middle of the second mea
tonic cadence on the downbeat of the third measure, and introduces a
similar contrasting figure (though closely related to the mordent-like
motive at the beginning of measure 2) in the third and fourth mea-
sures on the way to cadencing in the dominant. But the comparison
cannot be pushed much further, as the melody is harmonized differ-
ently, the bass line does not maintain its descending profile, and the
second phrase is shorter than in the putative model. As for the rest of
the movement, it runs its course in a total of only fourteen measures by
restating the opening theme in the dominant, then further "developing"
the motive from measure 2. If one accepts the beginning of this little
movement as a borrowing-and it is not nearly as clear-cut an example
i6 We owe this point to Gregory Butler.
EXAMPLE 2. Telemann, Solo in G major TWV 41:G9, movem

mm. 1-6.
Cantabile
Flauto traverso
[Fondamento]
6 16 6 7 66
5
5 6 6 6
43
558 as one could wish for-then it confor

mann's usual self-borrowing proce
melodic phrase that becomes the bas
movement.17 The sonata is likely to h
the concerto, though probably consid
was published in 1740.18
17 Good examples of this procedure occur i

42:di/2 and 43: di/3, TWV 33:5/1 and 43:G2/
much work remains to be done on the topi
Ruhnke has with some success attempted to t
strumental ensemble music. Many of those he c
repetitions of stock melodic and rhythmic mo
tween TWV 41:Gg and 51:G2. See the list of "
mit Anfangsthemen anderer Werke Telemanns
Systematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke: Telemann
Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke, Supplem
"Anmerkungen zum Telemann-Werkverzeichnis T
gantze Welt zum springen': Telemann und Andere in
Arolser Barock-Festspiele 1997, Tagungsbericht,
6, ed. Friedhelm Brusniak (Sinzig: Studio, 19
throughout Telemann-Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3.
especially 6o-63.
18 For evidence that the collection's solos a
in manuscript copies as early as the mid 172
Dresden Court and the Chronology of Telem
Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks, Essay
History, Function, and Study of Watermarks
Michael Saffle, and Ernest W. Sullivan II (New
123-66, at 126-27; and Swack, "The Solo Sonat
ZOHN & PAYNE
II
Having established a close musical connection be-

tween BWV 1056/2 (156/1) and TWV 51:G2/1, we are now in a posi-
tion to revisit the question of when and where Bach encountered Tele-
mann's concerto. In 1983 Rifkin proposed that Bach's Adagio, in its
putative original form as the middle movement of a lost D-minor oboe
concerto, dates from the Weimar period.19 Much of his argument de-
pends on the identification of stylistic parallels between the concerto's
outer movements and relatively early works such as the D-minor violin
concerto BWV 1052a, the Third Brandenburg Concerto BWV 1048
(though the binary form of the third movement is shared not only by
BWV 35/v, as Rifkin observes, but also by the fourth movement of TWV
51:G2), and Alessandro Marcello's D-minor oboe concerto, Bach's key-
board transcription of which (BWV 974) appears to have originated at
Weimar.2o Suggestive as they are, these parallels would require more de-
tailed investigation before firm conclusions could be drawn from them.
As for the middle movement itself, Rifkin links its arioso style and shun-
ning of ritornello form to other early slow concerto movements by
Bach, such as the second movement of the First Brandenburg Concerto 559
BWV 1046, composed at Weimar or K6then.21 While this line of argu-
ment is rendered less compelling by the substantial debt Bach's Adagio
owes to Telemann, it is nevertheless conceivable that Bach's interest in
Telemann's Andante was due in part to his own preoccupation at Wei-
mar with the arioso movement type. In this connection, Rifkin's linking
of BWV 1056/2 (156/1) with 1046/2 is particularly apt, for these two
slow movements not only share a relative brevity, "vocal" melodic style,
19 Liner notes to Pro Arte PAD 153-

20 The status of the Third Brandenburg Concerto as a Weimar composition has in
recent years been called into question. See, for example, Hans-Joachim Schulze, 'Johann
Sebastian Bachs Konzerte-Fragen der Uberlieferung und Chronologie," in Bach-Studien,
vol. 6: Beitraige zum Konzertschaffen Johann Sebastian Bachs, ed. Peter Ahnsehl, Karl Heller,
and Hans-Joachim Schulze (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hdirtel, 1981), 9-26, at 18-19; and
Gregory Butler, '"Toward a More Precise Chronology for Bach's Concerto for Three Vio-
lins and Strings BWV 1o64a: The Case for Formal Analysis," in Bachs Orchesterwerke, 235-
47, at 240-41 and 245. Schulze's suggested date of 1713-14 for BWV 974 must be re-
garded with caution, since the earliest datable source for Marcello's concerto is a Roger
print of ca. 1717. However, the fact that Bach's transcription contains figurations simi-
lar to those in an undated Schwerin manuscript of the concerto may indicate that his
model was not the Roger print. See Schulze, Studien zur Bach-Uberlieferung, 169; and
Eleanor Selfridge-Field, The Music of Benedetto and Alessandro Marcello: A Thematic Catalogue
with Commentary on the Composers, Repertoire, and Sources (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990),
379 (D935).
21 For a thorough source-critical examination of the First Brandenburg Concerto,
one that leaves open the question of exactly when during the period 1713-21 the work
was composed, see Michael Marissen, "On Linking Bach's F-major Sinfonia and His Hunt
Cantata," Bach: TheJournal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute XXIII/2 ( 1992), 31-46.
and quasi-ostinato accompaniment, but, unlike the Telemann

ment, conclude with a modified tonic return of the opening mat
These features could indicate that Bach conceived the two concerto
movements as instrumental equivalents of a certain type of aria
in his Weimar cantatas. Indeed, the recapitulatory function
concluding measures might be interpreted as a reference to "fr
"modified" da capo structure, or even as the concluding ritornell
through-composed aria structure.22 Along the same lines, we m
note that the majority of Bach's Weimar continuo arias-the tex
near-equivalent of BWV 1056/2 (156/1)-feature quasi-ostinat
companiments.23 Yet the parallels between concerto moveme
aria can be extended only so far, for BWV 1056/2 (156/1), at
does not allude to a tutti-solo opposition by means of thematic
trasts, harmonic plan, or scoring. So if the concluding double re
read as a free da capo, we must imagine the form to exclude an
of ritornello. And if the double return instead signifies a concl
ritornello, we would logically have to view the movement's ope
measures as an initial ritornello. How, then, could we tell when the solo
"voice" enters?
560
But perhaps we have drawn the comparison between Bach's Adagio
and his cantata arias from an improper angle. That is, the double re-
turn might be less a reference to the aria per se than to a kind of sonata
movement based loosely upon an aria type. Several of Bach's slow
sonata movements in two and three parts-BWV 1016/3, 1021/3, and
1o34/3-strongly recall BWV 1056/2 (156/1) in both style and struc-
ture: all are ariosos that include a modified double return near the end
of the movement, and BWV 1034/3 has a quasi-ostinato accom

ment as well.24 BWV 1021/3 is further related to BWV 1056/2 (15
by its unusually modest dimensions. While the return of the ope
22 For a survey of Bach's Weimar aria types, see Stephen A. Crist, "Aria Forms i
Vocal Works of J. S. Bach" (Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1988); and A
Dfirr, Studien iiber die friihen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf
tel, 1977), 118-65. Miriam K. Whaples, "Bach's Recapitulation Forms,"Journal of M
ogy XIV/4 (1996), 475-513, proposes the term "recapitulation aria" for the major
Bach's arias usually described, following Dfirr, as being in "free da capo" form. Da
Freeman, 'J. S. Bach's 'Concerto' Arias: A Study in the Amalgamation of Eight
Century Genres," Studi Musicali XXVII/1 (1998), 123-62, at 137, sees such structu
embodying "a series of formal procedures used repeatedly by Bach in imitation of
dian concerto forms."
23 Crist, "Aria Forms," 54.
24 BWV 1015/3 might also be included here by virtue of its modest dimension
near-literal repeat of the opening phrase at the end of the movement, and quasi-osti
accompaniment. But it features strict canonic writing in the upper voices and treats
opening phrase almost like a ritornello, with a statement in the dominant occurrin
measure 11.
ZOHN & PAYNE
theme is handled differently in each movement-resco

counterpoint in BWV 1016/3, melodically varied in BW
more thoroughly recomposed and extended in BW
overall ternary implications of the structures are clea
sonatas is known to us through manuscripts of early Le
there is no evidence to exclude the possibility of all h
posed at K6then.25 That this kind of movement structu
unknown in German sonatas from the 1710os and earl
gested by several slow movements among Telemann's so
this period. Examples of brief ariosos with a modified
near the end are found in TWV 41:hi/i (published
42:D4/1 and el/3 (both published 1731-33, but com
or more earlier),26 and TWV 42:G1/1 (published in 1718
tic gulf between Bach's and Telemann's sonata mov
mode and the real thing, as transferred to an instrum
nicely illustrated by BWV 1o19a/3 ("Cantabile ma un
This unusual movement, an arrangement of a lost Koth
preserves not only the complete da capo structure of t
also the contrast between "tutti" (violin and harpsichor
"solo" (obbligato harpsichord). 561
Whatever these stylistic parallels tell us about Bach

ceptions of aria, concerto, and sonata, they only modes
chronological boundaries for the earliest version of
(156/1): the movement could conceivably have been co
time during the late Weimar, K6then, or first Leipzig
that if the pre-1729 origins of Bach's Adagio are to be
nated, we must turn to the sources and style of his model,
assumption that Telemann's concerto was relatively ne
encountered it.
The only source for TWV 51 :G2 is a set of early-eighteenth-century

manuscript parts, in two unidentified hands, now in the possession
of the Universititsbibliothek Rostock but originally belonging to the
Wfirttemberg-Stuttgart court between 1716 and 1731.28 The assertion
25 For a convenient chronological overview of Bach's music for instrumental ensem-

ble, see Christoph Wolff, "Bach's Leipzig Chamber Music," in Bach: Essays on His Life and
Music (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), 223-38.
26 On the dating of the early manuscript sources for the Six Sonates en trio dans le
goust italien (Paris: Francois Boivin, 1731-33), see Zohn, "Music Paper at the Dresden
Court," 125-26.
27 Johann Joachim Quantz also appears to have composed several movements of
this type at Dresden during the period 1719-27. See Mary A. Oleskiewicz, "Quantz and
the Flute at Dresden: His Instruments, His Repertory, and their Significance for the Ver-
such and the Bach Circle" (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1998), 180-86.
28 The parts (D-ROu, Mus. Saec. XVII.18.45.'6) were available to us only through
a photocopy. Hence we are unable to provide any information on the paper types
in the Telemann-Werkverzeichnis that the manuscript is incomplete o

to the loss of the continuo part ("ohne Cembalo") is incorrect
pages of the unfigured "Basso pro Cembalo" part do indeed surviv
though they are so badly deteriorated that the text is lacking fo
second half of the second movement and the last third of the fourth
movement, as well as for brief passages elsewhere in the concerto

spite the unfortunate combination of acidic ink and thin paper,
"Hautbois vel Traversiere," "Violino 1," "Violino 2," and 'Viola" p
survive complete (though small portions of text are obscur
"showthrough"). At some point after this full set was produced, a
ond unidentified scribe, known to have been active at the Wiirttem
Stuttgart court ca. 1717-22, made an accurate copy of the solo p
French violin clef and added a title page.29 That these are supplem
to the set, and not remnants of a second manuscript, is confirme
the common practice at the court of recopying flute parts into F
violin clef, apparently to accommodate the flute-playing Crown P
Friedrich Ludwig.30 To judge from the title ("Concerto/1 Traversi
Violino/1 Viola/et/Cembalo/Haffiburg"), this second scribe di
know who had composed the concerto, only that the work (or at
562
the five original parts) had some connection to Hamburg. In the u
contained therein (but see note 39 below). Concerning the music collection o
Wfirttemberg-Stuttgart court, apparently assembled by Crown Prince Friedrich
(1698-1731) in the years following his return to Stuttgart in 1716 from travels to
Holland, and France, see Samantha Kim Owens, '"The Wiirttemberg HoJkapelle c
1721" (Ph.D. dissertation, Victoria University of Wellington, 1995), Chapter 7. O
Telemann sources in particular, see Klaus-Peter Koch, "Die Rostocker Telemann-Q
Zu einigen Aspekten ihrer Entstehung," in Georg Philipp Telemann: Werkiiberlief
Editions- und Interpretationsfragen, Bericht fiber die Internationale Wissenschaftlich
ferenz anlaBlich der 9. Telemann-Festtage der DDR, Magdeburg 12. bis 14. Mir
ed. Wolf Hobohm and Carsten Lange, 3 vols. in 1 (Cologne: Studio, 1991), 2:3-
Steven Zohn, "New Sources for Telemann's Instrumental Music," in Telemann-Beitrdg
handlungen und Berichte, vol. 4: Wolf Hobohm zum 60. Geburtstag am 8. Januar 1998,
burger Telemann-Studien, vol. 17, ed. Carsten Lange and Brit Reipsch (forthcomi
29 On the dating of this copyist's activities, see Koch, "Die Rostocker Telem
Quellen," 4-6. Two Rostock manuscripts of trios by Telemann are in the same
TWV 42:e7 (Mus. Saec. XVII.18.45.2'; unattributed and containing only a figured "
balo" part) and TWV 42:A9 (Mus. Saec. XVII.18.45.23; containing only the flute an
ured "Cembalo" parts).
30 Gerhard Poppe, "Eine bisher unbekannte Quelle zum Oboenkonzert G-
HWV 287," Hdndel-Jahrbuch XXXIX (1993), 225-35, at 230, suggests that the prin
parent preference for French violin clef could be the result of his contact with the
musician Des Essarts, who may have instructed him in composition. But this hyp
does not quite square with archival documents examined by Owens ('"The Wiirtt
Hofkapelle," 233-34), which establish that Des Essarts was not employed by the court
June 1724. Further examples of supplementary parts in the clef are found in the
scripts listed below in notes 33 and 35.
ZOHN & PAYNE
right-hand corner of the title page, he assigned the

in the court's cataloguing system of music manuscri
bution to Telemann anywhere on the manuscript is
anonymous hand, who added "Telemafi" above "Haf
though the style and quality of the concerto speak
mann's authorship, a small measure of doubt mu
authenticity.
Attempting to clarify the chronology of the manusc
Koch took the word "Hamburg" to indicate that the
no earlier than 1721, the year of Telemann's move f
Hamburg.32 On the face of it, this interpretati
enough, although it begs the question of why the co
certo's place of origin but not its composer. An alte
tion, one that addresses this question, is suggested
script in the Rostock collection with a similarly con
This set of parts to a D-major trio for two flutes a
the following title: "Sonata a 3/2 flut=Traversier
Hambourg."33 The upper right-hand corner of the t
"N.0 9," and a second hand-possibly the same on
563
"Telemafi" on the concerto manuscript-has adde
Keiser" above "Hambourg." This is undoubtedly a re
hard Keiser, who arrived at the Wiirttemberg-Stuttgar
burg in April 1719, and remained there until Augus
tribution is correct, then "Hambourg" might have
indicate that the trio or manuscript came with Keis
and would have distinguished the work from three
31 The same copyist added the words "Telemafi genafit" above

Melante" (Telemann's Italianate anagram) on manuscripts of T
Anh. 51:Gi (Mus. Saec. XVII.18.45.8-'o).
32 Koch, "Die Rostocker Telemann-Quellen," 7. Following
Werkverzeichnis assigns the concerto to "1721 / 22 oder friiher."
33 Mus. Saec. XVII.18.19.7. The parts themselves are in a diffe
ist of the title page is also responsible for titles on several m
trios by Reinhard Keiser, Johann Jakob KreB, and Telemann (M
XVII. 18.19.2b, XVII. 18.20.'2, and XVII. 18.20.'3). In each case, he
tional flute or viola d'amore parts copied out by a court scribe
pages with the initials "C.H.H.," and who owned or copied manus
1717, 1718, 172o, and 1722. See Poppe, "Eine bisher unbekann
Koch, "Die Rostocker Telemann-Quellen," 4. Owens ("The Wiir
272) argues convincingly that "C.H.H." is Caspar Heinrich Het
band of the Garde Fusilier Regiment and from 1722 until 1751 also
temberg Hofkapelle. A court document from 1722 (quoted in Ow
that Hetsch had already taken part in Hofkapelle performances pri
appointment, which could explain his earlier activities as a copyist.
34 Koch, "Die Rostocker Telemann-Quellen," 7.
Keiser wrote at court in 1720.35 Without wishing to suggest the unlik

scenario of Keiser bringing an unattributed Telemann concerto
Hamburg to Stuttgart, we might note that the two manuscript
apparently filed next to each other as numbers 9 and to in the co
music collection. While the consecutive numbering may be due
origin-perceived or actual-of the manuscripts in Hamburg, it se
more likely that we are dealing here with a case of educated gues
on the part of the author of the concerto title page. Faced with an
tributed work, he might easily have included the word "Hambu
analogy to the trio, which, having probably just entered the court
sic collection, he had reason to associate with the concerto.36 Such a se-
quence of events is more likely than it might at first appear, for a simi-
lar case of educated guesswork at the court almost certainly underlies
the misattribution of Telemann's trio TWV 42:g915 to the Darmstadt
Konzertmeister Johann Jakob KreB.37 If this interpretation of the con-
certo's title page fails to establish a more precise date for the work, it
nonetheless leaves open the possibility that it was copied before 1721.
Before considering the style of the concerto as an indicator of its
chronology, it is worth asking which instrument-flute or oboe-Tele-
564
mann intended to play the solo part. The concerto's classification in
the Telemann-Werkverzeichnis as a work for flute and strings would seem
to rest primarily on the manuscript's title page, which, as we have seen,
35 Mus. Saec. XVII.18.19.2a, XVII.18.1992b, and XVII.18.19.6. The three manu-

scripts, each bearing the date "1720," were filed as items 32-34 in the court's music col-
lection. Admittedly, this explanation does not account for the initial omission of Keiser's
name on the title page. At least one other work in the collection, the '"Trio ... de Man-
heimb" (Mus. Saec. XVIII.47.12), appears to bear the name of a city rather than a com-
poser.
36 As Owens points out ("The Wfirttemberg HoJkapelle, 275), the court's cataloguing
systems were not organized according to genre, so the numbers may reflect the order in
which the manuscripts were copied or acquired. Indeed, it is not difficult to imagine the
trio and concerto having been placed next to each other in a pile of recent acquisitions
requiring title pages.
37 The manuscript in question (Mus. Saec. XVII. 18.20.'3) includes a full set of parts
in the hand of a copyist who probably worked in Darmstadt or Frankfurt, as his hand ap-
pears in two Darmstadt scores containing vocal works composed by Telemann in 1716 for
the celebration of the birth of the Habsburg Prince Leopold: the serenata Teutschland
griint und bliiht im Friede (TWV 12:1c; D-DS, Mus. ms. 1039) and the cantata Auf Christen-
heit, begeh ein Freudenfest (TWV 12:1; Mus. ms. 1050). A supplementary flute part in
French violin clef, copied by Hetsch, bears a title in the hand familiar from the Keiser
trio: "Trio/1 Flut: Travers transpor:/1 Viola da Gamba Concert:/e/Cembalo." The attri-
bution "Kress a Darmestatt" has been added by a second scribe, who seems to have taken
his cue from the title of a KreB trio dedicated to Friedrich Ludwig (Mus. Saec.
XVII. 1820.12o.; apparently missing a violin part and a flute part in treble clef): "Trio a 3/1
Flut: Traversiere transp:/1 Violino/Col/Cembalo o Vn Lut./Auth: Krefl a Darmestatt/
apertient a S: A. Sme/Monsegr. le Prince Hered:." In XVII.18.20.12 the combination of
copying hands is identical to that in the supplementary flute part of XVII. 18.2o0.3.
ZOHN & PAYNE
is of later origin than the full set of parts.38 The earlie

ever, gives the instrumentation as "oboe or flute," a
found on the same copyist's solo part to Telemann's D-
certo TWV 51 :dl.39 Even more telling is the range of
both concertos: d' to b", typical of early-eighteenth-ce
but unusually restricted in the upper register for flut
very few flute parts by Telemann, Bach, and their co
not call for at least c"' or d"'. Then, too, the relatively
the solo parts would in some places cause a flute to be
the string accompaniment. For these reasons, as well
convention at the Wiirttemberg-Stuttgart court of d
parts to wind concertos as suitable for either oboe or f
ably to satisfy Friedrich Ludwig's desire for new reper
on the latter instrument), one must conclude that TWV
ceived in the first place for oboe.4o Thus it appears th
not only the musical substance of Telemann's movem
scoring. It is even possible, as Bruce Haynes has specula
movement was originally in G major as well, although
viving sources show any evidence of this.41
565
If the philological evidence adduced above sugge
51:G2 came into the possession of the Wiirttemberg-Stuttg
between 1716 and the early 1720os, the concerto's musi
38 Kross (Das Instrumentalkonzert, 127) describes the instrumen

strings, with the option of performance with oboe.
39 Mus. Saec. XVII.18.51.34, an unattributed set of parts that ap
panion manuscript to XVII.18.45.16. The slightly varying form of th
two manuscripts, however, may indicate that they were copied at d
discussion of XVII.18.51 .34, whose text is also partially obscured
of acidic ink and thin paper (bearing an unidentifiable waterma
Sources for Telemann's Instrumental Music." Both of the other ma
TWV 51:di (D-DS, Mus. ms. 1033/80 and D-Dlb, Mus. 2392-Q-47) u
mit the concerto as a work for oboe.
4o To be sure, TWV 51:G2 and 51:di were not the only "oboe or flute" concertos
performed at the court. The recently discovered Rostock source for Handel's G-minor
oboe concerto HWV 287 (see Poppe, "Eine bisher unbekannte Quelle") also has a solo
part for oboe or flute ("Hautb. e Flute Travers:"), an instrumentation reversed on the
title page. According to Owens ("The Wiirttemberg Hojkapelle, 256-57), other concerto
sources of Wfirttemberg-Stuttgart provenance with solo parts for oboe or flute include
works by "Giosna" (Mus. Saec. XVIII.33.'; oboe or flute), Johann David Heinichen
(XVII.14.20; oboe or flute), Giuseppe Valentini (XVIII.61.2; flute or oboe), and "Zel-
lerino" (XVII.62."; flute or oboe). As to the suitability of TWV 51:G2 for oboe, it could
be objected that the slurred sixteenth-note leaps in the first movement are more id-
iomatic to the Baroque flute than the Baroque oboe. Yet very similar figures are found in
the first movement ("Andante e spiccato") of Marcello's D-minor concerto, a work that
might easily have been known to Telemann through Bach or some other source. The
slurs in TWV 51:G2 could, of course, be scribal additions, and omitting them in perfor-
mance would do little to alter the movement's effect.
41 Haynes, "Oboenkonzerte," 37 and 41-42.
somewhat earlier. Indeed, all of the stylistic features identified by W

gang Hirschmann as characteristic of Telemann's early concertos
posed at Eisenach or Frankfurt, ca. 1708-16) apply to TWV 51
varying degrees: 1) modest dimensions; 2) opening slow move
organized by some means other than ritornello form; 3) fast-mov
ritornellos dominated by Fortspinnung and displaying motivic h
geneity; 4) weak articulation of the tutti-solo opposition resulting
sonata-like motivic interplay between the soloist and ripieno strin
pecially the first violin); 5) the generating of rhythmic contrast p
pally between solo and tutti parts, not within individual parts;
a preference for common time rather than 2/4.42 Absent from
early works, as indeed from virtually all of Telemann's concertos wri
before the early 172os, are specifically galant stylistic features s
Lombardic and alla zoppa rhythms, a relatively slow rate of har
change, and drum basses.
Of considerable help in placing TWV 51 :G2 within the conte
Telemann's early works are his other oboe concertos, none of wh
pears to have been composed after the early 1720os. Particularly
vant here are TWV 51:ct, c2, di, el, and a2.43 Hirschmann r
566
views the first three of these works as a group by virtue of their sim
musical language, the most stylistically advanced being 51 :d 1. Th
group originated no later than Telemann's first years in Frankf
indicated by the Darmstadt manuscript source for the D-minor
certo, which bears the possessor mark 'JSEndler/1713."44 TWV
and a2 cannot have been composed many years later, althoug
more sophisticated handling of form within individual moveme
the E-minor concerto suggests that this work dates from the mid
late 1710s.45 All five concertos, like TWV 51:G2, contain fast m
42 Hirschmann, "Telemanns Frankfurter Konzertschaffen."

43 For analyses of these works, and of the oboe concertos TWV 51:D5, Esi,
f 2, see Hirschmann, Studien zum Konzertschaffen, 96-102 and 135-47. Following up
observation made by Peter Huth, Hirschmann ("Telemann's Frankfurter Konzer
fen") makes a strong case that TWV 51:a2 was originally conceived as an oboe co
Concerning the fragmentary D-minor concerto for oboe and strings TWV 51
Hirschmann's forthcoming study, "Ein Konzertfragment von Georg Philipp Tel
M6glichkeiten und Grenzen der Rekonstruktion."
44 Johann Samuel Endler's whereabouts in 1713 are unknown, but the prese
Freiberg paper in the manuscript would seem to place him in Saxony, and perh
Leipzig, where he matriculated at the university in the summer of 1716. As En
mained in Leipzig until his engagement at the Darmstadt court in early 1723, it
ceivable that TWV 51 :d 1 was still circulating in Leipzig when Bach arrived there la
year. For a summary of Endler's early life see Joanna Cobb Biermann, 'Johann
Endlers Orchestersuiten und suitendthnliche Werke," in Bachs Orchesterwerke, 341-
341-42.
45 The non-autograph parts to TWV 51:a2 (D-DS, Mus. ms. 1033/89) h
dated to 1716 by Brian Stewart and Oswald Bill (unpublished study of the pa
ZOHN & PAYNE
ments in which the relationship between soloist and tutti

ized by a blending of concerto and sonata procedures.
Easily the most formally sophisticated movement in t
concerto is the second, with a ritornello form in which th
tinction between solo and tutti material gradually break
manner recalling the Sonate auf Concertenart. (Statements of
music by the tutti, and vice versa, are of course also cha
Bach's fast concerto movements.) The ritornello-like ope
played by the solo oboe with continuo and cadencing in th
way to a contrasting idea played in thirds by the violins
bass (Example 3).46 Already during the extended, motto-
ment of the opening phrase, functioning as the first solo
ripieno strings gradually adopt the oboe's material by
canon with the soloist or in false stretto among themselv
the second ritornello, played by both tutti and soloist an
all of the material so far presented, the strings virtuall
drone idea and the oboe takes it up in both of its remain
In several places, such as the excerpt from the third solo
in Example 4, the oboe and first violin engage in imitati
567
exchange more characteristic of the sonata than the conc
instance of voice-exchange occurs in the brief, binary-f
movement, where the texture often resembles a trio sonata with added
inner voices (Example 5).47 This kind of motivic interplay between
soloist and first violin is also characteristic of TWV 51:c1/2 and 4,
c2/2, and Esi/i, and the second movement's motto-like opening
without an introductory ritornello finds parallels in the concluding
movements of TWV 51:di and fi. The G-major concerto's slow third
movement, in the relative minor, derives its pathos from the soloist's
angular melody, full of sighing figures, and the restless harmonic mo-
tion arising from the use of secondary dominants, the Neapolitan sixth,
and modal mixture (Example 6). Especially interesting is the texture
of the accompaniment, alternating between a bassetto bass supplied by
and copying hands in the Telemann manuscripts at the Hessische Landes- und Hoch-
schulbibliothek, Darmstadt). A sketch for the third movement of TWV 51:ei found on
the autograph score to the cantata "Da ich mich hier eingefunden" TWV 1:1748 (D-F,
Ms. Ff. Mus. 809/78), performed in Hamburg in 1722, indicates that this concerto was
composed no later than 1721-22. The non-autograph score of the completed concerto
(D-DS, Mus. ms. 1033/4) can be dated to ca. 1725.
46 The stark contrast between the initial solo and ripieno material in this movement
has also been noted by Kross, Das Instrumentalkonzert, 71.
47 As Kross observes (Das Instrumentalkonzert, 86-87), the structure of this finale is
perhaps the simplest among Telemann's binary-form concerto movements, a fact that
would seem to argue for the work's early origin. Contrary to Kross's diagram of the move-
ment, however, the second half of the form is repeated.
EXAMPLE 3. Telemann, TWV 51:G2, movement 2, mm. 1-12.

Vivace
vL ~~oit ! " ,o
I ,rJ~m ..
5 o,
[t-1 A
568
A--i .. "tF R,== 4
II~
5 71
9
Ot a i
r A
ZOHN & PAYNE
EXAMPLE 4. Telemann, TWV 51:G2, movement 2, mm.

t 60
o, A
It" "f
i$ IL: ~ i i-~ l= " i i 7
A!lr '
:: Ir , Z_,.6
569
EXAMPLE
PT?; K II I 4 j
EXAMPLE5.5.Telemann,
Telemann,
26 ([Allegro]
26 [Alegro]
TWVV
TWV 51:G2,5 movement
1:"G2, movement 4, MM. 26-29.
4, mm. 26-29.
28
A ,
0.0 1J t
1 E.: --,
t i , ![ - . -46
,D=/-r
A- - - -- ----- p
EXAMPLE 6. Telemann, TWV 51:G2, movement 3, mm. 1-9.
Adagio [Irl
0-11 9-.- -
4
M6 a - OR r- ;
570 Ir
V IrAI a
i!?" ' r ,a t
-' A.ib
the first violin (for reasons of compass briefly trans

tinuo in measures 7-8) and block chords played by t
In two passages the soloist's sighing figures are acco
a descending chromatic line in the first violin (meas
17). Both the overall tonal instability and use of chro
mind passages in TWV 51:c 1, c2, and di, and similar
nas occur as the first movements to TWV 51:di, gi, a
ZOHN & PAYNE
solo melodies are accompanied by rhythmic ostinati. G

of style, the transmission of TWV 51:G2 with di at th
Stuttgart court assumes greater import, for the two c
have been composed around the same time.
In sum, musical and source-critical evidence allo
the following sequence of events: 1) Telemann compo
around 1712-16 as one in a series of at least eleven wo
and strings that can be connected to his years at Eis
furt; 2) the work entered the repertory of the Wfirtt
Hofkapelle between 1716 and the early 172os, by whi
also have come into the possession of Bach; and 3) fin
movement worthy of emulation, Bach not only borrow
of Telemann's theme, making relatively minor altera
also adopted details of the movement's scoring, ripien
niment, harmony, phrase and cadential structure, an
sions. Exactly how much before 1729 the original
1056/2 (156/1) came into being must for the mom
open question. But the likelihood that Bach modeled
relatively recent work by Telemann and the moveme
571
structural similarity to some of his cantata arias and s
ments both point to the mid-to-late Weimar or early K6t
III
We come finally to the questions of why Bach bor-

rowed from Telemann, and how his appropriation affects our under-
standing of his working habits. Those conversant with Handel's exten-
sive borrowings from preexistent works by other composers will no
doubt find much that is familiar in the relationship of BWV 1056/2
(156/1) to its model, for Bach's compositional procedure is nothing
if not Handelian in varying and extending Telemann's opening idea,
then more subtly appropriating various other elements later in the
movement. Yet the traditional explanations for Handel's frequent use
of preexistent material by himself and others-that he did so out of
habit borne of his musical upbringing; out of necessity because of
illness, lack of melodic invention, or time constraints; or out of an altru-
istic desire to rescue promising, yet unformed ideas from obscurity
through a kind'of musical alchemy-will clearly not suffice in the case
of Bach, and in fact many of these explanations have been wholly or
partially discredited for Handel as well.48 Whatever discomfort Bach's
48 A good critical survey of the various explanations of Handel's borrowing is found

in John T. Winemiller, "Handel's Borrowing and Swift's Bee: Handel's 'Curious' Practice
and the Theory of Transformative Imitation" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago,
1994), 55-74-
self-borrowings have caused his admirers, his uses of preexistent

by others have, for various reasons, raised comparatively few
brows.49 On the one hand, their small number does not serious
doubt on his facility of invention. On the other, the majority of
borrowings and arrangements-excluding chorale tunes-are ackno
edged in his own hand or in those of copyists (effectively preem
the charge of plagiarism), belong to either the first or last dec
his career (inviting us to view them as special cases), or are readil
struable as acts of expediency, undertakings of stylistic research, or
fillments of external commissions.
Thus stylistic research, external commission, or a combination of the

two has been taken-implicitly or explicitly-to account for a number o
keyboard works written up to about 1714: the fugues on subjects of Albi-
noni (BWV 946, 950, and 951/951a), Corelli (BWV 579), and Legrenzi
(BWV 574/574a/574b); the arrangements of sonatas from Reinken's
Hortus Musicus (BWV 954, 965, and 966) and by an unidentified com
poser (BWV 967); and the arrangements of concertos by Vivaldi, Tele
mann, Johann Ernst, and others (BWV 592-97 and 972-87).50
572
49 The only general study of Bach's borrowings in toto is Norman Carrell, Bach th
Borrower (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1967), now seriously out of date. A more re
cent and selective discussion of Bach's borrowings and arrangements is found in Wern
Breig, "Composition as Arrangement and Adaptation," in The Cambridge Companion t
Bach, ed. John Butt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 154-70. On Bach'
parody arrangements, see especially Ludwig Finscher, "Zum Parodieproblem bei Bach,
in Bach-Interpretationen, ed. Martin Geck (G6ttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1969
94-105-
5o However, with regard to the fugues on subjects of Albinoni, Michael Talbot
Further Borrowing from Albinoni: The C Major Fugue BWV 946," in Das Friihwerk Joh
Sebastian Bachs, 143-61, at 156) has proposed that Bach's appropriations were made
the spirit of an objet trouvi," without any intention of mastering a particular style or
passing a specific model. Other recent treatments of the fugues and sonata arrangem
include Siegele, "Kompositionsweise und Bearbeitungstechnik," 11-22; Christoph W
"Bach and Johann Adam Reinken: A Context for the Early Works," in Bach: Essays on
Life and Music, 56-71; Robert Hill, "Die Herkunft von Bachs 'Thema Legrenzianu
Bach-Jahrbuch LXXII (1986), 105-07; BeiBwenger, Notenbibliothek, 46-56; David Sch
berg, The Keyboard Music ofJ. S. Bach (New York: Schirmer, 1992), 50-57 and 6
Breig, "Composition as Arrangement and Adaptation," 155-6o; and Karl Heller, Kriti
Bericht to NBA V/11 (Kassel: Birenreiter, 1997), 143-70. For the now generally acce
explanation of the concerto arrangements as commissioned works, see the publications
Hans-Joachim Schulze cited above in note 8. More recent studies of these arrangem
include Christoph Wolff, "Vivaldi's Compositional Art, Bach, and the Process of 'Mu
Thinking'," in Bach: Essays on His Life and Music, 72-83; Schulenberg, Keyboard Music,
109; Klaus Hofmann, "Zum Bearbeitungsverfahren in Bachs Weimarer Concerti
Vivaldis 'Estro Armonio' op. 3," in Das Friihwerk Johann Sebastian Bachs, 176- 201
Heller, Kritischer Bericht, 17-142. Heller ("Die Klavierfuge BWV 955: Zur Frage ihre
tors und ihrer verschiedenen Fassungen," in Das Friihwerk Johann Sebastian Bachs, 130
has made a convincing case for regarding BWV 955/955a as a wholly original work
Bach, rather than an arrangement of music by Johann Christoph Erselius. It rema
unclear what role, if any, Bach had in the creation of the organ trio BWV 586, pos
ZOHN 8c PAYNE
Similarly, arrangements of Bassani's Acroama missale Masses (includ-

ing the "Credo in unum Deum" BWV 1081), the "Suscepit Israel" from
Caldara's Magnificat in C major (BWV 1082), Pergolesi's Stabat mater
(the parody arrangement Tilge, H6chster, meine Siinden BWV 1083), and
the Sanctus from Kerll's Missa Superba (BWV 241) seem both to have
filled a need for new repertoire and afforded Bach the opportunity to
study different styles of sacred vocal music in his later years.51 Relatively
few appropriations of others composers' music involving significant
recomposition or addition can be confidently placed between these
chronological poles.52 The suite for violin and obbligato harpsichord
BWV 1025, an arrangement of a lute suite by Silvius Leopold Weiss,
seems to have originated around the time of the lutenist's visit to the
Bach household in 1739.53 Somewhat earlier, probably around 1730,
Bach fashioned the well known concerto in A minor for four harpsi-
chords and strings BWV 1065 from Vivaldi's Op. 3, No. lo (RV 580).54
Apparently belonging to the middle Leipzig years as well is the sonata
for flute and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1031, the first movement of
which relies almost slavishly upon a trio by Johann Joachim Quantz.55
The number of eyebrows raised in reaction to this particular borrowing
573
transcribed from or based on a lost work by Telemann. The NBA has published the work
as an "fUbertragung nach einer unbekannten Vorlage (?)." See Karl Heller, Kritischer
Bericht to NBA IV/8 (Kassel: Birenreiter, 1980), 89-93.
51 On these and other Bach arrangements of sacred vocal works, see especially Hans
T. David, "A Lesser Secret of J. S. Bach Uncovered," Journal of the American Musicological
Society XIV/ 2 ( 1961), 199-2 23; Christoph Wolff, Der Stile Antico in der Musik Johann Sebas-
tian Bachs: Studien zu Bachs Spdtwerk (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1968), 21-23 and 62-63;
Francesco Degrada, "Lo Stabat Mater di Pergolesi e la parodia di Bach," in Bach und die
Italienische Musik--Bach e la musica Italiana, ed. Wolfgang Osthoff and Reinhard Wiesend
(Venice: Centro tedesco di studi veneziani, 1987), 141-69; Peter Wollny, "Bachs Sanctus
BWV 241 und Kerlls 'Missa Superba,' " Bach-Jahrbuch LXXVII (1991), 173-76; Kirsten
BeiBwenger, "Bachs Eingriffe in Werke fremde Komponisten: Beobachtungen an den
Notenhandschriften aus seiner Bibliothek unter besonderer Berficksichtigung der latei-
nischen Kirchenmusik, Bach-Jahrbuch LXXVII (1991), 127-58; and BeiBwenger, Noten-
bibliothek, Chapter 6. On the possibility that the first movement of the motet Jauchzet dem
Herrn, alle Welt BWV Anh. 16o was at some point arranged by Bach from a Telemann
motet of the same title (TWV 8:10o), see Klaus Hofmann, "Zur Echtheit der Motette
'Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt' BWV Anh. 16o," in Bachiana et alia musicologica: Festschrift
Alfred Diirr zum 65. Geburtstag am 3. Mdiirz 983, ed. Wolfgang Rehm (Kassel: Bfirenreiter,
1983), 126-40.
52 As BeiBwenger (Notenbibliothek, 65) points out with regard to the K6then period,
the paucity of sources greatly complicates the identification of composers and works in
which Bach took a special interest.
53 Christoph Wolff, "Das Trio A-Dur BWV 1025: Eine Lautensonate von Silvius
Leopold Weiss bearbeitet und erweitert von Johann Sebastian Bach," Bach-Jahrbuch
LXXIII (1993), 47-67.
54 Schulze, Studien zur Bach-Uberlieferung, 68.
55 See Jeanne Swack, "Quantz and the Sonata in E6 major for Flute and Cembalo,
BWV 1031," Early Music XIII/1 (1995), 31-53; Siegbert Rampe, "Bach, Quantz und
das Musicalische Opfer," Concerto LXXXIV (1993), 15-23; and Dominik Sackmann and
might be far greater were it not for the questionable status of

1031 as an authentic work by Bach. But if one accepts Bach's au
ship, then the stylistic research explanation holds a particular a
tion, since the model is in a progressive style and belongs to the
what unusual subgenre of the Sonate auf Concertenart.
So BWV 1056/2 (156/1), if it does in fact date from the
Weimar or early K6then years, helps plug the chronological gap
tween Bach's early borrowings and arrangements and those of hi
two decades. Beyond this, its unusual modeling process invites us
examine the issue of Bach's indebtedness to the music of other com-
posers, for it now appears that this indebtedness was not invariably
a matter of imitation of a model than an awareness of the possib
an expansion of his own manner of writing and a stimulation of h
sical ideas."56 In the case of BWV 1056/2 (156/1), the stimulatio
Bach's invention appears to have resulted directly from close im
of the Telemann model.
As it happens, there is a rich aesthetic context for the type of m

eling we have observed in Bach's Adagio, for his use of Telema
music resonates deeply with the concept of transformative imitatio
574
propounded by many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century musicia
poets, and painters.57 Although this concept has figured in sev
recent studies of Handel's borrowings, it seems never to have b
brought to bear on Bach's appropriations of music by others.58 Th
Siegbert Rampe, "Bach, Berlin, Quantz und die Flotensonate Es-Dur BWV 1031," Ba
Jahrbuch LXXXIII (1997), 51-85. Swack has also suggested that the fourth moveme
BWV 1033, another sonata of doubtful authenticity, is modeled in part on a sonata m
ment by Christoph F6rster. See her "On the Origins of the Sonate auf Concertenart," J
nal of the American Musicological Society XLVI/3 (1993), 367-414, at 399-401.
56 Christoph Wolff, 'Johann Sebastian Bach," in The New Grove Bach Family (
York: W. W. Norton, 1983), 164-
57 The term "transformative imitation" is itself borrowed from G. W. Pigman
'Versions of Imitation in the Renaissance," Renaissance Quarterly XXXIII (1980), 1-32
58 However, the notion of Bach as a musical critic delighting in re-imagining the
ventions of his own and others is frequently encountered in the scholarly literatur
example, Christoph Wolff ("Bach andJohann Adam Reinken," 71) acknowledges tha
a very early point, there emerge elements of the most characteristic and essential par
ters of Bach's compositional art: the probing elaboration, modification, and transfo
tion of a given musical res facta originating from himself or another composer, with
aim of improvement and further individualization." And Laurence Dreyfus (Bach an
Patterns of Invention [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996], 58) notes
"wherever one looks in Bach's oeuvre, one observes a tendency to assimilate musicall
ceived ideas, subject them to criticism, and recast them in unusually idiosyncratic w
Discussions of transformative imitation as it relates to Handel include Winemiller, "Ha
del's Borrowing and Swift's Bee," chapters 4-6; "Recontextualizing Handel's Borrowi
Journal of Musicology XV/4 (1997), 444-70; George J. Buelow, '"The Case for Ha
Borrowings: The Judgement of Three Centuries," in Handel Tercentenary Collection
Stanley Sadie and Anthony Hicks (London: Macmillan, 1987), 61-82; and Joh
ZOHN & PAYNE
principle of model-based composition or rhetorical i

known, extends back to Classical Greece and Rome, where such writers
as Seneca, Quintillian, Cicero, Homer, and Longinus regarded it as a
fundamental basis of invention. Since then it has frequently been ex-
pressed through the metaphor of the bee, which, having selected ap-
propriate raw material (nectar from flowers), proceeds to turn it into
something new and better (honey and wax). The idea that the thing
borrowed must be improved by the borrower is indeed a common
theme in, for example, the neoclassical literary criticism ofJohn Dryden,
Jonathan Swift, and Alexander Pope, and in eighteenth-century English
treatises on painting by Jonathan Richardson the elder and Joshua
Reynolds.59 Still closer in time and place to Bach and Telemann, writers
such as Kuhnau, Mattheson, Heinichen, Scheibe, and Quantz all indi-
cate that the use of a preexistent work to stimulate one's compositional
invention (ideally resulting in improvement of the model) was a wide-
spread-if not entirely uncontroversial-practice in early-eighteenth-
century Germany.
Among musical aestheticians it is Mattheson who is most vocal on
the subject of transformative imitation. In the July 1722 issue of Critica
musica a brief mention of Handel's borrowings from one of Mattheson's575
arias ("almost note for note") begets a lengthy footnote on the subject
of borrowing in general:
It can sometimes happen that someone by chance comes across cer-

tain ideas which he may have heard before, without even knowing
where they came from, and without applying them intentionally. But
some have in them a memory that is too good to be true and that is by
far more successful than that of others-a memory such as others
might wish; this must be very convenient for them. Besides this, there
are two advantages to having such a memory: 1) that such ideas-
especially if there is good elaboration, which usually is paired with
empty invention-must inevitably also please their first inventor and
rightful owner, since no one is wont to censure his own work; 2) that
the latter suffers no particular disadvantage from this borrowing, but
indeed gains an extraordinary honor, if a famous man now and then
happens upon his track, and-as it were-borrows from him the very
Roberts, "Why did Handel Borrow?," in Handel Tercentenary Collection, 83-92. The notion
of imitation as a stimulus to invention has of course also figured prominently in studies of
other musical repertories. For a review of recent studies on imitation in Renaissance mu-
sic, see Honey Meconi, "Does Imitatio Exist?,"Journal of Musicology XII/2 (1994), 152-78.
A broad survey of borrowing as a field of study is provided byJ. Peter Burkholder, "The
Uses of Existing Music: Music Borrowing as a Field," Notes L/3 (1994), 851-70.
59 For an overview of classical and neoclassical conceptions of transformative imita-
tion, see Winemiller, "Handel's Borrowing and Swift's Bee," 75-107; and "Recontextualiz-
ing Handel's Borrowing," 447-49.
basis of his ideas. If only three people know, that is already honor
enough! ... Those people, however, who turn the invention into
plagium, and who, as such, wish to excuse themselves with a pleasan
elaboration, are on the wrong path and reason falsely....All
elaboration-beautiful as it may be-is only interest; but the inventio
itself compares to the capital.6o
Mattheson comes across as a reluctant advocate of borrowing, seem

prefer that composers elaborate their own ideas, the musical "c
But those who wish to pay interest on another's capital may appa
do so if they substantially transform the borrowed idea, rather than
gage in the superficial elaboration associated with plagiarism. A
test of a successful elaboration is whether it pleases the idea's "ri
owner," who may consider it a high form of flattery if the borrowin
done by a famous composer. Nearly two decades later, in Der vollkom
Capellmeister, Mattheson explains that all imitation falls into one of
categories: 1) Aristotelian mimesis of nature ("all sorts of natural
and affections"); 2) "the effort one makes to imitate this or that mas
musician's work, which is quite a good thing so long as no actual m
576 thievery takes place in the process"; or 3) the successive imitation of
mulas, passages, or short phrases" (contrapuntal imitation).61 Fu
6o Johann Mattheson, Critica Musica 1 (Hamburg: Mattheson, 1722; repr. A

dam: Frits Knuf, 1964), 72, note m: "Es kann wohl bisweilen kommen/daB ein
ungefehr/auf gewisse Einfille st6sset/die er ehmahls geh6rt haben mag/ohne e
wissen/wo? und ohne dieselbe mit Vorsatz zu appliciren. Doch haben einige dari
fast verdichtige und weit glficklichere reminiscentiam, als andere wfinschen m
welches ihnen sehr bequem fallen muB. Ausser diesem sind noch 2. Vortheile d
DaB dergleichen Sachen/bevorab bey guter elaboration, (die sich gemeiniglich z
Erfindungen gesellet) unausbleiblich allen/auch so gar/deren ersten Erfind
rechten Eignern/gefallen mfissen: weil niemand sein eignes Machwerk zu tadel
2) DaB diesen letzten daraus kein sonderlicher Nachtheil/wohl aber eine ung
Ehre zuwichst/wenn ein berithmter Mann ihm dann und wann auf die Spuhr g
und gleichsam seiner Gedanken wahren Grund von ihm borget. Soltens auch nu
wissen/so ist es schon Ehre genug! ... Diejenigen Leute aber/so ein plagium
machen/und es/qua tale, mit der glficklichen Ausarbeitung entschuldigen woll
auf dem unrechten Wege/und raisonniren falsch.... Alle elaboratio, sie sey so sch
sie wolle/ist nur mit Zinsen; die inventio aber mit dem Capital selbst zu vergle
Translated in Winemiller, "Handel's Borrowing and Swift's Bee," 266-67 (with m
tions).
61 Johann Mattheson, Der volkommene Capellmeister (Hamburg: Christian Herold,
1739; repr. Kassel: Birenreiter, 1954), 331, ? 4: "Diese Nachahmung nun hat in der Music
dreierley zu bedeuten. Denn erstlich finden wir Gelegenheit, dergleichen Uibung [sic]
mit allerhand natfirlichen Dingen und Gemfiths-Neigungen anzustellen, worin schier
das gr6sseste Hfilfsmittel der Erfindung bestehet, wie an seinem Orte gesaget worden ist.
Fiurs andre wird diejenige Bemiihung verstanden, so man sich gibt, dieses oder jenen
Meisters und Ton-Kiinstlers Arbeit nachzumachen: welches eine gantz gute Sache ist, so
lange kein f6rmlicher Musicalischer Raub dabey mit unterliufft. Drittens bemercket man
durch die Nachahmung denjenigen angenehmen Wettstreit, welchen verschiedene Stim-
men fiber gewisse F6rmelgen, Ginge oder kurtze Sitze mit aller Freiheit unter einander
ZOHN & PAYNE
softening his stance on borrowing in the chapter

that returning a worthy object of imitation with
condition for borrowing, which is an acceptable
practice:
The locus exemplorum could mean here the imitat

posers, but only if fine models are chosen and the inv
imitated-not copied or stolen. When all is said and
fetched out of the source for invention in just the sen
then that should not be censured--but only if it is do
Borrowing is permissible; but one must return the th
interest, i.e., one must so construct and develop imita
prettier and better than the pieces from which they a
Whoever does not need to do this and has enoug
his own, need not begrudge such; yet I believe that
of this sort: as even the greatest capitalists are gi
money, if they see special advantage or benefit in it.6
Mattheson's cautions here and elsewhere about "stolen" inventions

and "musical thievery" imply, of course, that he perceived much bor-
rowing in early-eighteenth-century Germany as outright plagiarism 577
by
virtue of its too literal and crude appropriation of others' music.63 And
he seems to have been joined in this perception by Heinichen, Quantz,
and Kuhnau. In the latter's satirical novel Der musicalische Quack-Salber
ffihren" (footnotes omitted). Translated by Ernest C. Harriss as Johann Mattheson's Der

volkommene Capellmeister (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981), 637-
62 Mattheson, Der volkommene Capellmeister, 131-32, ?81-82: "Der locus exemplorum
konnte wol in diesem Fall auf eine Nachahmung andrer Componisten gedeutet werden,
wenn nur seine Muster dazu erwehlet, und die Erfindungen bloB imitiret, nicht aber
nachgeschrieben und entwendet wfirden. Wenn endlich alles um und um k6mmt, wird
aus dieser Exempel-Qvelle, so wie wir sie hier nehmen, wol das meiste hergeholet: es ist
auch solches nicht zu tadeln, wenn nur mit Bescheidenheit dabey verfahren wird.
Entlehnen ist eine erlaubte Sache; man muB aber das Entlehnte mit Zinsen erstatten, d.i.
man muB die Nachahmungen so einrichten und ausarbeiten, daB sie ein sch6neres und
besseres Ansehen gewinnen, als die Satze, aus welchen sie entlehnet sind. War es nicht
n6thig hat und von selbst Reichthum gnug besitzet, dem stehet solches sehr wol zu
g6nnen; doch glaude ich, daB deren sehr wenig sind: maassen auch die grossesten Capi-
talisten wol Gelder aufzunehmen pflegen, wenn sie ihre besondere Vortheile oder Be-
qvemlichkeit dabey ersehen." Translated in Harriss, Johann Mattheson's Der vollkommene
Capellmeiste , 298.
63 In his treatise on melody, Mattheson mentions those "that happily snap up a for-
eign invention from the mass of things that fall under their hands, of which often not two
notes are their own. But they know how to arrange, elaborate, and embellish this theft so
skillfully that it is a pleasure." Johann Mattheson, Kern melodischer Wissenschaft (Hamburg,
1737; repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1976), 128, ?3: "Hiergegen gibt es andre, die er-
schnappen gerne eine fremde Erfindung aus derjenigen Menge Sachen, die ihnen unter
die Hdnde gerathen, davon doch oft nicht zwo Noten ihre eigene sind; sie wissen diese
Entwendung aber dermassen geschickt einzurichten, auszuarbeiten und zu schmficken,
daB es eine Lust ist."
(1700), the fictional composer is a plagiarist who takes "all his i

tion from the music he had copied," without understanding "the
which the most beautiful invention can often be extracted from the
best songs."64 Heinichen, writing in 1728, reports on the conside
trouble taken by composers to avoid the charge of plagiarism, and
zealotry of those doing the charging:
Indeed, even nowadays one has to avoid the misfortune to include in

so many large theatrical works a single aria or even a melodic pattern
of a few notes seeming to have the slightest similarity with a former
work. For even if these [similarities] are only approximations and oc-
cur contrary to the composer's intention, or the inventions are barely
similar in tertio, quarto, comparable to women who resemble each
other in sexufeminino; there will be those who will in stupidity and pas-
sion take the opportunity to rebuke the composer for plagiarism (be-
cause he who could not write instead of such a little formula twenty
others extemporaneously must be considered a poor composer).65
In a subsequent footnote discussing the efficacy of the rhetorical loci t

as a stimulant to a composer's "natural imagination," Heinichen men
578 "musical raw beginners," evidently in Italy, who mechanically appr
ate ideas from others without adequately "restirring the brew." Compo
of integrity, he adds, avoid listening to "great" music before compo
thus eliminating the possibility of inadvertently including a reference
it in their own works and arousing the "suspicion of ignorant censors."
64 Johann Kuhnau, Der musicalische Quack-Salber (Dresden, 1700); quoted and t

lated in Roberts, "Why did Handel Borrow?," 85-86.
65 Johann David Heinichen, Der Generalbass in der Composition (Dresden: Heinich
1728; repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1969), 29: "Ja man hat sich noch heut zu Tag
dem Unglfick zu hfiten/daB man in so viel und grossen Theatralischen Wercken
eine einzige Aria, oder nur eine Clausul von wenig Noten noch einmahl vorbr
welche etwan einer ehemahligen Invention auch nur in den geringsten piinctgen a
scheinet. Dann wann solches gleich nur ohngefehr und wieder die Intention des Co
nisten also gerathen/oder die Inventiones kaum in tertio, quarto, wie alle Weibsb
einander in sexu fceminino gleichen: so wollen doch unverstindige/und passionirte
daher Gelegenheit nehmen/den Componisten vor einen plagiarium zu schelten
doch ein schlechter Componiste seyn mfiste/welcher statt eines solchen formulgen nic
tempore 20o. andere hinzuschreiben wfiste)." Translated in George J. Buelow, Thorough
Accompaniment According to Johann David Heinichen, rev. ed. (Lincoln, Neb.: Univer
Nebraska Press, 1986), 330.
66 Heinichen, Der Generalbass in der Composition, 32-34, note m: "... gleichwie
gewissen Nationibus manche Musicalische Frischlinge zu sagen pflegen: bi sogna farsi i
damit lauffen sie in andere Musiquen, und schreiben hernach den Kern der b
Gedancken anderer Compositorum, mit einer kaum etwas verdnderten Brfihe, wied
ihre Arbeit hinein. Ordentlicher weise aber vermeyden behutsame Compositores die
genheit, kurz vorhers grosse Musiquen zu h6ren, wenn sie selbst dergleichen zu setzen
Wercke begriffen sind, aus Furcht, daB nicht, wie zu geschehen pfleget, wider u
Willen etwas hangen bleibe, welches den Componisten durch Innocente Niederschr
ZOHN & PAYNE
More than two decades later, Quantz also speaks of nov

composers who, having won popular acclaim despite t
training, avail themselves of music by others when c
their latest operas: '"They bring along their invention
heads but in their luggage."67 But it was not simply a
Italians "decking themselves out in another's plumes,"
generally cautions the beginner to avoid the works of "
posers who have not learned composition through eit
ten instruction.... The majority consist of a hodgepod
and patched-up ideas."'68 Evidently wishing to disassoci
such autodidactic plagiarizers, Quantz points out in hi
that as a novice composer he managed to study "the sc
edged masters, attempting to imitate trios and con
method of composition, without actually writing them do
If the line between "patched-up" thievery and origin
these passages often seems faintly drawn, it is surely
Mattheson's "prettier and better" is as impossible to ob
"interest" is to calculate; we can hardly expect to be t
much and what manner of transformation is sufficient to convert a
579 has
plagiarism into an original work of art. But as George Buelow
seiner vermeynten eigenen Gedanken bey unverst~indigen Censoribus in Verdacht bringen

k6nne." See the translation in Buelow, Thorough-Bass Accompaniment, 331.
67 Johann Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer anweisung die Fl6te traversiere zu spielen (Berlin:
Johann Friedrich VoB, 1752; repr. Kassel: Birenreiter, 1983), 13-14, ?14: "Deswegen ah-
met einer dem andern nach, schreibt seine Arbeit aus, oder giebt wohl gar fremde Arbeit
ffir seine eigene aus, wie die Erfahrung lehret; zumal wenn dergleichen Naturalisten sich
gen6thiget finden, ihr Glfick in fremden Landen zu suchen; und die Erfindungen nicht
im Kopfe, sondern im Koffer mit sich ffihren. Haben sie auch allenfalls noch die
Fihigkeit, etwas aus ihrem Kopfe zu erfinden, ohne sich mit fremden Federn zu
schmficken; so wenden sie doch selten die geh6rige Zeit an, die ein so weitlauftiges Werk,
als eine Oper ist, erfodert.... Es pfleget also denenjenigen, die sich auf das Ausschrei-
ben legen, oft fehl zu schlagen: so daB man bald merken kann, ob die Gedanken aus
einem einzigen Kopfe ihren Ursprung haben; oder ob sie nur auf eine mechanische Art
zusammen gesetzet worden sind." Translated in Reilly, On Playing the Flute, 20-21.
68 Quantz, Versuch, 98, ?21: "[Ein Anflinger] hiute sich vornehmlich ffir den Stficken
der selbst gewachsenen Componisten, welche die Setzkunst weder durch miindliche,
noch durch schriftliche Anweisung erlernet haben: denn darinne kan weder ein Zusam-
menhang der Melodie, noch richtige Harmonie anzutreffen seyn. Die meisten laufen auf
einen Mischmasch von entlehnten und zusammen geflickten Gedanken hinaus." Trans-
lated in Reilly, On Playing the Flute, 1 17.
69 JohannJoachim Quantz, "Herrn Johann Joachim Quantzens Lebenslauf, von ihm
selbst entworfen," in Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, Historisch-kritische Beytrdge zur Aufnahme
der Musik, vol. 1, "Stfick 5" (Berlin: Schfitz, 1755), 21o; repr. in Willi Kahl, Selbstbiographien
deutscher Musiker des XVIII. Jahrhunderts (Cologne: Staufen-Verlag, 1948), 171: "Indessen
studirte ich, in Erwartung einer bequemern Gelegenheit, die Partituren grfindlicher
Meister fleiBig durch, und suchte ihrer Setzart, in Trios und Concerten nachzuahmen,
doch ohne auszuschreiben." Translated in Paul Nettl, Forgotten Musicians (New York:
Philosophical Library, 1951), 290o.
shown, Mattheson comes very close to telling us.70 A passage in

volkommene Capellmeister describes the collecting of "moduli"-as
brief melodic figures, turns, cadences, etc.-as a good way of buil
compositional vocabulary. Even if these snippets come from the w
of others (which is, Mattheson tells us, the best way of collecting the
their combination into a new melody constitutes a "unique invent
Yet Mattheson cautions that building such a vocabulary is best d
mentally, as constructing melodies from a collection of written-
moduli will likely result in a "lame and botched arrangement, if
clumsy melody is patched together from such bits."71 This sort of m
less ars combinatoria is presumably the kind of process that Hein
and Quantz inveighed against-and what "ignorant censors" o
time regarded as plagiarism. Indeed, Mattheson's own exampl
four-measure phrase derived from three motives makes it plain t
least a modest degree of transformative imitation was expected
composing with moduli.
One logical inference to be drawn from the writings of Matth
and other German critics is that most musicians of Bach's time would
have considered the process of transformative imitation in BW
580
1056/2 (156/1) to pay back Telemann's invention with more than t
requisite interest. But would Bach's Adagio have pleased Telema
himself, the "first inventor and rightful owner" (to use Mattheso
phrase) of the borrowed ideas? An answer in the affirmative seems
be provided by a brief passage in Scheibe's Ueber die musikalische Compo
sition (1773). After acknowledging that Handel and Hasse often bor
rowed the inventions of Reinhard Keiser, Scheibe points out that th
nevertheless understood "the art of making these inventions their ow
so that they were transformed in their hands into new and origin
ideas. Mattheson and Telemann assured me of this more than once,
and in light of other reliable reports I cannot doubt it."72 We have
every reason to believe Scheibe's assertion that Telemann knew and ap-
proved of Handel's borrowings, for the two composers were intimately
familiar with each other's music, Telemann having performed many of
Handel's operas at Hamburg, and Handel having borrowed liberally
70 George J. Buelow, "Mattheson's Concept of 'Moduli' as a Clue to Handel's Com-

positional Process," Giittinger Hdndel-Beitrage, vol. 3, ed. Hans Joachim Marx (Kassel:
BWrenreiter, 1987), 272-78.
7' Mattheson, Der volkommene Capellmeister, 122-23; translated in Buelow, "Matthe-
son's Concept of 'Moduli,' " 274-76.
72 Johann Adolph Scheibe, Ueber die musikalische Composition, Erster Theil: Theorie der
Melodie und Harmonie (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1773), liii; quoted and translated in John H.
Roberts, "Handel's Borrowings from Keiser," Goittinger Hdndel-Beitrage, vol. 2, ed. Hans
Joachim Marx (Kassel: Bidrenreiter, 1986): 51-76, at 51. Another translation of the pas-
sage is given in Buelow, "The Case for Handel's Borrowings," 64.
ZOHN & PAYNE
from Telemann's Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst, Musique de

sans basse over the course of more than two decades.7
Bach's process of imitation in BWV 1056/2 (156/1
produces "new and original ideas" and closely mirror
del's own borrowing procedures, one must imagin
would have sanctioned it.
This report of Telemann's apparently sympathetic stance towards

transformative imitation is corroborated by a growing body of evidence
that he, too, practiced the craft at various stages of his career. In his
quartet for recorder, violin, viola, and continuo TWV 43:g4, probably
written at Eisenach, Telemann borrowed both principal motives in the
"Allamande" from Partia IV of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Harmo-
nia arificiosa-ariosa, first published in 1696.74 Three movements from
the E-minor orchestral suite TWV 55:e8, which turn out to be dances
from the lost 1724 opera Omphale (TWV 21:14), are dependent upon
dances from the 1701 opera of the same name by Andre Cardinal
Destouches.75 And the theme of the variation movement concluding
the A-minor quartet for flute, violin, viola da gamba or cello, and con-
tinuo TWV 43:a2, published in the Nouveaux quatuors en Six Suites
(Paris, 1738), is based upon the A-minor Gavotte et doubles in581 Jean-
Philippe Rameau's Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin (Paris, 1728).76 In
each of these borrowings Telemann, like Handel and Bach, critiques
and recontextualizes material from his model: though the two motives
73 Roberts ("Handel's Borrowings from Telemann," 148) points out that Harmoni-
scher Gottes-Dienst apparently furnished more ideas for Handel than any other single exter-
nal source. It is possible that Handel's reliance on Telemann's music extended back to
the beginnings of their careers, when the two young composers discussed melodic
matters through written correspondence and during visits in Leipzig and Halle. See Tele-
mann's 1740 autobiography in Johann Mattheson, Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte (Hamburg:
Mattheson, 1740; repr. Kassel: Birenreiter, 1969), 359-
74 Telemann's borrowing, discovered by Reinhard Goebel, was first reported in
Ruhnke, Telemann-Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, 175. On the dating of Biber's collection see Eric
Chafe, The Church Music ofHeinrich Biber (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987), 241.
75 Peter Huth, '"Telemanns Hamburger Opern nach franz6sischem Vorbild," in
Franz6sische Einfliisse auf deutsche Musiker im 18. Jahrhundert, o10. Arolser Barock-
Festspiele 1995, Tagungsbericht, Arolser Beitrige zur Musikforschung, vol. 4, ed. Fried-
helm Brusniak and Annemarie Clostermann (Cologne: Studio, 1996), 115-45, at 30-
32. For a modern edition of Telemann's suite, see Ian Payne, ed., Georg Philipp Telemann:
Ouverture in E minor for Two Violins, Viola, and Basso Continuo, Severinus Urtext Telemann
Edition, vol. 124 (Hereford: Severinus Press, 1999).
76 One might consider this borrowing as something of an hommage a Rameau, whose
acquaintance Telemann may have made during his Paris visit of 1737-38. Rameau's
movement may itself be borrowed in part from Handel, as Kenneth Gilbert has noted the
strong resemblance of the first three variations to those of the "Air con Variazioni" move-
ment in the Suite in D minor HWV 428 (Suites de pisces pour le clavecin [London, 1720]).
See Gilbert, ed., Jean-Philippe Rameau, Pieces de clavecin (Paris: Heugel, 1979; Le Pupitre
59), x. Rameau could also have known Handel's movement from the early D-minor suite
HWV 449, a work that is thought to date from the composer's Hamburg period.
of Biber's allemande are adopted almost literally, they are subject

more rigorous contrapuntal treatment and now furnish most of t
matic material in a ritornello-form movement with a "solo" recor
Destouches' dances provide the structure, dimensions, and rhyt
profile for Telemann's, but musical "interest" is paid through fr
and extensive departures in melody and harmony; and whil
melody of Telemann's variation theme begins very much like Ram
it is presented in octaves rather than in Rameau's sixths or tenths, is
bued with greater rhythmic interest and given a richer harmoniz
and more or less follows its own course after the first eight measure
Returning to Bach, something of his own view toward imitatio
be gleaned from a contemporary account of his playing. In 1741
hann Leberecht Pitschel reported that Bach the improviser was
warmed up until his powers of invention had been roused by pl
the music of other composers.
You know, the famous man who has the greatest praise in our town
music, and the greatest admiration of connoisseurs, does not get in
condition, as the expression goes, to delight others with the minglin
582 of his tones until he has played something from the printed or writte
page, and has [thus] set his powers of imagination in motion. ... The
able man whom I have mentioned usually has to play something from
the page that is inferior to his own ideas. And yet his superior idea
are the consequences of those inferior ones.77
This passage could almost be a description of Handel's creative pr

Pitschel's last sentence seems to indicate that the improvisation
generated through transformative imitation (Bach's ideas we
"consequences" [Folgen] of the others), but we cannot be cert
how the "superior" and "inferior" ideas actually related to each ot
is in any event clear that, as far as Pitschel was concerned, Bach'
ative powers were in no small measure dependent upon the exte
stimulation of other composers' music. The report meshes nicely
two often-cited recollections by C.P.E. Bach that testify to the in
tual stimulation his father derived from music by others. In the
ary written with the help of Johann Friedrich Agricola in
Emanuel noted that his father "needed only to have heard any
to be aware-it seemed in the same instant-of almost every intr
that artistry could produce in the treatment of it."78 Much later
December 1774 letter to Forkel, Emanuel recalled that his father
to improvise a fourth contrapuntal voice when accompanying the
77 Bach-Dokumente, vol. 2, No. 499; The New Bach Reader, No. 336.
78 Bach-Dokumente, vol. 3, No. 666; The New Bach Reader, No. 306.
ZOHN & PAYNE
of other composers, a practice which recalls the arrangin

BWV 1025.79
Although the theory of transformative imitation may
the aesthetic impulses behind Bach's borrowing of Telem
and in particular why he sought to reconceptualize the m
oughly after the opening measures, it cannot tell us why
borrow from this particular piece in the first place. Per
plest explanation is that Bach's interest in Telemann's
based upon the quality of its musical invention and its p
elaboration. Another explanation would emphasize the nov
mann's concerto in the realms of style and scoring. Indee
language of TWV 51:G2 is far more individualized than t
TWV 51:g1 or 52:G2, both distinctive works that, as Bach
recognized at Weimar, are nevertheless firmly rooted in the t
century concerto styles of Albinoni and Torelli. And to a
poser in the second decade of the eighteenth century, a s
certo was probably still something of an exotic anima
recalling in this respect that of all the Bach concerto tr
whose sources are known, only one-the Marcello transcri
583
974-is based on a solo wind concerto. Moreover, few of W
viving transcriptions, presumably made around the time
pear to take wind concertos as their models.80 In fact, TW
the Marcello concerto, perhaps along with others of Tele
concertos and Albinoni's Op. 7 (1715), may well have b
solo wind concertos Bach encountered at Weimar or K
might also speculate that Bach's borrowing was to some
vated by feelings of admiration for and competition wit
79 Bach-Dokumente, vol. 3, No. 8oi01; The New Bach Reader, No. 394; B
[24-27].
so Among the sixteen or so Walther concerto transcriptions discussed in note 8 and
edited by Klaus Beckmann in Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748): Sdmtliche Orgelwerke,
vol. 1: Freie Orgelwerke, Konzerttranskriptionen (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Hirtel, 1998), only
that of TWV 52:cl is clearly based on a work with a solo wind instrument. Despite the fact
that many, if not most, of Walther's transcriptions appear to have been lost, there is no
reason to doubt that the surviving examples are representative of the types of concertos
he encountered during the 171os. In his 1740 autobiography Walther claimed to have
made 78 keyboard transcriptions ("aufs clavier applicirte Stficke") of works by other com-
posers. See Johann Mattheson, Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte (Hamburg: Mattheson, 1740;
repr. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1969), 389. Most of Walther's surviv-
ing concerto transcriptions are also published in Max Seiffert, ed., Johann Gottfried
Walther: Gesammelte Werke fiir Orgel, Denkmiler deutscher Tonkunst, vols. 26-27 (Leipzig:
Breitkopf und Hfirtel, 1906; repr. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1958),
285-364-
81 Butler ('j. S. Bach's Reception of Tomaso Albinoni's Mature Concertos," 31) sug-
gests that Bach's contact with Albinoni's Op. 7 is unlikely to have occurred before the fall
of 1717, and perhaps not until several years later.
friend Telemann, who in the years before 1715 was probably a m

perienced composer of concertos and other types of instrument
semble music. In appropriating elements of Telemann's Andante,
Bach may have sought simultaneously to pay a compliment to his
(interest and all) and to demonstrate his emerging mastery of th
certo as a genre.
But let us not be tempted by indications that BWV 1056/2 (15
is a relatively early work to dismiss the act or nature of Bach's m
as a youthful indiscretion, unthinkable from the mature compo
the late K6then or early Leipzig years. There is no reason to bel
that Bach would have outgrown this kind of transformative imit
after a certain point in his career; Telemann and Handel clearly
not, although some details of the latter's practice changed over t
and Mattheson stresses that imitating the works of others, pro
done, is far more than a pedagogical tool for inexperienced comp
Nor are we in an ideal position to determine, given the small rep
of Bach's known borrowings from other composers, wheth
process of imitation in BWV 1056/2 (156/1) is more reflective o
technique in 1712, 1717, or even 1722. But questions of the w
584
chronology aside, the discovery that one of Bach's most famous
movements owes its inspiration to Telemann not only enriches t
sical and aesthetic context in which we may understand his ach
ment, but imposes a fresh layer of meaning onto Adorno's bon
"they say Bach, mean Telemann."83
Temple University
Open University
82 For example, Roberts ("Handel's Borrowings from Telemann," 151) not

the size of Handel's individual appropriations from Telemann gradually incre
tween the late 172os and late 1730s.
83 Theodor Adorno, "Bach Defended against His Devotees" [1951], in Prisms
tural Criticism and Society, trans. Samuel and Shierry Weber (London: Spearma
repr. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981), 135-46, at 145.

Bach, Telemann, and The Process of Transformative Imitation in BWV 10562 1561

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Bach, Telemann, and the Process of Transformative Imitation in BWV 1056/2 (156/1)

Author(s): Steven Zohn and Ian Payne

Imitation in BWV 1056/2

The middle movement of Bach's F-m

Volume XVII - Number 4 - Fall 1999

* A shorter version of this essay was read at the Sixty-

1 Ulrich Siegele, "Kompositionsweise und Bearbeitungstechnik

unnoticed for so long is attributable in part to misleading published de-

see, the missing portions of Telemann's concerto do not signific

The revelation of Bach's modelling is significant on several counts.

Although a precise chronology for the two move-

Instrumentalwerke (= Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke, Supplement), vol. 3 (Kassel:

documentary evidence. First, it is significant, and perhaps not entirely

been modeled upon Bach's, we would reasonably expect it to reveal

Konzertmeister and Kapellmeister at the nearby Eisenach court,

11 Though, as Hans-Joachim Schulze cautions, there is insufficient documentary evi-

Our discussion of the two movements proceeds fr

I Bach's original, if it was indeed the second movement of a D-minor concerto,

Violins I. II. m, "

EXAMPLE la. (continued)

"" -10 -.--J ' k " " -0

EXAMPLE lb. Telemann, Concerto in G major TWV 51:G2, movem

EXAMPLE lb. (continued)

--. zi..p.+ . 1w.+

2/ + [1_ _ [+ ,} . .. . . .. . . ..-.--- - -- -.-- ., [ M"

[4+ "T t r"'40

here Bach injects Telemann's bass line with an element of rhyth

mann's modular conception in the abrupt tonal shifts between

14 However, Leisinger (Kritischer Bericht to NBA 1/6, 95), following Christop

phrases, especially that occurring at measure 7, where t

employ contrary melodic motion between the outer v

i6 We owe this point to Gregory Butler.

EXAMPLE 2. Telemann, Solo in G major TWV 41:G9, movem

558 as one could wish for-then it confor

17 Good examples of this procedure occur i

Having established a close musical connection be-

19 Liner notes to Pro Arte PAD 153-

and quasi-ostinato accompaniment, but, unlike the Telemann

of the movement, and BWV 1034/3 has a quasi-ostinato accom

theme is handled differently in each movement-resco

Whatever these stylistic parallels tell us about Bach

The only source for TWV 51 :G2 is a set of early-eighteenth-century

25 For a convenient chronological overview of Bach's music for instrumental ensem-

in the Telemann-Werkverzeichnis that the manuscript is incomplete o

movement, as well as for brief passages elsewhere in the concerto

right-hand corner of the title page, he assigned the

31 The same copyist added the words "Telemafi genafit" above

Keiser wrote at court in 1720.35 Without wishing to suggest the unlik

35 Mus. Saec. XVII.18.19.2a, XVII.18.1992b, and XVII.18.19.6. The three manu-

is of later origin than the full set of parts.38 The earlie

38 Kross (Das Instrumentalkonzert, 127) describes the instrumen

somewhat earlier. Indeed, all of the stylistic features identified by W

42 Hirschmann, "Telemanns Frankfurter Konzertschaffen."

ments in which the relationship between soloist and tutti

EXAMPLE 3. Telemann, TWV 51:G2, movement 2, mm. 1-12.

EXAMPLE 4. Telemann, TWV 51:G2, movement 2, mm.

i$ IL: ~ i i-~ l= " i i 7

EXAMPLE 6. Telemann, TWV 51:G2, movement 3, mm. 1-9.

the first violin (for reasons of compass briefly trans

solo melodies are accompanied by rhythmic ostinati. G

We come finally to the questions of why Bach bor-

48 A good critical survey of the various explanations of Handel's borrowing is found

self-borrowings have caused his admirers, his uses of preexistent