Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her"
The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", BWV 769, are a set of five variations in canon for organ with two manuals and pedals by Johann Sebastian Bach on the Christmas hymn by Martin Luther of the same name. The variations were prepared as a showpiece for Bach's entry as fourteenth member of Mizler's Music Society in Leipzig in 1747. The original printed edition of 1747, in which only one line of the canon was marked in the first three variations, was published by Balthasar Schmid in Nuremberg. Another version BWV 769a appears in the later autograph manuscript P 271, which also contains the six trio sonatas for organ BWV 525–530 and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes BWV 651–668. In this later version Bach modified the order of the variations, moving the fifth variation into a central position, and wrote out all the parts in full, with some minor revisions to the score.
Movements
The title page of the printed version BWV 769 readsIn English translation this reads
There are five variations:
In BWV 769a, the variations occur in the modified order 1, 2, 5, 3, 4.
History, origins and genesis
In June 1747, Bach was admitted as the fourteenth member of the "Correspondierende Societät der musicalischen Wissenschaften", a society devoted to musical scholarship founded in Leipzig in 1738 by Lorenz Christoph Mizler. To mark his admission he not only presented a version of the Canonic Variations, but also a portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in which Bach holds a copy of his canon triplex a 6 voci BWV 1076 towards the viewer. During the last ten years of his life, Bach had become preoccupied musically with canons and canonic fugues, already much developed in the Parts III and IV of the Clavier-Übung—the Organ Mass BWV 552, BWV 669–689, the four canonic duets BWV 802–805 and the Goldberg Variations BWV 988—as well as the Musical Offering BWV 1079 and the Art of the Fugue BWV 1080. The triplex canon itself became part of the Fourteen Canons BWV 1087, preserved in one surviving copy of the Goldberg Variations. Mizler seems to have been unaware of the numerological significance that the number fourteen had to Bach.File:Luther-Bapst-1567.png|thumb|Martin Luther: Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her, Bapst Gesangbuch in Leipzig, 1567|350px
The Canonic Variations are based on the Christmas Hymn "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her", for which text and melody, both by Martin Luther, were published in 1539:
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The chorale itself was set three times by Bach in his Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, and before that as an addition for Christmas in his Magnificat in E-flat major, BWV 243a. Bach also used the hymn melody in earlier chorale preludes, notably BWV 606, 700, 701 and 738, with accompanying motifs above and below the melodic line that were to recur in BWV 769. There are also similarities with several of the Goldberg Variations, notably the third and thirteenth, with shared motifs, keyboard technique and general structure. In the case of the earlier harpsichord work, however, the variations are written over a fixed bass line, while BWV 769 is based on a melody.
File:Mainz stundenbuch.jpg|thumb|Annunciation to the shepherds, 15C book of hours, Mainz
During this period Bach had been criticized vociferously by the Danish composer Johann Adolph Scheibe for producing music that was too old-fashioned, abstract and artificial. Scheibe had described Bach's output as "altogether too much art" and had referred to the canons as outmoded follies. However, despite the logic of the canon that underlies the Canonic Variations, Bach succeeded in producing a work which, far from being abstract and severe, was imbued with an affect of "beauty" and "naturalness", quite modern for its time and in keeping with the spirit of galante music. The musical language of Bach in BWV 769 is as different from his other organ music as that of the Goldberg Variations is from his earlier harpsichord music. Combining complex counterpoint with the spiritual associations of Advent and Christmas, Bach's harmony and keyboard technique produce a musical style "at times strangely new, at others very approachable" yet "elusive enough to prompt admirers to search outside music for suitable expressive metaphor." As puts it, the "canons create harmonies, melodies and progressions not only otherwise unheard but strangely rapt and intense."
Various stylistic elements in the Canonic Variations recall the compositions of Bach's predecessors and contemporaries. The running figures in the first variation can be found in Toccata No.12 of Georg Muffat and in the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. The canon in the second variation is close in spirit to the Canons Mélodieux for two instruments of Georg Philipp Telemann. The galant figures of the free line in the third variation are similar to those promoted by Joachim Quantz in his 1752 treatise on flute playing. The elaborate ornamentation of the fourth variation uses many devices from his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's treatise on keyboard technique ; the final pedal point harks back to those of the chorale preludes of Dieterich Buxtehude, for example in his setting of "Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verdebt", BuxWV 183. The walking pedal-bass beneath the canon at the beginning of the fifth variation is similar to Georg Friedrich Kaufmann's setting of "Vom Himmel hoch" in his Harmonische Seelenlust.
has examined the surviving manuscripts in detail to determine the manner in which the Canonic Variations were composed and published. A similar process was determined by. The only sources were Balthasar Schmid's engraving and Bach's autograph manuscript, a much larger collection referred to as P271. In addition there were further manuscripts of Bach, used for rough working and sketches, which have not survived. The chronology shows that four of the five variations were engraved halfway through 1746, starting with Variatio I, II and III, and ending with Variatio V. Only in 1747, after a year had elapsed, was Variatio IV engraved. As a consequence, not all of the variations could have been performed by Mizler at the Society; and, in Hans Klotz's 1957 critical report of the NBA, it could not have been possible for an initial printing of Variatio I, II, III and IV, followed by a later expanded version of Variatio V.
File:Smallorgan-thomaskirche.jpg|thumb|250px|The small organ in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach was organist and kantor 1723–1750. The organ, with its gilt Bach monogram, is a reconstruction by Gerald Woehl of a baroque organ played by Bach in the Paulinerkirche
File:Thomaskirche_und_-schule_1723.jpg|thumb|Engraving of the Thomaskirche and Thomasschule in Leipzig in 1723, where Bach was appointed Thomaskantor
The Canonic Variations seem to have been composed, not necessarily in their final form, in 1746 or at least for the New Year's Fair of 1747. In the engraved version the first three variations, written in annotated form, could not be performed directly from the copy, since only one part of the canon was provided, the other having to be worked out "with the pen at home". For variations 1–3, the annotation of canons involved suppressing the second canonic entry, so that the scoring becomes a puzzle, sometimes referred to as an "enigma" or a "riddle". As speculates, it might have been that the first three variations initially comprised some form of presentation; one suitable festive occasion, appropriate for such a performance, would have been the baptism of Bach's grandson Johann August, celebrated in early December 1745. The engraved version was also probably devised to minimize page turns and economize on space, so the combination of these factors speaks against any particular significance in the order of the movements. It is also not clear which of the remaining two canons was prepared specially for Mizler's Society.
The exuberant Canon with Inversions builds up to a cumulative climax, but originally did not contain the passing reference to the BACH motif in its closing bars. In the autograph manuscript, it becomes the central variation, comparable to the role played by the central large-scale sixteenth Goldberg variation. This variation in three separate sections was engraved after variations 1–3; it might have been intended to be placed between the 2nd and 3rd variations; and with four variations now at Bach's disposal, that marked a new stage in Bach's development, with the flourish in Variatio V starting to gain a sense of finality. The calmer Augmentation Canon, on the other hand, similar to the thirteenth Goldberg variation, has a clear reference to the BACH motif in its 39th bar, its anguished harmonies resolved peacefully by the final pedal point. Because of continual reworkings, it is now believed that Bach never intended there to be a final fixed version. In particular, commentators have pointed out that although the order of the variations in the autograph version gives it a certain aesthetic symmetry, the order in the engraved version might be more appropriate for performance.
During a period of roughly 20 years of research, the musicologist has developed her own theory of numerology and proportion with reference to Bach's compositions. Based on what she has termed "proportional parallelism," Tatlow has described three uniform features: firstly the total number of bars in printed or manuscript works are multiples of tens, hundreds or thousands; secondly the initials of Bach and various family members correspond numerically, using an alphabetical code, to meaningfully identified values, such as 14 and 41; and finally the total number of bars in major works of Bach can almost always be divided into proportions of 1:1 and 1:2. In the first part of Tatlow's book, there is an account of the eighteenth century from the viewpoint of musical theory and theology. The second part illustrates specific works or collections of works, including a detailed and lengthy discussion of the five variations in BWV 769 with six carefully tabulated figures.