The Collected Works of Johann Christian Bach, 1735-1782.(Review)

The Collected Works of Johann Christian Bach, 1735-1782. Vol. 48, Thematic Catalogue and Music Supplement. Compiled by Ernest Warburton. New York: Garland Publishing, 1999. [Part One: Thematic Catalogue, viii, 611 p.; Part Two: Sources & Documents, xlvi, 669 p.; Part Three: Music Supplement, xiii, 746 p. ISBN 0-8240-6097-0. $295.]

Today the music of the late eighteenth century is known primarily through the works of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Yet the musical production of this rather short time span was voluminous, and the works of the Viennese masters constitute only a limited portion of the total repertory; the rest was the product of dozens of other capable composers working in centers throughout Europe. A full understanding of the music of this period depends upon an appreciation of the accomplishments of these so-called Kleinmeister. First, however, the repertory must be identified, its sources evaluated, and the music itself made available for study and performance. The Collected Works of Johann Christian Bach, 1735-1782, published by Garland under the general editorship of Ernest Warburton, might well serve as a model for how such a comprehensive study should be carried Out. This project, which began in 1984 (the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth), has produced forty-two volumes of edited music and five o f librettos. Volume 48, the final element in this monumental undertaking, is the Thematic Catalogue and Music Supplement that is the subject of the present review.

Johann Christian Bach was a prolific composer, credited with over three hundred compositions not including arrangements and doubtful or falsely attributed works. Warburton's catalog accounts for this entire repertory in meticulous detail. The extreme length of the catalog (1,280 pages) has prompted the author to partition it into two parts (in two volumes): part 1 constitutes the catalog proper, and part 2 is a guide to sources and documents. The first part is organized into twelve work groups, nine of which (groups A-I) comprise the main body of Bach's works: (A) Keyboard Music, (B) Chamber Music, (C) Orchestral Music, (D) Oratorio, (E) Liturgical Latin Church Music, (F) Occasional Church Music, (G) Dramatic Works, Secular Cantatas, Arias, etc., (H) Songs and Ensembles, and (I) Miscellanea. Two additional groups (L and X) comprise arrangements, and a final group (Y) is given over to works incorrectly attributed to Bach. Compositions are arranged within each group according to genre. Each is identified by a catalog number, short title, and generous incipits for all movements or numbers. Multiple versions of a single work are listed separately, and each is designated with a lowercase letter added to its reference number (e.g., C 16a).

Within each genre, individual compositions have been arranged in chronological order rather than the more common ordering by tonality. Although such an arrangement has its own compelling logic, the lack of certainty in dating music of this period might make one cautious about applying it. While some of Warburton's dates are based on autographs and dates of first publication or first performance, in many instances such information is either unavailable or inapplicable, and Warburton was forced to suggest probable terminus dates (e.g., "By 1778"). Given such variability, organization by an element other than chronology might have been preferable. In addition, rather than providing separate entries for each composition, Warburton has retained the original grouping of published sets, assigning all works within a set to one entry; for example, the six keyboard concertos composed in March 1763 and published as opus 1 are listed together as C49-C54. Such an arrangement might cause unnecessary inconvenience for user s of the catalog. The scholar in search of information about a particular composition and armed only with the incipit of the opening movement is forced to search through the entire work group in order to locate the composition in question. If, on the other hand, entries were arranged by key and works within an opus were given individual entries, such a search would be much less cumbersome.

Compositions whose parentage is considered doubtful (identified as "incerta") are placed at the end of their work groups rather than immediately following their appropriate genre; such works are therefore significantly separated in the volume from authentic works of the same genre. Thus authentic symphonies are found on pages 83-97 while doubtful works in this same genre appear thirty-seven pages later (p. 135). The situation is more extreme with regard to arrangements and falsely attributed compositions, which are restricted to separate work groups located in an entirely different section of the book. This arrangement seems unnecessarily diffuse. Little would have been sacrificed by placing arrangements with their parent compositions and doubtful and ...