The early eighteenth century was a period of relative tranquility in Western Europe compared to the seventeenth century and the religious and political upheavals of the 30 Years’ War. In Protestant Germany, the question of the necessity for intercession and entreaty between God and Man, by agent or agency, had been answered with the evolution of Luther’s teachings through the development of Pietism. Routley writes (1967) that in Germany, Pietism was “…an intensely individual piety without any ‘fighting’ qualities of doctrine” (p. 154). The individual could become one with God through direct, spiritual prayer and atonement without fear of persecution.
Perhaps this notion of atonement, the attempt by Man to become one with God through personal petition, influences and informs many of Bach’s works, for it is within the setting of Pietism that Bach “…lived but to worship God and write music” (Cross & Ewen 1969, p. 22). In the years between 1718 and 1723, he merged both of these endeavors while serving as Kapellmeiser and director of chamber music at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöhen and writing Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. One example from that work that illustrates Pietism’s central tenet, the individual’s determined, personal effort to reach God, is Bach’s Prelude of Suite No.1 in G Major, BWV 1007.
A single musical voice sounds throughout the work’s forty-two measures, consisting of sixteenth notes with few exceptions. A low bass note, repeated in every eight-note arpeggio, may represent the inertia of physical existence, from which the individual must break free in order to reach God, while the higher notes of the series suggest the attempt by Man to break earthly bonds and reach God. The difference between the lowest and highest notes of each arpeggio is great, and this difference implies that there is a gulf, a separation between Man and God, which Man attempts to bridge. By measure five, the bonds are almost broken, and Man gradually ascends to the spiritual plane of God as the musical pattern ascends in pitch.
As the work continues, the melodic line occasionally falls back to the lower register of the work’s beginning, hinting that Man’s struggle to become one with God may ultimately fail. Near the end of the piece, intensity and tension increase as the cello’s bow moves rapidly and aggressively across its strings and mimics the considerable effort required to bridge the gulf.
As I listen to the work, I wonder if Bach is suggesting that the earthly bonds that ground man in physical existence are too strong to be broken by Man’s effort alone. Perhaps, the gulf is too broad to cross without intercession by external agent or agency. But Bach provides resolution to my concerns in the last measure’s final chord, which consists of the low bass note heard in the beginning of the work and two notes at a much higher pitch. A second instrument (agent) does not assist in the struggle to bridge the gulf. Instead, the three notes that compose the G major chord are played by cello alone, the single voice of the work, and I better comprehend Pietism and atonement; Man reaches up to God, and God reaches down to Man. God and Man are joined in that final chord.
References
Routley, E. (1967). The church and music. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. LTD.
Cross, M., & Ewen, D. (Eds.). (1969). The milton cross new encyclopedia of the great composers and their music (Vol. 1). Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
