Bach, J.S. (1685-1750). A FIRST AND TWO EARLY BACH EDITIONS BY NÄGELI: THE ART OF FUGUE, SIX SONATAS AND THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS..
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 / Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1014–1019 / Goldberg Variations, BW 988; MS score of J. C. Bach. Op. 5. No. 6. A collection of one first and two very early nineteenth-century Bach editions, all by Nägeli; notable publications in the history of the Bach revival, bound together with a manuscript copy of a detail of Johann Christian Bach’s Op. 5. No. 6. Oblong. Engraved throughout. Bound together in contemporary green maroquin binding, panels ruled with gilt floral frame, spine with gilt compartments and title and red shelfmark. Publishers’ stamps (Nägeli & Naderman) to title pages. Binding artistically restored. Paper toned due to aging, scattered foxing throughout. Overall in very good condition. Bound together as follows:
1. L’Art de la Fugue Par Jean Sebastien Bach Prix 24 fl. : à Zuric: chez jean George Naigueli [Naderman’s imprint covered with H. J. Godefroy’s pasted label], [1802].[1 (title page)] [2 (blank)] 2–183 [1 (blank)] p. Tiny wormholes to the lower margin to a few leaves (pp. 1–15; 47–50; ) not affecting the printed space.
An early edition of the Art of Fugue, the third overall (earlier in 1751, and 1752), appearing here for first time as keyboard music. RISM A I, B523; Kinsky (1937) p.80; Hoboken 146 (with a German title).
2. Six grandes Sonates entremêlées de Fûgues pour le Clavecin ou Piano Forté avec Violon concertant Composés par Jean Sebastien Bach Prix. 18 fl. : A Zuric: Chez Jean Georg Naigueli [imprint covered with Agu.te Le Duc’S pasted label] ], [between 1802 and 1810]. PN 6; [1 (title page)] [1 (blank)] 95 [1 (blank)] p.. Tiny hole to the title page, affecting a letter, else fine.
First printed edition of the Six Sonatas, it also appeared with a German title: Clavier Sonaten mit obligater Violine. RISM A I, B457; [Hoboken 121(with a German title).
3. Trente variations Fuguées pour Clavecin ou Piano-Forte Composées par Jean Sebastien Bach Prix 9 fl.: A Zuric - A Paris: chez Jean George Naigueli. - chez Naderman, Rue de la Loi, ancien passage du Caffé de Foi. Enregistré à la Bibliotheque Nationale, [1804 or 1809]. [1 (title page)] [2 (blank)] 2–63 [1 (blank)] p.
An early edition of the the Goldberg Variations (Trente variations Fuguées pour Clavecin ou Piano-Forte), it also appeared with a German title: Variationen für das Clavier. RISM A/I B 493. Hoboken 113 (with a German title).
4. Johann Christian Bach’s Op. 5. No. 6. Allegro Moderato: Cembalo di Fuga: Early 19th-century manuscript score: [4] p. (last blank). 1802.
A contemporary manuscript copy of the Allegro Moderato movement of Johann Christian Bach’s Six Sonatas, op. 5. no. 6. (first printed edition in: Six Sonatas for the Piano Forte or Harpshicord. London: Welcker, n.d.(1765).
Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the majority of Bach’s music remained unpublished and unperformed. Hans Georg Nägeli (1773–1836), the publisher of the present scores, played a critical role in the Bach revival of the early nineteenth century. The son of a musically inclined Protestant pastor in Wetzikon, Nägeli moved to Zurich in 1791 where he took lessons with the Swiss pianist Johann David Brünings, who introduced him to the music of Bach. A year later he set up a music shop and in 1794 a publishing house. Corresponding with Bach's publisher Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf and the widow of C.P.E. Bach, he was able to acquire Bach manuscripts, including that of the Mass in B minor, which he eventually published. His Bach publications started with the Well Tempered Clavier in 1801 and the Art of the Fugue in 1802.
Composed in the last decade of his life, The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 is is an incomplete work of unspecified instrumentation and the culmination of Bach's experimentation with monothematic instrumental works. It consists of 14 fugues and 4 canons, each using some variation of a single principal subject, and generally ordered to increase in complexity. "The governing idea of the work", as put by Bach specialist Christoph Wolff, "was an exploration in depth of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single musical subject." ("Johann Sebastian Bach, the Learned Musician," p. 433)
The six sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1014–1019 are works in trio sonata form, with the two upper parts in the harpsichord and violin over a bass line supplied by the harpsichord and an optional viola da gamba. Unlike baroque sonatas for solo instrument and continuo, where the realisation of the figured bass was left to the discretion of the performer, the keyboard part in the sonatas was almost entirely specified by Bach himself. Probably mostly composed during Bach's final years in Cöthen between 1720 and 1723, before he moved to Leipzig, the extant sources for the collection span the whole of Bach's period in Leipzig, during which time he continued to make changes to the score.
The "Goldberg" Variations BWV 988, comprising 30 contrapuntal variations, beginning and ending with an aria, represents the apogee of the Baroque variation form and is among Bach's most important keyboard works. Unlike most of Bach's keyboard music, the Goldberg Variations had appeared in print prior to the 19th century (between 1742 and 1745) as the 4th part of the Clavierübung, but probably no more than one hundred copies were published (of which only 19 copies are now recorded, all of which in institutional libraries).
Bach, J.S. (1685-1750). A FIRST AND TWO EARLY BACH EDITIONS BY NÄGELI: THE ART OF FUGUE, SIX SONATAS AND THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS..
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 / Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1014–1019 / Goldberg Variations, BW 988; MS score of J. C. Bach. Op. 5. No. 6. A collection of one first and two very early nineteenth-century Bach editions, all by Nägeli; notable publications in the history of the Bach revival, bound together with a manuscript copy of a detail of Johann Christian Bach’s Op. 5. No. 6. Oblong. Engraved throughout. Bound together in contemporary green maroquin binding, panels ruled with gilt floral frame, spine with gilt compartments and title and red shelfmark. Publishers’ stamps (Nägeli & Naderman) to title pages. Binding artistically restored. Paper toned due to aging, scattered foxing throughout. Overall in very good condition. Bound together as follows:
1. L’Art de la Fugue Par Jean Sebastien Bach Prix 24 fl. : à Zuric: chez jean George Naigueli [Naderman’s imprint covered with H. J. Godefroy’s pasted label], [1802].[1 (title page)] [2 (blank)] 2–183 [1 (blank)] p. Tiny wormholes to the lower margin to a few leaves (pp. 1–15; 47–50; ) not affecting the printed space.
An early edition of the Art of Fugue, the third overall (earlier in 1751, and 1752), appearing here for first time as keyboard music. RISM A I, B523; Kinsky (1937) p.80; Hoboken 146 (with a German title).
2. Six grandes Sonates entremêlées de Fûgues pour le Clavecin ou Piano Forté avec Violon concertant Composés par Jean Sebastien Bach Prix. 18 fl. : A Zuric: Chez Jean Georg Naigueli [imprint covered with Agu.te Le Duc’S pasted label] ], [between 1802 and 1810]. PN 6; [1 (title page)] [1 (blank)] 95 [1 (blank)] p.. Tiny hole to the title page, affecting a letter, else fine.
First printed edition of the Six Sonatas, it also appeared with a German title: Clavier Sonaten mit obligater Violine. RISM A I, B457; [Hoboken 121(with a German title).
3. Trente variations Fuguées pour Clavecin ou Piano-Forte Composées par Jean Sebastien Bach Prix 9 fl.: A Zuric - A Paris: chez Jean George Naigueli. - chez Naderman, Rue de la Loi, ancien passage du Caffé de Foi. Enregistré à la Bibliotheque Nationale, [1804 or 1809]. [1 (title page)] [2 (blank)] 2–63 [1 (blank)] p.
An early edition of the the Goldberg Variations (Trente variations Fuguées pour Clavecin ou Piano-Forte), it also appeared with a German title: Variationen für das Clavier. RISM A/I B 493. Hoboken 113 (with a German title).
4. Johann Christian Bach’s Op. 5. No. 6. Allegro Moderato: Cembalo di Fuga: Early 19th-century manuscript score: [4] p. (last blank). 1802.
A contemporary manuscript copy of the Allegro Moderato movement of Johann Christian Bach’s Six Sonatas, op. 5. no. 6. (first printed edition in: Six Sonatas for the Piano Forte or Harpshicord. London: Welcker, n.d.(1765).
Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the majority of Bach’s music remained unpublished and unperformed. Hans Georg Nägeli (1773–1836), the publisher of the present scores, played a critical role in the Bach revival of the early nineteenth century. The son of a musically inclined Protestant pastor in Wetzikon, Nägeli moved to Zurich in 1791 where he took lessons with the Swiss pianist Johann David Brünings, who introduced him to the music of Bach. A year later he set up a music shop and in 1794 a publishing house. Corresponding with Bach's publisher Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf and the widow of C.P.E. Bach, he was able to acquire Bach manuscripts, including that of the Mass in B minor, which he eventually published. His Bach publications started with the Well Tempered Clavier in 1801 and the Art of the Fugue in 1802.
Composed in the last decade of his life, The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 is is an incomplete work of unspecified instrumentation and the culmination of Bach's experimentation with monothematic instrumental works. It consists of 14 fugues and 4 canons, each using some variation of a single principal subject, and generally ordered to increase in complexity. "The governing idea of the work", as put by Bach specialist Christoph Wolff, "was an exploration in depth of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single musical subject." ("Johann Sebastian Bach, the Learned Musician," p. 433)
The six sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1014–1019 are works in trio sonata form, with the two upper parts in the harpsichord and violin over a bass line supplied by the harpsichord and an optional viola da gamba. Unlike baroque sonatas for solo instrument and continuo, where the realisation of the figured bass was left to the discretion of the performer, the keyboard part in the sonatas was almost entirely specified by Bach himself. Probably mostly composed during Bach's final years in Cöthen between 1720 and 1723, before he moved to Leipzig, the extant sources for the collection span the whole of Bach's period in Leipzig, during which time he continued to make changes to the score.
The "Goldberg" Variations BWV 988, comprising 30 contrapuntal variations, beginning and ending with an aria, represents the apogee of the Baroque variation form and is among Bach's most important keyboard works. Unlike most of Bach's keyboard music, the Goldberg Variations had appeared in print prior to the 19th century (between 1742 and 1745) as the 4th part of the Clavierübung, but probably no more than one hundred copies were published (of which only 19 copies are now recorded, all of which in institutional libraries).