https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3748-2328
Abstract
Jakob Adlung’s recently rediscovered manuscript treatise, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’ (‘Instruction in improvisation’, c.1725–7), proves definitively that some 18th-century musicians understood improvisation modularly in terms of stock voice-leading patterns, or schemas. The manuscript is a compendium containing 28 typical voice-leading patterns that are to be memorized, varied and combined in myriad ways. Adlung’s treatise is thus of particular value, not only because of its numerous musical examples and extensive textual commentary, but because it reveals some of the musical and social expectations of the average central German church organist in the early 18th century. This article offers an introduction to the treatise in the context of Adlung’s biography, with an online appendix containing a critical edition of the treatise and an English translation.
Jakob Adlung’s manuscript treatise, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’ (‘Instruction in improvisation’, c.1725–7), is a remarkable historical document. Long assumed lost and rediscovered in 2010, the treatise provides definitive proof that some 18th-century musicians understood keyboard improvisation in terms of stock voice-leading patterns arranged in a modular sequence and varied in myriad ways. It contains 34 ‘rules’, most of which consist of voice-leading patterns extended via sequences, with profuse musical examples illustrating how these patterns can be used and varied. In advocating improvisations built upon a vocabulary of voice-leading modules, Adlung’s treatise shows an approach redolent of the Nova instructio pro pulsandis organis (1670–77) by the south German monk Spiridion a Monte Carmelo. Adlung’s methods for varying these modules are similar to the techniques of variation espoused by Friedrich Erhardt Niedt’s Musicalische Handleitung (1700–17) and Michael Wiedeburg’s Der sich selbst informierende Clavierspieler (1765–75), yet neither of those authors define modular voice-leading patterns as concretely as Adlung. In outlining an approach for improvisation associated with Erfurt and Jena in the 1720s, Adlung’s treatise provides a basis for historically informed improvisation and analysis, particularly of music by Erfurt keyboardists such as Johann Pachelbel and his pupils. It also contributes significantly to understandings of 18th-century composition at the keyboard, complementing scholarship on partimento traditions in Italy and Central Europe.
This article provides an introduction to Adlung’s treatise, based on a conference paper given by Michael Maul in 2018, and here revised and translated by Derek Remeš.1 Since the music-theoretical content of Adlung’s treatise has been discussed elsewhere by Remeš, this article focuses primarily on its historical background.2 It discusses the likely provenance of the surviving copy, relates the treatise to Adlung’s activities as a student and teacher in Erfurt and Jena, and comments on the dating and purpose of the treatise. An online Appendix contains Derek Remeš’s critical edition of the treatise, with a parallel English translation.
A treatise lost and found
Until 2010 the ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’ was known to scholars largely through isolated mentions in Adlung’s published works. His well-known music-theoretical work, the Musica mechanica organoedi, which was published in 1768 six years after Adlung’s death, includes an autobiographical essay that provides details regarding the history of the ‘Anweisung’. In the essay we learn that, though Adlung’s home burned down in 1736:
Indeed I had written the following works in Jena:
(1) A complete guide to thoroughbass, which I lost in the fire...;
(2) A guide to modern staff notation [italienische Tabulatur], which also burned.
(3) A guide to improvisation and to fugue, which survived.
(4) Musica mechanica organoedi, which still survives; and various other things as well.3
Further information about the ‘Anweisung’ is found in Adlung’s other principal printed work, the Anleitung zu der musicalischen Gelahrtheit (Erfurt, 1758), which was published during his lifetime. Adlung wrote the following in the chapter on improvisation:
Some of my local acquaintances [from Erfurt] are surely wondering what happened to my ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, which some of my pupils still own and which amounts to a hefty quarto manuscript. Here follows my reply: First, this work is written in such a manner that it would be futile to obtain a copy if the reader is not a pupil of mine, since this work would otherwise be useless [without oral instruction from me]. Second, the project would be unattractive to a publisher even if I wanted it to reach a broader audience, since a great number of copper plates would be necessary, whose expense would hinder, rather than promote, the book’s usefulness. Third, the instruction is not at all as I wish it to be. The work is intended for the instruction of students, who, apart from God, were the primary support of my earthly existence at a time when I, as a student of the local [Erfurt] Gymnasium, didn’t know my right hand from my left, and had no intention of this work coming into foreign hands anyway. After my own copy burned, I chose not to have another transcribed for me, since I constantly thought that I would find the time to develop a different kind of instruction—a hope that today still remains in vain. And now I cannot prevent the fact that multiple copies are in circulation; yet I am not pleased by it, especially since the copyists constantly introduce ever more mistakes, such that this garbled work may bring me more shame than renown (especially by the ignorant).4
In other words: at the moment in 1736 when Adlung’s recently renovated home in Erfurt—including his belongings—went up in flames, the autograph manuscripts of his three above-named treatises were also destroyed. However, besides his full-time activities as organist at the large Predigerkirche in Erfurt, Adlung had an extensive number of pupils, through whom his ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’ was handed down, even though the original was lost. In 2010 a manuscript of the ‘Anweisung’ appeared in the catalogue of the music antiquarian in Berlin, Werner Greve,5 and the Bach-Archiv Leipzig is now the happy owner of this lucky find.6
Examination of the manuscript, particularly the title-page (illus.1), shows that the surviving copy is not contemporaneous with Adlung. Instead, the paper and the visual appearance suggest an origin in the late 18th century. This approximate preliminary dating can be confirmed by the owner’s signature on the lower-left corner of the title-page—‘Poss[essor] J. C. Weingaertner’—who is evidently the scribe of the entire manuscript as well. This must be the Erfurt mathematician and theologian Johann Christoph Weingaertner, who was born in 1771, nine years after Adlung’s death, and died in 1833. Weingaertner stemmed from a family of Erfurt theologians: his father Johann Georg was a teacher at the city’s Ratsgymnasium and his grandfather was Johann Sylvester, pastor at various Erfurt churches and occasional teacher at the Ratsgymnasium. Weingaertner too attended the local Ratsgymnasium (where Adlung once taught), then the local university, and later became pastor and teacher at the Ratsgymnasium and professor at Erfurt University.7 Although there is no evidence as to how Weingaertner obtained a copy of the ‘Anleitung’, it may have been via his close networks of Erfurt teachers and musicians.
Jakob Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, title-page (Leipzig, Bach-Archiv, Rara ii-658-c)
Additional annotations on the title-page include the text ‘Am 5. April 1836 C.[?]S.[?] Bach’ and ‘A. Ritter’. The latter refers to August Gottfried Ritter, who was born in 1811 in Erfurt and died in 1885 in Magdeburg. Ritter attended the Erfurt Ratsgymnasium during Weingaertner’s tenure and later the Erfurt teachers’ seminar (Lehrerseminar); in 1831 he became organist at the Andreaskirche in Erfurt, and thereafter at other local churches. Subsequently Ritter became cathedral organist in Merseburg and finally in Magdeburg. He edited much organ music from the 17th and 18th centuries and was author of a well-known organ method and of one of the first histories of early organ music.8 Adlung’s manuscript appeared in 1886 in the auction catalogue of Ritter’s collection.9 It is unclear to whom it later belonged.
Biographical contexts
In order to determine the context and purpose for which Adlung penned his undated treatise, one must first give an overview of Adlung’s biography. Detailed insights into Adlung’s life are supplied by the above-mentioned autobiographical sketch in the Musica mechanica organoedi, a piece of life-writing which is in itself a significant sociocultural document of its time. Jakob Adlung was born in 1699 in the village of Bindersleben; his father was the local school-master and organist. The village belonged to the Erfurt township, as it still does, and was also hometown to a branch of the Bach family. Another native of Bindersleben was the most famous Erfurt organist at the start of the 18th century, Johann Heinrich Buttstett, who was organist at the Protestant Predigerkirche from 1691 until 1727. Adlung began his education with two years at the Andreasschule in Erfurt; then, like most of the talented children in the greater Erfurt area, he became a pupil at the local Ratsgymnasium. Here he made ends meet with the help of free meals, a privilege that he lost when his voice broke.
In his autobiography Adlung named his various musical teachers during his school days in Erfurt. At the Andreasschule these included (from 1711) his uncle ‘Cantor Ernst Rabe’,10 then from 1713 Rabe’s successor, ‘Cantor Adlung’ (Johann Jacob Michael Adlung, no known relation) who taught Jakob ‘in singing’ (im Singen),11 and finally ‘Rathsmeister’ and ‘Organist’ Christian Reichardt.12 From 1713 at the Gymnasium, Adlung was taught ‘in keyboard playing’ (Clavierspielen) by the ‘brother of Herr Cantor Adlung’ (also ‘in timpani’) and then by Michael Heinrich Arnold.13 According to his autobiography, Adlung also attended lectures on moral philosophy by ‘Herr M. Weingaertner’,14 which may refer to Johann Sylvester Weingaertner (son of the Gymnasium’s rector, Johann Martin Weingaertner), the grandfather of our manuscript’s scribe.15 Apparently Adlung heard the playing of a certain ‘Prof. Lehmann’, a visiting amateur keyboard player from Jena,16 who subsequently succeeded in convincing Adlung to transfer to the more famous university in the neighbouring city of Jena. This visitor was the widely known professor for moral philosophy, Johann Jacob Lehmann (1683–1740). Lehmann, who was reportedly a relatively skilled keyboard player with a great interest in music, is recorded as godfather to the daughter of the Weimar town organist Johann Gottfried Walther in 1710.17
In Easter 1723, at the age of 23, Adlung transferred to Jena, where he lived as a student in the house of his mentor Lehmann. Here he tried—to the best of his ability, he emphasized in the autobiography—to steer clear of the taverns and fencing fraternities, for which Jena university life was notorious. At the university he eagerly attended lectures in theology and law, while earning a living by giving ‘numerous keyboard lessons’ (etliche Clavierstunden). According to his own account, he also expanded his knowledge of music theory at this time by loaning and transcribing ‘a great number of music-theoretical works’ from his Erfurt teacher Reichardt and from J. G. Walther.18 In addition, Adlung reports that he immediately received permission from the city and university organist Johann Nikolaus Bach to practise on the organ in the Michaeliskirche.19 There is no evidence of a direct teacher–pupil relationship between the two, however.
Adlung’s success as a teacher of both music and foreign languages—he claims to have had 218 keyboard pupils and 284 language pupils20—and his enthusiasm for music quickly brought him to a dilemma, which he described in great detail in his autobiography. Should he dedicate himself completely to music or continue to pursue a career as an academic in Jena? His affinities initially tended towards a career in university teaching, which Adlung rationalized as follows:
I didn’t know how music and organ-playing would be useful in my life, since the salaries of the Erfurt organists would not suffice, except for that of the Predigerkirche.21
That is to say, at this time Adlung considered it impossible that he would succeed Buttstett as organist in Erfurt’s principal Protestant church.
Adlung gained the Magister by the end of 1726, defended his thesis shortly after, and as a result was permitted to hold lectures of his own. In his autobiography he describes in detail how friends and acquaintances tried to entice him back to Erfurt at this time. But Adlung wanted to remain on an academic track and for this reason he planned to embark on travels. The luggage for the trip was literally packed and he allowed himself a brief visit to his home town in order to say farewell, but Buttstett died at this very moment (in December 1727). Adlung was recommended for the position of organist at the Predigerkirche and competed for it against Buttstett’s eldest son and a certain ‘Völkner’.22 The latter must have been Bernhard Friedrich Völkner, a musician who as a university student at Leipzig in c.1727 is recorded as a violinist for J. S. Bach’s church music and who applied unsuccessfully for the position of organist at the cathedral in Freiberg.23 Adlung won the position at the Predigerkirche, not least because he could present the examining board with some printed keyboard works and also his printed academic disputation.24 Thus he secured the highest-ranking organist post in Erfurt, a position he would hold for the rest of his life.25
Adlung relates in his autobiography that he was initially unsatisfied with the large Ludwig Compenius organ at the Predigerkirche and only twelve years later—after a thorough rebuilding of the instrument—could he truly take pleasure in it. ‘From that time I was much more spirited and skillful in my playing.’26 In order to improve his income he decided to build keyboards and to teach diligently. Both enterprises were apparently quite successful, for he reported proudly in his autobiography that, despite having the highest fees in the area, he still had the most pupils.27 Of the 16 keyboards that he built himself, he sold all but one, which he kept for himself.
Fate tested Adlung in 1736. As noted already, a fire that engulfed the whole city of Erfurt destroyed his home, which he had already paid for and renovated. He lost not only the above-mentioned manuscripts, but also his keyboard-building tools, and as a result he ceased to build instruments. Finally in 1741, after Erfurt University had tried to coax him away from music for an academic role, Adlung received the title of professor at the Ratsgymnasium, which was combined with the offer to remain as organist of the Predigerkirche.28 He accepted the title and served in both positions until his death on 5 July 1762 at the age of 63.
Date and purpose of the treatise
Judging by Adlung’s autobiographical remarks and his biographical circumstances, it stands to reason that the ‘Anweisung’ originates from before 1736—the year of the fire that destroyed the author’s original manuscript. More detailed indications of the date of the treatise can be found in various paragraphs within it. As a sort of summary of his work (leavened with false modesty), Adlung emphasized in §35 that ‘as far as I know, nobody previous has written anything about improvisation’. He added: ‘I only prepared this in my spare time’—that is, the treatise was not drawn up as part of any official teaching duties. ‘Neither this treatise nor anything else could be demanded of me, since I do not make music my profession, but only study it’.29 Moreover, it was important for Adlung to mention: ‘I didn’t have enough time for it (only four weeks); in this brief time it had to be complete because of an upcoming trip’.30
The fact that Adlung’s primary sphere of activity at this time was located outside of music, and the circumstance of a pending trip, clearly indicate that the ‘Anweisung’ should be dated to Adlung’s student years. This accords with the autobiographical claim made in Musica mechanica organoedi (see above) that Adlung conceived of the project as a student in Jena. More precisely, the manuscript can be associated with Adlung’s final years at the Jena University—that is, the years 1725 to 1727, since, although Adlung indeed focused primarily on his academic lectures and his thesis, he still taught keyboard and organ pupils in order to make ends meet.
That the treatise was written in the mid-1720s is suggested by Adlung’s commentary regarding unaccompanied pedal playing in the ‘Anweisung’. In §33 he cites various works including a Praeludium in d by Johann Pachelbel, and toccatas in the printed Musicalische Clavierkunst und Vorratskammer (Leipzig, 1713) by the ‘famous’ Johann Heinrich Buttstett. Adlung also mentions the toccatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: ‘Occasionally you play a single line with both hands, then with the pedal for a while, especially like the famous Bach in Cöthen (now Leipzig) in his toccatas’.31 Elsewhere in the treatise Adlung gives extracts from book 1 of Das wohltemperirte Clavier; but the mention of Bach’s organ toccatas would seem to confirm the hypothesis that Adlung penned his treatise shortly after Bach’s move from Cöthen to Leipzig—that is, in the years after 1723.
Thus the surviving manuscript copy of the ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’ at its core represents Adlung’s musical horizons and pedagogical intentions as a student in his mid-twenties; yet it also bears some additional traces from his later Erfurt years, such as passing references to organ registrations in the Predigerkirche and Barfüßerkirche.32 In this case, it would seem to be the treatise of a young music enthusiast, trained as an organist in Erfurt and now with grand scholarly ambitions. During his time in Jena (in the orbit of Johann Nikolaus Bach and the Weimar town organist Johann Gottfried Walther), Adlung attempted to develop a systematic method with which he could introduce keyboard and organ players from average musical backgrounds to the art of improvisation.
Adlung repeatedly claimed his treatise was aimed for an audience of beginners:
No one should think that, through my work here, the entire keyboard has been exhausted—certainly not! This is only intended as instruction for beginners. As soon as they have gained proficiency, they must continue on and search [for ideas] themselves. They can also make use of the works of other famous masters.33
One finds multiple comments like this next one, where Adlung addresses the art of invertible counterpoint:
A beginner need not be much bothered with [invertible] counterpoint; it suffices if he learns to play the examples and to vary them artfully.34
Yet here Adlung contradicts an earlier statement where he described invertible counterpoint as ‘the most beautiful technique on the keyboard and, in fact, in all composition’.35 It seems that he values invertible counterpoint, but wants the pupil to understand it practically, while ignoring its more complex aspects. Or alternatively, Adlung wishes to curb potential criticism of his method by clarifying that his intended audience is beginners, although in reality his treatise assumes that the reader possesses not only rudimentary skills like note-reading and key identification, but also a fair degree of fluency at the keyboard.
Further clarifying the primary function of the treatise as an introductory primer in improvisation, Adlung’s initial comments indicated that he assumed that his readers possessed the following three skills (or at least that they would develop them in tandem with improvisation):36
‘Italian tablature’, by which he means the ability to play a piece from modern staff notation;
Thoroughbass, which refers to both accompaniment and the realization of a figured bassline as a solo;
Chorales, which presumably means both the realization of thoroughbass accompaniments to chorale melodies and the creation of original chorale settings.37
However, to enable the novice organist to move beyond the notes of the printed page, and to be properly prepared for unpredictable events in a church service, Adlung wanted to provide the reader with a stockpile or aid to invention comprised of various harmonic and melodic passages. This toolbox for the ‘craft’ of playing the organ should, according to Adlung, be so comprehensive that no one need play in the same manner. As he writes colourfully in the first paragraph, no one need memorize arias, fugues, fantasias or concertos in order to reproduce them from memory, for this
would be as tasteless as if someone wanted to learn to give a sermon and sat down to memorize numerous homilies by famous pastors in order to recite them again word for word like a parrot; or if, in order to retain the best parts from each author, one assembled an unsuitable beggar’s coat with indescribable effort out of one hundred stitched-together rags.38
To help his intended audience of novice improvisers, Adlung provided numerous voice-leading sequences for practice and internalization. Many of these modules are relatively basic, comprising etude-like sequences of parallel 6ths, 3rds or other intervallic patterns. Illustration 2 shows some of his variations on ‘rule IV’, a rising progression in parallel 3rds, which he then adorned with semiquaver, demisemiquaver or triplet figuration. The remaining ‘rules’ proceed in a similar fashion: in each one, an unornamented, sequential voice-leading pattern is followed by numerous variations upon it.
Jakob Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, p.18 (Leipzig, Bach-Archiv, Rara ii-658-c)
Adlung exhorted his readers to practise variation (Variatio) to the best of their ability; he described this process in flowery figures of speech, for instance likening it to the way a cook prepares a dish. Regarding the strict prohibition of parallel 5ths and octaves, which are ‘more perfect’ than 3rds and 6ths, he writes that, ‘It may be compared to a dish that is seasoned too heavily [i.e., an excess of perfection], such that it is not as appetizing as it would have been in moderation’.39 In §26 Adlung recommends that chromatic passing tones may occasionally be used in chorale melodies:
But take note that one does not use this too often, but only rarely, for just as a dish without salt is no good, so too is it ruined with too much salt. Similarly, music is of little use when it contains no dissonances, but it is also ruined when one tries to be too artful, playing exclusively in dissonances.40
At the same time, Adlung recommends that his pupils study and excerpt diligently from exemplary compositions, seeking passages that are pleasing to the ear and analysing them to determine to which voice-leading pattern they belong:
After the best and most useful from a given author has been excerpted, then lay the work aside, for it is of no use to you [anymore], and take another piece and do the same, just like the bees, who suck the best nectar from this flower, then from that one, making an agreeable mixture.41
Such language links Adlung’s approach to rhetorical pedagogy and older scholarly techniques of assembling commonplace books as an aid to memorization and learning; since Seneca, the bee was regarded as a model for how to digest and re-combine existing materials to make something new.42
The collection and emulation of exemplars required a pupil to have access to a wide variety of musical manuscripts from the teacher, a necessity upon which Adlung elaborated in his comments on best practice in the master–pupil relationship. This is a particularly fascinating section in the ‘Anweisung’, offering a glimpse into the interpersonal conflicts inherent in the apprenticeship system. Regarding copying, Adlung writes that the pupil must not be thievish and copy music in secret; at the same time, the master must be honest and not withhold the best instruction.43 In addition, the pupil must be industrious, humble and grateful, while the master must be well-informed, skilled at the keyboard, and must possess a clear teaching method. Finally, Adlung discusses the benefits and drawbacks of various payment arrangements (lump sum versus monthly instalments), as well as the conditions under which the apprenticeship may be evaluated or even terminated prematurely (the minimum duration otherwise encompassing six years).44 Such mundane details humanize the master–pupil relationship by defining the parameters that ensured mutual fairness in a system where the pupil had a financial incentive to conclude the apprenticeship quickly, while the master had a financial incentive to protract it.
Conclusion
The special value of the ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’ is not only that it reveals what Adlung and his contemporaries could expect in terms of average-level improvisational ability in organists; its numerous musical examples also paint a detailed picture of how organists honed their craft by concatenating and varying stock sequential patterns. Moreover, as shown by the fascinating section on the master–pupil relationship, Adlung also hoped to offer ambitious organ teachers in central Germany a dependable guide for their own pedagogical practice. Later in life, when Adlung had gained the prestigious post of organist at the Predigerkirche, it is uncertain whether he still valued his early treatise. Even after the devastating fire of 1736, he apparently did not attempt to obtain a transcription of those copies already in circulation. Yet the improvisational knowledge contained in Adlung’s treatise was copied out years after his death by Weingaertner in Thuringia. This illustrates that Adlung’s ‘Anweisung’ indeed possesses a certain timeless character, for it provides enlightening insights into the expectations of a central German organist in the time of Bach, Handel, Telemann and the generation of their pupils. For this reason, Adlung’s treatise is a remarkable historical document that has the potential to reshape improvisational pedagogy today.
Online Appendix: Jakob Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, edition and English translation
Derek Remeš is Dozent for Music Theory at the University of Applied Arts and Sciences in Lucerne, Switzerland. His 2020 doctoral dissertation, ‘Thoroughbass, chorale, and fugue: teaching the craft of composition in J. S. Bach’s circle’, was awarded prizes by the Society for Music Theory and the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany. His research has appeared in the journals Eighteenth-Century Music, Music Theory Online, and the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie. Please visit derekremes.com for more information. [email protected]
Michael Maul is Artistic Director of the Bachfest Leipzig and Senior Scholar at the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. He is the author of the monograph Dero berühmbter Chor—Die Leipziger Thomasschule und ihre Kantoren 1212–1804 (2012) among numerous other publications. His 2006 doctoral dissertation, ‘Barockoper in Leipzig (1693–1720)’, was awarded the Gerhart-Baumann Prize for interdisciplinary literary studies. His work places special emphasis on making musicological research accessible to the general public. [email protected]
Footnotes
Adlung’s treatise was first discussed publicly by Michael Maul at a conference in Basel, as reported in Derek Remeš, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasieren: Symposium zur Praxis und Theorie der Improvisation im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. March 19–21, 2018, Schola Cantorum, Basel, Switzerland’, Eighteenth-Century Music, xvi/1 (2019), pp.89–91.
See Derek Remeš, ‘Some (dis)assembly required: modularity in the keyboard improvisation pedagogy of Jacob Adlung and Johann Vallade’, Music Theory Online, xxvi/1 (March 2020), DOI: 10.30535/mto.26.1.5.
‘Zwar hatte ich in Musicis schon in Jena geschrieben: (1) Eine vollständige Anweisung zum Generalbasse, so mir mit verbrannt ... (2) Eine Anweisung zur italienischen Tabulatur, so ebenfalls mit verbrannt. (3) Eine Anweisung zur Fantasie und zu den Fugen, so auch mit fort. (4) Eine Musicam Mechanicam Organoedi, so noch vorhanden; und noch verschiedene andere Sachen.’ Jakob Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi (Berlin, 1768), p.xiii.
‘Einige meiner hiesigen [Erfurter] Bekannten werden dabey gedenken: wo bleibt denn des Verfassers Anweisung zum Fantasiren, so sich in den Händen einiger Schüler befindet, und geschrieben einen ziemlichen Quartband ausmacht? Hierauf dient folgendes: weil dieses Werk nur geschrieben, so würde dessen Anführung vergeblich seyn, indem den Lesern, so nicht bey mir in der Lehre stehen, solches nichts helfen könnte. Zum zweyten würde ich dem Verleger dieses Werks nicht gefällig seyn, wenn ich solche Ausführungen zum allgemeinen Gebrauch allhier einrücken wollte, als wobey eine grosse Menge Kupfertafeln nöthig wär, welche Kostbarkeiten den allgemeinen Nutzen meines Buchs mehr verhindern als befördern würde. Drittens ist auch solche Ausführung gar keine solche, wie ich sie wünsche. Ich habe solche noch entworfen einem Scholaren zum Dienste, welcher nechst Gott die vornehmste Stütze meiner zeitlichen Glückseligkeit zu nennen, und zwar zu einer Zeit, da ich als ein Schüler des hiesigen Gymnasii selbst das Rechte von dem Linken nicht wuste zu unterscheiden, auch die Absicht nicht hatte, daß es in fremde Hände kommen sollte. Wie denn, nachdem mein Exemplar verbrannt, ich solches vor mich nicht einmal wieder abschreiben lassen, weil ich stets gedacht, es sollten sich etwa die Zeiten so fügen, daß ich eine andere Art der Ausführung könnte entwerfen; worauf ich aber biß ietzo vergeblich hoffe. Und also muß ich zwar geschehen lassen, daß jene Vorschläge aus einer Hand in die andere kommen; doch sehe ich es ungern. Zumal da die Abschreiber stets mehr Fehler einschleichen lassen, daß endlich dieses verstümmelte Werk mir (zumal bey Unverständigen) mehr Schande als Ruhm zuwege bringen dörfte.’ Jakob Adlung, Anleitung zu der musikalischen Gelahrtheit (Erfurt, 1758), pp.734–5.
Katalog Musikantiquariat Dr. Werner Greve, Nr. 57: Syntagma Musicum—450 Kostbarkeiten für Musikfreunde (Berlin, 2010), pp.3–4 (no.2).
Bach-Archiv Leipzig, shelfmark Rara ii-658-c.
These biographical details can be found in Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen, 11. Jahrgang (1833), 1. Teil (Weimar, 1835), pp.130–34, and H. Goldmann, Die Schüler des Erfurter Ratsgymnasiums von 1655 bis 1820—Königliches Gymnasium in Erfurt, Beilage zum Jahresbericht 1913/14 (Erfurt, 1914), p.76.
A. G. Ritter, Theoretisch-practische Anweisung im Orgelspiel. Die Kunst des Orgelspiels, 2 vols., opp.10 and 15 (Erfurt/Langensalza, 1844 and 1845); A. G. Ritter, Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels, vornehmlich des deutschen, im 14. bis zum Anfange des 18. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1884).
Livres et manuscripts de musique. Verzeichnis von Theoretischen Werken über Musik sowie von seltenen, älteren, praktischen Musikstücken und neueren Musikalien aus den nachgelassenen Sammlungen der Herren Professor A. G. Ritter in Magdeburg und Joh. Andr. Grabau in Leipzig ... (Leipzig, 1886), p.1, no.7: ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren, Gute alte Abschr. auf 92 Seiten in 4°, m. viel. Notenbeisp. Ungedruckt; das Original d. Handschr. verbrannte’.
This refers to Ernst Wilhelm Raabe from Ballstedt near Weimar, initially Cantor at the Thomasschule in Erfurt, then Cantor of the local Andreasschule 1709–1712. Johann Gottfried Walther acknowledged him as a ‘capable Cantor’ (comportablen Cantor). See Johann Gottfried Walther, Briefe, ed. K. Beckmann and H.-J. Schulze (Leipzig, 1987), pp.70, 84 and 293.
Johann Jacob Michael Adlung, Cantor and Sexton at the Andreasschule from 1713 until his death in 1762. See Goldmann, Die Schüler des Erfurter Ratsgymnasiums von 1655 bis 1820, p.32.
Christian Reichardt (1685–1755) was a botanist and horticulturist, sometime organist at the Erfurt Reglerkirche, and later mayor and council member (Ratsminister), among other activities. See S. Müller, ‘Reichart, Christian’, in Neue Deutsche Biographie, xxi (2003), p.297; and Walther, Briefe, p.293.
Michael Heinrich Arnold (1682–1738), organist at the Erfurt Andreaskirche from 1698 until his death, was known for his chorale preludes. See Goldmann, Die Schüler des Erfurter Ratsgymnasiums von 1655 bis 1820, p.28; and E. Ziller, Der Erfurter Organist Johann Heinrich Buttstädt (1666–1727) (Halle, 1935), p.19.
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.v. In this context, ‘M.’ is almost certainly an abbreviation for ‘Magister’, not ‘Martin’.
A biography of Johann Sylvester Weingaertner can be found in Pfarrerbuch der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen, ix (Leipzig, 2009), pp.298–9.
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.v.
See T. Harju, Kirjeitä, kirjoja ja musiikillisia pienyhteisöjä—Johann Gottfried Waltherin (1684–1748) merkitys kanonisoituneessa musiikinhistoriassa, Studia musica 64 (Tampere, 2015), p.109.
‘eine ziemliche Anzahl musikalische theoretische Bücher.’ Adlung, Musica mechanica Organoedi, p.vi.
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.vi.
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.xi.
‘ich nicht wußte, wozu mir solches [die Musik und das Orgelspiel] helfen würde, weil die Besoldungen der Erfurtischen Organisten mir niemals anstunden, ohne die zun Predigern [i.e. an der Predigerkirche].’ Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.vi.
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.x.
See H.-J. Schulze, ‘Studenten als Bachs Helfer bei der Leipziger Kirchenmusik’, Bach-Jahrbuch, lxx (1984), pp.45–52, at p.46. Regarding the auditions for the Freiberg organ position, see Stadtarchiv Freiberg, Aa, Abt. II Sect.I No.42b (‘ACTA Die Besetzung des Organisten-Dienstes an der Dom-Kirche in Freyberg betr. vom Jahre 1655. An’), fol.58.
Adlung’s disputation was printed as Dissertatio moralis de verae obligationis natura et usu (Jena, 1727).
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, pp.ix–xi.
‘wie ich den von der Zeit an viel munterer und im Spielen geschickter worden bin’. Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.xi.
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, p.xi.
Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi, pp.xii–xiii.
‘daß vom fantasiren so viel ich weiß noch niemand etwas geschrieben ... daß ich es in neben Stunden aufgesetzt ... daß nicht ein mal dieses, schweige ein mehrers von mir gefordert werden könne, sintemahl ich keine profession von den Musis, sondern von denen Studiis mache.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §35.
‘daß mir die Zeit etwas zu enge dazu bestimmt war, innerhalb 4 Wochen und kaum so lange muste es fertig seyn wegen der Abreiße.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §35.
‘Bisweilen spielen sie mit den Händen einstimmig, hernach mit dem Pedal auch eine Weile, sonderlich der berühmte köthische (jetzt Leipziger) Bach in seinen Toccaten.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §32.
Adlung comments that playing on the Gedackt registers would be inaudible below the organ loft in the Predigerkirche or Barfüßerkirche. ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §35.
‘Niemand aber denke, daß durch diese meine Arbeit das ganze Clavier erschöpft sey, o nein! es soll dieses nur eine Anleitung seyn vor Anfänger. Wenn sie sich darinne gesetzt haben, so könnnen und müssen sie weiter gehen, und selbst noch suchen. Auch können sie sich anderer berühmter Meister Arbeit zu Nutze machen.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §35.
‘Ein Anfänger bekümmere sich nicht so sehr beym contrapunct, genug wenn er die Exempel lernet spielen, und nach der Kunst variiren.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §14.
‘Man nennet dieses sonst den Contrapunct, und ist der schönste Kunstgriff auf dem Clavier, und überhaupt in der Composition.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §V.
Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §2.
For more on the role of the chorale in compositional pedagogy, see D. Remeš, ‘New sources and old methods: reconstructing and applying the theoretical paratext of Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositional pedagogy’, Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, xvi/2 (2019), pp.51–94; and D. Remeš, ‘Bach’s chorale pedagogy’, in Rethinking Bach, ed. B. Varwig (New York: Oxford University Press), in press.
‘kömmt eben so abgeschmackt heraus, als wenn jemand wollte predigen lernen, und setzte sich hin, und memorirte einen Haufen Postillen berühmter [Prediger], um sie entweder von Wort zu Wort, wie die Papageyen wieder her zu bethen, oder das beste aus jeden Autore zu behalten, und hernach aus 100 zusammengestutzen Lappen mit unbeschreiblicher Mühe endlich und endlich [sic] einen untauglichen Bettler Mantel zu verfertigen.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §1.
‘Es verhält sich eben als bey einer Speise, wenn des Gewürzes allzuviel daran gethan wird, es ist nicht so appetitlich, als wenn man gehörige Maße hält.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §8.
‘Merke aber wohl, daß man es nicht so oft applicire, sondern selten; denn gleichwie eine Speise ohne Saltz nichts taugt, also wenn man dessen allzuviel dran wirft, [eine Speise] auch verdirbt; also nutzt die Musik auch nicht viel, wenn kein Dissonantien vorkommen, aber man verdirbt sie auch damit, wenn man allzu sehr künsteln will, und lauter dissonantien spielen wollte.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §26.
‘Wenn nun aus einem Autore das beste und nützlichste excerpirt ist, so lege es bey Seite, denn nun ist es dir nichts nutze, und nimm ein anders und verfahre auch gleicherweise, nicht anders als die Bienen, welche bald aus diesen, bald aus jenen Blumen den besten Saft saugen, und sodann eine angenehme Vermischung anstellen.’ Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §4.
For more on rhetoric and modularity in keyboard improvisation pedagogy, see Remeš, ‘Some (dis)assembly required’ and the preface to D. Remeš, The art of preluding, 2 vols. (Colfax, NC, 2021).
Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §9 and §10.
Adlung, ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’, §12 and §13.
