Joshua Rifkin

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Joshua Rifkin
Born (1944-04-22) April 22, 1944 (age 79)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Education Juilliard School (BS)
New York University
University of Göttingen
Princeton University (MFA)
Occupations
  • Pianist
  • professor
Notable work Scott Joplin: Piano Rags (1970)
Musical career
Genres
Instrument(s) Piano
Labels

Joshua Rifkin (born April 22, 1944) [1] is an American conductor, pianist, and musicologist; he is currently a professor of music at Boston University. [2] As a performer he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre Revueltas, and as a scholar has published research on composers from the Renaissance to the 20th century.

Contents

Rifkin is known among classical musicians for his theory that most of Bach's choral works were sung with only one singer per choral line. Rifkin argued that "so long as we define 'chorus' in the conventional modern sense, then Bach's chorus, with few exceptions, simply did not exist." [3] He is best known, however, for having played a central role in the ragtime revival in the 1970s, with the three albums he recorded of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records.

Musical career

Joplin

Cover of Scott Joplin's Magnetic Rag, published 1914 Magnetic Rag page 1.tif
Cover of Scott Joplin's Magnetic Rag, published 1914

Rifkin's Joplin albums (the first of which was Scott Joplin: Piano Rags in November 1970 on the classical label Nonesuch) [4] —which were presented as classical music recordings—were critically acclaimed, commercially successful and led to other artists exploring the ragtime genre. It sold 100,000 copies in its first year and eventually became Nonesuch's first million-selling record. [5] The Billboard "Best-Selling Classical LPs" chart for September 28, 1974 has the record at No. 5, with the follow-up "Volume 2" at No. 4, and a combined set of both volumes at No. 3. Separately both volumes had been on the chart for 64 weeks. [6] The album was nominated in 1971 for two Grammy Award categories: Best Album Notes and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra), but at the ceremony on March 14, 1972, Rifkin did not win in any category. [7] Rifkin's work as a revivalist of Joplin's work immediately preceded the recording and subsequent performances of The Red Back Book, orchestrations of 15 rags, by Gunther Schuller and The New England Ragtime Ensemble (originally the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble); and the later adaptation of Joplin's music by Marvin Hamlisch for the film The Sting (1973). [8] In 1979, Alan Rich in the New York Magazine wrote that by giving artists like Rifkin the opportunity to put Joplin's music on record, Nonesuch Records "created, almost alone, the Scott Joplin revival." [9]

In August 1990, Rifkin recorded a CD for the Decca label (catalog number 425 225) featuring rags by two of the other major composers of ragtime, Joseph Lamb and James Scott, and also tango compositions by the Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth.

Bach

Bach's vocal scoring

Rifkin is best known to classical musicians for his thesis that much of Johann Sebastian Bach's vocal music, including the St Matthew Passion , was performed with only one singer per voice part, an idea generally rejected by his peers when he first proposed it in 1981. In the 21st century, the idea has become influential, although it has not achieved consensus in the field. The conductor Andrew Parrott wrote a book arguing for the position (The Essential Bach Choir; Boydell Press, 2000; as an appendix, the book includes the original paper that Rifkin began to present to the American Musicological Society in 1981, a presentation he was unable to complete because of a strong audience reaction). Bach scholars as Daniel Melamed, [10] David Schulenberg, [11] and John Butt [12] have argued in its favor.

Other conductors and ensembles have followed Rifkin and Parrott in mounting performances that use some form of the vocal scoring argued for by Rifkin. Among them are: Butt with the Dunedin Consort ( Magnificat , Cantata no. 63, Mass in B minor in Rifkin's critical edition of the work, discussed below, the St. John Passion, and St Matthew Passion ), Konrad Junghänel (Mass in B minor, several cantatas, St. John Passion, and the motets), Sigiswald Kuijken (Mass in B minor, St. John Passion, St Matthew Passion , Christmas Oratorio, and the beginning of a cycle of the complete Bach cantatas), Paul McCreesh (St Matthew Passion, Magnificat , Easter Oratorio , and several cantatas), Monica Huggett (St. John Passion), Eric Milnes, who has begun recording the complete cantatas cycle with one singer per part, Marc Minkowski (Mass in B minor), Lars Ulrik Mortensen (Mass in B minor), Philippe Pierlot with the Ricercar Consort (Magnificat, masses and cantatas), Jeffrey Thomas (who has also often used multi-voice choirs), Jos van Veldhoven (Mass in B minor, St Matthew Passion), Matteo Messori ( Christmas Oratorio , cantatas, motets), and Peter Kooy in the motets.

Rifkin himself has recorded Bach's Mass in B minor—his 1981 Nonesuch recording won the 1982–83 Gramophone Award in the Choral category—Magnificat, and cantatas nos. 8, 12, 51, 56, 78, 80, 82, 99, 106, 131, 140, 147, 158, 172, 182, 202, 209, 216, and others, for the Nonesuch, Mainach, L'Oiseau-lyre, and Dorian labels, all with his Bach Ensemble and various singers.

Other Bach scholarship

One of Rikfin's widely accepted findings, which he published in 1975, is that Bach's St Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday in 1727, not 1729 as was previously believed. [13] Rifkin's scholarly critical edition of Bach's Mass in B minor was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in November 2006. It is the first edition to follow strictly Bach's final version from 1748 to 1750, not intermixing readings from the 1733 Missa (the first version of the Kyrie and Gloria), and posits novel solutions to removing edits made posthumously by Bach's son C.P.E. Bach.

Rifkin has done extensive research on the orchestral suites of Bach, notably arguing in detail that No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067, is based on an earlier version in A minor in which the solo instrument was not the flute. [14] Rifkin has created reconstructions of J.S. Bach's posited Oboe Concerti: for oboe, strings, and continuo in D minor, from BWV 35, 156, 1056 and 1059; in A major for oboe d'amore, strings, and continuo from BWV 1055; in E-flat major for oboe, strings, and continuo from BWV 49, 169 and 1053. All the original movements are keyboard settings. They reflect the Baroque oboe idiom convincingly. In this form, they evince the influence of the Venetian school, notably Marcello, Corelli, and Vivaldi. [15]

In a paper published in the Bach-Jahrbuch in 2000, Rifkin argued that the cantata Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft, BWV 50 was not written by Bach, but by an as-yet-unidentified composer. [16]

Studies and career

Rifkin studied with Vincent Persichetti in the Music Division at the Juilliard School and received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1964. [1] He also studied with Gustave Reese at New York University (1964–1966), at the University of Göttingen (1966–1967), and later with Arthur Mendel, Lewis Lockwood, Milton Babbitt, and Ernst Oster at Princeton University, [1] where he received his M.F.A. in 1969. He also worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen at Darmstadt in 1961 and 1965. [1]

Rifkin has taught at several universities, including Brandeis University (1970–1982), [1] Harvard, and Yale, and is currently Professor of Music and Fellow of the University Professors at Boston University. He is noted for his research in the field of Renaissance and Baroque music: he has examined the authorship and chronology of music attributed to Josquin des Prez; Renaissance music manuscripts; the motet around 1500; and music of Heinrich Schütz. He has also published research about Anton Webern.

As a conductor and keyboard soloist, he has appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Victorian State Symphony, and Israel Camerata Jerusalem. He has led operatic productions at Theater Basel in Switzerland and the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich. He has recorded music of Handel, Mozart, and Haydn with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra and Capella Coloniensis. As a choral conductor he has recorded motets of Adrian Willaert with the Boston Camerata Chamber Singers, and music of the Medici Codex with the Dutch ensemble Capella Pratensis; that 2011 CD, titled Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope, won a Diapason d'Or. [17] Among his works as a composer are the two Winter pieces for violin resp. piano both written in 1961. The Winter piece for violin was premiered by Paul Zukofsky in 1962. [18]

Work in non-classical music

In the 1960s, Rifkin created arrangements for Judy Collins on her albums In My Life and Wildflowers . [19] He performed with the Even Dozen Jug Band (along with David Grisman, Maria Muldaur, Stefan Grossman, and John Sebastian, among others) [20] , and made a recording of his humorous re-imaginings of music by Lennon and McCartney in the style of the 18th century, notably Bach, known as The Baroque Beatles Book and recently reissued on CD. [21] In a related vein, Rifkin sang the countertenor solo in the 1962 premiere performance of the spoof cantata "Iphigenia in Brooklyn" by P. D. Q. Bach (Peter Schickele). [22]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass in B minor</span> Mass composed by J S Bach in 1749

The Mass in B minor, BWV 232, is an extended setting of the Mass ordinary by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composition was completed in 1749, the year before the composer's death, and was to a large extent based on earlier work, such as a Sanctus Bach had composed in 1724. Sections that were specifically composed to complete the Mass in the late 1740s include the "Et incarnatus est" part of the Credo.

Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft, BWV 50, is a choral movement long attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach and assumed to be part of a lost cantata.

<i>Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben</i>, BWV 147 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 in 1723 during his first year as Thomaskantor, the director of church music in Leipzig. His cantata is part of his first cantata cycle there and was written for the Marian feast of the Visitation on 2 July, which commemorates Mary's visit to Elizabeth as narrated in the Gospel of Luke in the prescribed reading for the feast day. Bach based the music on his earlier cantata BWV 147a, written originally in Weimar in 1716 for Advent. He expanded the Advent cantata in six movements to ten movements in two parts in the new work. While the text of the Advent cantata was written by the Weimar court poet Salomo Franck, the librettist of the adapted version who added several recitatives is anonymous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnificat (Bach)</span> Musical composition by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat, BWV 243, is a musical setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat. It is scored for five vocal parts, and a Baroque orchestra including trumpets and timpani. It is the first major liturgical composition on a Latin text by Bach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orchestral suites (Bach)</span> Four suites by Johann Sebastian Bach

The four orchestral suites BWV 1066–1069 are four suites by Johann Sebastian Bach from the years 1724–1731. The name ouverture refers only in part to the opening movement in the style of the French overture, in which a majestic opening section in relatively slow dotted-note rhythm in duple meter is followed by a fast fugal section, then rounded off with a short recapitulation of the opening music. More broadly, the term was used in Baroque Germany for a suite of dance-pieces in French Baroque style preceded by such an ouverture. This genre was extremely popular in Germany during Bach's day, and he showed far less interest in it than was usual: Robin Stowell writes that "Telemann's 135 surviving examples [represent] only a fraction of those he is known to have written"; Christoph Graupner left 85; and Johann Friedrich Fasch left almost 100. Bach did write several other ouverture (suites) for solo instruments, notably the Cello Suite no. 5, BWV 1011, which also exists in the autograph Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995, the Keyboard Partita no. 4 in D, BWV 828, and the Overture in the French style, BWV 831 for keyboard. The two keyboard works are among the few Bach published, and he prepared the lute suite for a "Monsieur Schouster," presumably for a fee, so all three may attest to the form's popularity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Sebastian Bach</span> German composer (1685–1750)

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

<i>Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir</i>, BWV 131 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach (c. 1707)

Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131, is a church cantata by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed in either 1707 or 1708, which makes it one of Bach's earliest cantatas. Some sources suggest that it could be his earliest surviving work in this form, but current thinking is that there are one or two earlier examples.

<i>Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm</i>, BWV 171 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm, BWV 171, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for New Year's Day and probably first performed it on 1 January 1729.

The listing shows recordings of the Mass in B minor, BWV 232, by Johann Sebastian Bach. The selection is taken from the 281 recordings listed on the Bach Cantatas Website as of 2018, beginning with the first recording by a symphony orchestra and choir to match, conducted by Albert Coates. Beginning in the late 1960s, historically informed performances paved the way for recordings with smaller groups, boys choirs and ensembles playing period instruments, and eventually to recordings using the one-voice-on-a-vocal-part scoring first argued for by Joshua Rifkin in 1982.

<i>Es wartet alles auf dich</i>, BWV 187 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Es wartet alles auf dich, BWV 187 in Leipzig for the seventh Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 4 August 1726.

Most of Johann Sebastian Bach's extant church music in Latin—settings of the Mass ordinary and of the Magnificat canticle—dates from his Leipzig period (1723–50). Bach started to assimilate and expand compositions on a Latin text by other composers before his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and he continued to do so after he had taken up that post. The text of some of these examples by other composers was a mixture of German and Latin: also Bach contributed a few works employing both languages in the same composition, for example his early Kyrie "Christe, du Lamm Gottes".

Hana Blažíková is a Czech soprano and harpist. She is focused on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, appearing internationally. She has recorded as a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, among many others.

Dunedin Consort is a baroque music ensemble based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melchior Hoffmann (composer)</span> German composer

Georg Melchior Hoffmann was a Baroque composer who was influential as the leader at the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. Some of his compositions have been mistaken for those of Johann Sebastian Bach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnificat in E-flat major, BWV 243a</span> Composition by Johann Sebastian Bach

The Magnificat in E-flat major, BWV 243a, also BWV 243.1, by Johann Sebastian Bach is a musical setting of the Latin text of the Magnificat, Mary's canticle from the Gospel of Luke. It was composed in 1723 and is in twelve movements, scored for five vocal parts and a Baroque orchestra of trumpets, timpani, oboes, strings and basso continuo including bassoon. Bach revised the work some ten years later, transposing it from E-flat major to D major, and creating the version mostly performed today, BWV 243.

<i>Tristis est anima mea</i> (attributed to Kuhnau) Sacred motet attributed to Johann Kuhnau

Tristis est anima mea is a sacred motet for five voices attributed to Johann Kuhnau, Thomaskantor in Leipzig. The text is the second responsory at Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday, one of the Latin texts kept in the liturgy after the town converted to Lutheranism.

Performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat come in three formats:

  1. D major version, BWV 243 with the twelve movements of that version;
  2. D major version, with the Christmas interpolations from the earlier version BWV 243a transposed and inserted after movements 2, 5, 7 and 9.
  3. E flat major version, BWV 243a. The difference with the previous format is not only the key signature, there are also differences in orchestration, e.g. in the earlier version flutes are not part of the tutti, so do not play in the choral movements 1, 7 and 12, and a trumpet solo in movement 10 instead of the later unison oboes. Other differences are minor, but there is for instance a slightly harsher harmony near the end of movement 4 in the earlier version.

The Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis, abbreviated TWV, is the numbering system identifying compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann, published by musicologist Martin Ruhnke.

<i>Der Gerechte kömmt um</i> (motet) Motet with arrangement attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach

Der Gerechte kömmt um, BWV 1149, is a motet for SSATB singers and instrumental ensemble, which, for its music, is based on the five-part a cappella motet Tristis est anima mea attributed to Johann Kuhnau, and has the Luther Bible translation of Isaiah 57:1–2 as text. The arrangement of the Latin motet, that is, transposing it to E minor, adjusting its music to the new text, and expanding it with an instrumental score for two traversos, two oboes, strings and basso continuo, is attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. The setting is found in a manuscript copy, likely written down in the 1750s, of Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt, a Passion oratorio which is a pasticcio based on compositions by, among others, Carl Heinrich Graun, Georg Philipp Telemann and Bach. Likely Der Gerechte kömmt um existed as a stand-alone motet, for example for performance on Good Friday or at a funeral, before being adopted in the pasticcio.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. pp. 2090/1. ISBN   0-85112-939-0.
  2. ↑ "Faculty Profile: Joshua Rifkin » Musicology & Ethnomusicology | Boston University". Bu.edu. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  3. ↑ Fenton, James (April 26, 2003). "One for all". The Guardian. London. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Scott Joplin Piano Rags Nonesuch Records CD (w/bonus tracks)" . Retrieved March 19, 2009.
  5. ↑ "Nonesuch Records" . Retrieved March 19, 2009.
  6. ↑ Billboard magazine 1974, p. 61.
  7. ↑ LA Times.
  8. ↑ Kronenberger, John. "The Ragtime Revival-A Belated Ode to Composer Scott Joplin", New York Times, August 11, 1974
  9. ↑ Rich 1979.
  10. ↑ Daniel R. Melamed, Hearing Bach's Passions, Oxford University Press, 2005, Chapters 1 and 2, ISBN   0-19-516933-6
  11. ↑ David Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 192: "...it appears increasingly likely that most of Bach's vocal works were composed for a 'chorus' comprising a single singer on each part. Orchestral parts, too, were rarely doubled, except for the violin and continuo lines. Thus what many modern listeners have come to regard as massive choral movements for large choir and orchestra are in fact examples of chamber music for vocal soloists and a small instrumental ensemble."
  12. ↑ John Butt, Bach’s Dialogue with Modernity: Perspectives on the Passions, Cambridge University Press, 2010, Chapter 4, ISBN   978-0-521-88356-6
  13. ↑ Joshua Rifkin, "The Chronology of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion," Musical Quarterly (61 (1975), pp. 360–87
  14. ↑ Joshua Rifkin, "The B-Minor Flute Suite Deconstructed" in Gregory Butler (ed.), Bach Perspectives, nr 6: J. S. Bach's Concerted Ensemble Music, The Ouverture 2007: University of Illinois Press», pp. 1–98, ISBN   978-0-252-03042-0
  15. ↑ Technical notes in the CD cover of Rifkin's own recording: Pro Arte digital CDD 153.
  16. ↑ Rifkin, Joshua (2000). "Siegesjubel und Satzfehler. Zum Problem von "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft" (BWV 50)". Bach-Jahrbuch 86: 67–86
  17. ↑ Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope SACD Rifkin (Challenge) 2011
  18. ↑ "20th century violin concertante - Rifkin, Joshua". Tobias-broeker.de.
  19. ↑ "Episode 9 — A Portrait of Wildflowers with Judy Collins and Joshua Rifkin". Spinning on Air. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  20. ↑ "LINER NOTES FOR THE EVEN DOZEN JUG BAND'S THE EVEN DOZEN JUG BAND". richieunterberger.com. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  21. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "Liner Notes for "The Baroque Beatles Book"". richieunterberger.com. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  22. ↑ Blau, Eleanor (December 25, 1995). "Hark! That Other Bach Returns To Wreak Havoc on 57th Street". The New York Times. Retrieved October 29, 2023.

Sources

Further reading

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