Klaus Hofmann

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Klaus Hofmann
Born (1939-03-20) 20 March 1939 (age 82)
Würzburg, Germany
Alma mater
Occupation Musicologist

Klaus Hofmann (born 20 March 1939) is a German musicologist who is an expert on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Born in Würzburg, Hofmann studied after graduation (1958) from 1958 to 1959 at the University of Erlangen. He then continued his studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. In 1968 he received his doctorate with a dissertation "Untersuchungen zur Kompositionstechnik der Motette im 13. Jahrhundert, durchgeführt an den Motetten mit dem TenorIN SECULUM" (Studies on the composition technique of the motet in the 13th century, performed on the motets with tenor IN SECULUM). From 1968 to 1978 he worked as an employee of the Hänssler Verlag. From 1978 he was a research assistant of the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen, one of the two institutions which prepared the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second complete edition of Bach's work. In 2004 he was appointed to the position of Executive Director, a position which he held until the Institute closed in 2006. [1]

He is a board member of the copyright collective Verwertungsgesellschaft Musikedition  [ de ]. In 1994 he was appointed honorary professor at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

Selected publications

In 2003, he wrote a book on the motets by Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach. Die Motetten., published by Bärenreiter. He covered not only the five motets BWV 225 to 229, but also three works of more questionable attribution, Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230 (generally agreed to be by Bach), Ich lasse dich nicht, BWV Anh. 159 (now assumed to be by Bach, but formerly regarded as spurious) and Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt, BWV Anh. 160 (a pasticcio work). He divided his book in two parts, one dedicated to the facts and history of the works, the other to musical analysis. [2]

For the music publisher Carus-Verlag, he edited Bach's Christmas Oratorio , supplying a foreword in three languages and a critical report of historical and musicological information. [3] For Breitkopf & Härtel, he reconstructed a trio sonata for violin, viola and basso continuo, based on BWV 1038, and attributed it to both Johann Sebastian Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. [4]

Related Research Articles

The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a, was published in 1998.

Johann Ludwig Bach

Johann Ludwig Bach was a German composer and violinist.

<i>Jesu, meine Freude</i>, BWV 227 Motet by Johann Sebastian Bach

Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227, is a motet in eleven movements for SSATB choir which was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is named after the Lutheran hymn "Jesu, meine Freude", of which the motet contains, in its odd-numbered movements, all six stanzas of Johann Franck's poetry and various versions of Johann Crüger's hymn tune. The text of the motet's even-numbered movements is taken from the New Testament's sixth book, the Epistle to the Romans. The Biblical text, which contains key Lutheran teaching, is contrasted by the hymn, written in the first person with a focus on emotion, and Bach set both in a symmetrical structure. The composition is in E minor. Bach's treatment of the Crüger's melody ranges from a four-part chorale harmonization which begins and ends the work, to a chorale fantasia and a free setting that only paraphrases the tune. Four verses from the Epistle are set in motet style, two for five voices and two for three voices. The central movement is a five-part fugue. Bach used word painting to intensify the theological meaning of both hymn and Epistle texts.

<i>Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied</i>, BWV 225

Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225, is a motet by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first performed in Leipzig around (probably) 1727. The text of the three-movement motet is in German: after Psalm 149 for its first movement, the third stanza of "Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren" for the second movement, and after Psalm 150:2 and 6 for its third movement Psalms 150:2,6.

Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230, is a motet by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Diethard Hellmann

Diethard Hellmann was a German Kantor and an academic in Leipzig, Mainz and Munich.

<i>Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied</i>, BWV 190

Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote it in Leipzig for the New Year's Day and first performed it on 1 January 1724 as part of his first cantata cycle. He adapted it in 1730 to Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190a, for the celebration of the bicentennial of the Augsburg Confession.

"Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren" is a Lutheran hymn written in German by the theologian and reformer Johann Gramann in 1525. It was published in 1540 and appears in 47 hymnals. A translation by Catherine Winkworth, "My Soul, now Praise thy Maker!", was published in 1863.

BWV Anh.

BWV Anh., abbreviation of Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis Anhang, is a list of lost, doubtful, and spurious compositions by, or once attributed to, Johann Sebastian Bach.

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.

Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt is a three-movement pasticcio motet for double SATB choir. It includes music by Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach. The text of the motet is a German paraphrase of Psalm 100.

Altbachisches Archiv, also Alt-Bachische Archiv, is a collection of 17th-century vocal music, most of which was written by members of the Bach family.

Late church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach refers to sacred cantatas he composed after his fourth cycle of 1728–29. Whether Bach still composed a full cantata cycle in the last 20 years of his life is not known, but the extant cantatas of this period written for occasions of the liturgical year are sometimes referred to as his fifth cycle, as, according to his obituary, he would have written five such cycles – inasmuch as such cantatas were not late additions to earlier cycles, or were adopted in his oratorios.

The Concerto, BWV 525a, is a trio sonata in C major for violin, cello and basso continuo, based on material otherwise found in Johann Sebastian Bach's first Organ Sonata, BWV 525, and Flute Sonata in A major, BWV 1032. The oldest extant manuscript containing the BWV 525a arrangement, D-B Mus.ms. Bach St 345, is dated to the middle of the 18th century. Although this version of Bach's sonata movements may have originated during his lifetime in the circle around him, it seems unlikely that the composer supervised, or even ordered, the manufacture of the string trio adaptation, thus the arrangement has been listed in BWV Anh. II, that is the Anhang (Anh.) of doubtful works, in the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV). Breitkopf & Härtel published BWV 525a in 1965. Digital facsimiles of 18th- and 19th-century manuscript copies of the arrangement, in which the sonata is titled "Concerto", became available in the 21st century.

<i>Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegend</i>, BWV 248 II

Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegend, BWV 248II, is a 1734 Christmas cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach as the second part of his Christmas Oratorio. Bach was then Thomaskantor, responsible for music at four churches in Leipzig, a position he had assumed in 1723.

Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben, BWV 248VI, is a church cantata for Epiphany, which Johann Sebastian Bach composed as the sixth part of his Christmas Oratorio, written for the Christmas season of 1734–35 in Leipzig. The cantata was first performed on 6 January 1735.

Magnificat in A minor (Hoffmann) Vocal composition by Melchior Hoffmann of the Song of Mary from the Gospel of Luke

The Magnificat in A minor, BWV Anh. 21, TWV 1:1748, is Melchior Hoffmann's musical setting of a German version of the Song of Mary from the Gospel of Luke. The composition originated around 1707, when the composer was director musices and organist of the Neue Kirche in Leipzig. Composed in A minor, the Magnificat is scored for soprano and small orchestra. The work was first published in the 1950s, and it was recorded by Magda László, by Joshua Rifkin, by Wolfgang Helbich, and by Deborah York, among others.

References

  1. ↑ "Hon.-Prof. Dr. Klaus Hofmann" (in German). University of Göttingen. 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  2. ↑ Roos, Christof. "Johann Sebastian Bach: Christmas Oratorio BWV 248" (PDF). University of Karlsruhe . Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  3. ↑ "Johann Sebastian Bach: Christmas Oratorio BWV 248". Carus-Verlag. Archived from the original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  4. ↑ "Bach, Johann Sebastian/Carl Philipp Emanuel: Trio Sonata in G major based on BWV 1038". Breitkopf & Härtel. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
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