Francesco Fornasaro - J.S. Bach: Duetto No.2 BWV 803 (Clavier-Übung, Part 3)

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH'S DUETTI BWV 802-805:

Johann Sebastian Bach's four Duets BWV 802-805 belong to the Third Part of the "Clavier-Übung", composed in 1739 and intended for the organ, and were included at a fairly late stage in the engraved plates for the book. Their purpose has remained a source of debate. Like the beginning Prelude and Fugue BWV 552 of "Clavier-Übung III" they are not explicitly mentioned on the title page and there is no explicit indication that they were intended for organ. However, as several commentators have noted, at a time when Bach was busy composing counterpoint for the Second Book of "The Well-Tempered Clavier" and the "Goldberg Variations" ("Clavier-Übung IV") using a very wide harpsichord range, Bach wrote the duets to lie comfortably in the range C to c’’’ in Helmholtz pitch notation (C2 to C6 in scientific pitch notation), so within the relatively narrow compass of almost every organ of the time. The pieces can nevertheless be played on any single keyboard because there is no pedal part in the notation, and since the writing is very close to that of the "Two Part Inventions" (BWV 772-786) they lend themselves perfectly to being played on the harpsichord too. Moreover, there is a noticeable reminiscence of the Prelude-Fugue structure in the preamble-like character of Duets no.1 and no.3, and in the imitative principle that governs the 2nd and the 4th (except in the key relationships). These strict, delicately wrought pieces are an unjustly neglected part of Bach's keyboard output.
DUETTO NO.2 BWV 803:

«The A section of the F major Duetto is everything that Scheibe could have asked for — and that is not enough for Bach, who moves here far beyond the clarity and unity of the F major invention [BWV 779]. Without the B section the Duetto is the perfect work of 1739, completely in and of its time. In its entirety however the piece is a perfect blasphemy—a powerful refutation indeed of the progressive shibboleths of naturalness and transparency.» (David Gaynor Yearsley (in "Bach and the meanings of counterpoint", 2002)

This second duet in F major BWV 803 is a fugue written in the form of a "da capo" aria, in the form ABA. The first section has 37 bars and the second 75 bars, so that with repeats there are 149 bars. There is a sharp contrast between the two sections, which David Gaynor Yearsley (in "Bach and the meanings of counterpoint") has suggested might have been Bach's musical response to the acrimonious debate on style being conducted between Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708-1776) and Johann Abraham Birnbaum (1702-1748) at the time of composition. Section A is a conventional fugue in the spirit of the "Inventions" (BWV 772-786) and "Sinfonias" (BWV 787-801), melodious, harmonious and undemanding on the listener—the "natural" cantabile approach to composition advocated by both Johann Mattheson (1681-1764) and Scheibe.
Section B is written in quite a different way. It is severe and chromatic, mostly in minor keys, with dissonances, strettos, syncopation and canonic writing—all features frowned upon as "artificial" and "unnatural" by Bach's critics. Section B is divided symmetrically into segments of 31, 13 and 31 bars. The first subject of section A is heard again in canon in the minor key.
The character of the first subject undergoes a complete transformation, from bright and effortless simplicity to dark and strained complexity: the strettos in the first subject produce unusual augmented triads; and a new chromatic countersubject emerges in the central 13-bar segment (which begins in bar 69, the fifth bar below).

Michael Radulescu said: «The four Duets perhaps symbolize the four elements: fire, air, water and earth. Moreover, Martin Luther also refers to these four elements in the Catechism. However, it is possible that the duets symbolize the four directions of the Cross. A few years ago I had also considered the hypothesis that these pieces could symbolize the four Archangels: all the more so because each one is symbolically linked to one of the four elements. Thus Michael would be the first, linked to the element of fire, Gabriel the second to the element of air, the third would be Raphael, with the symbol of fish, water; the fourth, Uriel, the earth. This perhaps could be the meaning of the four duets».
The harpsichord used in the recording - which is not the one that can be seen in the photograph that portrays me - is a French-Style double-manual by Roberto Marioni, copy after Pascal Taskin, Paris, 1769 (Raymond Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments, Edinburgh).

Temperament: Werckmeister III (unequal temperament) - Pitch (tuning reference): A = 415 Hz.

Recording: San Giacomo - Spazio d'Arte (SkillMedia), Padua (Italy), July 2019.

Recording engineer: Marco Lincetto - Editing: Mattia Zanatta.

Music starts at minute 00:26
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