Beschreibung
2 pp. (approx. 158 x 195 mm), comprising bars 59b-66 and 73-76 of the 4th movement, scored for alto with cello and organ obbligato, on four systems of four hand-drawn staves. The lower half of fol. 17 of the original manuscript. Upper system affected by ink corrosion causing a number of cracks and losses, reinforced with early archival film on recto over an area of 40 x 183 mm, now rather discoloured. The lower stave in good condition, with minor ink acidification. Window-mounted (198 x 232 mm) and sealed in an archival sleeve. Stored in custom-made blue morocco portfolio. BWV 188 is a cantata for the 21st Sunday after Trinity, composed most likely for 17 October 1728 (or possibly 6 November 1729), the text as often at this period drawn from Picander (Chr. Fr. Henrici, "Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte", Leipzig 1728). The ensemble is made up of four voices, two oboes, viola, organo obbligato and basso continuo. In the fourth movement, the dramatic heart of the cantata, the text "Unerforschlich ist die Weise" ("The ways of the Lord are past understanding", a meditation on the cross and human suffering) is elaborated as a dark, expressive aria for alto voice set against a virtuoso organ obbligato, "a complex and ever-changing kaleidoscope of richly entwined rhythms and melodies" (J. Mincham, The Cantatas of J. S. Bach). The key, E minor, is one that Bach frequently associates with the crucifixion. The present fragment comprises 11½ bars from the conclusion of the movement, including the words ". Seinen führt, unerforschlich ist die Weise, Wie der Herr die Seinen führt, unerforschlich ist die Weise, Wie …". The autograph of BWV 188 suffered more vicissitudes than most, with the first 10 of the 18 leaves being lost at an early date (probably before the 1827 auction), taking with them the great majority of the first movement (which can be identified as a reworking of the last movement of a lost violin concerto, also used in the clavier concerto BWV 1052). The remaining leaves are now widely scattered, with four leaves being cut up (as here) into two or even three pieces; but although the resulting fragments are now located in ten holdings in eight countries, they are nevertheless sufficiently continuous to enable the 2nd to 5th movements to be reconstituted without significant lacunae. The present fragment, which comprises the lower half of fol. 17, is identified in the "Kritischer Bericht" of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe as A14 ("unbekannter Privatbesitz"). The same source notes that the marked ink acidification which has affected the upper half of the present fragment is typical of the dismembered leaves, and is in part a result of the dense compositional script of the composer, in this instance with many tripletised semi-quavers: "Die Zerteilung von einigen der anderen Blätter hat sich unmittelbar auf den Erhaltungszustand der Manuskript-Fragmente ausgewirkt, denn die Streifen sind im ganzen gesehen in schlechtem Zustand, von Tintenfraß befallen, das Papier ist stark gebräunt, und die Lesbarkeit wird zudem durch die typische Konzeptschrift Bachs, wie sie sich in vielen Partitur-Erstschriften findet, erschwert" (p. 207). Provenance: The autograph score of BWV 188 is thought to have been among a group of manuscripts inherited by Bach s impecunious eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, and sold by him at auction in 1774. Parts of the Wilhelm Friedemann Nachlass were again auctioned in 1827, being acquired by the inventor and collector Carl Philipp Heinrich Pistor (1778-1847). Pistor s manuscripts were inherited by his son-in-law, Adolf Friedrich Rudorff (1803-73), from whom they passed to the musicologist Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns (1809-88). The present leaf was one of four acquired from Jähns by the Viennese collector Gustav Petter (1828-68), who is thought to have been responsible for their dismemberment. The last owner of the present fragment traced by the "Kritischer Bericht" is Nora Kluge (née von Hase) of Lübeck, wife of the. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 81441
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