Selected works by the Leipzig painter Michael Triegel (born in 1968) are brought into dialogue with compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Both the contemporary artist and the Baroque composer address fundamental themes of human existence such as faith and doubt, life and death, beauty and transience in their respective genres.
Johann Sebastian Bach brought compositional techniques as well as historical and contemporary musical styles to unparalleled mastery. In addition to his knowledge of music theory, his works were inspired by his careful study of the Bible and other texts. Being a Protestant, Bach regarded music as a divinely ordained element of worship. By incorporating well-known chorales and melodies into his church music, he provided important anchor points for the faithful. However, listeners require no knowledge of musical history or religious references in order to appreciate Bach’s music. Despite being firmly rooted in his time, his works have become timeless.
Michael Triegel draws on art from the Renaissance and Baroque eras to produce highly relevant pictures. Painting in the style of the Old Masters, he makes use of the wealth of Christian and mythological iconography. He removes familiar visual motifs from their usual context by means of surprising combinations, imperfections and details, and combines them into his very own visual creations. Viewers with a background in art history and philosophy may feel inspired to try and identify quotations and decipher iconographic references. Yet his pictures also invite individual readings and free associations.
Marian windows and Marian feast days
In 2014, Michael Triegel was commissioned to design two stained glass windows for St Mary of the Assumption in Köthen. Gottfried Bandhauer (1790–1837), the church’s architect, is known to many Bach enthusiasts for redesigning the Hall of Mirrors in Köthen Castle in a classical style in 1823 – a place where, a century beforehand, Bach had performed numerous compositions in his role as the court’s director of music.
Although concertante church music wasn’t played at the Reformist court in Köthen, a cantata was performed every week in Protestant Leipzig, where certain feast days in honour of Mary were also celebrated. Bach composed cantatas for the feasts of the Purification of Mary (2 February), the Annunciation (25 March), and the Visitation (2 July).
Performed by: Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Concentus musicus Wien and the Wiener Sängerknaben & Chorus Viennensis
BACH & TRIEGEL
Michael Triegel SELF-PORTRAIT
This portrait showing Triegel at the age of 47 (“anno aetatis suae XLVII”) is reminiscent of Albrecht Dürer’s famous self-portrait from 1500. Frontal depiction was a perspective reserved for kings and Christ. In Dürer’s view, art was part of God’s creative power. However, the fly on Triegel’s hand adds an element of doubt to this otherwise confident portrait. A common name for the devil is Beelzebub – which translates as »lord of flies«.
B – A – C – H
Bach worked the sequence of notes B-A-C-H representing his signature (H being German notation for B natural) into this famous fugue, of which only a fragment has survived. This motif made up of semitone steps enabled him to try out the possibilities of chromatic harmony on a thematic level. Although legend has it that Bach was unable to complete this composition on his deathbed, this is now refuted by researchers.
The idea of the hidden, unknowable God originated in the Book of Isaiah (45:15) in the Old Testament: »Truly You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.« Luther contrasted the notion of the distant, unfamiliar »Deus absconditus« (‘hidden God’) with the nearby »Deus revelatus« – God revealed by Christ.
Johann Sebastian Bach OUT OF DEEP ANGUISH I CALL TO YOU
Cantata for the 21st Sunday after Trinity, first performed on 29 October 1724
Chorale (words and melody) by Martin Luther, 1524
This cantata is based on Luther’s penitential song adapting Psalm 130. Use of the Phrygian mode, a medieval church key, lends it an austere character. In the freely written verses with internal rhyme, Luther’s poetry is interwoven with the content of the Gospel for this Sunday: the account of a miraculous healing by Jesus. Bach’s trio ‘When my troubles like chains’ for soprano, alto and bass accompanied only by figured bass expresses the consolation of the person rescued from deep distress.
Performed by: Masaaki Suzuki with the Bach Collegium Japan, Dorothee Mields (Sopran), Pascal Bertin (Alt), Gerd Türk (Tenor)
LIFE AND DEATH
Michael Triegel AVE MARIA
»Hail Mary« is how the Angel Gabriel greeted the Virgin Mary when he announced the birth of Christ to her.
»The Great Catholic Mass« Index of the musical estate of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor is his most sophisticated and diverse work. In the final years of his life, he wrote a complete Latin mass consisting of existing mass movements, new compositions and reworked pieces. He skilfully combined compositions from different times and contexts into a grand whole.
In the »Credo«, the youngest and the oldest composition collide. »Et incarnatus est« written in 1749 is thought to be Bach’s very last choral composition. The following ‘Crucifixus’ originated in the oldest composition of the entire mass: the chorus from the 1714 Easter cantata »Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing«.
Performed by: Ton Koopman with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Klaus Mertens
Music-free periods in Leipzig
Advent and Passion are times of quiet and reflection in the Protestant Church. They serve the faithful to prepare for the two most important church festivals: Christmas and Easter. In Bach’s day, these were times that were free of music. On the second, third and fourth Sundays of Advent and during Lent (Quadragesima Sunday to Palm Sunday), no cantatas were performed in the churches in Leipzig. These music-free periods gave Bach an opportunity to prepare his major Passions and oratorios.
Michael Triegel RESURRECTION
Johann Sebastian Bach ST MATTHEW PASSION
In order to tell the Passion story appropriately, Bach employed a wide range of key signatures and created extraordinary musical timbres.
Bach performed the St Matthew Passion on multiple occasions in Leipzig. However, it only began its rise to world fame after Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy performed it in Berlin in 1829. Sixty years earlier, at least the final chorus was performed in Berlin, as these recently discovered choral parts prove – presumably at a private performance by the concert society Musikübende Gesellschaft.
According to Greek mythology, Hades, the god of the underworld, abducted Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of fertility. When her mother caused all the plants on Earth to wither, Zeus ordered Persephone to be released. But because she had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld, she was obliged to spend a few months of each year in Hades. During this time, the earth was barren, for it was winter.
Johann Sebastian Bach SIX SONATAS FOR VIOLIN AND HARPSICHORD
The Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1014–1019, were the first violin sonatas in the history of music in which the harpsichord was on equal terms with the violin. The Sonata in F minor is deeply melancholy. It begins with a lament in the style of a beguilingly beautiful Bach aria.
In 2009, the Diocese of Würzburg commissioned Triegel to paint a ceiling for the anteroom of the rehearsal hall used for musical activities at Würzburg Cathedral. He produced a complex painting responding to architectural investigations, according to which the room had been built in strictly harmonious proportions with equilateral triangles.
The illustration of the one-stringed monochord in the centre of the picture is taken from Utriusque Cosmi written by the English philosopher Robert Fludd (1574–1637). Musical terms are used to illustrate the ancient idea of world harmony. Ancient gods with various musical instruments are grouped around the monochord.
Johann Sebastian Bach THE ART OF FUGUE
In Bach’s conception of the nature and harmony of music, a key role was played by counterpoint – the interplay of independent musical themes. In his view, it regulated the connection and sequence of consonances and dissonances. The Art of Fugue, a cycle of 14 fugues and 4 canons, is Bach’s most sophisticated contrapuntal work. Working painstakingly and with great foresight, he devised a musical theme for it which enabled him to demonstrate all the variations of instrumental counterpoint.
Performed by: St Thomas’s Boys Choir, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kurt Thomas
Soloists: Agnes Giebel, Marga Höffgen, Josef Traxel, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
LANDSCAPES
From the Motet »Jesus, my Joy«
Now good night, O creature
Which the world doth favor,
Thou dost please me not.
Now good night, corruption,
Get thee far behind me,
Come no more to light!
Now good night, thou pomp and pride!
Once for all, thou wicked life here,
Now “Good night” I bid thee.
