Bach digital - Theoretische Aufzeichnungen zum fünfstimmigen Satz / "Regula Joh. Seb. Bachii" BWV 1129

Writings on Composition

Date of origin, Work history: vor 1742-1745
The earliest source of Johann Sebastian Bach's “Regula” is a copy by his scholar Johann Friedrich Agricola. A copy from Bach's music library is not passed down.
Comment: This is a rule formulated as a prohibition with examples of notes for doubling certain chord tones in a five-part movement (see Werbeck BJ 2003; Wolff BJ 2004). There is a source from ca. 1742-1745 in private ownership (Berlin). It is a copy in piano setting and in German by Agricola. The header goes: In einem 5stimmigen Saz darff nicht verdoppelt werden 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 et 9. The text was notated on the postscript page in Agricola's hand copy of Lorenz Christoph Mizler's translation of Johann Joseph Fux, Gradus ad parnassum, oder Anführung zur Regelmäßigen musikalischen Composition" (Leipzig 1742). Another source is an early print in score notation and in Latin with the heading Regula Ioh. Seb. Bachii: In Compositione quinque partibus instructa non sunt duplicandae 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 et 9 (see Johann Philipp Kirnberger, "Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik", 1779, 3. Abteilung, pp. 41–43; partly reproduced in Dok III Nr. 767)

Edition

NBA Supplement, S. 63 (Peter Wollny, 2011)

Literature

Walter Werbeck, Bach und der Kontrapunkt. Neue Manuskript-Funde, in: BJ 89 (2003), S. 67–95
C. Wolff, in: BJ 2004

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Last changed: 2025-05-16 : 03:24:52