Trumpet major?

Musical Times, Autumn 2001 by Altschuler, Eric Lewin

JS Bach and the Reiche portrait

Did Bach write the fanfare in Gottfried Reiche's portrait? ERIC LEWIN ALTSCHULER argues the case.

GOTTFRIED REICHE (1667-1734) was one of the finest trumpeters of his day. In 1694 he was paid extra money by the Leipzig city council so that he would not seek employment elsewhere. He is best known to history as `Bach's trumpeter'. Johann Sebastian Bach's first trumpet parts, from Bach's arrival in Leipzig in 1723 until 1734, were written for Reiche.1 Reiche's visage is also well known via a striking portrait painted by E. Haussmann in 1727 (fig. 1). In his right hand Reiche holds a trumpet, to signify his occupation; in his left hand he holds an exquisite fanfare, to note the virtuosic nature of his playing ability. The fanfare (also known as 'Abblasen') remains popular. In the United States it would probably be recognised by many as the theme to the television show CBS Sunday Morning. There is also an excellent recording of the fanfare, with the portrait on the record jacket.2 The fanfare in the portrait is anonymous, though it has always been thought that Reiche was the composer.3

However, for a number of reasons, JS Bach merits strong consideration to have been the composer of the portrait fanfare.

(1) The fanfare is a wonderful, very, very good piece. If the piece were already in the Bach catalogue, it would certainly at least be in the top half of Bach's pieces. Also, it 'sounds' like Bach. The probability that Reiche, or any one else wrote a `good Bach piece' is very small, though not impossible.

(2) Reiche himself was also a composer - an additional reason that he must be most strongly considered to have written the fanfare in his portrait. Unfortunately, not all of Reiche's compositions survive. The most substantial is his Vier and zwantig neue Quatricinia (1696), a set of twentyfour pieces for cornett and three trombones. But study of the Vier and zwantig reveals no similarity with the fanfare, and these pieces contain no demisemiquavers or semiquavers. Since the Quntricinia are not fanfares, we cannot be positive that Reiche did not write the fanfare. However, in contrast, for example, both volumes of Bach's Well-tempered clavier, themselves not trumpet fanfares, contain features such as fast demisemiquavers and semiquavers, syncopation, and multiple eliding sequences, which are also seen in the Reiche portrait piece (see below).

(3) The portrait was made in honour of Reiche's sixtieth year (1727). The fanfare could easily be a `present' from Bach. Bach was not working in Leipzig in 1717 to honour Reiche's fiftieth year. The sixtieth year is Bach's first 'major' birthday year to honour his great musician.

(4) The chance that the portrait is a present is greatly increased by the fact that the fanfare is anonymous, while a piece that Bach is holding in his portrait by Haussmann (Canon Triplex for 6 voices, BWV 1076) has written on it `Per J.S. Bach' (figs.2 and 3). Interestingly, it would appear that Reiche's thumb is potentially covering up the signature of the composer (fig. 4).

(5) While a casual glance at the score of the fanfare in the portrait (ex.1) shows a piece perhaps `similar to all other fanfares', closer inspection reveals that there is something quite different and rather special about this one: there is an extensive use of patterns in the six-bar piece (patterns marked 'a-d' in ex.1). The patterns are not obvious upon a casual glance as they have been offset by three-quarters, or one-quarter of a beat. These 'syncopated' repeated figures ('a', 'd') create a wonderful tension that makes the piece exciting and fresh each hearing. The sequence in 'a' and 'd' is four notes long, and runs four and six times, respectively. The first instance of the sequence in 'a' is six notes long with the first two notes setting up the sequence to run on the weak part of the beat. Otherwise the sequence consists of four notes ascending scalewise (except the last instance of the sequence in 'a' and 'd'). (A demonstration of the power of the use of the syncopation - the pattern sequence starting on a weak part of a beat - is given in ex.2 in which I give a more obvious and simplistic (no syncopation), but less interesting possible opening for the piece.) The last pattern (Vin ex. 1) is the same as the first pattern ('a'). The elision of the penultimate CO into the last pattern of the piece ('d') (marked '*' in ex.1) is seamless. This most ingenious and extensive use of patterns and strong activity on weak parts of the beat is quite 'Bachian'.

(6) Furthermore, in bars 27-28 (ex.3) and 54-55 of the first trumpet part in the first movement of Bach's Cantata 137 (performed on 19 August 1725), there is a trumpet lick which is the same as that of the fanfare patterns 'a' and 'd', again with crucial activity on the weak part of the beat. (In the cantata the sequence runs three times.) Like my first point this goes a long way toward excluding all other potential composers of the fanfare except JS Bach. However, hypothetically it is possible that Reiche, after having played Bach's Cantata 137, decided to use the sequence to write the fanfare. But it is much more likely that it was the great composer Bach who used the sequence from his own cantata for the fanfare.