23
Nov 11
Kyrie I: Ritornello Breakdown
In the last post, we looked at the importance of the ritornello in Bach’s music, finishing by listening to the orchestral “introduction” to the opening Kyrie. As we will see in this blogpost, it is far from just an introduction—this ritornello is at the very core of the monumental opening movement of the B Minor Mass. Last time, I promised that we’d look at the three sections of this particular ritornello—its Vordersatz, Fortspinnung and Epilog—and try to make some theological sense of them. In the next post, we’ll look at how Bach then uses the ritornello as a structural pillar throughout the movement. Here is a piano score of this ritornello, so you can see more easily how these three major sections break down.
Let’s listen again to the Vordersatz section—measures 5-9—in which the motivic material is presented. As you can readily hear and see, this starts out like a fugue, as we explored a few posts ago. Just as a reminder, this is the fugue subject in which the believers reach up to God for forgiveness (“eleison”), but are continually dragged back down to their sins. If we stopped the music here, the listener would assume this is the beginning of a typical Bach fugue rather than a ritornello.
The Fortspinnung section of a ritornello tends to involve many sequences, where the same little motive is repeated either higher or lower. This is certainly true of this ritornello: in fact, there are two separate sequential phrases, both of which end with a reference to the “gathering in” figure I discussed in an early post. Listen to the Fortspinnung section. The first half is measures 10-14, which features a “walking bassline” underneath an oboe duet, which trades a little motive back and forth. In the second half of the Fortspinnung, the bass part is more melodic, and its syncopation has an emotional pull to it:
Measures 15-18, bass part
Again, there is an instrumental duet above that line, but this section is more intimate, and achingly lyrical.
In terms of the theological meaning of the Fortspinnung, I turn to the the writings of Brandeis musicologist Eric Chafe. He describes Bach’s use of musical figures to represent catabasis (descent) and anabasis (ascent) throughout his scores. If you look at the bass line throughout this section (mm. 10-21), you will see that the same musical material is often repeated slightly lower. This is the musical representation of descent, or catabasis. In the context of this movement, Bach’s use of catabasis might symbolize the sinners humbling themselves before God. They certainly descend a great distance: the third section of the ritornello, the Epilog, features a restatement of the fugue subject, this time two octaves lower than its first appearance! It is as if the supplicant begins her prayer, “Lord, have mercy” while standing, and finishes by kneeling. The whole ritornello finishes with a repeat of two more ideas—the descent theme from mm. 10-11, and the “gathering in” motive in mm. 27-29 that is derived from sopranos’ opening cries in the first two bars :
Kyrie, opening 4 measures
Here is Suzuki’s recording of the ritornello’s epilog, mm. 23-29:
At this point, it must seem as if we’re going to be talking about the opening Kyrie forever! But this is the genius of Bach: after establishing the “first principles”, everything else—the rest of the movement, the rest of the larger Kyrie eleison-Christe eleison -Kyrie eleison section, the rest of the work—follows on much more speedily. As I have said in so many posts, this is the generative nature of Bach’s work: once you understand what the seed contains, you know what the plant will look like.