Probstück 6 · English translation

Sixth Probstück Annotations §. 1. It has been mentioned already, that everything that one might want to add in these pieces to the right hand is found in the bass either before or after, so that it can be looked for and imitated. One would like to know here, if someone has so much reflection to play the present piece according to this instruction or if everything has to be given down to the last detail. Whoever wants to do the test, shall put away these remarks until he sees, whether his candidate has hit the right spot or not. He hits it - applause! He misses it – they have to be given to him, and after having taken the lesson he will be thoroughly surprised that he did not smell the rat. Someone will turn up their noses just as Luther's company did when he made the egg stand up for them, and they will say: Oh! Is it nothing else than that? I thought it were wonders. Those instructions almost remind me of medicine, which one ardently demands, and when it has helped, one would like to know what it consists of. As one hears that in it were nothing but ordinary ingredients, one loses the respect for the medicine, regardless of its good effect. This is nothing but prejudices; one shall let them go, especially in music, and shall judge the things according to no other principle than if it sounds good or bad – the setting might be artificial or simple, colourful or plain. It suffices if it sounds good. §. 2. If it did not happen for the delight of upright people who want to make use of this little opus, I can assure that I would let my good organists and their apprentices dangle for a bit longer before they get to know every trick in the book. I would hesitate to tell them right away that the fourteen measures that the bass is playing before, can be repeated note for note in the right hand in the following thirteen measures, and have to be modified a little only in the fourteenth and fifteenth measure. Now my organist will think – is this the fine secret? Well, that is something simple! Did I not say it would come like this? But do not sing the victory before triumph is there. Let us hear, how does it sound? Do not hesitate, go on, oh dear, go on; and consider the left hand: do not let the bass go along so baldly. If you cannot find the concordances so quickly, you have to proceed at least in octaves, until finally reaching the cadence in c with honours. §. 3. The usual principles of bass variation are that the principal notes are struck first and the passing ones after. But in today's way of playing, especially when the keyboard is heard alone, one often reverses this and treats them like consonances and dissonances, which also allow for Note cambiate or changing notes, although otherwise it runs strongly against the old routine of composition.Mattheson writes "Compositions-Bocks-Beutel". In Mattheson's Hamburg "Bocksbeutel" was proverbial for antiquated custom and pedantry ("der alte Bocksbeutel"). But when the principal notes are played after the downbeat, they have to be in a low register and the broken ones in a high register. In this way, the principal notes in the measures 9. 10. 11. 12. etc. of this example are: I do not know whether there is something more legal, correct and clear. §. 4. Now there follow nine or ten colourful measures in the bass; and although from time to time one or the other figure has been left away, one may judge where a sixth or a b5 belongs. To those who want to know, what the fundamental notes in those so-called colourful measures are, to which the arpeggiations are related, I want to show them, particularly since not always the first notes in a measure are the principal ones, but rather often are nothing but a filling voice. I said it were nine to ten measures; in the first four the fundamental notes are found immediately on the downbeat and beginning of every crotchet; in the fifth however, things are different and in the four following measures one might have doubts whether to find them in the low or in the high register. Since in regard of variations much depends on this lesson of the fundamental notes, a student can get advice on that here and can learn to apply the present way to similar cases. The fundamental progressions on p. 331 line 3 m. 5i.e. m. 31. until the end of the page are: §. 5. But on with the text. What do you play on the d and its two crotchet breaks? And what in the following five or six bars? Take it from the previous music, but this time not note-for-note. But do not stumble, I advise you. You see, in the nine or ten measures that I (Apollo shall forgive me) have called colourful, after the sixth measure the passages are slightly inverted. This one should like to imitate, when reaching the fifth measure of the so-called plain notes. If one is able to play the twelve last bars in thirds and sixths in the right hand with a good proportion, it will be lauded and it can be said about him: He has done well. Concerning the sixths and fourths, the necessary has been said already multiple times; but whomever they do not befit in the way I want them to be, might rather play a chord in the first and third measure instead and play two times per crotchet. It will be legal and sound beautiful.