Christoph Bernhard (1628-1693)
- Missa 'Durch Adams Fall'
Performers: Vаncouvеr Chamber Choir; Iοn Wаshburn
Further info: Christoph Bernhard (1628-1693) - Geistliche Harmonien
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German music theorist, composer and singer. He is best known for his
discussion of musical-rhetorical figures in Tractatus compositionis
augmentatus. The birthplace given above is documented in a funeral poem
by Bernhard’s brother-in-law C.C. Dedekind and is confirmed by Walther;
the birth date appears in Müller-Blattau (1963) without documentation.
Mattheson states, no doubt erroneously, that Bernhard was born in Danzig
in 1612. According to Dedekind, Bernhard studied in Danzig (probably
with the elder Kaspar Förster and possibly Paul Siefert) and in Warsaw
(very likely with Scacchi); Mattheson’s assertion that Bernhard studied
in Danzig with Balthasar Erben must also be in error for Erben did not
become Kapellmeister at the Marienkirche until 1658, well after Bernhard
was established in Dresden. At some point Bernhard also studied law. He
began singing as an alto at the electoral court in Dresden under Schütz
probably in 1648 and received a contract with the elector’s ensemble on
1 August 1649. Shortly thereafter he travelled with the royal retinue
to Gottorf for a wedding. The music was directed by Agostino Fontana, a
virtuoso Italian singer serving as Kapellmeister to Christian IV of
Denmark; Bernhard remained in Denmark to study with Fontana for about a
year. On 1 August 1655 Bernhard was promoted to vice-Kapellmeister at
Dresden. With the accession of the italophile Johann Georg II as Elector
of Saxony in 1656, Italian musicians gained greater influence at court.
These included G.A. Bontempi, Vincenzo and Bartolomeo Albrici, Gioseppe
Peranda and Dominicus Melani. Bernhard made two trips to Italy,
supported by Johann Georg II, to gain more first-hand experience of
Italian music, musicians and singing technique. He married Christina
Barbara Weber on 28 October 1659. Growing tension between the German and
Italian musicians was probably the main factor in Bernhard’s decision
in 1663 to follow his former colleague Matthias Weckmann to Hamburg.
There he succeeded Thomas Selle as Kantor of the Johanneum and civic
director of church music in Hamburg. There were six other contestants
for the post, and he obtained it by one vote.
Weckmann had helped make him known in Hamburg by performing a piece of
his own under Bernhard’s name. Bernhard accepted the Hamburg offer on 18
October 1663 and was installed on 9 February 1664. The city fathers
greeted his arrival in elegant style and completely remodelled his
house, which Bernhard gratefully acknowledged when dedicating his
Geistliche Harmonien (1665) to them. The fact that Bernhard was taken
into membership of the brotherhood Englandfahrer shortly after his
arrival in Hamburg indicates the esteem in which he was held. Visits
from Johann Rist (in 1666) and the younger Kaspar Förster (in 1667)
provided occasions for chamber music at Bernhard’s house. Bernhard must
also have participated in the weekly concerts of the collegium musicum
founded by Weckmann in 1660. In addition to performing the most
up-to-date works from Venice, Rome, Vienna, Munich and Dresden, they
joined with Reincken, Buxtehude and Theile in cultivating learned
counterpoint as an esoteric art; Bernhard’s Prudentia prudentiana, in
four-part invertible counterpoint, was imitated by Buxtehude two years
later (buxwv76/1). The years of Bernhard and Weckmann’s joint activity
formed one of the highpoints of 17th-century musical life in Hamburg.
Just before Weckmann’s death (on 24 February 1674) Johann Georg II
called Bernhard back to Dresden to supervise the education of his two
grandsons, and he was installed on 31 March 1674 with instructions to
teach them religion, reading and writing. He also resumed his post as
vice-Kapellmeister. In 1676 he supervised a new edition of the Dresden
hymnal, combining the Lutheran chorales with Schütz’s settings of the
Becker Psalter. Johann Georg III, who became elector in 1680, soon
decided to reduce his musical establishment in order to cut costs. All
the Italians either left or were dismissed, and from 24 August 1681
Bernhard was the sole Kapellmeister, as well as inspector of the music
library; he held both positions until his death. With the accession of
Johann Georg IV in 1691 he was serving his fourth Elector of Saxony.
