Early Music Princeton Spring Concert

Early Music Princeton (EMP), directed by harpsichordist Wendy Young, is an umbrella organization devoted to the exploration of early music for graduate and undergraduate students in all disciplines, as well as faculty and staff members at Princeton University. Members of Early Music Princeton study and perform vocal and instrumental repertoire spanning the centuries from Medieval and Renaissance to High Baroque, with a special focus on historical performance practices. EMP’ s ensembles include the Early MusicPrinceton Singers, Viol Consort, and Chamber Players (both modern and original instruments). EMP Unleashed! utilizes a variety of computer programs, baroque instruments, and the human voice, to reinterpret “ old” music in “ new ” ways.

EMP has a large instrument collection, including harpsichords, violins, violas, celli, a full range of viols, and Baroque bows, to name but a few, allowing for the exploration and performance of a wide range of repertoire.

Wendy Young is joined by faculty members Nancy Wilson (Baroque Violin and Viola), Arnie Tanimoto (Viola da gamba and Baroque Cello), and Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek (Soprano), all internationally renowned early music specialists.

We look forward to continuing to expand our repertoire and to bringing early music to both Princeton University and the community.

About the Department of Music:

The Department of Music at Princeton University provides its undergraduates—whether they major or minor in Music—the opportunity to learn from a world-renowned faculty of scholars and composers. Performance opportunities include student-led and departmental ensembles like symphony orchestras, multi-genre choruses, jazz, contemporary music, African music, steel band, laptop orchestra, and much more, and students have access to private instrumental and voice lessons from eminent performing artists. The graduate program offers two distinct and prestigious PhD programs in composition or musicology; graduate students receive fully-funded, immersive experiences conducting research, advancing their craft, and collaborating with faculty within Princeton University’s inspiring, interdisciplinary campus.

For more information about the Department of Music and other upcoming events, and to sign-up for our mailing list, please visit music.princeton.edu.

From the Hand of J. S. Bach: Cantata 33 Turns 300

Notes by Eric White
Scheide Librarian and Assistant University Librarian
for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Three hundred years ago last Fall, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) put the finishing touches on the handwritten score of his sacred cantata Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (To You Alone, Lord Jesus Christ, BWV 33). Individual parts for each musician were copied from it, and the inaugural performance occurred during services in the Lutheran church of St Thomas in Leipzig on September 3, 1724. Sung
in German, the cantata’s six movements consist of a chorus, bass recitative, alto aria, tenor recitative, tenor and bass duet, and choral finale. Purchased in 1965 by William H. ‘Bill’ Scheide (1914–2014), Princeton Class of 1936, the original autograph score is one of the most important Bach manuscripts in the United States.

Arriving in Leipzig in 1723, Bach was responsible for composing and leading a weekly multi-movement cantata. During his first year in Leipzig, Bach filled in with some older compositions, but in 1724 he composed a completely new cycle of 52 weekly cantatas. The present cantata was based on the text of a German hymn written in 1540 by Konrad Hubert. Over his prolific career, Bach eventually composed some 300 cantatas.

Bach inscribed and signed the cover of the manuscript: Dominica 13 post Trinitatis; | Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ | à | 4 Voci, | 2 Hautbois | 2 Violini | Viola | e | Continuo | di | Joh. Seb. Bach [the 13th Sunday after Trinity, To You Alone, Lord Jesus Christ, for 4 voices, 2 oboes, 2 violins, viola, and continuo – Johann Sebastian Bach.] This manuscript was not made for performance; it reflects the working out of all the vocal and instrumental parts in coordination. Therefore, it includes scribbled deletions, corrections, and “do-overs.” To be performed, the individual parts had to be copied out from the score by the composer’s students (including his sons) under his supervision and editorial pen.

At Bach’s death he left the manuscript to his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–1784). The next owner was Carl Philipp Heinrich Pistor (1778–1847), who almost certainly bought it in the 1827 Berlin auction of W. F. Bach’s remaining property. Pistor’s daughter Elisabeth Pistor was a good friend of Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), a great enthusiast for the revival of J. S. Bach’s works. It is probable that Mendelssohn studied this manuscript at the Pistor residence. It was his teacher, Karl Friedrich Zelter, who used dark red ink to fill in the German text of the final chorale, which, since it was well known to the original singers, Bach had left in abbreviated form.

In 1835, Pistor gave the score to his friend Julius Schubring (1806–1889), Pastor in Dessau. On February 11, 1836 Schubring wrote to Mendelssohn in Leipzig (in German): “Another question concerns the Bachiana we discussed […] given to me by Pistor, a manuscript of Bach’s own, Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, 13th Sunday after Trinity […]. If you don’t have a copy, I can have one made for you.” Schubring’s letter included a little handwritten transcription of the first measure of the Oboe I part.

Schubring made the score available to the musicologist Wilhelm Rust, who edited it for publication in vol. 7 of the Bach-Gesellschaft edition of Bach’s complete works (Leipzig, 1857). In 1889 the score descended to Schubring’s son and eventually to his grandson, Dr. Walther Schubring (1881–1969), who allowed the manuscript to be auctioned at J. A. Stargardt (Catalog 572), in Marburg, West Germany, on May 14. 1965, lot 452. There, despite heavy competition from the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and several private collectors, the winning bidder was Bill Scheide – himself a distinguished Bach scholar. He consistently made the score available to scholars, and upon his death in 2014, he bequeathed it along with his great private library to Princeton University Library. ©2025

The full digitization of Bach’s score of BWV 33 is available at: https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/9935097423506421