The Choir Loft as Chamber

This chapter examines concerted movements written by Johann Sebastian Bach from the mid- to late 1720s and how he adopted a “choir loft as chamber” approach to organ performance—performing different versions of the same concerted instrumental movements for the chamber and for the church. Bach worked as composer and performer not only for the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig, but also for its principal churches. In addition to parodying secular vocal compositions, transforming them into church cantatas, however, Bach was also adapting for church performances preexisting instrumental concerted movements, using obbligato organ as solo melody instrument in various sinfonias, arias, and choruses. Using the Concerto in E Major for harpsichord and strings, BWV 1053, as reference, this chapter demonstrates the connection between two spheres of activity that occurred after late May 1725, when the steady flow of new cantata compositions by Bach ceased: the secular arena of the ordinaire and extraordinaire performances of the Collegium, especially during the Leipzig fairs, and the weekly performances of concerted vocal music at the Haupgottesdienst in Leipzig’s St. Nicholas and St. Thomas Churches.