Johann Adam Reincken (also Jan Adams, Jean Adam,
Reinken, Reinkinck, Reincke, Reinicke, Reinike;
baptized 10 December 1643 – 24 November 1722) was a
Dutch/German organist and composer. He was one of the
most important German composers of the 17th century, a
friend of Dieterich Buxtehude and a major influence on
Johann Sebastian Bach; however, very few of his works
survive to this day.
Johann Sebastian Bach created an adaptation of the
Sonata No.1 for strings and continuo from "Hortus
...(+)
Johann Adam Reincken (also Jan Adams, Jean Adam,
Reinken, Reinkinck, Reincke, Reinicke, Reinike;
baptized 10 December 1643 – 24 November 1722) was a
Dutch/German organist and composer. He was one of the
most important German composers of the 17th century, a
friend of Dieterich Buxtehude and a major influence on
Johann Sebastian Bach; however, very few of his works
survive to this day.
Johann Sebastian Bach created an adaptation of the
Sonata No.1 for strings and continuo from "Hortus
Musicus" by Johann Adam Reincken (written circa 1705)
as his Sonata for Keyboard in A Minor (BWV 965).
Curious about all forms of music, Bach did not merely
seek to acquaint himself with them. He wanted to
understand, to penetrate the thought behind them,
making copies, and even transcriptions of Vivaldi,
Couperin, Handel, Telemann, Frescobaldi, Pergolesi and
many others; there are numerous examples, all more or
less well-known.
Less well-known is the adaptation he made of a work by
Reincken. While still a young man studying at the
Lüneburg Gymnasium, "[Bach] would sometimes go to
Hamburg to listen to the then celebrated organist,
Johann Adam Reincken, in the church of Saint Catherine"
if we are to believe his second son, Carl Philipp
Emanuel. The music of the Great Man of Hamburg was thus
an early focus for the young musician's admiration, and
it was no doubt during this period that he came to know
Reincken's "Hortus musicus" (Musical Garden), published
in 1687. This was a group of six sonatas in four parts,
for two violins, viola and basso continuo.
Bach appreciated them sufficiently to have made copies
and then transcriptions for solo harpsichord of two of
them and a fugue of a third. But as was his wont, in
reducing the instrumentation to a single harpsichord,
he also enriched his model, adding here a new voice,
there new developments, and a level of overall
ornamentation lacking in the original: re-creations in
the purest sense of the word.
This attitude was characteristic of him, as can be seen
in the adaptation of the first sonata in the
collection, making it his A minor sonata (BWV 965) with
its considerably amplified fugue and gigue,
compensating with density what the work lost in
diversity of colour.
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