Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion

Genesis, Transmission, and Meaning
Erscheinungsjahr 2000
ISBN: 978-0-19-816240-7
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 196 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 390 g

This book (published in German by Bärenreiter in 1988 and now available in English translation for the first time) is a comprehensive guide to the genesis, transmission, structure, meaning, and performance considerations of Bach's St John Passion.

The St John Passion is one of Bach's most fascinating works. Its text demonstrates a profound understanding of St John's Gospel. The musical design of the choruses with their numerous interrelationships is quite unique and requires some explanation. The fact that the Passion exists in four different versions leads Dürr to ask which changes were intentional and which were the result of practical constraints or of orders issued by church authorities.

The introduction to the work is preceded by a detailed account of its genesis and transmission, and the uniquely complicated nature of the sources. The discussion of the Passion itself is based on the assumption that what Bach wanted to say to the Leipzig congregation on Good Friday was designed to be understood in verbal and musical terms. Number symbolism, 'eye music', and encrypted information do not form the essence of what Bach was trying to communicate to us.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dürr, Alfred

Weitere Mitwirkende

Clayton, Alfred

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik Geschichte der Musik: Barock (ca. 1600-1750)
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Vokalmusik, Chormusik
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Einzelne Komponisten und Musiker
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Partituren, Autographen, Libretti, Liederbücher

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Preface

- 1: Genesis

- Introduction. Did Bach compose a Passion before 1724?

- 1. Version I (1724)

- 2. Version II (1725)

- 3. Version III (c. 1730)

- 4. Version IV (c. 1749)

- 5. Score A

- 2: Transmission

- 1. The lost original score X (1724?)

- 2. The revised score (source A, c. 1739-1749)

- 3. The original parts: Introduction; Set I; Set II; Set III; Set IV; Parts no longer extant

- 3: Meaning

- 1. Protestant settings of the Passion

- 2. The text of the St John Passion: a. The depiction of the Passion in the Gospel according to St John; b. The Gospel text; c. The chorale verses; d. The free poetry

- 3: Bach's music: a. The setting of the biblical narrative; b. The chorale movements; c. The choruses; d. The arias and ariosos

- 4: Problms associated with the overall formal design and the different versions

- 5: Performance practice: a. General remarks; b. The execution of the continuo; c. Specific problems

- Appendices: Problematical Points

- Appendix I The participation of transverse flutes in Version I

- Appendix II The reconstruction of Movement 33 in Version I

- Appendix III The chronology of the Passions Bach performed in Leipzig

- Appendix IV The problem of symmetry in Bach's work

- Bibliography

- Picture Credits

- Text of the St John Passion (German and English)

Über Autor(innen)

Alfred Dürr is one of the principal editors of the Neue Bach Ausgabe in which he edited Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. He is the author of the standard work in German on Bach's cantatas. (An English translation of this book, by Richard D.P. Jones, is in progress.) He holds honorary doctorates of music at Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio and at Oxford University.

Alfred Clayton (translator) has translated numerous books, including (for OUP) Paul Badura-Skoda: Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard.