Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

54-JOHANNSEBASTIAN BACH.at once to the heart of the matter, without second thoughtsof any kind. Man, convicted of sin, cries in his need toGod for mercy; and the unusual proportions of the firstchorus remove every doubt as to the composer's purposeof representing in it the common supplications of allChristendom. A fugue, which lasts from twelve to thirteenminutes, is worked out in 126 bars of slow tempo, inextremely simple passages and modulations upon a marvellouslybold theme steeped in sorrow. It may be safelyasserted that a purely personal emotional idea has neverbeen worked out so persistently and with such unflaggingstrength of feeling, while the subordination of the expressionof pain, so acute as to be almost physical, to the powerfulgoverning will of the artist, is incomparably sublime. Thisgives us the key-note of feeling for the whole work ; but,even within the limits of the Kyrie, it has its value. Thecondition of mankind as craving redemption—of whichthe three-fold Kyrie is the symbol—is attributed by theChurch to all the generations before Christ. As it isexpressed in the first Kyrie, the elect people of God arecryäng to the Redeemer from the very first introduction ofsin into the world. As the time of fulfilment draws nearer,their longing is more urgent and passionate ; and to depictthis is the aim of the short, agitated closing cry of Kyrie,almost desperate in some places (see the last nine bars).The beginning is epic, the close dramatic— if I may beallowed the terms. A distinct reference in the separatesubjects to the Three-fold Person of God, which is, ofcourse, intended by the three cries of the text, is not to beimagined—the position which thisportion of the work wasto occupy precludes this. I regard the Clinste rather as alighter musical subject to give relief, which need not excludethe idea that its softer character was induced by the imageof the loving Saviour, especially when we remember Bach'sway of letting himself be led by incidental suggestions.At the beginning of the Gloria stands the HyntmtsAngelicus ; the Bible text of the song of the angels on thenight of Christ's birth : Bach has treated it as a chorus,which was not the custom in the Catholic mass. In the