florida state university college of music performance practice

that the trill initiates on the dissonant appoggiatura. 402 However, others like Emery and
Mendel suggested that ornamentation should never be viewed in absolutes but with a
flexibility and open-mindness to possible exceptions in interpretation. 403
1 Herr, unser Herrscher (Chorus)
Conductors made many distinctive choices when approaching this monumental
chorus. From the opening, conductors made specific choices to either equally and lightly
separate the continuo part or, to do as these conductors who all represented continental
Europe: Harnoncourt (1985) (1993), Dombrecht (1996), Fasolis (1998), Güttler (1998)
and Hempfling (2004), did to strongly accent the first and third beats in each measure.
While there were degrees of accent within the recordings, the most notable was Fasolis
(1998), who added a strong lower foundation that added an ominous depth that was
different from any other interpretation.
The upper winds, who play in dissonances of seconds and tritones beginning in
the first measure, were played with intitial accents and then decay or blossom into the
tone. The degrees of crescendi on these long notes were held within a tasteful and
discrete range with no interpretation using a strong and overt crescendo across the bar
lines.
More obvious amounts of crescendi were used in the measures leading up to the
entrance of the chorus. The majority of recordings began the crescendo in the three
measures leading up the the chorus entrance (mm. 16-18). These measures, characterized
with a quicker harmonic rhythm, have variable degrees of crescendi from the very
obvious and full to the subtle, like Noll (1997). Guttenberg (1991) has a more prolonged
crescendo in his recording that began at measure 10.
The tri-declamation statement of “Herr” (Lord) made by the chorus after the
eighteen-bar instrumental sinfonia, and subsequently in two other places (mm. 23b-24,
40a-41a) is either approached as the quarter receiving its fullest value or the tone sung
with immediate decay. This is often expressed as an eighth note tone followed by an
eighth rest and can have the dramatic effect of a distraught outcry for help. Consistently,
402 Mendel, (ed.) Bach: St. John Passion Vocal Score, xxvii.
403 Fabian, Bach Performance Practice, 1945-1975, 140.
104