florida state university college of music performance practice

fermata on “Himmelreich.” Yet most conductors observed each written fermata, taking
time for a only a breath, which in actuality turned the quarter notes to simply eighth notes
followed by an eighth rest. Conductors from Germany earned the distinction of having
the top two fastest and slowest recordings for this chorale. Guttenberg (1991) and
Hempfling (2004) were 0:35 and 0:38 respectively while Max (2006) and Daus (1999)
both were timed at 1:02.
11 Wer hat dich so geschlagen (Chorale)
The duality of Christ‟s innocence and mankind‟s sinfulness as the root that
ultimately causes his suffering is the foundation of this chorale. 407 Several conductors
concerned themselves with promoting the prose by ignoring selected fermatas and thus
creating longer phrases. Fifteen conductors combined these phrases usually in places
where the text is punctuated with commas while twenty-three conductors observed each
fermata. Dynamics, which also could be viewed as a tool to interpret text, were also
treated in various ways. Sixteen conductors provided no dynamic contrast in the two
chorale stanzas while twenty-two did.
In terms of articulation, conductors showed an unusual amount of agreement in
separating the last three notes in each stanza on the words “weißt du nicht” and
“Marterheer,” respectively. The amount of separation varied but most conductors used
tenuto style. However, Harnoncourt (1985) and Schulz (1998) used staccatos to articulate
these ending notes more sharply, perhaps to effectively represent the text. Another effort
in text description led conductors Noll (1997) and Herreweghe (2001) to alter the notes
slightly in the tenor part to promote more discord on the word “Plagen” (torments). This
was achieved by replacing the notes in measure 4 of the tenor part E, D#, G# with C, C#,
G#.
German conductors Max (1990) and Hempfling (2004) were the fastest versions
of this movement, with 1:13 and 1:14 respectively, while German conductor Daus (1999)
and Belgium conductor Kuijken were the slowest at 2:17 and 2:12.
407 Roehrig, “The St. John Passion by J.S. Bach in the light of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe edition 1973,” 140.
108