florida state university college of music performance practice

night. Several conductors elected to make the phrase (starting in measure eleven) loud to
reflect the severe text, “und fälschlich verklaget, verlacht, verhöhnt und verspeit,” (and
falsely accused, derided, mocked and spat upon,) then turning to a piano dynamic to
objectively portray the last phrase, “wie denn die Schrift saget.” (as the scriptures tell
us.) 412
This chorale inspired various decisions regarding phrasing. Twenty-five
conductors decided to perform each fermata written in this chorale. Seven conductors
chose to ignore the fermata at measure six, “Nacht,” perhaps due to the absence of a
comma in the phrase. Thus, this phrase extends into a four bar phrase. Likewise, several
conductors chose to perform a four-bar phrase in measures 9-12 by disregarding the
fermata at measure 10 on the word “Leut.” Ten conductors punctuated after the first word
“Christus.” An overwhelming consensus (all but two conductors Neumann 1999,
Hempfling 2004) chose to dramatically portray “verlacht” (scorn) with separation and
staccato articulation. Very few of the conductors studied truly held the half-note fermata
to its fullest value. Rather most would put the consonant on the later half of the second
beat. Many others elected to only hold the fermata out for one count with the consonant
and rest occurring on the second beat. In Noll‟s (1997) recording he demonstrates the
practice of adding half of the original value to the note, thus holding it out for three beats.
In terms of tempo, German conductor Hermann Max (1990) recorded the fastest
time for this chorale with 0:46 seconds while Dutch conductor Leusink (2001) and
American conductor Milnes (1996) were both at 0:50. The slowest portrayal of this
chorale belongs to Belgium conductor Kuijken (1987) at 1:19 with two German
conductors, Noll (1997) and Beringer (1997), earning second and third with recording
times of 1:11 and 1:10, respectively. No drastic tempo shifts were observed in this
chorale.
16 b Wäre dieser nicht ein Übeltäter (Chorus)
The contrapuntal thickness that Bach composes into this brief movement portrays
vividly the tumultuous frenzy of the turba. The ascending chromatic line on “Übeltäter”
(troublemaker) is usually voiced in the higher register for each voice part as to guarantee
412 Translations in this paragraph are from Dürr, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion, 144-147.
111