florida state university college of music performance practice

seem to have no bearing on formal design as evidenced by Rilling (1996), who for no
known reason, uses piano in measures 72-81 and ends the movement in a forte dynamic.
Three conductors used trills with discretion. Slowik (1989) added trills in the
Soprano and Tenor vocal part on each top line F in measure eighty-eight. Likewise,
Veldhoven (2004) added the trill in only the tenor part F in measure eighty-eight while
Higginbottom (2001) made the decision for the Soprano part to trill on the D in measure
eighty-nine. Other unique artistic decisions were made with Guttenberg (1991) who takes
a break after the cadence from the previous recitative before starting the fugue statement.
Guttenberg (1991) and Beringer (1997) hold the final note of the chorus for an unusually
longer time than their contemporaries. Lastly, Carrington (2006) inserts a fermata and
holds the F major chord on the second half of beat one in measure 87, which clearly
sectionalizes the last three measures.
The fastest interpretation of this movement belongs to German conductor Max
(1990) at 1:06 while Dutchman Koopman (1993) and German Noll (1997) were both
timed at 1:09. All three of the slowest interpretations were German conductors.
Guttenberg (1991) rendered the movement in 2:08 while Weyand (1990) and Beringer
(1997) were timed at 1:32 and 1:27 respectively. The graphical analysis on this
movement shows the recordings with a surprising amount of similar time durations, when
one disregards momentarily Guttenberg‟s slowest movement.
22 Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn (Chorale)
This chorale explains that Christ‟s physical bondage and imprisonment allows us
to be spiritually free. 422 Dynamically, the majority of the conductors desired a softer
dynamic to perform this chorale, but there were a few who performed it in a mezzo-forte
while Rilling (1996) sang it in a healthy forte dynamic.
Thirty-seven conductors observed every fermata written in this chorale. Only
Guttenberg (1991) preferred a longer four-bar phrase by ignoring the first fermata in the
beginning of the chorale. Most performed the fermatas with the tone and the choirs
ending consonants occurring within one beat value. There were a few conductors who
422 Roehrig, Helmut J. “The St. John Passion by J.S. Bach in the light of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe edition
1973: a conductor‟s analysis in preparation for a performance.” PhD diss., Indiana University, 1981, 142.
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