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terms of balance. Conductors Herreweghe (1987), Kuijken (1987), Slowik (1989), Max
(1990), Guttenberg (1991), Ericson (1993), Rilling (1996), Higginbottom (2001) and
Carrington (2006) did choose a fuller choral accompaniment for this movement.
Mendel, in his introduction to the 1951 G. Schirmer vocal score of the St. John
Passion, acknowledges the peculiarity of rhythm between the soloist and the choir. The
meter for the soloist and continuo is explicitly 12/8 while the vocal and other
instrumental parts are notated as Common time. Mendel believes that Bach implied that
the quarter note in the vocal and instrumental parts should equal the dotted quarter note in
the sololist and continuo parts. 436 The recordings demonstrate a perfect consensus of the
idea as espoused by Mendel regarding proportional rhythmic alignment.
All of the written ornaments in this movement were adhered to. Surprisingly few
additional improvisatory ornaments, other than those specifically written out, were
explored in this movement. Those that were incorporated seemed to be consistently used
by the majority of conductors. For example, there were a few added appoggiaturas in the
continuo keyboard. Usually done when the organ was the continuo keyboard instrument,
appoggiaturas were added to the first beats of measures 3, 14 and 45. In the bass vocal
part trills were added in measure 18 on the B natural, measure 19 on the A sharp (beat
three) and measure 37 on the C sharp (beat two).
A few additional comments should be made about decisions that conductors
employed that added to the expressiveness of this movement. In various degrees all of the
conductors analyzed employed a pregnant pause in measure 40 that is simply notated by
Bach as an eighth rest. Distinctiveness was achieved by conductors Hempfling (2004)
and Veldhoven (2004) who prominently featured the lute as a continuo instrument,
perhaps representing a recent trend of renewed interest in the lute. Max‟s (2006)
recording that features Schumann‟s edition of the St. John Passion uses the pianoforte as
the continuo keyboard instrument providing a unique interpretation to the others
evaluated.
Durations of this movement show varied results. The fastest interpretation of this
movement was represented in the recording by Swiss conductor Ericson (1993) at 3:32.
436 Mendel, (ed.) Bach: St. John Passion Vocal Score, x.
127