florida state university college of music performance practice

German conductor Max (1990) was the second fastest interpretation at 3:41 and the third
fastest was English conductor Higginbottom at 3:43. The top two slowest recordings of
this movement is Austrian conductor Harnoncourt and German conductor Güttler both at
5:17. Lastly, Belgium conductor Kuijken (1987) was the third slowest at 5:08.
37 O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn (Chorale)
This chorale addresses our need to depend on Christ‟s help to avert sin. 437 The
tune is the same as “Christus, de runs selig macht” but with a different harmonization as
well as being a semitone higher. All recordings except Max‟s (2006) recording begin this
chorale in a full dynamic level. Instead of one uniform dynamic level, many recordings
explore several gradations within this seventeen-measure movement. One example of this
practice is demonstrated in Dombrecht (1996) who begins and continues forte until
measure seven where for one measure he goes to piano. The subsequent measure that
speaks of death returns to forte and then the chorale ends piano starting in the last three
measures of the movement.
Phrasing was a main concern for many conductors who made artistic decisions to
either extend or segregate certain phrases. Those instances that promoted longer phrases
were mainly done at fermatas without commas such as “untertan,” measure 6 and
“Ursach,” measure 10. The practice of Luftpause to highlight certain words or phrases
was employed at words like “hilf,” “Christe” and “dafür.”
In terms of tempo and duration, the assorted results show that all three of the
fastest interpretations are from German conductors. Max (1990) was first at 0:48
followed by Guttenberg (1991) at 0:49 and last Hempfling (2004) at 0:50. The slowest
duration of this movement is from German conductor Max (2006) interpreting
Schumann‟s edition of this movement at 1:18. German conductor Daus (1999) was
second at 1:16 and Belgium conductor Kuijken (1987) was last of the three at 1:14.
39 Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine (Chorus)
The reassuring “Rest well, ye holy bones” is the final chorus in C minor. The text
provides comfort that Christ‟s death grants us salvation, opening to us the gates of heaven
437 Roehrig, “The St. John Passion by J.S. Bach in the light of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe edition 1973,” 144.
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