florida state university college of music performance practice

given space with breath to enhance their poetic meaning. Yet overall the longer lines
were performed in a legato manner. Rilling (1996) represents a few conductors who
diverge in sections from legato to a more marcato feel. Case in point “die ich nun weiter
nicht beweine,” (which I no longer bewail) was performed in such a marcato style. 438
The tempo and duration of this movement demonstrate closer results as the twenty
five years progressed. Guttenberg‟s (1991) recording shows an extreme fluctuation in
tempo throughout the movement. One unique fact of this movmement is that this is one
of the only movements where a German conductor is not represented in the top three
fastest or slowest interpretations. Leusink (2001) from Holland was recorded as the
fastest interpretation of this chorus at 6:01 followed by Austrian conductor Harnoncourt
(1993) at 6:08. The third fastest recording of this movement is from English conductor
Cleobury at 6:20. The top two slowest recordings come from Belgium conductors whose
recordings are from the same year. Kuijken (1987) and Herreweghe (1987) were marked
at 9:06 and 8:31 respectively. Swiss conductor Corboz (1994) was third slowest at 8:18.
40 Ach Herr, laß dein lieb Engelein (Chorale)
The final movement in the Passion is an E flat major chorale which prays for a
“peaceful death and the resurrection of the body on the Last Day.” 439 Being the last
movement, it is not surprising that for dramatic effect dynamics played a very important
part in this chorale. Results from analyzing the thirty-eight recordings show great variety
in the way conductors chose dynamics. Given the immeasurable possibilities that
conductors chose for dynamic shadings in this chorale, only a few will be explored here.
The choices conductors made regarding dynamics show a keen interest in imparting the
text to the listener by having dynamics act in response to the text. Phrases were not only
terraced dynamically, but recordings like Slowik (1989), Milnes (1996), Beringer (1997)
and Daus (1999) demonstrated a gradual pacing of crescendi and decrescendi within
particular phrases. While there were many subtle differences regarding dynamics, many
had the same overall vision throughout this movement. The majority of conductors like
Christophers (1989), Cleobury (1996), Rilling (1996), Dombrecht (1996), Fasolis (1998),
438 Translations are from Dürr, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion, 168-169.
439 Roehrig, “The St. John Passion by J.S. Bach in the light of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe edition 1973,” 145.
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