florida state university college of music performance practice

music. The focus of hermeneutics and theology suggest a move away from positivism
that rejects matters of theology for knowledge.
Chapter 6 lists the results from analyzing thirty-eight recordings of the St. John
Passion. Specifically, practices of interpretation were documented from all of the
choruses, chorales and two additional movements that feature solo and choral
accompaniment. Within each movement distinctive characteristics relating to performing
forces, tempo, duration, dynamics, articulation, ornamentation, rhythm and tuning were
noted.
Alan Blyth has written that contemporary recordings avoid subjective
interpretations of works and instead proliferate a more generalized, cookie-cutter
approach where recordings are very similar. Results from listening to thirty-eight
recordings of the St. John Passion show a wealth of individual choices regarding
interpretation that seemingly contradict Blyth‟s statement. Examples of blatant individual
choices range from Simon Carrington‟s 2006 recording which is the only recording to
feature Jacon Handl‟s motet, “Ecce quomodo moritur Justus,” which was traditionally
sung during Bach‟s time after the Passion was sung in its entirety to Hermann Max‟s
2006 recording that features an arrangement of the St. John Passion by Romantic
composer, Robert Schumann. In the next section, conclusions will be drawn from the
completed analysis of thirty-eight recordings.
Conclusions
In his 1951 Requiem for a Nun, William Faulkner writes, “The past is never dead.
It‟s not even past.” 443 This dissertation has attempted to chronicle the personalities, trends
and philosophies of the past and present that have shaped contemporary performance.
Evidence garnered from thirty-eight recordings provides many correlations that may be
drawn concerning numerous interpretations of one work within the context of the
historically informed movement.
Surveying the thirty-eight acquired recordings for this study reveals a wealth of
individual expressions found to be present. The various versions of the St. John Passion
stimulated creativity in performance that is not present in works that exist in only one
known form. It should also be noted that under the mantle of historically informed
443 Spoken by Gavin Stevens toward the end of Act I, Scene III.
151