florida state university college of music performance practice

While issues of rhythm played a paramount part in the chorales, it was less
significant in the choruses. Only one known example was found in the thirty-eight
recordings where a conductor conspicuously changed a rhythm in a chorus. However, in
the chorales the note values that had a fermata placed over it were performed in various
degrees of length. Many different approaches were used when it came to the execution of
fermatas. A great number of conductors chose not to hold out the fermatas longer than the
original note‟s value, particularly if it was not at the end of the chorale. Of these
conductors, some would occasionally highlight a particular phrase or word by
dramatically holding out the fermata. One superb example of this is in the first chorale of
the second part, “Christus, de runs selig macht.” Conductors placed added emphasis
where Christ was spat upon (verspeit) by holding out the fermata an uncomfortable
amount of time. There were a few conductors who consistently held out every fermata,
usually double the note value, in an objective way, regardless of text meaning or poetic
design. Furthermore, either conductors chose to perform the chorales in an objective way
(not straying from one uniform volume or rhythm) or conductors highlighted and drew
attention to the text by altering and varying the volume and rhythm of certain words and
fermatas. These practices may speak to a broader level of how conductors perceive the
role of the chorales in Bach‟s time. It could be argued that those conductors who
objectively presented the chorales did so because in a pragmatic way, they were the
congregation‟s song and like hymnody today in congregations, they are usually sung in a
uniform tempo and dynamic. However, other conductors who presented the chorales with
more attention to nuance and expression thought of them in more of an artistic way and
may ascribe to the theory that the chorales in the Passions were never actually sung by
the congregation but rather only served the purpose of melodic familiarity for the
congregation.
Dynamics played a vital role in individual expressions of conductors. While most
scholars believe that forte was the default volume for most works in the Baroque period
the conductors examined in this study demonstrated a variety of choices regarding
dynamics. Several conductors unapologetically and overtly presented gradual, long-term
increase and decrease in dynamics usually to amplify the dramatic events occurring
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