florida state university college of music performance practice

performance. 24 However, since it has long been debated that one characteristic of the
early music movement is faster tempos, charting tempos cannot be ignored in the
expectation of establishing any positive or negative correlations between tempo and
recordings in the past twenty-five years. It is reasonable to assume this fixation of
charting tempos is due to pressure researchers feel to provide éclaircissement to their
studies in the form of empirical measurement. Other than tempo, recordings will be
analyzed to determine if particular trends develop in relation to performing forces,
dynamics, ornamentation, articulation and rhythm. Analytical techniques as described
above allow correlations to be drawn from following “historical trends in performance as
measured across a large number of recordings of the same piece on the other.” 25
St. John Passion as a case study
The significant discography that has emerged of the St. John Passion makes it an
ideal candidate to study possible developments in performance over the past quarter-of-
a- century. 26 The benefit from such a study permits comparisons and contrasts to be
drawn from a great number of approaches to the same work. 27 However, one unfortunate
limitation is that in the effort to make this study manageable, performers who did not
commercially record the St. John Passion will be restricted from the research.
The biblical story and events leading up to the crucifixion are laden with potentially
potent dramatic possibilities of expressiveness. This was a perfect canvas for Bach to
paint, through composition, a dramatic work of such magnitude as to rival the operatic
genre. If authors like Nicholas Kenyon, John Butt, Uri Golomb and Dorottya Fabian are
correct that objective performances 28 of early music are démodé and performances are
demonstrating more expressive qualities, it would seem reasonable that a dramatic work
24 Golomb, “Expression and Meaning in Bach Performance and Reception,” 31-32.
25 Nicholas Cook, “Analytical techniques.” http://www.soton.ac.uk/~musicbox/charm5.html (accessed
September 10, 2007), 1.
26 Golomb, “Expression and Meaning in Bach Performance and Reception,” 26.
27 Ibid.
28 Objective performances are those that place strict adherence to the written score and avoids at all cost
interpreting, altering or revising a musical work.
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