florida state university college of music performance practice

ad hoc group of a few university students with the difference taken from the alumni. 187
The Entwurff lists a total of seventeen cantata singers to service the first two choirs, three
of whom were prefects. One of the three prefects would be responsible for leading the
third choir, which reduces the total number to sixteen. With alumni having to fulfill
instrumental roles, Rifkin outlines a best case scenario that Bach would have at his
disposal nine qualified vocalists, if they remained healthy. 188 Thus, Rifkin points out that
given the extant evidence of one surviving original vocal part compounded with the
resources that Bach had available to him as outlined in the Entwurff, it would be logical
to conclude that most of his concerted works were performed by the concertists, one
singer per part.
This revolutionary position caused an immediate outbreak of stiff criticism from
the scholarly community. Since Rifkin‟s presentation in 1981, much time and resources
have been spent in debating this issue. With only a minority cadre initially supporting
Rifkin, his thesis has been slowly gaining acceptance in the scholarly community
following years of debates, correspondence and books in the twenty-five years up to the
present. 189 The scholarly community has been forced to reinterpret the word “choir” not
in contemporary terms but tracing the Lutheran practice of coro favorito that Bach
inherited from Schütz. 190
The tercentenary anniversary of Bach‟s birth in 1985 provided the opportunity for
many scholars to assess Bach‟s significance in the modern era as well as discussions that
centered around the position of Bach interpretation and the state of Bach scholarship.
Christoph Wolff, in an editorial written for Early Music, discusses the advancements in
Bach‟s research as well as acknowledging where the research is lacking. Wolff mentions
the Bach-Dokumente and the Neue Bach-Ausgabe as the two major achievements in the
past thirty-five years. 191 Likewise, Wolff comments positively concerning the multi-
faceted image that has emerged since 1950. Instead of viewing Bach in an abstract,
187 Rifkin, “Bach‟s Chorus,” reprinted in Andrew Parrott, The Essential Bach Choir, 194.
188 Rifkin, “Bach‟s Chorus,” reprinted in Andrew Parrott, The Essential Bach Choir, 196-197.
189 For a sample list of discussions concerning Bach‟s vocal forces see Andrew Parrott, The Essential Bach
Choir, (Rochester: The Boydell Press, 2000), 209-211. and Don Smithers, “The Emperor‟s new clothes
reappraised: or Bach‟s musical resources revealed,” Bach: The Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach
Institute, 28 (1997), 77-81.
190 Parrott, The Essential Bach Choir, 3-4.
191 Christoph Wolff, “Bach from 1985 to 2000,” Early Music 13.2 (May 1985): 162.
39