florida state university college of music performance practice

4 -/- The music is not expressive, and should not be performed in an expressive
manner
Scholarship, reception, and performance of Bach have changed radically since a
corps of Romantic personalities, most famously Mendelssohn, resurrected his music.
Much that has been accomplished has been positive; for example, just last year in 2007,
the Neue Bach-Ausgabe celebrated the momentous feat of completing the critical editions
of Bach‟s entire known corpus. Englishman Peter Williams was added to the ranks of
biographers in 2007 with his book, J.S. Bach: A Life in Music. Just as this chapter has
sought to identify various images and perceptions of Bach, which could explain and
enlighten various performance interpretations of his music, the next chapter will
investigate the history and reception of the St. John Passion to establish particular trends
that have emerged regarding its interpretation.
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