On 17.01.2007 David W. Fenton wrote:
While I certainly Bach's music enjoyable and convincing when
performed one on a part, I *don't* find Rifkin's argument convincing
that this was Bach's intention (and his only intention). As someone
who's been involved in a lot of church music, I know that you really
perform with what's available that week, and single copies of vocal
parts could easily have been sung from by two singers. Had Bach had
the singers avaiable, I expect he would have prepared additional
parts.
That's two things.
First: No, those parts which are there could not have been used by two
singers, unless they would have sung everything, including arias. There
is simply no, repeat no, indications of where the ripieno sings and
where the solos sing.
There are exceptions where there are ripieno parts, but even for those
there are numerous arguments, why they could only have been used by one
singer. It really is time to accept the research, not only by Joshua.
I suggest reading the book by Andrew Parrot, who incidentally comes to
the same conclusions. From todays musicological stand there is really
little question that Joshua is correct.
Second: Of course Bach would have liked more singers, question is a)
would he have composed differently, and b) should a historical
performance ensemble do what Bach wanted, or what Bach did.
a) I don't know, but I now think so. Interestingly, the parts of the B
minor mass which were send to Dresden, were written for the exact
available forces (do not mix this up with the opera orchestra and choir,
it has nothing to do with the church performances - I don't know the
details, but there was no choir or large orchestra available).
b) is a worthwhile question for any of us period instrument people.
Btw, the famous letter about the minimal church forces Bach needs often
gets misinterpreted. He is definitely not asking for a choir of 12.
Instead he is simply saying that to sing all the services in the two
churches he was responsible for, he needed more than one per part, to
cover for illness, breaking voices and the like.
A lot of personal opinions in this discussion. I must say though that by
the very same arguments you could perform a Telemann overture with a
Mahler size orchestra. Of course Telemann would have loved to have a
full symphony orchestra of pros at his disposal. The music he wrote
still doesn't work with one.
Johannes
Johannes
--
http://www.musikmanufaktur.com
http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de
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