On 17.01.2007 Raymond Horton wrote:
Joshua Rifkin's arguments of "one-on-a part" Bach choruses were long ago shown to be without merit. Bach's church choir, as a rule, numbered 12, and he regularly nagged unsuccessfully for it to be enlarged to 16. Rifkin based his argument on the existence of single choir copies. There were generally a solo copy (with the choir part included) and a choir part for each voice, and each was written large enough for two singers to read, which would allow for a choir as large as 16. Rifkin got some attention with his project, and got the musical world thinking about smaller choirs, perhaps, but the one-on-a part B Minor Mass is just silly.
This is complete nonsense. Bach did not have a 12 part choir at his disposal. He never even asked for one, that is a wrong interpretation of the famous letter. Please read the book by Andrew Parrot.
There were indeed cantatas with solo and repieno parts, but they were the exception. Joshua is the person who knows every existing cantata part. I have done things with and without ripieno with him. However, that is no argument for several people to sing from one copy, certainly not in winter, in bad candle light.
Again, please read the book by Andrew Parrot. You can also dig up his comment in Early Music on the discussion.
Johannes -- http://www.musikmanufaktur.com http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
