On 06.09.2007 Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
Personally, I was persuaded that the latter is the more useful question. Whatever forces Bach may have had at his disposal, there is no place today where the same forces can be duplicated, and I submit that it is rather more useful to ask not "Did Bach perform this with one voice on a part", but "Given the forces available here, how would he have performed the work?" To be sure, the answer to the second question is no easier than the first, and debates about the answer are apt to be just as heated as this thread has been.
The problem with this question is that the answer can be nothing else than pure speculation, whereas the question of both what did the composer have at his disposal and what did he compose a particular piece for are often easily answered.
I know I am taking it to an extreme, but noone would ever suggest that a Schubert string quartet should be played by a whole orchestra, simply because, had Schubert had the resources to pay for the whole orchestra he would have used that?
In my opinion the question "what forces would the composer have used had he had the choice" cannot be answered to any satisfaction. Because, even if you can answer that question, can you tell whether the composer would have written a different piece? There are only a few compositions where the composer didn't really know what forces would be available beforehand. One is the Applausus by Haydn, and boy, is that composer's preface an interesting read.
I am sure the least Bach would have told us is where he actually wanted the full choir and where the soloists, had that thought ever crossed his mind. Yet, there are no such indications in the B minor mass. Even todays conductors disagree on the choice.
Johannes -- http://www.musikmanufaktur.com http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
