Christopher Wolff's biography of Bach mentions records of payments to a 'freelance' lutenist (or lutenists) made during Bach's time in Leipzig. Whether one of these payments was for the St John Passion performance in 1724 isn't known but it implies that the ability to play the lute had become rare by this time - not something that could be provided by Bach's usual pool of musicians 'doubling up'. So perhaps the lucky lutenist employed for the first St John Passion provided the obbligato for Betrachte meine Seel but otherwise sat back and enjoyed the show...
Andrew On 7 Apr 2007, at 11:10, Peter Martin wrote: > Since it's that time of year again, could someone remind me whether > it's > actually possible (and if so, how) to play the lute arioso from the > St John > Passion, with all those chromatic bass notes? > > And, since it only lasts two minutes, what does the lutenist do the > rest of > the time? Continuo? Sit in silence? Play/sing another part? > > P > > -- > Peter Martin > Belle Serre > La Caulie > 81100 Castres > France > tel: 0033 5 63 35 68 46 > e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > web: www.silvius.co.uk > http://absolute81.blogspot.com/ > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
