Music and Theology by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461701514
Publisher: Scarecrow Press Inc.
Published: 2013-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

Figure 8.1. J. S. Bach’s Weimar-era alto part for the anonymous St. Mark Passion with inserted pitch cues at the beginning of each movement. D-B Mus. ms. 11471/1

The cues appear to be in a different hand from the rest of the part, the first portion of which was copied by the scribe known as Anon. Weimar 1 and the remainder by J. S. Bach. The hand that entered the cues is not identifiable but does not appear to be Bach’s. The placement of the cues suggests that they were entered after the part was copied; the harmonic information they supply implies that the person who entered them had access to a score or at least a basso continuo part.

There are no pitch cues in any of the other vocal parts; taken together, the evidence hints that the cues were added by the alto himself, whoever he was. Three altos from the Weimar chapel during Bach’s tenure are known by name and little else—Bluhnitz, Graf, and Bernhardi—and each is presumably a candidate for having entered the cues.3 But it is worth remembering that we do not know when or where Bach performed this passion setting or whether his regular court singers participated.

It is not difficult to see why a singer might add cues, especially in a complex work like a passion with its many vocal entrances. It does not appear to have been the practice—or indeed the prerogative—of singers in Bach’s time to mark parts with pitch cues or anything else. The unknown alto singer who used this part under Bach in the 1710s nonetheless apparently felt he needed them, and left us rare documentation of a part’s practical use.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.