Sei Solo: Symbolum? by Shute Benjamin

Author:Shute, Benjamin [Shute, Benjamin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498239424
Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
Published: 2016-06-16T07:00:00+00:00

In the same way, Christ’s fleshly being differs in some respects from his divine nature without ever ultimately breaking concord with it. For instance, although God is self-sufficient,267 as a man Jesus hungers and thirsts,268and although God is above temptation,269 as a man Jesus is subject to temptation, though without sinning.270

There are two further contrasting pairs within the B-minor partia that evince correspondences with Lutheran (and historic Christian) theology. Whether these correspondences represent Bach’s intentions or convenient coincidence, it is not possible to say; but the parallels are there, and I will explore them inasmuch as they could very plausibly represent Bach’s designs. The first of these contrasting pairs with a possible theological parallel is the opposition of severe and tender gestures in the Allemanda. Ledbetter observes that the primary model of the Allemanda appears to be a particular vein of French allemande whose dotted rhythms should be played more gently than in various Italianate models with similarly notated textures.271 But several features of the B-minor Allemanda are not typical of French models prior to 1720, notably the triplet figurations prominent throughout, as Ledbetter notes. Especially in the context of a German mixed-style work, this raises the question of the extent to which association with the French model is intended. If the Italian title “Allemanda” is not wholly irrelevant stylistically, it could in fact suggest that the dotted rhythms are to be played in the more Italian manner—that is, more sharply—so as to contrast with the slurred triplet rhythms that are in any case atypical of French allemandes. This would mean that the relationship between the B-minor Allemanda and the (later) Italianate aria “Komm, süßes Kreuz” from the St. Matthew Passion could indeed be deeper than the merely superficial one Ledbetter suggests.272 In the obbligato viola da gamba part of “Komm, süßes Kreuz” (“Come, sweet cross”), a contrast between hard, often jagged dotted figures and smooth, slurred gestures allegorizes the paradoxical juxtaposition of “sweet” and “cross.”

Could the Italianate title of the B-minor Allemanda indicate that Bach conceived it to exhibit a similar contrast of “hard” and “soft” gestures? If so, the ongoing alternation of these “hard” and “soft” musical gestures could be understood to continue the Christ-themed allegory by representing the idea that in the person and work of the dual-natured Christ, “hard” and “soft,” judgment and mercy, are utterly intertwined. For Luther, it is impossible to separate the doctrine of the law and wrath for sin from proclamation of the mercies of Christ the redeemer, because Christ’s purpose in coming to earth has been to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law in order to offer himself as a sinless sacrifice on the cross, vicariously bearing the wrath of God for the sin of humankind.273 Accordingly, Lutheran theology has emphasized the dualities of law and gospel, justice and mercy, and so forth,274 an understanding that permeates Bach’s sacred works.275 If the hard and soft musical gestures of the B-minor Allemanda could be understood to parallel the duality of law/judgment

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