medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Well, no. Bach's Passions derive directly from the mediaeval recitations of
the Passion story during the Masses of Holy Week, rather than from the
Passion Plays. For example, in the Use of Salisbury the Passion according
to St Matthew is sung or read ('intoned', perhaps) during the Palm Sunday
Mass (immediately before the Gospel). There are three 'performers': medium
pitch for the Evangelist, low pitch for Jesus, and high pitch for
'Synagogue' who takes all the other parts. The Passion according to St Mark
is found in the Mass of Tuesday of Holy Week, the Passion according to St
Luke on Wednesday in Holy Week, and the Passion according to St John during
the Good Friday Mass (see also the Liber Usualis for the continuation of
this tradition). By the end of the medieval period in England, the 'turba
choruses' were set as short bursts of polyphony.
Bach's 'performance practice' is somewhat controversial, but the latest
thinking is that there was one voice to a part, with the soloists forming
the chorus (the St Matthew Passion has a double chorus). Only the
Evangelist is really identified with the part as a character, the other
performers generally have multiple roles as well as the soloists singing the
arias not 'in character'.
John Briggs
Christopher Crockett wrote:
>
> it has always seemed to me that J.S. Bach's "Passions" and many of his
> (hundreds of) Cantatas are coming out this living tradition --though I
> know nothing about their original "performance practice", i.e., whether
> or not the music was accompanied by the characters "acting" out their
> parts as well as singing them.
>
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