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Oct 11
The Curtain Rises
I realize that in my previous post, I promised I would dissect the first four bars of the B Minor Mass in this post, but then I realized that before I can do that, I need to say something about the way in which Bach begins his major choral works! In the depth of their expression, they are almost Romantic in their emotional sweep.
In fact, in listening to the opening movements of the B Minor Mass, as well as the St John and St Matthew Passions, it is easy to see why composers of the Romantic era claimed Bach as one of their own. After all, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms studied and revered Bach’s music.
In these three works, more so than in most of Bach’s works, the first movements are so strikingly monumental, so arresting in the immediacy of their emotional content, and so confronting on a personal level. The restless, roiling sixteenth-note underpinning of the opening of the St John Passion and the keening, almost elemental E minor triplets rising above the heartbeat-pulse of the pedal point in the first few bars of the St Matthew Passion: these are movements that are symphonic in scope, dramatic to the point of operatic, and, despite their portentousness, curiously inviting to the listener.
But how much more so is the opening of the B Minor Mass monumental, arresting and confronting. Listen—perhaps for the first time, perhaps for the hundredth—to those first four bars of Bach’s masterpiece, bars whose emotional content transcends eras and generations:
Not only is this opening emotionally fraught; it is also replete with theological information and imagery. In fact, it is safe to say that in these short four bars, Bach announces exactly which theological themes he will highlight in his Mass setting. Using well-established Baroque musical imagery, he imbeds in his writing a code that reveals a great deal with only a little bit of digging.
I’ll start digging in my next post; for now, just remind yourself of the power of the opening movements of each of these works. (You’ll notice that I have excluded from this set the fourth Bach major choral work, the Christmas Oratorio. Not only does its festive opening set it apart from the Passions and the B Minor Mass, but even though there are unifying elements, it was written to be performed as six separate cantatas, so its scope is slightly different from the other works.)
First, I have a clip of Masaaki Suzuki conducting his Bach Collegium Japan in the first movement of the St John Passion. A word about Suzuki’s work: I’m very grateful to BIS for their permission to use Maestro Suzuki’s recording of the B Minor Mass for musical illustrations in this blog. I saw Suzuki conduct this work last year at Yale, and it was unforgettable… but more on specific conductors and recordings another time!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ0Vgb99tsQ
Now, a recording of Ton Koopman conducting the opening of the St Matthew Passion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_LLFfFXaUA
Finally, a lovely clip filmed in Bach’s own church, Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Sadly, this isn’t the famed Thomanerchor, the choir of men and boys in residence at the church, but it’s a great performance conducted by Herbert Blomstedt with the venerable Leipzig Gewandhas Orchestra.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRqsdRwnqJc&feature=related
In my next post, I’ll offer some thoughts on WHY these opening movements are so extraordinary and so full of meaning. We’ll start digging together to understand the possible meanings implanted in the fabric of this dense writing, and decipher together Bach’s code.
But sometimes it’s nice just to let Bach’s music flow over us without thinking too much!