Page 106 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

104 HIGH BAROQUE RELIGIOUS CHORAL MUSIC

impact of the text. This attention two maids, although they are
to orchestration, which was far not usually all taken by different
more prevalent in stage works soloists. In many performances
of the time (which were often of the minor soloists are also members
similar length to the Passion), can of the choirs. With such a diverse
be seen in the use of the oboes da cast and discursive text, it was He demands that singers
caccia (a low oboe similar to the also possible for Bach to break from should be able to do with
cor anglais) to underpin the eerie the oratorio tradition of avoiding their throats whatever he
description of Golgotha in “Ach interaction between soloists; he can play on the keyboard.
Golgotha.” No less vivid is the included duets and crowd scenes Johann Scheibe
moment in “Buss und Reu” (“Guilt with passages that simulate Critic and composer (1708–1776)
and Pain”) where the alto describes simultaneous and interjecting
his tears to the sound of flutes speakers. So, in “Weissage uns,
playing staccato notes. Christie” (“Prophesy Christ”) the
two choruses alternate in a style
A large, varied cast known as cori spezzati, which was
The piece also has parts for Judas, first developed at St. Mark’s in
Peter, two priests, Pontius Pilate Venice, while in “Herr, wir haben freedom of the prisoner Barrabas,
and his wife, two witnesses, and gedacht” (“Lord, We Thought”) they they then embark on a series
sing simultaneously to represent of complex musical structures
the power-hungry Pharisees. notoriously difficult to perform.
The St. Thomas Boys Choir, Leipzig, The real glory of the choruses is An earlier, particularly poignant
still flourishing today, dates back more
than 800 years to 1212. With Bach as in the contrapuntal writing, notably moment follows Jesus’s capture in
Cantor (1723–1750), the church and city when, after singing in excruciating the garden, where after a sighing
became the center of Protestant music. dissonance as they call for the orchestral introduction, the soprano

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