Lovely post, Karen, I just want to point our that, as a choirboy, and as someone who worked with choirs and soloists on most days of his life, Bach may well have known something or other about the voice. And so I would be inclined to believe that there is something quintessentially vocal about Bach's music, particularily if you compare any solo aria's vocal material with the material given to the obbligato instruments and to the ripieno instruments. I would suggest my favourite BWV 82, in which the first aria has similar, but not identical runs in both the oboe and the voice, and in which the ostensibly instrumental character of the last aria's vocal part is nevertheless written with a keen appreciation of both the needs and the possibilities of the human voice. I think it would be fairer to ascribe to Bach a belief that the trained human voice was as capable of executing many of the standard melodic devices as other instruments, *in addition to* its peerless legato, messa di voce and other primarily vocal attributes. I've little doubt that he rehearsed the singers himself, both soloists and choristers. john
At 10:04 AM 7/5/01 -0400, you wrote: ...> >I like to rail at Bach occasionally for the fact that he didn't write for >singers at all, he wrote for bowed instruments, and just happened to >assign singers to those bowed instrumental parts in his music. Given this, >we have to add the understanding of physiological possibility (and >IMpossibility) that Bach apparently lacked. We need to bring the HUMANITY >to his gorgeous but often transcendant music. ... >KM
John Blyth Baritono robusto e lirico Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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