Johann Sebastian Bach en zijn musici in de beide hoofdkerken te Leipzig: Een onderzoek naar hun rol, inzet en opstelling in het algemeen en naar de continuogroep en de daarin participerende instrumenten in het bijzonder

The study is devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach and his musicians in Leipzig’s two main churches, and to the question to which extent current opinions in musicology regarding historically-informed practice are actually correct. The core of Bach’s first Sunday choir in Leipzig consisted of the eight best singers of the Thomasschule. Soprano and alto parts of the cantatas and passions were sung by schoolboys (elder boys using falsetto), but bass and tenor parts mostly by students and private pupils. Instrumentalists were city musicians and their Gesellen, university students and school pupils. Only the violin, viola, cello parts and sometimes the bassoon, traverso and recorder parts were played by multiple musicians. Town musicians apparently had their own part in general. But in the Basso continuo group, even three musicians (mostly pupils) sometimes performed using only one part together. There are no indications that Bach had ripienists sing along from the parts of concertists; Bach did not have sufficient good musicians to regularly use vocal ripienists. The interior of both churches nowadays differs from Bach’s time; they had similar shapes, interiors and acoustics, with a shorter reverberation time. Bach conducted from the harpsichord in the Schülerchor, with the other continuo instruments around him. The singers were standing at music stands at the balustrade. The other instrumentalist were standing in high standing side galleries in the Thomaskirche, and in a vaulted recess in the Nikolaikirche, in which church more singers than eight during the performance of the Music was practically impossible. The large harpsichords in both churches were usually played by Bach himself from the scores, and in later years by a student. The figured bass was probably nearly always realized by organ and harpsichord at the same time in all movements of the cantatas and passions. In the organ accompaniment, a Gedackt 8' would do in small performances; when larger forces were involved, an extra Principal 8' was added. The bass part itself was often played with at least an 8'- and a 16'-stop. The large violones used by Bach in Leipzig still remain. Originally they were in all probability G-violones, played at 8'-pitch. Their sound must have been more ample in the lower regions than that of the cello. Nearly always, Bach had two cellos play along in all movements, and, if possible, a violone and a bassoon as well. Usually, Bach had these players perform along all movements, including recitatives and arias that were to be performed piano, so the bassoon never sounded without cello and violone. Bach seldom wrote viol parts in his church music. If the viol player joined the continuo, it was only when the instrument had been assigned an obligato part anyway. In Leipzig, Bach rarely used the lute, which had eleven to fourteen courses. There are no indications that Bach ever used a calichon or a theorbe in his Leipzig church music