Johann Sebastian Bach's "Matthaus-Passion": a Performance History, 1829--1854.

Felix Mendelssohn's performance in 1829 of Matthaus-Passion by J. S. Bach was the first presentation of a large-scale vocal work by Bach since the composer's death in 1750. Mendelssohn's performance stimulated considerable interest in Matthaus-Passion in northern Germany, and many conductors, following Mendelssohn's lead, performed the piece in the 1830s and 1840s. These performances reflected not only the musical tastes of amateur and professional musicians, but the philosophical, religious, and cultural orientation of the period as well. Studies have been written exploring many aspects of the performance of Bach's music in the early and middle nineteenth century, but none has examined actual musical details to establish how musicians of the period approached the performance practice of Bach's music. Authors have described performances only in general terms without considering the specific musical choices made by the conductor and the resulting interpretation. An examination of the scores used for three performances of Matthaus-Passion--those directed by Felix Mendelssohn in Berlin in 1829, by Johann Nepomuk Schelble in Frankfurt in 1829, and Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1841--reveals that the conductors' interpretations of the work followed the stylistic norms of early nineteenth-century music with regards to dynamics, tempo, orchestration, cuts, and accompaniment. The original was changed considerably; there was little concern about "authenticity" of performance in the modern sense. Evidence from the scores viewed in the light of the history of the performance of Bach's music and the writings about Bach from the period shows the musicians and writers of the early nineteenth century re-creating Bach in their own images. A comparison of the performance scores with publications of Matthaus-Passion issued in the early and middle nineteenth century attests to the existence of a difference in practice. Notwithst and ing errors and adjustments made for piano accompaniments, editions of Matthaus Passion were fairly consistent with the texts of the original and did not adopt many of the conventions used in the performances of the work.PhDMusicUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159861/1/8402407.pd