Chorale is now more than half way through our rehearsal period, preparing for our March 27 St. John Passion performance. Most pitches are learned; we work every week with our language coach, Temmo Kinoshita, on German pronunciation and comprehension; dynamics have been planned and written in, and rehearsed. We have begun working on movement-to-movement transitions. After an initial re-placement of all the voices, we are settling in to an appropriate vocal sound and production. Though still somewhat below tempo on the faster movements, we are becoming more fluent each week; as pitches and rhythms become more solid, this fluency becomes easier and less taxing.
On the production front: we have completed our detailed schedule for tutti, orchestra-chorus-soloist rehearsal, subject, of course, to change (on the spot!) during our actual rehearsals. Poster and postcard designs are completed and at the printer. Transportation and accommodations for soloists and instrumentalists coming from out of town are in process. Radio ads are written and scheduled with WFMT and WBEZ. Transport of our continuo organ is being planned as I write.
Chorus morale is good. We recognize the St. John Passion as one of the great works of art for good reason: it is fantastically involving, motivating, challenging in the best possible ways. The deeper the singers get into it, the more enthusiastic they are, and the more swept up they feel. Great music is at least as fulfilling for the performers, as it is for the listeners. We actually have our fingers in it, we experience the mind of Bach, feel every twist and turn of the passion narrative. The problems with the work, with the anti-semitism of the world for which Bach composed it, become real to us; and in coming to terms with this, we experience Bach’s humanity, and the realities of the world in which he lived, and in which we live. Performing this work is a full-frontal confrontation with our own tragically flawed humanity—as we sing in the eleventh movement chorale, “Wer hat dich so geschlagen?... Ich, ich .” “Who has done this to you? I have.” Hard words to hear, and Bach sets them with searing intensity. His art in bringing the story to life is breath-taking.
Part of the genius and greatness of Bach lies in his ability to transcend the particulars of his time and place, and of his German Lutheran milieu. He composes a work which speaks to all people, of all times, regardless of their national or religious identity. He reaches us, touches us, on the deepest and most fundamental level. From the majestic but ominous opening chorus, to the comforting final chorale, Bach involves us in the human story, and reminds us of our place in that story.