Confronted with the issues I have explored in the preceding weeks, plus a host of others, Chorale and I have made a lot of choices.
Compiling the Mass in B minor
Why did Bach, a Lutheran, compose a mass?
Behind/beyond the B minor score
A first glance at a good Bach edition reveals time signatures, clefs, and a lot of notes—little else. No color words; no tempo indications; no dynamic markings; no crescendos, decrescendos, ritardandos, accelerandos; very little to delineate phrase, articulation, emotional content; almost no ornamentation.