Bach Mass in B Minor

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Compiling the Mass in B minor

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Plagiarism was not a dirty word in Bach’s time; nor was parody. Bach and his colleagues had immense responsibilities-- and their success depended on getting it all done, rather than on satisfying a theoretical mandate that they be original.

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How does one sing Bach?

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Probably apocryphal, but nonetheless interesting: at the height of his career, German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was asked by a young singer, “What must I do to learn to sing like you?” To which the baritone replied, “Sing Bach.”

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Why did Bach, a Lutheran, compose a mass?

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Lutherans continue to claim Bach—some refer to him as the “fifth evangelist”— and others stress a symbolic father-son relationship between him and Martin Luther: Luther clarified the faith, and Bach set it to music.

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Behind/beyond the B minor score

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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.

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