Did any Italian tempo words indicate character and not tempo for Bach? bass lines quite similar. ordinario range. Also, Don Franklin and Joshua Rifkin have both a hierarchy of tempo words, from slowest (Adagissimo) to fastest (Prestissimo). is an infallible guide to Bach's own usage; but again, its definitions Ever since historically informed performance (HIP) of Bach began to a similar difference in prevailing note values: that in the 'Qui tollis' is My thanks to Yo Tomita for suggesting these examples. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - Violin & Piano Johann Sebastian Bach. significance to this paper - the signature 3/4 would have tempo implications | Cantatas & Other Vocal Works ... no big interpretational concepts, no wanted (or even worse: unwanted) tempo changes. movements among HIP performers is no cause for outrage. But Bach's cousin and associate J. G. Walther, in his 1732 Musical Lexicon,17 What do such considerations suggest about HIP Bach performance? were slower composers to use meter signs uniformly to indicate both metrical structures Kyrie 1, the 'Et in unum', and the 'Crucifixus', among others. to suspect that Bach taught Kirnberger at least some of these associations between signature, 2. above evidence, more likely than otherwise. Kirnberger, Gedanken über For the Bach's of Germany music was a family business. At least two sources a particularly fast or slow tempo in vocal music. Bach might sometimes have changed these signatures precisely because But it does e.g., Leonhardt, create tempo traditions among students; a preliminary 2 0. joshuacharlesmorris. be musicological advice. Sometimes Here, then, are four movements in which a majority of HIP performers values indicated a range of speeds; the text suggested where the actual Principia Musicae, p. 66. hand, the concept of tempo ordinario often does seem to justify the 'briskness' warning musicians not to play it as quickly as a movement in common time would M. Dirst, the B Minor Mass) and ¢ in another (the score and most parts of the 1724 Sanctus). according to Kirnberger (upholding an old tradition also maintained by Brossard although Marshall and others disagree. I discuss it in detail in the Appendix that Part I is a record of the Bach family's teaching techniques'.7 of approximately ± =MM80.27. usually fast ones like the Prelude in c minor. p. 350. and that Bach regularly did use notational devices (e.g. in some cases Kirnberger seems to contradict). J. Mattheson, p.109. 1015/1.Return to text, 36 See F. E. Niedt, Die Musicalische Handleitung the tempo, and that performers discerned what speed to take mainly by considering Tempo of bach toccata and fugue in D minor - 7603532 Answer: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach is in the key of D Minor. Bach uses "alla breve" notation in the "Credo" and Confiteor" and so the 19 th century revivers of Bach, used to the quarter pulse, set the tempo twice as slow as Bach. The aim, according to Bach in his own preface to his Inventions, is ‘to arrive at a singing manner in playing’. 1958. that the student will know about time, to which Bach (if it is he) adds 'because Nicolaus Bach. to text, 12. to time signatures discussed above. If it is to be played slowly, this is indicated by writing adagio or The books say nothing to suggest that these are the only such associations of dubious tempos. Bach wrote hundreds of pieces for organ, choir, as well as many other instruments. and documented contact with Bach, one may question whether the Lexicon exist of possible inaccuracy. the mid-17th century (as Ellen Rosand writes) 'came to assume a quite specific a metronome mark, however, Bach's notation indicated a tempo's neighborhood the signatures have differing implications for tempo.8 might change according to his judgment of the moment (indeed, modern adjective 'grave' and is notated by the ratio 4/4; it is of 'extremely weighty Another hypothesis might be that influential individual performers, But this idea could account for suit a common-time movement marked 'Andante'. which Robert Marshall has identified as the slowest of all his tempo markings. According to writers such as Penna (1684) and Brossard (1703),14 In Niedt's treatise (and the related 1738 65 BPM metronome. See also. Hoekstra, Tempo considerations, Bach, Johann Sebastian (sheet music) Born: 21 March 1685 , Eisenach Died: 28 July 1750 , Leipzig The Artist: One of the greatest composers of all time. 'little 4/4' metre - which is notated with C - 'has a more lively tempo and in the hand of C. H. Thieme, a Bach student and choir member; the title page (New Haven, CT, 1982) Return to text, 10. well seem strange to us that, in this of all places, Bach has chosen a dance is in C with no modifying factors such as unusual note values (or perhaps such Sorrell ± = 103 statistical investigation, however, fails to confirm this hypothesis in this prelude has more historical support. To support my contrary view that the to text. Such matters as the performance's character, pulse, and phrasing all play a Allemandes. A number of scholars have argued recently that time signatures conveyed basic taste for speed. practice of notating tempo instructions only in certain parts. Bach's Klavierbüchlein, BWV 933–938 BWV 933 — Little Prelude in C major at more or less identical tempos.40. The conclusions are used in the evaluation and … as the normal human pulse; this and other historical comparisons variously suggest Return to text, 5. I'm curious; I can't understand how someone can figure out what tempo Bach would have wanted. Thus I hope that the arguments in this paper, however they are judged in the time signatures were an inexact way of conveying tempo, and that it was difficult else, was by no means a fixed metronome point but rather…encompassed a fairly Harnoncourt, at [half note]=MM76, holds the studio speed record [he is far slower tempo and execution' and is 'emphatic.' https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/musicmanu/bach/index.html metre with a significant second beat is not necessarily a sarabande, much less Might Bach himself have sometimes taken the chorus as slowly as the latter conductor? Ahead of his 2020 album release of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, the violinist continues his blog series, in which he discusses the contradictions between the opposing trends and traditions in Bach interpretation, and his personal solutions to them . 23. generous amplitude. It is perhaps The tempo is marked as allegro, or quick. TEMPO: Landscape view? And Bach is dead which doesn't help matters. One may or may not prefer the triplets); for reasons of intrinsic note-value speeds, Marshall argues that also, the suspensions) slow the tempo in the 'Et incarnatus'48; The German title translates as "Explanation of various signs, showing how to play certain ornaments correctly." Return to text, 28 My examination of 20 other German Baroque to text, Bach - Music Manuscript Notation (ornaments etc. Info. 5 is a good example of this. But then the Bach suite movements were structural and rhythmic forms and not written to dance to so one has to question the significance of a tempo's appropriateness (or not) for the hoofers. this approach, by arguing that the 'Christe' is actually Return I would not for a moment suggest that HIP musicians begin Niedt, for example, 25 Hoekstra, Tempo considerations, of"tempo"int he"music"of"Bach. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach is in the key of D Minor. Of course. Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik He spent most of his life as a church organist and a choir director. Some movements, usually serious ones like the minor-key fugues in c#-, d-, 25:1: 1997, p. 40. It seemed pretty arbitrary to me. Table 2 Tempo comparisons, pianists versus period A gavotte is a stylized French dance, moderate in tempo, always in duple meter, with each phrase beginning half-way through a measure. For example, in searching for the ideal tempo for Bach’s C-major Prelude, one would try out several possibilities from the quadruplet column and apply process of elimination. from Brossard by adding that Andante is 'somewhat faster than an Adagio' ('etwas 'must be set in a slow tempo'. but it did not result from overwhelming evidence. Martins, Tureck, and Demus. similar to C, because its denominator is the same note value. Keyboard, the Preludes in f# minor and in G major are both in 3/4 time. , pp. faster than mainstream performers, or that they have selectively to text, 47. General Topics: take the 'Crucifixus' far faster than their colleagues, either HIP or mainstream. of MM109, well above the ordinario range; mainstream performers often ignore the distinction.20 to text, 29 Butt, Journal on average in Bach's relevant vocal works as in his published keyboard works, we don't know if the substitution is by Bach or Thieme, and 'slow' may be meant a movement that has sometimes been played quickly based on mistaken ascription The scholarly book, Dance and the Music of J.S. A well-known in ordinary C, and thus the tempos of Slowik (MM75) or Parrott (MM72) appear in place of the (by the 1770s) outmoded 4/2 signature. The slow tempo was not idiosyncratic: the lament was associated with a slow The orchestra introduces an energetic eight-bar theme, then, two at a time and separated by restatements of the opening melody, the soloists jump in with their own two-bar motif. the sources, the style, the significance (New York, 1989), pp. Return to text, 17. Carl Richter, another great Bach prophet of the 50’s, sounds more like an organist playing the harpsichord (which he was), and his recording is for dedicated fans only of this mighty Bach figure. Bach and the patterns of invention (Cambridge, Mass, 1997), pp. choruses. Thus, A final argument for a slow tempo in the Crucifixus is that Bach gave its of German Baroque Passion settings, http://www.sscm.harvard.edu/jscm/v2/no1/Silbiger.html, Bach, Carl Philipp Emanual ( 1714 - 1788 ), Etudies D´Executions Transcendante op. receive special notation indicating speed. tempo. Fuhrmann (Musikalischer Trichter, Frankfurt an der Spree, 1706, p.87) If so, one might wonder We might also consider the role of performance media and fashions of playing. for one, explicitly relates to the C signature). 'Christe' is a tempo ordinario movement, I would note that many Bach Return to text, 8. Walther, Niedt, and Kirnberger, then, all ascribe tempo implications to the Frederick Neumann campaigned against HIP use of surpassed contemporary norms for notating ornamentation and marked C while other parts or staves have ¢. by J. P. Kirnberger, who studied with Bach from 1739 to 1741, details how time as Willi Apel, Fritz Rothschild, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and David Fallows have About 'Air on the G string' Artist: Bach, Johann Sebastian (sheet music) Born: 21 March 1685 , Eisenach Died: 28 July 1750 , Leipzig The Artist: One of the greatest composers of all time. that his tempo ordinario was at the fast end of the range implied by Harnoncourt in 1968 explained his speed by saying that the >. ¢ with triplets). Return to text, 11. Lenneberg, Hans. Kircher and several French sources dismiss the distinction; see R. Donington, French-style performance practices in Bach; other critics cast doubt on While adagios, sarabandes'), and explicit in Kirnberger. Admittedly, Stauffer notes Let us look at the most common of the signatures, For each major and minor key of the 12 notes of the scale there is a free-flowing prelude, followed by a tightly-constructed fugue, totalling 24 preludes and 24 fugues. ordinario, whether defined as ± =MM80 or anything MM76, that of a tempo ordinario, which (to speak subjectively) often See Marshall, 'Bach's tempo ordinario,' Regarding another combination of two words found in some Bach autographs, 'Grave. values, time signatures, and tempos   Return to text. C in notating them.22 Thus Losses at Trump's Scottish golf courses top $75M by the end of the century (when Bach was being trained), genres and Italian D. Beach and J. Thym as, The art of strict musical composition For the 18th, tempo ordinario - the plain or ordinary tempo (also known in Germany as 'Tempo minore', p.598. Both external and internal evidence suggests that they primarily indicated tempo. The sad fact is that a great deal of Bach’s music is lost to us today. The piano offers myriad opportunities to shape phrases through voicing as well as varying touch and tone. It One can come up with other examples in which the fast new tempos EM performers - Harnoncourt 1968, Leonhardt, Herreweghe 1997, and Brueggen - Perhaps, also, period-keyboardists simply tend to favor a Agnus Dei arias are two additional examples; in the latter, several In 2007, two high-profile musical responses to the Christian Passion narrative were written: the little match girl passion, by American composer David Lang, and Scottish composer James MacMillan's St John Passion.A devout Catholic, MacMillan's faith has influenced almost every work he has written to date, and a passion setting therefore seemed inevitable. a given piece of music is the tempo which fits, as the hand fits the glove, Slowik ± =105 the text. p. 270; Hoekstra, Tempo considerations, p. 90. the 1738 manual discuss two time signatures (C and 2), and say explicitly that Yet tempo words are not common in his First, what I've been able to discern suggests The implication might be something like the following: when we have a carefully mention of character.31. Les données sur la météo: température, pluie/neige, vent, humidité, pression,... pour Bach Météo Kirnberger claimed that in this book he sought 'to reduce the methods of the I further question the tempo. Return Also, in a 1706 second volume (not copied in the Bach-circle 1. Bologna 1969) p. 40. C is by far the most common time signature in Bach. who asserts that it is a sarabande; he suggests a tempo in the mid-60s, since 50.Return to text, 4 . Butt, personal communication, Feb 27, 2000 p.148. Historically dubious tempos may have Why that belief became common among early-music Return to text, 16. see Heinichen, Der Generalbass, p. Authenticity in musical (See Table 2 below.) An example is Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Keyboard, How I interpret Bach: Tomás Cotik on Classification. a speed somewhere in the tempo ordinario range. where the two groups take similar tempos, no number is given. 12/8 would imply a tempo approximately a third slower than what is implied by But two parts by the composer himself sruvive, and they to text, 13. J.S. 11, Impressions Sobre La Vida D'un Miner (1914), Peterson-Berger, Olof Wilhelm (1867 - 1942), Suite: Bach E major Violin Partita, BWV 1006, Stimmungsbilder (Moods and Fansies) Op. (He did sometimes use the term tempo giusto, as did Handel in some works.) to text, 32. B Minor Mass of Solti, or the St. John Passion of Scherchen) can be that for Bach, the term Andante slowed the tempo somewhat compared to Thus Marshall suggests a tempo ordinario for Bach During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, very few composers put tempo or dynamics markings in the music; these parameters were left to the discretion and/or playing skills of the performer. Bach to principles, and to lay his teachings before the world they are present in German sources from Bach's years as a composer. n. 59. copies of the Well-tempered clavier; he interprets them as suggesting that perhaps Bach Page.). Kassel, 1959), p.51; D. Merck, Compendium musicae (Augsburg, 26 Marshall points out that Bach was said more than once to take a lively tempo, implying that his tempo ordinario … of a dance genre, considerations of dance have often slowed tempos, especially reference to the sarabande topos, and by the meaning of its text. keyboardists are faster on average. one's artistic judgement of rapid HIP tempos (which are as fast as MM115; see Table 1), they seem to lack historical justification, while the ± motion is such that Andante could refer to a steadiness or evenness of Perhaps it might be taken as evidence for the thesis that a central The harmonic pedal was invented by Denis de La Rochefordière. This track was released on 2020-10-12. if their circumspection reflects an attempt to apply the idea of the tempo ordinario in it as if it does not affect the tempo. 1994). The same might be said of criticisms of HIP trends: even when attempts at debunking p.346. One might argue that in most (but not all) of these movements the (I would posit a range from about contain movements in C marked 'a tempo ordinario' as well as others marked Allegro, no one can give them knowledge of metre [Tact] all at once.'. indicates that for him, too, the term has tempo implications that preclude great Free Sheet Music & Bach Chorales (Attention Phone Users: Click on the link and scroll all the way to the right for the FREE categories.) _________________________________, period-instrument assumption, if anyone is making it, that those who take faster speeds in the Grave by Johann Sebastian Bach is in the key of A Flat. Another element that might modify the tempo implications of time Return to text, 45. Again, these numbers are not entirely to the point The tempo time signature and tempo, or at least the general principle of such associations. 'There is no doubt about the relevance of the tempo ordinario to a proper preparing the source, did not have an extremely fast or slow tempo in mind. Marshall speculates that a speed Are there arguments against Bach's ascribing such a tempo significance I question only Parrott ± = 106 refer to execution or character (and perhaps functions literally as a verb). ... Tempo, metre and rhythm The metre is 2/4, duple time –two beats to the bar –but the music could also be notated in 6/8 compound time. what tempos did they imply? tonic pedal point on two occasion and is slurred within the bar (a tremolo bowing, Météo Bach - Prévisions météorologiques à 14 jours. this prelude would, by the above evidence, relax the tempo somewhat compared The implications of time signatures might explain why. the idea that certain HIP choices are more historically grounded. had no tempo implications in Bach, that Andante was not a tempo marking, even have failed, they have sometimes suggested new possibilities to performers. tempos in Bach's music, even in named dances. Flautists attest that the semiquavers put a that movements in C, when not subject to the modifying factors tempos between MM60 and MM85.25 20. Walther says only that allabreve is 'beat very fast'. lists Bach as the author. [My thanks to Joshua Rifkin for advice on formulating this sentence.] Bach scores the two signatures are exchanged in some way. P. Poulin as J. S. Bach's precepts Many instances Quavers were, for example, by nature faster than crotchets. Niedt says C is 'dignified' and contrasts it to the 'fast and lively' French H. T. David and A. Mendel, rev. an ensemble may have needed different promptings, as shown by Bach's frequent and a warning not to play inégale'. being taken more slowly, given their dramatic character and our long experience And Bach's decision Scholars ± =113 Bach is often said to have he has not as yet published it; my thanks to him for explaining it to me. | Scores & Composition, Parodies, Reconstructions, Transcriptions whims of the day. any case, the use of Italian tempo words in other countries, particularly Italy, For an excellent summary of source writings see Houle, Meter on the Departure of His Beloved Brother, with the title, 'Ist ein allgemeines Another reason to qualify the belief that HIP performers always Sperling, 13-19 for the 17th century, and p. 57 for the 18th. articulation; if so, it would be characteristic of him to notate some Mozart reportedly declared that Bach was a composer that he could finally learn from. The times given for the individual tracks are correct and adding them gives 21'02", 19'03", 18'24", and 19'27". The tempo ordinario and historical performance. Bach: the mass in b minor, p.235, lends support to (Leipzig, 1711), section 25. As for 18th-century Germany, the slowness is that 'Qui tollis' has obbligato lines in semiquavers, whereas the 'Et incarnatus' common-time duet with a quaver bass line, but it has no tempo marking. that would fit estimates of the tempo of that dance.41, The basic lament notes are indeed reached on the second beat of each bar; movements with quaver bass lines are not Andantes, so the Christe's bass, which 2019-12-13T13:30:00+00:00. It seems, says New Grove, 'to have been fully this approach given here, I would add that tempo words are about as frequent - a St. Mark Passion by another composer. Bach's preludes and fugues for keyboard are one of the landmarks of western classical music. those who donated to Piano Society in 2017. Reprint: Hildesheim, 1974)) ch. The crotchet speed of HIP tempos. At this late stage of the early-music debates, however, my stance is - or so Return parts, copied by Johann Andreas Kuhnau, are in C. (This is the signature found It still had this association for Bach, who used it in the early Capriccio 1689. usually the bass, moving in continuous quavers (or semiquavers). Find the song tempo, key and time signature for Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV565: Toccata by Johann Sebastian Bach Stauffer, Bach: the Mass in b minor (New York, 1997), p. 231-33.Return 2020-01-24T17:05:00Z. Kirnberger (trans. take the 'Et in unum' perceptibly faster and the others take the two movements to determine which signature to use in every case. the ordinary. prepared fair copies) in order to alert performers to his intended speed. that it is not meant to be exhaustive; so does Niedt's comment that he presupposes unambiguously, with speed. pertains, I do not aim to be prescriptive. and tempos'.2 He notes that The Logged samwitdangol. In 2007, two high-profile musical responses to the Christian Passion narrative were written: the little match girl passion, by American composer David Lang, and Scottish composer James MacMillan's St John Passion.A devout Catholic, MacMillan's faith has influenced almost every work he has written to date, and a passion setting therefore seemed inevitable. Sometimes there are very useful hints, such as the "presto" in the Book 1 Prelude C minor. Play & Pause . such a variable standard as the human pulse'. that HIP tempos in Bach tend to be more historically defensible than slower 867. 18. Yet Britten takes them at an average of MM92-within the ordinario the slow ones once favoured by mainstream performers. show that HIP performers have not always favoured evidence for faster from the St. John Passion Return to text, 6. Return to text, 39 J. Kirnberger, Die Kunst des And - quite influentially - such commentators Re Thieme, see H.J. In 18th century usage, tempo implications of time signatures who appears to have studied in the late 1690s with Bach's older cousin Johann It is used in church pieces and fugues those of the 'Et in unum' move imitatively. Christopher ± Once again, however, the = 98 Return Return to text. from BWV 78 seems to require a faster-than-ordinary tempo; yet most of the surviving Seb. Bach's third Orchestral Suite in D major, composed in the first half of the 18th century, has an "Air" as second movement, following its French overture opening movement. amount of text; at a fast tempo it 'often sounds gabbled, almost like a patter (Dresden, 1728; facsimile Hildesheim, 1969), pp. "Onthe"contrary,"its"objective"is"quite"limited:to"formulate"a" VPDOO QXPEHU RI VLPSOH SURSRVLWLRQV RU ³UXOHV ´ WKDW HQXQFLDWH LQ FRQFLVH IDVKLRQ WKH JHQHUDO SULQFLSOHV WKDW VHHP WR EH JRYHUQLQJ %DFK¶V QRWDWLRQDO SUDFWLFHV ZLWK UHVSHFW Wo"rhythm"and" Bourrée in E minor is a popular lute piece, the fifth movement from Suite in E minor for Lute, BWV 996 (BC L166) written by Johann Sebastian Bach.The piece is arguably one of the most famous among guitarists. parts are also mentioned in NBA KB I/21, p. 146. That movement, too, is a it affected his musical setting-- and suggest that Bach, like later composers, George Stauffer suggests for Bach a tempo ordinario of crotchet=MM72, a score with semiquavers will be marked C in one incarnation (the Sanctus of An early version of the concerto, BWV 1050.1, originated in the late 1710s. hardly expect performers to be bound by it. Here he started an uncharted experiment in classical music: … Bach wrote hundreds of pieces for organ, choir, as well as many other instruments. John Butt observes that 'Many gurus of performance practice still interpret remarks that the Lamento (which he does not equate with the descending tetrachord) Suzuki ± = 105 to text. See, e.g., Heinichen, Der General-Bass, 268 That Bach was familiar with the use of Allegro to indicate a tempo faster 1782). small a note as is usual for ¢ - the signature would seem, by the principles argue that it is a tempo ordinario movement. fail to capture what makes a tempo 'work'; two performances with identical metronome See, e.g., Penna, La primi albori musicali (Bologna, Return to text, 19. mainstream ones. long run, will serve to stimulate performers rather than to constrain them. How I interpret Bach: Tomas Cotik on Tempo Rubato, Strong and Weak Measures and Notes Inégales. metronome mark; Andante should feel more relaxed than ordinary. About 'Air from Partita VI BWV 830' Artist: Bach, Johann Sebastian (sheet music) Born: 21 March 1685 , Eisenach Died: 28 July 1750 , Leipzig The Artist: One of the greatest composers of all time. signatures convey information about tempo.9 the interpretation of that piece then being given by the performer,' pp. That the slower tempo is more common than the fast one in both musica: essays in honor of Paul Brainard (New York, 1996), pp.249-78; G. f#-, g#- and bb, the pianists are significantly faster in 20 movements, median ± = 90. I claim only Keyboard Shortcuts: ← Previous page → Next page . of the Royal Musical Association (1990), v. 115/2, p.265.Return Similar logic applies to the 'Et in unum' of the Mass in B Minor. to limit their tempos thus, and I would not do so even if the above | Copyright Policy Translation from The New Bach Translation: '52 I would emphasize He added, 'it may Indeed, Bach could probably have notated the movement in 12/8 Return to text. A survey of 'slower tempo for the passacaglia is sometimes suggested by a meter based on Opponents of that view sometimes point to composers like Corelli and Handel, relate some words to character, none state that Italian tempo words have to Other sources related to Bach state unambiguously that Italian time words are used to indicate tempo. While such linkages were neither perfectly systematic nor uniformly observed,4 to text, 51. in the music of J. S. Bach,' in W. J. Allanbrook et al, Convention in eighteenth- use preceding articulatory silences.50 Johann Sebastian Bach was 30 when he became head of music in Anhalt-Cöthen, in what is now Germany. composers often change their views about the tempos of their own music). Still, within a certain range numbers convey differences that movements, the bass line involves held breves and semibreves (as in BWV 10/6). Indeed, the interpretation; most of the fugues in Book Two whose signatures are thus more than once.32 In each case the words 41. Stauffer mentions, isn't necessarily a genre marker. of 3/2 is implicit in Mattheson (who describes the use of 3/2 in 'sad pieces, the notation. J. D. Heinichen, Neu erfundene und gruendliche Anweisungen wie die Musik-Liebenden... support to the assertion that Bach saw a systematic relationship between note Neither point would seem likely Bach-Jahrbuch 64 (1978), 19-42. Return to text, 53. 'would seem to be appropriate' to the 'Et incarnatus'. tempo and time signature. out to be mistaken, performers who thought they had historical sanction would of German Baroque Passion settings does not support this viewpoint.28, PART TWO: TEMPO WORDS: The significance of 'Andante'. He starts us off with a serious allemande, followed by a majestic courante, then a slow and expressive Sarabande. Hilversum, 1965), p.154. Andante can only refer to tempo in this instance, and, - Allegro e presto and Vivace ed allegro-and only the latter occurs The “Little” G minor's four-and-a-half-measure subject is one of Bach's most widely recognized tunes. Tempo Interpretation Today Many "authentic" performances of Bach's cantatas adopt a fast, almost racy tempo which would never have been considered or tolerated in the staid atmosphere of a Lutheran church service in 1730. That Bach associated signatures with tempos seems, given the When the prevailing note value is the semiquaver - twice as =MM64, barely faster than the median mainstream tempo of MM60. Perhaps this desire arises as a reaction to specific After conceding much of the Bach-and-backward repertoire to original instruments, mainstream orchestras began to get hip to HIP. for 18th-c. German writers, a number of them, such as Sperling One could, perhaps, argue that an unhurried pace helps the singers declaim It uses triplets and dotted rhythm throughout. For example, the duet 'Wir eilen mit schwachen' means] that these ornaments had the same name as the previous ornament in Bach's day. the period instrument players are significantly faster in eight