Dear David and Vocalisters:
You wrote: >I am not a Bach expert either, but isn't the Bach Gesellschaft supposed to >be the purest edition? Here is a link to Amazon.com's listing of that >edition of the Magnificat. I think it costs $11.00
The Neue Bach-Ausgabe has superceded the Bach Gesellschaft and corrects many of the extraneous markings and errors in the Gesellschaft. The Neue Bach-Ausgabe was many years in the producing and is usually available in most university libraries. In fact, it is the subscription of the libraries such as these to new editions that make possible their research and publication. Thus we have Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, Neue Schubert-Ausgabe, etc. That is, New Collected Works of (Composer).
Bach provided no tempo markings; there was no common system to accurately mark tempos. The metronome was not invented until Beethoven's time. Markings such as adagio, grave, etc. are, at best, very general and it is my understanding that Bach provided few of these. Most of the decisions about tempo are provided by a study of the score and the text and their meanings. Even recordings are not always evidence of good score analysis and often represent the whims or desires of the conductors.
If you want recordings the reflect the Lutheran theological attitudes which were expressed by J. S. Bach I would recommend the recording of Bach by Helmuth Rilling. Rilling comes from a long line of Lutheran theologians and has a better understanding the the spiritual concepts that were prevalent in Bach's part of Germany.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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