> I have not spent time investigating this, but I think I remember that
> Matthäus-Passion was written for Leipzig, but that Johannes-Passion had been
> written before, in a place where the diapason (?) was higher?
I had heard that there are many old German organs which are actually
tuned *higher* than A=440... very interesting - Does anyone know what
pitches with which Bach worked during different phases of his career?
> There are also some real baritone arias in secular cantatas - I remember
> something with Pan or Apollo singing high Gs, printed on a bass clef in the
> modern editions.
Makes sense - baritone and mezzo weren't really accepted voice
categories yet, so I guess Bach just had to use his best judgement...
I'm dumbfounded by the variety in tessitura esp for his alto arias. Some
are practically tenor, while others practically soprano. It seems
composers back then wrote for specific (exceptional) people even more so
than composers did in classical and later times... Many baroque arias
seem to transcend our modern fach system.
-Tako
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