INTERLUDE

They say the devil has all the best tunes. In this short interval I hope to go some way to counter that claim.

I’m not alone in thinking that the following are among the finest 2 bars in Western music.

Never mind the words, just enjoy the sound….

Just 2 bars of music with so much to say.

The singers are the Dunedin Consort who employ  only a single voice to each line. It is a beautiful minimalist approach which reveals the structure of the piece with the greatest clarity.Try it again…..

Now listen to another version…

This is from an earlier recording dating from the 1950s or 60s. I don’t recall the name of the conductor or of the company of singers. (If anyone can identify them for me I’d be delighted). ( Carl Richter has been suggested).

Here we have larger forces and the conductor has skilfully drawn out the very last drop of feeling.

It is a romantic treatment of a piece written by J S Bach, a composer in the baroque period early in the 18th century long before the later romantic composers such as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

One wonders what Bach himself would have thought of the later interpretation.

The music is the central point in Bach’s St Matthew Passion when, following the death of Christ on the cross, a series of supernatural events persuade the crowd who had been party to the cruel acts leading up to the Crucifixion, that the man they derided was “Truly..the son of God”.

It isn’t necessary to be a believer in the Christian tradition to appreciate the shock that such a discovery would have on those present. The growing awareness and mounting fears for the consequences; the rising crescendo of cries reaching a screaming peak before falling away to resignation and repentance.

Here we have contrasting performances of a wonderful piece of music which demonstrate the the effect of different interpretations, each with its own justifiable claim to perfection, and each of which will gather its own enthusiastic supporters.

Here’s wishing everyone a Happy New Year …What does 2012 hold for us all? I wonder….now that I’ve discovered how,there could be more music

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