Ok... This is a favorite of mine, so prepare to be bored.
In Bach's St. Matthew Passion in a Tenor recitative (Mvt. #34) entitled "Mein Jesus schweigt Zu falschen Lügen stille," The translated text is as follows:
My Jesus keeps
Amidst false lies his silence,
To show us by example
That his dear mercy's full intention
For us to suffer now inclines,
In order that within such pain
We should resemble him,
In persecution keep our silence.
Pretty standard recit... however its consrtuction is interesting. It is Basso Continuo PLUS a viola da gamba (now played by cello) and two oboes. The basso continuo is also a viola da gamba and organ. This means that the continuo has bass and chords but in this movement the chords are also outlined by the two oboes. The second "solo" viola da gamba (cello) plays a solo line that is all one note in each of the chords. The recitative is comprise of 10 measures of 4/4 time. The last measure has only 3 chords to it. All the chords are the same length and a quaternote in value. Now comes the fun "numerology" part. The text is paraphrased from psalms chapter 39 verse 10. " Remove thy stroke from me; I am spent by the blows of thy hand." Now follow with me. It is also a long standing legend/myth that Jesus was whipped 39 times. One short of the 40 that was considdered a death sentence (Death by Flaggelation). So here we have Bach who depicts this "whipping" as 39 equally spaced "bows" of the cello. Some times in tune, other times at dissonance with the chords around it. Thirty-nine times for psalm 39, 10 measures for verse 10. The text outlines his silence despite the cruelty he is subjected to.
There are literally hundreds of such "numerology" events in Bach's works. This example is one that I especially like.
It is a bit obscure though
GE-Raven
Topic: GE-Raven's obscure Music Trivia thread. (Read 18581 times)