(no subject)
I got another Bach set, with some OVPP recordings of the John Passion, Mass in B Minor, the Ascension Oratorio, and the Easter Oratorio.
OVPP stands for One Voice Per Part. One of the great unsettled questions of Bach scholarship is how many people performed his music. When you look at a score, you see lines marked Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass, but there's no indication in anything Bach wrote to suggest how many people should sing each line (not surprising, since in Bach's time it was the conditions in each individual church that determined performance practices; Bach had no conception that anyone would care about his personal practice.) It used to be that choirs of as many as 500-600 or more performed the works; more recent "historically informed productions" have cut that number to 12-32 or so. The OVPP argument is that only one singer should sing each line, even in the movements that are traditionally considered "choral movements". It makes an interesting recording, at any rate.
I'm thinking of posting some chapters of my novel in honor of NaNoWriMo, but we'll see. I have been tinkering with revisions to the first couple of chapters so it might be nice to get some read-throughs.
OVPP stands for One Voice Per Part. One of the great unsettled questions of Bach scholarship is how many people performed his music. When you look at a score, you see lines marked Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass, but there's no indication in anything Bach wrote to suggest how many people should sing each line (not surprising, since in Bach's time it was the conditions in each individual church that determined performance practices; Bach had no conception that anyone would care about his personal practice.) It used to be that choirs of as many as 500-600 or more performed the works; more recent "historically informed productions" have cut that number to 12-32 or so. The OVPP argument is that only one singer should sing each line, even in the movements that are traditionally considered "choral movements". It makes an interesting recording, at any rate.
I'm thinking of posting some chapters of my novel in honor of NaNoWriMo, but we'll see. I have been tinkering with revisions to the first couple of chapters so it might be nice to get some read-throughs.