Bach's Notation of Tempo and Early Music Performance: Some Reconsiderations

Author(s): Bernard D. Sherman

Source: Early Music, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Aug., 2000), pp. 454-466
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3519061
Accessed: 24-02-2024 04:45 +00:00

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 Performing matters
Bernard D. Sherman

Bach's notation of tempo and early music

performance: some reconsiderations

VER since historically informed performance
(HIP) of Johann Sebastian Bach began to win
recording royalties, would-be debunkers have ques-
tioned its historical basis. Frederick Neumann cam-
paigned against HIP use of French-style perfor-
mance practices in Bach; other critics cast doubt on
unequal temperament and 'rhetorical' phrasing.
Below I suggest that certain tempos prevalent in
HIP Bach ignore notational distinctions and are, as
a result, less historical than slower pre-HIP tempos.
At this late stage of the early music debate, however,
my stance is-or so I hope-not like Neumann's.
First, what I have been able to discern suggests that
HIP tempos in Bach tend to be more historically
defensible than slower mainstream ones. Second,
while this article focuses on cases where the oppo-
site pertains, I do not aim to be prescriptive. His-
torically dubious tempos may have more than
enough artistic effectiveness to justify their use. I
question only the idea that certain HIP choices are
more historically grounded.
Time signatures and tempo
A number of scholars have argued recently that time
signatures conveyed basic tempo information for
Bach.1 Clearly, the musical world he grew up in used
time signatures this way. George Houle concludes
that 17th-century notational conventions 'required
composers to use meter signs uniformly to indicate
both metrical structures and tempos'.2 He notes that
by the end of the century (when Bach was being
trained) genres and Italian tempo words were con-
ventionally used to modify or clarify the tempo
implications of time signatures, but that signatures
remained the primary indicators. As for 18th-
century German writers, a number of them, such as
Sperling (1705), Mattheson (1712), Heinichen (1728)
and Quantz (1752) explicitly mention links between
time signatures and tempos.3 While such linkages
were neither perfectly systematic nor uniformly
observed,4 they are present in German sources from
Bach's years as a composer.
Did Bach himself associate time signatures with
tempos? At least two sources suggest as much. One is
a 1738 thoroughbass manual in the hand of C. H.
Thieme, a Bach student and choir member; the title-
page lists Bach as the author.5 Much of the book
replicates the 1700 treatise Die musicalische Hand-
leitung by F. E. Niedt,6 who appears to have studied
in the late 169os with Bach's older cousin Johann
Nicolaus Bach. Niedt's approach to teaching bears
certain broad parallels to what we know of Bach's
own, leading a translator to speculate that 'it is poss-
ible that Part I is a record of the Bach family's teach-
ing techniques'.7 One may question that notion,
wonder about the extent of J. S. Bach's role in the
1738 manual, and doubt that a treatise by a minor
predecessor captures his practices. Still, it is worth
noting that in the chapter on tempo both Niedt and
the 1738 manual discuss two time signatures (c and
2), and say explicitly that the signatures have differ-
ing implications for tempo.8 The books say nothing
to suggest that these are the only such associations
of tempo and time signature. Indeed, the laconic

Bernard D. Sherman is the author of Inside early music (Oxford University Press, 1997), co-editor
of Performing Brahms (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming), and author of the essay 'Authen-
ticity in musical performance' in The encyclopedia of aesthetics (OUP, 1998).

EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000 455

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nature of the chapter makes clear that it is not meant
to be exhaustive; the same is true of Niedt's com-
ment that he presupposes that the student will know
about time, to which Bach (if it is he) adds 'because
no one can give them knowledge of metre [Tact] all
at once'.
What might Bach have said if he had expanded on
this topic? A well-known treatise purports to tell us.
Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik by J. P. Kirn-
berger,9 who studied with Bach from 1739 to 1741,
details how time signatures convey information
about tempo. Kirnberger claimed that in this book
he sought 'to reduce the methods of the late Joh. Seb.
Bach to principles, and to lay his teachings before the
world to the best of my powers'.'? One may doubt
the claim, and note that Kirnberger's principles are
probably systematized beyond anything to be found
in Bach's teaching or practice (which in some cases
Kirnberger seems to contradict). But it is nonethe-
less reasonable to suspect that Bach taught Kirn-
berger at least some of these associations between
time signatures and tempo, or at least the general
principle of such associations.
That Bach associated signatures with tempos
seems, given the above evidence, more likely than
otherwise. Bach is often said to have surpassed con-
temporary norms for notating ornamentation and
articulation; if so, it would be characteristic of him to
notate some instructions about tempo as well. Yet
tempo words are not common in his music. The
implications of time signatures might explain why.
In 18th-century sources such as Mattheson,
Rameau and Kirnberger we find another 17th-
century principle which underlies the idea of time
signatures implying tempo: that note values have
intrinsic speeds." Quavers were, for example, by
nature faster than crotchets. Thus-a point of signif-
icance to this article-the signature 3/4 would have
tempo implications similar to c, because its denomi-
nator is the same note value. The crotchet speed of
both signatures would be roughly equivalent.
In 18th-century usage, tempo implications of time
signatures could be modified by many other factors,
such as Italian tempo words, vocal texts,'2 genre and
affect. Also, as Kirnberger, C. P. E. Bach and others
explain, unusually small prevailing notes-such as
demisemiquavers in common time-tend to slow
456 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000
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the tempo (an example is 'Komm, stisses Kreuz'
from the St Matthew Passion). Unusually large pre-
vailing note values-as in a piece in 3/8 with no notes
faster than quavers-tend to indicate a tempo that is
faster than usual.'3
Performers may have good reasons for disregard-
ing composers' tempo notations, of course; I argue
only that such notations are more common in Bach
than is sometimes believed. But if his time signatures
did imply something about tempo, what tempos did
they imply? Let us look at the most common of the
signatures, c, whose tempo implications were cen-
tral.
The tempo ordinario and historical performance
According to writers such as Penna (1684) and
Brossard (1703), the tempo of a common-time
movement with no modifying factors was called the
tempo ordinario'4-the plain or ordinary tempo
(also known in Germany as schlechte Tact, which
Mattheson, for one, explicitly relates to the c sig-
nature).'5 Handel appears to have used the term
similarly, since some of his works, e.g. Messiah and
op.4 no.2, contain movements in c marked 'a tempo
ordinario', as well as others marked Allegro, which
are presumably faster. For Heinichen, too, Allegro
clearly indicated a speed that was faster than ordi-
nary.'6
Bach does not, in any surviving sources, use the
term tempo ordinario. (He did sometimes use the
term tempo giusto, as did Handel in some works.)
But Bach's cousin and associate J. G. Walther, in his
1732 Musicalisches Lexicon, for which Bach served as
an agent, defines tempo ordinario in the terms given
by Penna and Brossard: it refers to the c signature, in
which all the notes are played in their 'natural and
normal values'.'7 Robert Marshall writes, 'There is
no doubt about the relevance of the tempo ordinario
to a proper historical understanding of tempo in
Bach's music.'"8
Two sources close to Bach discuss the c signature
in other terms, but these are compatible with the
tempo ordinario convention just discussed. Niedt
says c is 'dignified' and contrasts it to the 'fast and
lively' French signature, 2. The 1738 treatise changes
the adjective to 'slow' (langsam); we do not know if
the substitution is by Bach or Thieme, and 'slow'
may be meant mainly to contrast with the high speed
of the French signature. And Kirnberger distin-
guishes two kinds of common time. The 'great 4/4' is
indicated with the adjective 'grave' and is notated by
the ratio 4/4; it is of 'extremely weighty tempo and
execution' and is 'emphatic'. It is used in church
pieces and fugues in place of the 4/2 signature, which
by the 1770s had become outmoded. But the far
more common 'little 4/4' metre-notated with c-
'has a more lively tempo and a far lighter execution'
than the great 4/4, yet 'is still somewhat emphatic'.
Walther, Niedt and Kirnberger, then, all ascribe
tempo implications to the c signature, which in
every case are more or less 'ordinary', explicitly so
with Walther (as with Mattheson).
Are there arguments against Bach's ascribing such
a tempo significance to c? One involves the ? signa-
ture, which was often held to be an exception to the
idea of intrinsic speeds.'9 Sperling (in 1705) says that
while 'many' treat 4 as faster than c, many others
ignore the distinction.20 His observation is not
unique.2' Those who believe that Bach fell into Sper-
ling's latter group note that in some Bach scores the
two signatures are exchanged in some way. Some-
times a score with semiquavers will be marked c in
one incarnation (the Sanctus of the B minor Mass)
and in another (the score and most parts of the 1724
Sanctus). And in some movements (again, in the
1724 Sanctus) certain parts or staves are marked c,
while other parts or staves have e.
Yet such inconsistencies do not necessarily imply
that the two signatures meant the same thing to
Bach. In some cases, inconsistencies may suggest
that time signatures were an inexact way of convey-
ing tempo, and that it was difficult to determine
which signature to use in every case. Also, different
members of an ensemble may have needed different
promptings, as shown by Bach's frequent practice
of notating tempo instructions only in certain parts.
And Bach's decision might change according to
his judgement of the moment (indeed, modern
composers often change their views about the
tempos of their own music). The Sanctus might
have seemed fast enough to require e in 1724, but
seemed slightly less rapid in 1748. Some authors
suggest that Bach's tempo in French overtures
slowed over these decades, which may explain his
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tendency to move from ? to c in notating them.22
Thus Bach might sometimes have changed these
signatures precisely because they had different
implications for tempo.23
Another factor is that of accuracy among copyists.
Many instances of possible inaccuracy exist. For
example, the duet 'Wir eilen mit schwachen' from
Bwv78 seems to require a faster-than-ordinary
tempo; yet most of the surviving parts, copied by
Johann Andreas Kuhnau, are in c. (This is the sig-
nature found in modern editions.) But two parts by
the composer himself survive, and they show 4 -
a signature that better suits the movement, it would
seem. It is possible that Kuhnau's c was a careless
error, which Bach did not bother to correct since he
himself was conducting, and that when he began to
copy parts he used the correct signature.24 In sum-
mary, inconsistencies do not, as is sometimes
claimed, disprove the idea that c and e had different
tempo implications for Bach.
If a plain c or-by the principle of intrinsic
speeds-3/4 time signature with no modifying fac-
tors implies an 'ordinary' tempo, how fast would
'ordinary' be? Period discussions of a basic standard
tactus use such comparisons as the normal human
pulse; this and other historical comparisons vari-
ously suggest tempos between MM 60 and 85.25
George Stauffer suggests for Bach a tempo ordinario
ofJ = MM 72, the pace of a normal pulse.26 Marshall
points out that Bach was said more than once to take
a lively tempo, implying that his tempo ordinario was
at the fast end of the range implied by period discus-
sion. Thus Marshall suggests a tempo ordinario for
Bach of approximately J = MM 80.27
Still, Marshall notes, 'It cannot be sufficiently
emphasized that the tempo ordinario, whether
defined as J = MM 80 or anything else, was by no
means a fixed metronome point but rather ...
encompassed a fairly generous amplitude. This is
already clear from its traditional association with
such a variable standard as the human pulse'.
Indeed, musicians know that numbers fail to capture
what makes a tempo 'work'; two performances with
identical metronome marks can feel as if they have
different speeds, and performances at differing MMs
can feel as if they have similar speeds. In practice, the
speed of Bach's tempo ordinario would no doubt
EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000 457
Table 1 Speeds of recorded performances of 'Ach, mein
Sinn' from the St John Passion
Performer MM
Period instrument
Christophers 115
Scholars 113
Herreweghe 113
Gardiner i11
Parrott 106
Slowik 105
Suzuki 105
Sorrell 103
Koopman 98
Kuijken 96
median 105.5
Modern instrument
Scherchen 98
Richter 90
Jochum 90
Britten 77
median 90
depend on the acoustics, instruments, phrasing and
accentuation involved, the affect of the piece, the
text and the whims of the day.28 Still, within a certain
range numbers convey differences that one feels and
hears. Thus Marshall posits a range in the neigh-
bourhood of MM 72-88, 'or even further in each
direction'. (I would posit a range from about MM
65-95.) Nowhere in the literature has anyone argued
that it was as fast as, say, J = MM 115, which usually
feels faster than ordinary.
What do such considerations suggest about HIP
Bach? On the one hand, the concept of tempo ordi-
nario often does seem to justify the 'briskness' of
HIP tempos. The chorus 'Herr, unser Herscher' in
the St John Passion is in ordinary c, and thus the
tempos of Slowik (MM 75) or Parrott (MM 72)
appear to have more historical justification than the
weighty tempo of Richter (MM 57). Might Bach
himself have sometimes taken the chorus as slowly
as the latter conductor? Might there be reasons not
to care? Of course. I argue only that the notation
seems to imply something on the faster side.
On the other hand, an aria from the same work,
'Ach, mein Sinn', is in ordinary 3/4 time, with no
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modifying factors such as a tempo word. Thus,
whatever one's artistic judgement of rapid HIP
tempos, which are as fast as MM 115 (see table i), they
seem to lack historical justification, while the J =
MM 77 of Britten or the MM go of Jochum and
Richter seem better supported by the notation. The
slower tempos in this aria may also be implied by
a possible sarabande topos, and by the meaning of
its text.
By far the most common time signature used by
Bach is c. A survey of recordings suggest that few
HIP performers observe the idea that movements in
c, when not subject to the modifying factors dis-
cussed above, fall within a range of, say, J = MM
65-95. I would not for a moment suggest that HIP
musicians begin to limit their tempos thus, and I
would not do so even if the above arguments had
quite explicit historical support, or if all the Bach
sources were reliable indications of his performance
intentions.
Thus I am happy to continue to hear and play the
B6 minor prelude in The well-tempered clavier, book
1, at well below J = MM 65. That prelude may seem
the sort of fatal exception that disproves the
approach to time signatures discussed above. But
such apparent exceptions may reflect modern preju-
dices. Consider the turba movements in the St John
Passion. While most of these are in c or 3/4, HIP per-
formers take them at a median tempo of MM log9,
well above the ordinario range; mainstream per-
formers often take them just as quickly. We may find
it difficult to imagine these turbae being taken more
slowly, given their dramatic character and our long
experience with them. Yet Britten takes them at an
average of MM 92-within the ordinario range-
and his turbae have all the power and variety that
one finds in faster recordings. I do not mean to say
that HIP conductors should emulate Britten, or that
faster turbae (which can be powerful) are unjustifi-
able. I claim only that the turbae do not undermine
the idea of cor 3/4 typically indicating a speed some-
where in the tempo ordinario range. I further ques-
tion the assumption, if anyone is making it, that
those who take faster speeds in the turbae are more
historically accurate than Britten; an examination of
German Baroque Passion settings does not support
this viewpoint.28

Tempo words: the significance of Andante
John Butt observes that 'Many gurus of perfor-
mance practice still interpret [Italian tempo words
in Bach] literally as moods rather than tempo indi-
cations.'29 Yet Baroque German sources, he notes,
contradict the gurus. From Praetorius on, these
sources typically call for the use of Italian tempo
words specifically to indicate tempo.30 If some
sources also relate some words to character, none
state that Italian tempo words have to do with
mood more than speed. Why that belief became
common among HIP performers is an interesting
question which I shall not go into here, but it did
not result from overwhelming evidence.
Consider sources close to Bach. In Niedt's treat-
ise (and the related 1738 manual) the brief chapter
on tempo includes the sentence, 'If it is to be played
fast, the composer expressly writes underneath:
allegro or presto. If it is to be played slowly, this is
indicated by writing adagio or lento underneath.'
Also, in a 1706 second volume (not copied in the
Bach-circle text), Niedt gives definitions of Adagio,
Allegro, Andante, Largo and Presto that have to do
purely with tempo; in only one case, Allegro, is there
additional mention of character.31
The tempo definitions in Walther's 1732 Lexicon
often derive from the 1703 Dictionaire of Brossard,
with modifications. Despite Walther's familial rela-
tionship and documented contact with Bach, one
may question whether the Lexicon is an infallible
guide to Bach's own usage; but again, its definitions
may be relevant evidence. Some, like Presto and
Lento, deal more or less exclusively with speed:
Largo, for example, is 'very slow [sehr langsam], as if
expanding the measure'. Three other definitions
(Adagio, Andante, Allegro) deal with character, but
also, unambiguously, with speed. Walther gives a
literal translation (lebhaft) of the Italian Vivace,
which might or might not refer to speed.
Other sources related to Bach state unambigu-
ously that Italian time words are used to indicate
tempo. These include the Musikalischer Trichter
(1706) by Martin Fuhrmann, who later heard and
appreciated Bach, and (after Bach's death), C. P. E.
Bach's Versuch (1753-62) and Kirnberger's Die
Kunst des reinen Satzes.
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As for the evidence of Bach's scores, Marshall
argues that these suggest a hierarchy of tempo
words, from slowest (Adagissimo) to fastest (Prestis-
simo).32 That Bach also associated tempo words
with character may perhaps be suggested by move-
ments in which he combined two markings; but
Marshall notes ony two such combinations-Alle-
gro e presto and Vivace ed allegro-and only the lat-
ter occurs more than once. In each case the words
combined have speed implications that are neither
unrelated nor contradictory. Also, Stauffer men-
tions 49 cases where Bach gave different tempo
markings to different simultaneous parts (e.g. Lente
and Adagio),33 suggesting that the markings in ques-
tion were more or less equivalent. But none of this
implies that Bach's tempo words were primarily
concerned with character. Both external and inter-
nal evidence suggests that they primarily indicated
tempo.
Did any Italian tempo words indicate character
and not tempo for Bach? Stauffer has recently
argued that this is true of Vivace,34 although
Marshall and others disagree. And-quite influen-
tially-such commentators as Willi Apel, Fritz
Rothschild, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and David
Fallows have stated that Andante in Bach (to quote
Fallows in New Grove) is 'not a tempo designation'.
It seems 'to have been fully accepted as a tempo
designation only with Leopold Mozart (1756)'.
Fallows maintains that the Andante marking in
Prelude 24 of The well-tempered clavier, book i,
is simply 'an instruction for clear performance
of the running bass, and a warning not to play
inegale'.
But Bach sometimes uses the term Andante for
movements without running or quaver bass lines.35
In some of these movements, the bass line involves
held breves and semibreves (as in Bwvlo/6). In at
least one case, Andante applies to a motet-style
fugal passage in minims (the last ten bars of
Bwv12/2) that continues the style and texture of the
preceding music. Andante can only refer to tempo
in this instance, and, similarly, in the final bars of
BWV21/2.
One might argue that in most (but not all) of
these movements the motion is such that Andante
could refer to a steadiness or evenness of execution;
EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000 459
Bach often uses it in movements with at least one
line, usually the bass, moving in continuous quavers
(or semiquavers). But even in these cases Andante
could, of course, refer to tempo as well.
Opponents of that view sometimes point to
composers like Corelli and Handel, who use the
term Andante in conjunction with other tempo
words, e.g. Andante largo or Allegro andante. In
these cases, Andante may perhaps refer to execution
or character (and perhaps functions literally as a
verb). But it is by no means clear that Andante does
not indicate tempo here; and in any case, the use of
Italian tempo words in other countries, particularly
Italy, may not be relevant to the conventional use
of these words in north-east Germany. For that,
we would do better to turn to the sources closer
to Bach.
These leave no doubt that Andante moderated
the tempo. Niedt, for example, describes Andante as
being 'gantz langsam'.36 In a posthumous second
edition of Niedt's book, Mattheson changed Niedt's
description to 'nicht zu langsam nicht zu
geschwinde' with a footnote mentioning the earlier
description and saying that the musical reader 'shall
decide whether this is right or wrong'.37 Even
Mattheson's revision indicates that for him, too, the
term has tempo implications that preclude great
speed. Fuhrmann categorizes Andante among the
slow tempo markings (as does, incidentally, Quantz
in chapter 14 of his 1752 Versuch). Walther strays
from Brossard by adding that Andante is 'somewhat
faster than an Adagio' ('etwas geschwinder als ada-
gio'). Since Walther considers an Adagio to be
'langsam', his comparison clearly indicates that
Andante slows the tempo to something below the
ordinary. Finally, Kirnberger gives a list of Italian
tempo markings that, he says, modify the tempo
implications of time signatures and note values. It
seems to begin at the slow end of the tempo spec-
trum (with Largo) and end at the fast end (with
Presto)-and Andante is on the slow side, faster
than Adagio and slower than Allegro.
The unanimity of these sources (as well as his
own usage) suggests that for Bach the term Andante
slowed the tempo somewhat compared to what it
would be without the marking. Marshall speculates
that a speed in the broad neighbourhood of J =
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MM 60 would suit a common-time movement
marked Andante. Once again, however, the Andante
tempo would be defined by feeling rather than by a
specific metronome mark; Andante should feel
more relaxed than ordinary.
HIP performers sometimes treat Andante this
way, but at other times treat it as if it does not affect
the tempo. In, for example, Prelude 24 of The well-
tempered clavier, book 1, ten HIP performers take a
median tempo of J = MM 87, while ten pianists
have a more moderate median of MM 70.38 (See
table 2 below.) One may or may not prefer the
faster tempo (I feel that the fastest HIP perfor-
mances, reaching MM ioo, undermine the expres-
sive implications of the dissonances); but the aver-
age pianists' tempo in Prelude 24 has more
historical support. The 'Andante' that Bach wrote
over this prelude would, by the above evidence,
relax the tempo somewhat compared to the tempo
ordinario that the c signature implies.
Similar logic applies to the 'Et in unum' of the B
minor Mass. Here again we have a duet in common
time; the Andante marking may be considered cau-
tionary, warning musicians not to play it as quickly
as a movement in common time would normally
go. But while mainstream performers take a median
tempo of MM 67-a historically plausible Andante
tempo-HIP performers take a median tempo of
MM 76, that of a tempo ordinario, which (to speak
subjectively) often feels too jaunty to qualify as an
Andante.
There are other reasons for taking the 'Et in
unum' at less than an ordinary tempo. One could,
perhaps, argue that an unhurried pace helps the
singers declaim the imitative writing most effect-
ively. Moreover, the movement has a great deal of
text; at a fast tempo it 'often sounds gabbled, almost
like a patter aria'.39 One could also compare tempos
in this movement to those in the 'Christe eleison'.
That movement, too, is a common-time duet with
a quaver bass line, but it has no tempo marking.
Thus, its notation suggests a tempo no slower than
the 'Et in unum', and probably one noticeably
faster. Yet all but a few HIP recordings take the
'Et in unum' perceptibly faster, and the others take
the two movements at more or less identical
tempos.40

Genre: the 'Crucifixus'
Another element that might modify the tempo
implications of time signatures is genre. But apply-
ing that principle can be tricky. Misreadings of genre
sometimes lead HIP performers to historically dubi-
ous tempos.
An example is the 'Crucifixus' of the B minor
Mass. Four very distinguished HIP performers-
Harnoncourt 1968, Leonhardt, Herreweghe 1997 and
Brueggen-take the 'Crucifixus' far faster than their
colleagues, either HIP or mainstream. Harnoncourt,
at J = MM 76, holds the studio speed record.
Harnoncourt explains his speed by saying that
the 'Crucifixus' (which is in 3/2) is a dance, a passa-
caglia. He adds, 'It may well seem strange to us that,
in this of all places, Bach has chosen a dance form.'
A different dance form has been posited for this
movement by Thomas Hoekstra, who asserts that it
is a sarabande; he suggests a tempo in the mid-6os,
since that would fit estimates of the tempo of that
dance.41
The basic lament notes are indeed reached on the
second beat of each bar; but that does not make the
'Crucifixus' an actual sarabande, to be played at a
tempo that would allow one to dance. The sarabande
is marked by many attributes, including phrasing
and rhythm, not present here. A Baroque movement
in a triple metre with a significant second beat is not
necessarily a sarabande, much less a danceable one.
(And, of course, actual dance topics need not imply
danceable tempos in Bach's music, even in named
dances.) 42
The passacaglia attribution may be more plausi-
ble, but still does not imply a fast tempo. For one
thing, this movement is not simply a passacaglia. It
has a more specific topos, a descending minor tetra-
chord ostinato, which during the mid-17th century
(as Ellen Rosand writes) 'came to assume a quite
specific function associated almost exclusively with a
single expressive genre, the lament'.43 It still had this
association for Bach, who used it in the early Capric-
cio on the departure of his beloved brother, with the
title, 'Ist ein allgemeines Lamento der Freunde'. To
this movement in 3/4 he gave the tempo marking
Adagiosissimo, which Robert Marshall has identified
as the slowest of all his tempo markings. The slow
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tempo was not idiosyncratic: the lament was associ-
ated with a slow tempo.44
Alexander Silbiger writes, 'It is still not clear to
what extent the seventeenth century identified the
descending tetrachord ostinato with the passacaglia
dance-genre.'45 Wye J. Allanbrook is more certain
about the i8th century: she states that the descending
tetrachord lament had lost any dance implications
whatsoever.46 Even if one regards the Crucifixus as a
passacaglia, its metre (as well as its lamento topic)
would still imply a slow tempo. Silbiger notes that a
'slower tempo for the passacaglia is sometimes sug-
gested by a meter based on larger note values (e.g. 3/2
rather than 6/4 or 3/4)'.47
A final argument for a slow tempo in the Cruci-
fixus is that Bach gave its model, Bwvl2/2, the tempo
marking Lente.
Do HIP performers selectively favour evidence for
high speed?
One can come up with other examples in which the
fast new tempos favoured by HIP performers seem
to have less historical support than the slow ones
once favoured by mainstream performers. But it is
not the case that the historical performers as a group
have always played Bach faster than mainstream per-
formers, or that they have selectively favoured evid-
ence for high speed whenever it is available.
For one thing, a majority of HIP performers take
certain movements as slowly as their mainstream
predecessors, in spite of evidence that could easily be
used to support a faster tempo. One example is the
'Et incarnatus', in which the median HIP tempo (J =
MM 50) is only four points faster than the traditional
median. Yet the movement is in ordinary 3/4, and
has no markings to indicate a slow tempo; it could
plausibly be argued that it is a tempo ordinario move-
ment. Admittedly, Stauffer notes that 'the text, the
b-minor mode, and the expressive slurring' (one
might add, also, the suspensions) slow the tempo in
the 'Et incarnatus';48 but one can give these matters
their due without slowing below the tempo ordinario
range. Rifkin and Rene Jacobs take the 'Et incarna-
tus' at J = MM 66-7, yet their slurs sound expressive
and their suspensions have sufficient weight.
In the Sanctus most of the HIP tempos fall into
two distinct groups. One group (including nine
EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000 461
 Table 2 Tempos in The well-tempered clavier, book 1: conductors) has a median tempo of J = MM 64,
pianists compared with period-instrument players barely faster than the median mainstream tempo of
MM 60. The other group, with six conductors, takes
Median MM Speed a much faster median tempo of MM 78. The latter
Movement Key Time Piano Period insts. differencet
accords with Marshall's estimate of the tempo ordi-
Prelude i C c
75.5 73.5 nario-the tempo suggested by the movement's
Fugue c 60.5 59.5
notation in c with triplets (again, an earlier version
Prelude 2 c c 114 104
Fugue c has $ with triplets). Indeed, Bach could probably
79.5 78.5
Prelude 3 C# 3/8 88 77 have notated the movement in 12/8 (unless one
Fugue c 98 86 holds that the timpani should not be assimilated
Prelude 4 c# 6/4 92 94 with the prevailing triplets); for reasons of intrinsic
Fugue 50 64.5
Prelude 5 D C 106
note speeds, Marshall argues that 12/8 would imply
132
Fugue C
c 60 58 a tempo approximately a third slower than what is
Prelude 6 d c
79.5 67.5 implied by C.49
Fugue 3/4 63 70 That the slower tempo is more common than the
Prelude 7 El c
73 71
fast one in both movements among HIP performers
Fugue c
94 81.5
Prelude 8 e; 3/2 40.5 46
is no cause for outrage. But it does show that HIP
Fugue c 69 64.5 performers have not always favoured evidence for
Prelude 9 E 12/8 76.5 70.5 faster speeds, even when such evidence can be
Fugue c 110 84
found easily. The Benedictus and Agnus Dei arias
Prelude o1 e c
57 56
Fugue 3/4 119 98
provide two additional examples; in the latter, sev-
Prelude 11 F 12/8 82 61 eral prominent HIP recordings are so slow as to
Fugue 3/8 60 57 move at eight to the bar. Here, then, are four move-
Prelude 12 f c
50.5 45
ments in which a majority of HIP performers have
Fugue c
55 53.5
Prelude 13 F# 12/16 80
ignored convenient evidence for a faster tempo.
75.5
Fugue c 66.5 70.5 Another reason to qualify the belief that HIP per-
Prelude 14 f c
104.5 73 formers always favour evidence for speed is that in
Fugue 6/4 70.5 85.5
some works and genres they have played signifi-
Prelude 15 G 24/16 c 97.5 80
cantly more slowly than their mainstream predeces-
Fugue 6/8 72.5 62.5
Prelude 16 g c
41 42 sors and colleagues. A survey of recordings of book
Fugue c 69.5 66.5 1 of The well-tempered clavier reveals that a group of
Prelude 17 AL 3/4 96 100
ten pianists take median tempos that are on the
Fugue G# c 61.5 61.5
whole about 9 per cent faster than ten period-
Prelude 18 g# 6/8 116 114
Fugue c
55 63 instrument performers (see table 2). While the
Prelude 19 A c 84.5 68 period instrument players are significantly faster in
Fugue 9/8 67.5 75 eight movements, usually serious ones like the
Prelude 20 a 9/8 82 73.5
minor-key fugues in C#, D, F#, G# and BL, the
Fugue c 76 65
Prelude 21 BL c 84 76.5
pianists are significantly faster in 20 movements,
Fugue 3/4 98.5 82 usually fast ones like the Prelude in C minor. This
Prelude 22 bb c
35 41 pattern suggests that what motivates HIP tempo
Fugue 48 56
choices is something other than a global taste for
Prelude 23 B C
c 78 69.5
Fugue c 60
speed.
58

Prelude 24 b c I Andante 70.5 87 Perhaps it might be taken as evidence for the

Fugue C Largo 45 48 thesis that a central motive for HIP performers is to

t Calculated as piano MM/period instrument MM.

be different from the mainstream. Perhaps this
Differences of less than 5% are not shown. Brackets indicate desire arises as a reaction to specific performance
when period-instrument players are faster. traditions. Harpsichordists may be reacting against

462 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000

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pianists and the Bischoff/Czerny tradition, while
HIP conductors may react against previous choral
traditions, which tended to seek weight and gravity.
There will, no doubt, be many exceptions to these
generalizations, but reaction against the main-
stream may well motivate some of the fastest per-
formances of the Kyrie i, the 'Et in unum' and the
'Crucifixus', among others.
We might also consider the role of performance
media and fashions of playing. It could be that
harpsichordists play more slowly than pianists in
fast movements because they cannot emphasize
strong beats with dynamics, but instead use preced-
ing articulatory silences. If harpsichordists played
with pianistic styles and speeds, they might sound
mechanical.50 Moreover, they tend to place greater
rhetorical weight on smaller motivic units. Also,
while I used the 'Crucifixus' as an example of a
movement that has sometimes been played quickly
based on mistaken ascription of a dance genre, con-
siderations of dance have often slowed tempos,
?1

especially in keyboard music. -"

CI
L:L.
LI_
A familiar argument holds that traditional choral
recordings have been slower than HIP recordings
because of the limits on speed caused by huge
choruses. But the evidence undermines this argu- Orpheus & Eurydice
ment. In the fastest choral movements, mainstream New Production Gluck
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create tempo traditions among students. A prelimi-
nary statistical investigation, however, fails to con-
firm this hypothesis either in the Mass or in The
well-tempered clavier.
Perhaps, also, HIP keyboardists simply tend to
favour a narrower spectrum of tempos than pianists
do. If so, one might wonder if their circumspection
reflects an attempt to apply the idea of the tempo
ordinario to movements in c or 3/4, and otherwise
to interpret time signatures according to intrinsic
note values. But this idea could account for only 11
of 28 tempos in which the two groups differ signifi-
cantly in The well-tempered clavier, book i.
One general cause influencing the cases
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examined in this article may be musicological

EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000 463

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advice. Influential musicologists such as Robert
Donington51 have told performers that time signa-
tures had no tempo implications in Bach, that
Andante was not a tempo marking, and even that
Bach's notation generally did not indicate tempo. If
such advice turned out to be mistaken, performers
who thought they had historical sanction would be
mistaken as well.
Concusion: authenticity and tempo
Donington is indisputably correct when he says that
'the right tempo for a given piece of music is the
tempo which fits, as the hand fits the glove, the
interpretation of that piece then being given by the
performer', adding that 'the limits within which the
right tempo for any particular piece of music may
vary are surprisingly wide.'52 Such matters as the
performance's character, pulse and phrasing all play
a role in making a given tempo work. Even if we
were able to reconstruct Bach's systems of tempo
notation with a fair degree of confidence, then, we
should hardly expect performers to be bound by it.
Indeed, composers' own tempos in performance
vary widely from one occasion to another.
On the other hand, Andrew Parrott has argued
that when musicians take account of historical data
'new possibilities emerge, even if old ones fall by the
wayside'.53 The same might be said of criticisms of
HIP trends: even when attempts at debunking have
failed, they have sometimes suggested new possibil-
ities to performers. Thus I hope that the arguments
in this article, however they are judged in the long
run, will serve to stimulate performers rather than
to constrain them.

I am very grateful to Alyson Ahern,
Jonathan Bellman, John Butt, Robert
Cammarota, Matthew Dirst, Laurence
Dreyfus, Don Franklin, George Houle,
Michael Marissen, Robert Marshall,
Daniel Melamed, Andrew Parrott,
Joshua Rifkin and Eric Van Tasselfor
their comments on this article.
1 T. Hoekstra, Tempo considerations in
the choral music ofJ. S. Bach (doctoral
diss., U. of Iowa, 1974); D. Franklin,
'The fermata as notational convention
in the music of J. S. Bach', Convention
in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
music: essays in honor of Leonard G.
Ratner, ed. W. J. Allanbrook et al.
(New York, 1992), pp.345-61;
P. Williams, 'Two case studies in per-
formance practice and the details of
notation-i: J. S. Bach and 2/4 time',
Early music, xxi (1993), pp.613-22;
R. Marshall, 'Bach's tempo ordinario:
a plaine and easie introduction to the
system', Critica musica: essays in honor
of Paul Brainard, ed. J. Knowles (New
York, 1996), pp.249-78; G. Stauffer,
Bach: the Mass in B minor (New York,
1997), pp.231-3.
2 G. Houle, Meter in music, 1600-1800
(Bloomington, IN, 1987), p.32.
3 Sperling, Principia musicae
(Bautzen, 1705), p.66; Mattheson,
Das neu-eriffnete Orchestre (Hamburg,
1713), part i, chap.3; Heinichen, Der
General-Bass in der Composition
(Dresden, 1728), pp.257-378; Quantz:
Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote
traversiere zu spielen (Berlin, 1752),
chap.17, sect.7, ?50.
4 See, e.g., Heinichen, Der General-
Bass, p.350.
5 Trans. P. Poulin as J. S. Bach's
precepts and principles for playing the
thorough-bass or accompanying in four
parts (Oxford, 1994). Concerning
Thieme, see H. J. Schulze, "'Das Stuck
im Goldpapier"', Bach-Jahrbuch, lxiv
(1978), pp.19-42.
6 F. E. Niedt, Die musicalische Hand-
leitung... verheren durch J. Mattheson
(Hamburg, 1721; R/Buren, Netherlands,
1976), pp.lo9-115; trans. P. Poulin and
I. Taylor as The musical guide (Oxford,
1989), pp.148-55. The facsimile edition
gives some of these definitions; the
translation gives all of them.
7 Niedt, The musical guide, introduc-
tion by P. Poulin, p.xiii.
8 It is perhaps of interest that the
books do not mention differing impli-
cations of the signatures for inequality,
a distinction made between these two
signatures in such texts as Muffat's.
9 Kirnberger, Die Kunst des reinen
Satzes in der Musik (1771-9), ii, chap.i;
trans. D. Beach and J. Thym as The art
of strict musical composition (New
Haven, CT, 1982).
o1 Kirnberger, Gedanken iiber die ver-
schiedenen Lerharten in der Kompon-
isten (Berlin, 1782). Bach-Dokumente,
iii, ed. H.-J. Schulze (Kassel, 1972),
no.867; translation from The new Bach
reader, ed. H. T. David and A. Mendel,
rev. C. Wolff (New York, 1998), p.320.
11 For the 17th century see, e.g., Printz,
Compendium musicae signatoriae
(Dresden, 1689), chap. iv/7, p.22. For
the 18th, see, e.g., Mattheson, Das neu-
eroffnete Orchestre; Rameau, Traite de
I'harmonie (Paris, 1722), pp.151-3. Kirn-
berger, The art of strict musical compo-
sition, p.377, writes 'Those [meters]
having larger [denominator] values,
like alla breve, 3/2 and 6/4, have a heav-
ier and slower tempo than those of
smaller values, like 2/4, 3/4 and 6/8.'
12 Some see the meaning of vocal
texts as more than merely a modifying
element; they argue that in Bach's
vocal music a given time signature sug-
gested little about the tempo, and that
performers discerned what speed to
take mainly by considering the text. On
the evidence discussed in this article, I
differ. I would emphasize instead how
text influenced Bach's tempo choices
at the stage of composition-where it
affected his musical setting-and
suggest that Bach, like later composers,
then included tempo indications in his
notation (at least of parts and carefully
prepared fair copies) in order to alert

464 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000

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performers to his intended speed. (My
thanks to Joshua Rifkin for advice on
formulating this sentence.) Unlike a
etronome mark, however, Bach's nota-
tion indicated a tempo's neighbour-
hood rather than its specific address.
His time signatures, tempo words and
note values indicated a range of speeds;
the text suggested where the actual
speed might fall within the limits of
this range. To the general evidence for
the approach given here, I would add
that tempo words are about as frequent
on average in Bach's relevant vocal
works as in his published keyboard
works, and that Bach regularly did use
notational devices (e.g. tempo words)
to indicate a particularly fast or slow
tempo in vocal music. Neither point
would seem likely if performers dis-
cerned tempo mainly by considering
textual meaning.
13 We might also mention harmonic
rhythm; a faster harmonic rhythm
tends to be associated with a slower
tempo. In book 2 of The well-tempered
clavier the preludes in F# minor and G
major are both in 3/4 time. But the for-
mer not only has prevailing motion in
triplet semiquavers to slow its tempo; it
also has a fast harmonic rhythm (on
the crotchet), which may be said to
slow the tempo as well. The G major
prelude, by contrast, has a slow har-
monic rhythm, perhaps suggesting a
faster tempo (as does its dancing moto
perpetuo genre). My thanks to Yo
Tomita for suggesting these examples.
14 See, e.g., Penna, Liprimi albori
musicali (Bologna, 1684), p.40;
Brossard, Dictionaire de musique (Paris,
2/1705), p.154. See also New Grove, s.v.
'Tempo ordinario' and 'Tempo giusto'.
15 Mattheson, Das neu-eroffnete
Orchestre, p.79.
16 See Heinichen, Der Generalbass,
p.268. That Bach was familiar with the
use of Allegro to indicate a tempo faster
than c might be suggested by a work he
performed on three different occa-
sions, a St Mark Passion by another
composer. Bach's 1713 Weimar score is
published as Reinhard Keiser, Passio
secundum Marcum, ed. H. Bergmann
(Stuttgart, 1997). (It was Bach who
attributed the work to Keiser, perhaps
mistakenly (see D. Melamed and R.
Sanders, 'Zum Text und Kontext der
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"Keiser" Markuspassion', Bach-
Jahrbuch, lxxxv (1999).) Two turbae,
'Pfui dich' and 'Er hat andern
geholfen'-both of which we have in
Bach's own hand-begin with short
homophonic sections marked only by
the csignature. Both turbae then pro-
ceed (without intervening bar lines)
into imitative passages in note values
similar to the homophonic sections,
but with the word 'Allegro' written
over their beginnings. One possible
implication is that in this score plain c
suggested something less rapid than
Allegro.
17 Walther, Musicalisches Lexicon
(Leipzig, 1732); s.v. 'Tempo minore',
p.598.
18 R. Marshall, 'Bach's tempo
ordinario', p.252.
19 Its note values were 'twice as fast'
as normal, according to Kirnberger
(upholding an old tradition also
maintained by Brossard and Quantz).
Walther says only that alla breve is
'beat very fast'. Many 17th- and 18th-
century sources describe ? simply as
'somewhat faster', not twice as fast.
For an excellent summary of source
writings in the 17th and 18th centuries,
see Houle, Meter in music, pp.13-19, 57.
When the prevailing note value is
the semiquaver-twice as small a note
as is usual for ? -the signature would
seem, by the principles described ear-
lier, to slow the minim pulse and indi-
cate a faster-than-ordinary crotchet
(4/4) pulse. See Marshall, 'Bach's tempo
ordinario', p.270; Hoekstra, Tempo con-
siderations, p.9o; see also NBA, i/1o,
Kritischer Bericht, p.103. I would note
that Bach adds the word 'Presto' to ?
only when the prevailing note value is
the quaver, not the semiquaver. This
pattern may lend support to the asser-
tion that Bach saw a systematic rela-
tionship between note values, time
signatures and tempos.
20 Sperling, Principia musicae, p.66.
21 See Heinichen, Der General-Bass,
p.35o. Kircher and several French
sources dismiss the distinction; see
R. Donington, Tempo and rhythm in
Bach's organ music (London, 1960),
p.22.
22 M. Dirst, 'Bach's French overtures
and the politics of overdotting', Early
music, xxv (1997), p.40.
EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000 465
23 Also, Don Franklin and Joshua
Rifkin have both presented evidence
(not yet published) that Bach's use of
the ? signature changed in his later
years.
24 Joshu Rifkin first noted this history,
but has not yet published it; my thanks
to him for explaining it to me. The
parts are also mentioned in NBA, i/21,
Kritischer Bericht, p.146.
For another example, Don Franklin
points to instances of Bach's ? signa-
ture being changed to c in 18th-century
copies of The well-tempered clavier, he
interprets them as suggesting that per-
haps 'the younger composers did not
give as much prominence to the time-
signature as did Bach' (personal com-
munication, 1999). It may be worth
noting the many such changes in
fugues whose genres Bach typically
notated in ?.
25 For a list of 14 sources from de
Pareia in 1482 to Billings in 1794, see
Hoekstra, Tempo considerations, p.21.
26 Stauffer, Bach: The Mass in B minor,
p.231.
27 R. Marshall, 'Bach's tempo
ordinario', p.254.
28 My examination of 20 other
German Baroque Passions suggests
that turbae tempos that are well above
the ordinary seem to receive special
notation indicating speed. Details
are posted at my website at http://
www.kdsi.net/-sherman/turba.htm.
29 J. Butt, book review, Journal of the
Royal Musical Association, cxv/2 (1990),
p.265.
30 E.g. Praetorius, Syntagma
musicum, iii (Wolfenbiittel, 2/1619),
p.51; D. Merck, Compendium musicae
(Augsburg, 1659), p.16; W. C. Printz,
Compendium musicum signatoriae, iv/8
(p.22); J. D. Heinichen, Neu erfundene
und gruendliche Anweisungen wie
die Musik-Liebenden (Leipzig, 1711),
sect. 25.
31 Niedt, Die musicalische Handleitung,
pp.109-15; Niedt, The musical guide,
pp.148-55.
32 Marshall, 'Tempo and dynamics:
the original terminology', reprinted in
Marshall, The music ofJohann Sebast-
ian Bach: the sources, the style, the sig-
nificance (New York, 1989), pp.255-69.
Regarding another combination of two
words found in some Bach autographs,
'Grave, Adagio' (which is discussed
briefly by Marshall), see S. Soderlund,
'Bach and Grave', Organist as scholar:
essays in memory of Russell Saunders,
ed. K. J. Snyder (Stuyvesant, NY, 1994),
pp.77-82. Both see 'Grave' as not
primarily a tempo word.
33 Stauffer, Bach: the Mass in B minor,
p.295, n.59.
34 Stauffer, Bach: the Mass in B minor,
pp.236-7. Space limits preclude discus-
sion here.
35 E.g. BWV152/6; 176/4, 199/4; 229/2;
988/15; 1015/1.
36 See Niedt, Die musicalische Hand-
leitung, p.lo9.
37 Niedt, The musical guide, p.148.
38 Pianists include Czerny and
Bischoff (from metronome marks),
Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter,
Gould, Schiff, Gulda, Joao-Carlos
Martins, Tureck and Demus. Period-
instrument players (harpsichordists
unless otherwise noted) include van
Asperen, Leon Berben, Kenneth
Gilbert, Koopman, Leonhardt,
Moroney, Scott Ross, Suzuki, Tilney
(clavichord) and Glen Wilson.
43 E. Rosand, 'The descending tetra-
chord: an emblem of lament', Musical
quarterly, lxv (1979), pp.346-59, at
p.346.
44 Fuhrmann (Musikalischer Trichter
(Frankfurt an der Spree, 1706), p.87)
remarks that the Lamento (which he
does not equate with the descending
tetrachord) 'must be set in a slow
tempo'.
45 A. Silbiger, 'Passacaglia and
ciaccona: genre pairing and ambiguity
from Frescobaldi to Couperin', Journal
of seventeenth-century music, ii (1996),
http://www.sscm.harvard.edu/
jscm/v2/no1/Silbiger.html, section 8.2.
46 Personal communication, June
1998.
47 Houle (Meter in music, p.2) states of
the 17th century in general that 'com-
positions written in 3/2 ... were slower
in tempo than those in 3/4'. As for
18th-century Germany, the slowness of
3/2 is implicit in Mattheson (who
describes the use of 3/2 in 'sad pieces,
adagios, sarabandes'), and explicit in
Kirnberger. Kirnberger (The art of strict
musical composition, pp.394, 400)
describes 3/2 as indicating 'a ponderous
and slow performance'; he later adds
crotchets. A less germane difference is
that the slurs in the 'Qui tollis' are not
really similar to those in the 'Et incar-
natus'. In the 'Qui tollis' they 'back-
ground' the string parts rather than
indicating an expressive rendering of a
sighing appoggiatura as they do in the
'Et incarnatus'. Nor are the repeated-
crotchet bass lines quite similar. That
in the 'Et incarnatus' serves as an eight-
bar tonic pedal point on two occasions
and is slurred within the bar (a tremolo
bowing, according to George Houle),
but that in the 'Qui tollis' begins in
first inversion, changes at least once a
bar, and is marked staccato (in the
parts).
49 Marshall, 'Bach's tempo ordinario',
p.256-9.
50 Thanks to John Butt for this point.
51 Notably Robert Donington; see his
article 'Tempo', New Grove, esp. xviii,
pp.676-7.
52 Donington, Tempo and rhythm in
Bach's organ music, pp.12-13.
53 B. Sherman, Inside early music
(New York, 1997), p.392.

39 J. Butt, personal communication, that '3/2 meter is more ponderous than

27 Feb 2000. 3/4'.

40 G. Stauffer, in his excellent Bach: 48 G. Stauffer, Bach: the Mass in B

the Mass in B minor, p.235, lends sup-
port to this approach, by arguing that
the 'Christe' is actually an Andante
movement without the marking. To
support my contrary view that the
minor, p.238. Stauffer makes an inter-
Paul McNulty
esting comparison of the 'Et incarna-
tus' to the 'Qui tollis', some of whose
parts have the markings Adagio or
Lente. Indeed, the two movements are

'Christe' is a tempo ordinario move- similar in mode, key, repeated crotchet

ment, I would note that many Bach
movements with quaver bass lines are
not Andantes, so the bass of the
'Christe', which Stauffer mentions, is
not necessarily a genre marker. Also,
two features of the 'Et in unum' sug-
gest that it has a slower tempo than the
'Christe'. First, the declamation of the
'Christe' is on the crotchet, while that
of the 'Et in unum' is on the quaver;
second, the two lines of the 'Christe'
move in parallel, while those of the
'Et in unum' move imitatively.
41 Hoekstra, Tempo considerations,
p.121.
42 See, for example, L. Dreyfus,
Bach and the patterns of invention
(Cambridge, MA, 1997), pp.103-33.
bass line, and some aspects of melody. Viennese fortepianos
Various differences, however, might
lead one to question Stauffer's asser-
tion that the Adagio and Lente mark-
ings of the 'Qui tollis' 'would seem to
be appropriate' to the 'Et incarnatus'.
The most significant is that 'Qui tollis'
has obbligato lines in semiquavers,
whereas the 'Et incarnatus' obbligato
moves only in quavers. Flautists attest
that the semiquavers put a limit on the DiviSov 128
tempo of the 'Qui tollis' (moreover,
25726 Czech Republic
the 'Qui tollis' flute obbligatos are imi-
tative, which may limit the tempo tel: +420 303 855286
further). The choral declamation
shows a similar difference in prevailing
fax: +420 416 737335
note values: that in the 'Qui tollis' e-mail: halka@iol.cz
is primarily in quavers while that in
the 'Et incarnatus' is primarily in

466 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 2000

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