Recitatives in Bach’s Vocal Works
Discussions - Part 15

Continue from Part 14

Operatic & Liturgical Recitative

Continue of discussion from: Cantata BWV 93 - Discussions

Douglas Cowling wrote (July 4, 2006):
Julian Mincham wrote:
< Also recit generally employs a less focused or structured melodic line. It is, from its roots in the Italian Camerata group more attuned to the rhythms and inflections of speech than conventional Cantata BWV 18 melody. >
A good argument could be made that Bach's recitative style owes as much to Lutheran chanting as to Italianate opera. There is a direct line of influence in melodic formulae and rhythmic cells which goes back to Schutz' German recitative style and ultimately to pre-Reformation chanting which was sung in highly rhythmiczed forms in the 16^th century.

I'm half of the opinion that Bach's congregation would not have thought of recitative as some new-fangled foreign form but rather a development of a familiar form. In the McCreesh "Epiphany Mass" recording it is very instructive to hear German texts being sung as liturgical recitatives. I supect that by the 18^th century, the chanting formulas had become quite rhythmic, and Bach's listeners may well have thought that the cantatas' recitatives were just another form of cantillation.

Julian Mincham wrote (July 4, 2006):
[To Douglas Cowling] I'm quite interested in this line of thought.

Can you quote any readily accessable references wher one might read more about this history?

Douglas Cowling wrote (July 4, 2006):
[To Julian Mincham] I'm not sure if anyone has done any systematic work on it. I began to think about liturgical chanting as the real model even for Italian opera when the Tallis Choir of Toronto performed recreations of Renaissance and early Baroque masses. The interplay between the "secco" cantillations and the formal movements of the mass ordinary and motets sounded like opera to me. My gut feeling is that Bach saw the Evangelist parts in the passions and oratorios more in the tradition of Lutheran chanting than as a foreign intrusion -- although Italian recitative technique is certainly a strong influence.

Julian Mincham wrote (July 4, 2006):
[To Douglas Cowling] There may be some historical work to be done on this in trying to piece together the sorts of music Bach might have heard in his travels up to his mid thirties. From his various vists from that to Lübeck in 1705 he would have heard a range of performances including opera. I don't know if anyone has established whether he heard any Italian opera at any stage during the years 1705-1722---or, indeed what, if any Italian opera was performed in Germany at that time. (Thomas might have some info on this??)

The point here is that he used recit much less in his earlier cantatas than in his Leipzig cycles. This might have been a matter of local fashion and custom:- or it might be that Bach heard recit examples from various cultural sources which he copied and developed later on.

Or it might be a combination of both!

Thomas Braatz wrote (July 4, 2006):
Julian Mincham wrote:
>>From his various vists from that to Lübeck in 1705 he would have heard a range of performances including opera. I don't know if anyone has established whether he heard any Italian opera at any stage during the years 1705-1722---or, indeed what, if any Italian opera was performed in Germany at that time.<<
I have just checked this out quickly with information given in the MGG1: Lübeck would not have provided Bach any opportunity for hearing any operas at all during his extended visit there at the end of 1705; however, in passing through Hamburg on his way to and from Lübeck, there was an active opera house. Unfortunately, this opera had existed only from 1678 and was heavily dominated by German opera even though a short, but failed attempt was made to introduce Italian opera. Quantz reports that in 1693 Reinhard Keiser began dominating completely all opera productions with his German style. Beginning in 1703 Händel and Mattheson were involved in preparing such productions by Keiser (Händel's "Almira" Jan 8, 1705 - Händel still had not had any direct experience with Italian opera, but "Almira" did contain 42 German-style arias and 15 - or only 13 as indicated in the score- in the Italian style) and eventually composing operas themselves. These would have been predominantly German in character when Bach might have heard them in 1705 (who knows? Bach may have met personally with Händel and Mattheson at that time.)

Bach returned to Hamburg in 1720, where another opportunity for hearing predominantly German-style operas presented itself.

Bach's experience with the Dresden opera (predominantly Italian-style opera) in the 1730s does not concern us here in regard to BWV 93.

The technical term used by German Bach scholars for the blend of chorale citations and free/secco recitative is "Tropieren" ("to trope" or the troping of a chorale melody and text within a recitative - this seems to be borrowed from its more important musicological sense involving the inclusion of other text/chant elements within the mass of the Catholic church.) Konrad Küster has a chapter heading "Die Tropierung des Chorals" in Bach's 2^nd yearly cycle of cantatas in his "Bach Handbuch" Bärenreiter, 1999. He states that beginning with BWV 93, these chorale citations, rather than appearing as haphazardly punctuating a recitative, they now appear as deliberate inclusions after which a poetic extension is added by the librettist. This is a trope. In contrast to BWV 190 earlier that same year where the choir presents the chorale melody and the solo voices the intervening material, now the solo voice sings everything alone.

Chris Rowson wrote (July 4, 2006):
Thomas Braatz wrote:
< Bach's experience with the Dresden opera (predominantly Italian-style opera) in the 1730s does not concern us here in regard to BWV 93. >
There was Italian opera in Dresden in 1717 too, that was the year they hired Lotti, Senesino etc for the wedding of the future August II/III. They were there until the big bust-up in 1720, after which Händel took his pick for London.

I understand from Wolff that Bach would also have been playing with a lot of Italian and Italian-style musicians in Cöthen – Amore Traditore is just the only one of his Italian cantatas that survived, there were probably many more.

Douglas Cowling wrote (July 4, 2006):
[To Chris Rowson] I don't think we have to assume that Bach had to attend an opera in person to be influenced. He must have met hundreds of musicians both in Leipzig and on his travels who showed him their scores. He probably never heard Vivaldi played by an orchestra, but he certainly knew the works well enough to make organ arrnagements.

Eric Bergerud wrote (July 5, 2006):
[To Thomas Braatz] Wolff suggests a strong possibility that Bach at least viewed preparations for an Italian opera in Dresden during a visit there in 1717. (p. 183, paperback edition.)

Eric Bergerud wrote (July 5, 2006):
[To Julian Mincham] Wasn't there both an opera and French ballet in Dresden? I can remember reading somewhere that Bach used to occasionally take some of his children to hear the "pretty tunes" at the opera. Leipzig (or even Weimar) were not holin the wall. I should think Bach saw a great deal of printed or written music over the years. He eventually sold it didn't he?

Tom Hens wrote (July 5, 2006):
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< He probably never heard Vivaldi played by an orchestra, >
He certainly did: his own orchestra, the Leipzig Collegium Musicum for one. BWV 1065, for four harpsichords and strings, is Vivaldi. And at the time he was making those solo organ and harpsichord transcriptions in Weimar, from printed editions brought along by Duke Johann Ernst from a trip to Amsterdam, it's hard to imagine he wasn't also playing them with the court musicians.

Douglas Cowling wrote (July 5, 2006):
Tom Hens wrote:
< He certainly did: his own orchestra, the Leipzig Collegium Musicum for one. BWV 1065, for four harpsichords and strings, is Vivaldi. >
The quadruple concerto is a lot more Bach than Vivaldi. Is there documentary evidence about the Collegium's repertoire?

Thomas Braatz wrote (July 5, 2006):
Primary sources from Bach's time and German language/Lutheran tradition (Heinichen, Mattheson, etc.) make a distinction between operatic and liturgical recitative (here specifically Bach's recitatives in his sacred cantatas). This is confirmed in the MGG1 article on the recitative.

As appearing in the context of a recitative from a cantata, the 'troping' or interpolation of phrases taken from a chorale text and melody is more difficult to track back to a specific source.

Within the Lutheran tradition throughout the 16^th and 17^th centuries in Germany there is something called a liturgical recitative. Robin A Leaver (Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2006, acc. 7/4/06)
explains the following:

>>Luther stressed the proclamatory role that music should have in the liturgy, and his followers developed the Latin formula ‘viva voce evangelii’ to express this understanding of music as the ‘living voice of the Gospel’. Luther therefore directed that biblical lections should continue to be sung, and in the Deutsche Messe he gave in detail the specific melodic formulae for the clergy to chant the Epistle and Gospel. This liturgical recitative continued in Lutheran worship generally until the 18^th century, but the practice also gave rise to other genres closely related to the singing of the Gospel.<<

This certainly would have affected those recitative passages in Bach's Passions and cantatas where the Bible is being quoted. Such recitatives need not come from an Italian opera tradition. This still does not explain, however, how lines (music & text) from a chorale could be inserted into a recitative.

Friedhelm Krummacher (same citation as for Leaver above) points in his history of the German church cantata to Erdmann Neumeister as introducing the recitative and aria into the church cantata after 1701:
>>When Erdmann Neumeister introduced madrigalesque poetry into church music after 1701 (together with the modern recitative and aria) he likened the cantata to ‘a piece out of an opera’, and C.F. Hunold defined the genre similarly in 1706.<<

Some important points to remember here:

1. Experimentation with recitative and aria forms in figural church music, existed in the last few decades of the 17th century in Germany.

2. When someone like Erdmann Neumeister, a theologian, states that his cantata texts with 'recitative and aria' forms are like 'a piece out of an opera', this could more easily refer to the German type of opera (Reinhard Keiser, etc.) with which more people in Germany would be familiar rather than the Italian type which was only gradually gaining in favor. To be sure, musicians/composers like Bach would recognize the similarites (and differences) between both types.

What follows is an excerpt by Krummacher on the German church cantata tradition after which I will include another excerpt by the same author specifically addressing Bach's cantatas (including something about the recitative and his use of chorale melodies):

>>German theorists after 1700, including Walther, Mattheson and J.A. Scheibe, defined the cantata mainly in terms of the Italian type. That Mattheson was against using the term for the Kirchenstück shows that he was aware of the affinity between it and the Italian cantata. [remember that Bach rarely used the term 'Cantata' for his sacred cantatas] When Erdmann Neumeister introduced madrigalesque poetry into church music after 1701 (together with the modern recitative and aria) he likened the cantata to ‘a piece out of an opera’, and C.F. Hunold defined the genre similarly in 1706. The term itself did not gain currency with the Neumeister ‘reform’, though some have argued that it should be used exclusively for those compositions of the Bach period that are characterized by madrigalesque poetry. To do so, however, would be to ignore the similarities that exist between the ‘older’ and ‘more recent’ church cantata (to use Spitta’s terminology) – similarities that were already obvious to contemporaries such as Walther and Mattheson.

The differentiation of types within the genre presents few problems as far as the 18^th-century cantata, with its madrigalesque texts, is concerned; recitative and aria formed the basis of the secular form, to which, in the church cantata of the Bach period, choruses and arioso sections to biblical or chorale texts might be added. The less stable forms of the older church cantata are more problematic. In contrast to Blume’s somewhat makeshift labels, such as Erbauungskantate (‘devotional cantata’), Predigtkantate (‘sermon cantata’) and Perikopenkantate (‘pericopean cantata’), together with the adjectives ‘lyrical’, ‘contemplative’ or ‘dramatic’, Georg Feder (MGG1) proposed a distinction on the basis of the type of text used. These are the Spruch (scriptural text), the Ode (modern poetic text) and the Chorale (Protestant hymn), which can be combined to form, for example, the Spruchodenkantate. But this conveys only the textual basis and not the musical form, and therefore the terms ‘concerto’, ‘aria’ and ‘chorale’ may be usefully introduced; these terms were current when the works were written and appeared as headings to individual movements. ‘Concerto’ was used for vocal and instrumental settings of mainly scriptural texts, but also of aria and chorale texts (the ‘aria concerto’ and ‘chorale concerto’ respectively); stylistically these movements combine concertato and contrapuntal (motet) elements to form what was sometimes referred to as the ‘motetto concertato’. ‘Aria’ signifies the strophic song and its variants, ranging from strictly strophic settings and others with melodic variations over a repeated bass to episodic and other forms approaching the 18^th-century aria. The term ‘chorale’ was applied to a movement in which a borrowed chorale melody was worked out in one of several compositional methods. (A musically free setting of a chorale text would be called an aria or concerto, rather than a chorale.)

This scheme does not cover the (predominantly solo) arioso settings of biblical texts, which parallel the later recitative and are in fact derived from Italian monody and the few-voiced concerto. These arioso sections were not given a designation of their own, and they usually defy formal characterization; they figure prominently in certain types of work (multi-sectional dialogues, psalm compositions and Gospel settings) which cannot be allocated a place in the typology ofthe cantata.

From about 1660, when large manuscript repertories were being formed in the leading German musical centres, the printing of complex music became increasingly difficult, partly because of the restricted market and the technical limitations of printing from type. Simpler pieces with few parts, including some by A. Hammerschmidt, J.R. Ahle and Briegel, continued to be printed, but in many cases the music is inferior or conventional, and there are only rare instances of true cantatas. The exceptions are some volumes printed shortly before 1700 containing genuine cantatas, some of them of good quality, by G.C. Wecker (1695), Georg Bronner (1696), J.P. Krieger (1697) and Nicolaus Niedt (1698). The printed repertory virtually came to an end with these works, however, and for a long time after 1700 only occasional music was printed, and no cantata collections except for some by G.P. Telemann.

The decline in publication was complemented by an increase in the manuscript repertory, in which varying characteristics reflect local and regional conditions and requirements. Approximately 50 manuscript collections are known, of which about a fifth survive, and they indicate a repertory whose variety helps to account for the limited market for printed works. Contrary to what has sometimes been thought, it was not the regional differences in the people themselves that brought about this striking variety. More important were the differences in the structure and organization of musical life resulting from varying reactions to the new impulses of reform orthodoxy and Pietism. In the central Lutheran areas (especially Saxony), where the organization of the school Kantoreien remained intact under the unbroken sway of orthodoxy, figural music could draw on a concentration of forces under the leadership of the Kantor, as in Leipzig. Where the ties with the schools had been loosened, Ratskapellen were formed, making smaller and rather more expert ensembles available to the municipal Kapellmeister, as in Danzig and the imperial cities of south Germany. Again, if a central Kantorei was unable to provide a constant supply of figural music to all churches, the gap was filled by the work of individual organists, as at Lübeck, Hamburg and other north German cities.

By contrast court musicians, instead of being part of a stable bourgeois tradition, were dependent on the changing tastes and requirements of a noble master who could determine the texts of their compositions and the use to which they were put. Court musical establishments (and hence the music itself) varied a good deal, while the organists also tended to vary their texts and structures in settings for smaller forces. Figural music in the centralized municipal Kantoreien, on the other hand, was usually bound by liturgical traditions and the resources of school choirs. When the organists wrote vocal music they tended to compose few-voiced concertos, arias and mixed forms for Communion and special occasions, rather than music linked to the sermon. The figural music of municipal Kantors and Kapellmeister, on the other hand, was devoted principally to the cantata placed between the Gospel (or Credo) and the Credo hymn just before the sermon, and related to the pericope and its interpretation.

All these factors, together with the nature of the texts and the forces used, affected the structure of the music itself. The vocal music of north German organists, with their independent status, showed a predilection for non-schematic forms and intense expression; that of the central German Kantors tended to perpetuate well-established structures, often in annual cycles; and the music of court musicians, despite its variety, revealed a common interest in newer developments, such as extended aria forms, inserted recitatives and virtuoso solo sections. After 1700 these differences disappeared, or at least became less apparent. Following Neumeister’s textual reforms, the standard recitative and aria began to characterize the cantatas of municipal and court composers, and the composition of annual cycles, often with a uniform structure, cancelled out the differences even more after organized and somewhat commercial methods had been established for the interchange of musical works.<<

>>The history of the genre undoubtedly culminates in Bach's cantatas. They took current texts and forms as their point of departure and, like those of his contemporaries, are adapted to local circumstances and are grouped together in annual cycles. In their structure, their high quality and their variety of formal combinations, however, Bach's works are unique. The few cantatas composed in Bach's early period (up to 1708) mainly reflect the central German tradition with which he was familiar. They include one chorale cantata and one psalm cantata (BWV 4 and BWV 195), settings of psalm texts with chorale verses or freely composed poetry (BWV 131 and BWV 150) and more extensive combinations of texts for a town council ceremony and a funeral service (BWV 71 and BWV 106). Chorale combinations also occur in the Weimar cantatas written after 1714 (many of them to texts by Salomo Franck), which show new formal developments and, increasingly, involve a concertante instrumental part. The secular cantatas of the Cöthen period further emphasize such concertante features. During his first years in Leipzig Bach concentrated on church cantatas. For all its astonishing diversity, the first cycle (1723–4) shows remarkable unity of purpose. At the same time, Bach's systematic revival of his Weimar cantatas suggests a period of concentrated work, particularly apparent in the opening choral movements. The obbligato instrumental part is gradually extended (culminating in BWV 67, BWV 104 and BWV 37); in three cases Bach reverts to strict motet setting (BWV 179, BWV 64 and BWV 144), combines poetic texts with chorale quotations (BWV77, 25 and 48) and extends chorale settings with recitatives (BWV 138, BWV 95 and BWV 73). While Bach's expressive style of cantional setting became established in the closing chorales with instrumental figuration, the arias and duets constantly explore new ways of combining the vocal and instrumental parts.His growing differentiation of the recitatives is particularly obvious in the accompagnato, which increasingly shapes the motivic writing of the instruments. The cantatas do not follow a single typical pattern, however, less because of the absence of homogeneous texts than out of Bach's dislike for anything schematic. The second cycle of chorale cantatas (1724–5) is particularly self-contained; it breaks off before Easter, but is partly completed by later works. This cycle, too, is without contemporary parallels. While G.P. Telemann's few chorale cantatas confine the use of chorale elaborations to the simple outer movements and do not use them in the inner movements, Bach's anonymous librettist adapted the texts of the chorale's stanzas to provide material for arias and recitatives, thereby fully realizing the possibilities of the genre's rich tradition; it is only in later additions that original chortexts are used word for word. While concerto and chorale movements merge in the opening movements, many different combinations, including chorale quotations, occur in the inner movements, so that the format is constantly undergoing individual modification. There are analogous tendencies in the third annual cycle, which is less complete, and in further works here the first movements in particular achieve a very high degree of compositional independence. After about 1730 the number of works that can be dated, including both secular cantatas and the later chorale cantatas, is even smaller. Bach's obituary states that there were once five cycles, but the actual number lost to us remains uncertain, even if the setting of an annual cycle on texts by Picander (1728) is taken into account. However, the cantatas that have survived reflect an artistic diversity that is striking by comparison with Bach's contemporaries. Motet-like movements, chorale elaborations and canonic structures clearly hark back to older traditions, but there are no parallels elsewhere for the combinatory style of the tutti movements, concertante rather than fugal in structure, the thematic development of the arias and the sensitive word-setting in the recitatives. The close connection between Bach's music and its texts has its roots in his dense working out of themes; this is also a prerequisite for the practice of ‘parody’ (adapting the music to a different text), which entails the maximum freedom of arrangement, particularly in the later works. The process of ‘parody’ does not indicate a dismissive approach to the music, nor is it simply a labour saving device. On the contrary, it provides evidence of the richness of the structures that Bach thought worthy of reworking. From the beginning the church cantata was subject to criticism, particularly from theologians. Before 1700 this was concerned less with the genre itself than with its technical complexities, its excessive use of coloratura and its obscuring of the text. Those whose criticisms were to some extent in line with early Pietism included Theophil Grossgebauer (1661) and J. Muscovius (1694), while those who advocated figural music (and were rather closer to reform orthodoxy) included J.C. Dannhauer (1642) and H. Mithobius (1665). Only after 1700 did discussion centre on the form of the cantata, and particularly on its adoption of ‘operatic’ recitative and aria. Criticism was voiced by theologians such as Christian Gerber (e.g in 1703), by musicians such as J.H. Buttstett (1716) and by writers such as Joachim Meyer (1726, 1728). Defence of the new cantata as a modern form of textual interpretation was left to musicians such as Georg Motz (1703), Mattheson (1713, 1717 etc.) and later Caspar Ruetz (1750–53), rather than to theologians such as Neumeister and Tilgner (1716). The fact that the dispute was long-lasting does not merely indicate that the cantata had to make its way in the face of opposition. Although critical misgivings as to its function lacked any real justification, they did attest to its wide cultivation. In the later 18^th century criticism was levelled more at the petrifaction of the structure and at the allegorical character of the texts, features that made the cantata seem outmoded and fossilized to the Enlightenment and the age of Sensibility.<<

Douglas Cowling wrote (July 5, 2006):
Thomas Braatz wrote:
< That Mattheson was against using the term for the Kirchenstück shows that he was aware of the affinity between it and the Italian cantata. [remember that Bach rarely used the term 'Cantata' for his sacred cantatas] >
This is fascinating material. Perhaps our usual nomenclature of "sacred cantatas" and "secular cantatas" doesn't represent Bach's own concept of genre.

Has anyone extracted the various terms (e.g. "concerto", "dramma per musica") which Bach did use and compile lists? Or was Bach's terminology less categorical and more tied to function?

Choral Recitatives

Douglas Cowling wrote (May 20, 2008):
Russell Telfer wrote:
< 'My' group are not professionals, so if we attempt collectively to sing a recit - Camerata style as described - we're sure to make a terrible sound of it. But remember, we're doing it for study purposes, so all is forgiven.
I'm sure, with strict metre, professionals would sing as one, but not the case here. >
Karl Richter has his full choir sing the concluding recitative of the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). I've often wondered if this was an old Romantic tradition which made the oratorio sound like Beethoven's Ninth.

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 20, 2008):
William L. Hoffman responds [to Douglas Cowling]:
Some 40 years ago I struggled thru sight-singing in college (moveable "do" system) and in the Melodia Book, Ninth Series, there it is, No. 28 ("full exposition of chromatics"), "Thy rebuke hath broken his heart...." Fortunately, we didn't get that far in the class.

So, has anyone participated in a Händel Messiah Sing-Along that included the recitatives? It's unnerving to hear so many well-intentioned singers attempt to do these camerata- or repieni-style, especially the sopranos at "And Suddenly" (or not so suddenly).

Remember what the road to hell (and the musical process) are paved with. At first I just thought a lot of singers didn't know how to sing recitatives. Then I realized, as it has been pointed out, that recitatives take all kinds of inflections, liberties, etc. and no two singers have the same mind-set. It's sort of like the reversal of Joshua Rifkin's one-singer-to-a-part.

At any rate, like the dog with three legs, it's amazing to just hear a choral version of Messiah recitatives with everyone ending together (more more than less). I must say that I am impressed with most of the recent historically-informed performanes of SMP's (BWV 244) narration, with such engaging drama (and liberties)! We knew it was always there in the SJP (BWV 245).

Ed Myskowski wrote (May 20, 2008):
William L. Hoffman wrote;
>Some 40 years ago I struggled thru sight-singing in college (moveable "do" system) and in the Melodia Book,<
Slow down. Did you not tell us you are a graduae student in Bach Studies?
Now claiming the title of World's Oldest Graduate Student (WOGS)?

I am almost at a loss for words. Almost. You can fetch the coffee.

The reports from PA conference were welcome, despite not much response. What can I say, I read and enjoyed them.

Online Recitative Sources

Douglas Cowling wrote (June 16, 2014):
An interesting website which provides links to online facsimiles of continuo treatises: http://tinyurl.com/qe386af

Recitatives -- implicit appoggiaturas?

Bruce Simonson wrote (October 13, 2016):
It's been a while since I posted a question or participated in conversations; sorry about that.

We will be performing BWV 70 in December, and, like most of the cantatas we've done, there are recitatives that are part of the work.

My question is about what I'm calling "implicit appoggiaturas" (I wouldn't be surprised if there is actually a precise and accepted term for this issue).

In recits, occasionally (and particularly at the end of phrases), the final word's syllables may be written with repeated notes, but in practice, especially in descending lines, I've seen a "parlando" approach taken, where the first note is treated as an appoggiatura in performance.

Recent performance materials even have this as "alternate" or "recommended" performance above the system for the soloists. For example, my Carus Verlag materials have this in movement 2 for the bass. It's interesting though, this isn't in the original facsimile, as I've found on the bach archives site for BWV 70.

Does anyone have information or thoughts on how this approach to repeated pitches in recits has become to standard, even to the point of being published in performance materials?

I'm hopI can post two screenshots, so you all can see what I'm referring to -- a couple of pictures would be worth a lot of words here, for sure.

BWV 70 - movement 2 excerpt - Carus Verlag editions

BWV 70 - movement 2 - excerpt - facsimile

William L. Hoffman wrote (October 13, 2016):
[To Bruce Simonson] Some 35 years ago, when I first began working on lost recitatives for Bach's St. Mark Passion, there was a Schirmer edition article in the St. John Passion vocal-piano score that went into detail on various techniques of notating and performing appoggiaturas in the recitatives, particularly related to the John Passion at at cadences, as I recall. It was a thorough investigation of various approaches before HIPP set in and an explosion of viewpoints, techniques, and realizations. I'll try to find that article in my files but it will take time. Since then, I don't recall any other scholarly treatise altho I am sure there are many. It's amazing how performing practices over the years remind me of that old adage, "The more things change the more they stay the same," or its onversion, "The more things remans the same, the more they change."

The Element of Drama in the Recitatives of J.S. Bach's Cantatas

Zachary Uram wrote (March 1, 2020):
https://www.academia.edu/17017837/The_Element_of_Drama_in_the_Recitatives_of_J.S._Bachs_Cantatas?email_work_card=view-paper

Julian Mincham wrote (March 2, 2020):
[To Zachary Uram] I agree that compared with the choruses and arias the recitatives have received too little attention.

I am adding to this thread with a link to an article i wrote on the 'hybrid' construction of recitatives that Bach used on many occasions, notably so in the second Leipzig cycle: https://www.bachnetwork.org/ub4/mincham.pdf.

Linda Gingrich wrote (March 2, 2020):
[To Julian Mincham] I've just dipped my toe into your article, Julian, saving it for later closer study, but it's really a worthwhile study. Thank you!

William L. Hoffman wrote (March 5, 2020):
I am reading Joseph P. Swain's Listening to Bach and Handel: A comparative Critique (Hillsdale NY: Pendragon Press 2018: Amazon.com, notably Chapter 12, "Passion," on the significance of Bach's settings of his Passions, most notably the narrative of secco recitative, turba choruses, and accompagnato. I will have comments on this next week as part of the Bach and Handel discussion.

Will be continued…

Articles: The “Shortening of the Supporting Notes” in the Bc of Bach’s ‘Secco’ Recitatives [Thomas Braatz] | Playing Plain Recitative in Bach's Vocal Works [Bradley Lehman]
Discussions of Recitatives: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Continuo in Bach’s Vocal Works: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8