'Aus Liebe'— Mit Freuden: Zu einer neuen Interpretation von Bachs Arie aus der Matthäus-Passion.

Tibia, 2001/1, 353-362.

SUMMARY

'Aus Liebe' — With Joy: Towards a new Interpretation of the Aria from Bach's St. Matthew Passion
The aria 'Aus Liebe' from Bach's St. Matthew Passion is usually interpreted and performed as a meditation on the death of Christ. The traditional slow tempo appears to be a misconception: this aria is one grand expression of thankfulness, dwelling on the positive side of the Passion. Bach composed it in the modern style of the Empfindsamkeit, brimming with elegance and gracefulness, with ornamental appoggiaturas and fully notated ornamentation, all in a lilting ternary metre. One of the main arguments for a quicker tempo (I suggest 60 to 66 quarter notes in one minute) is the fact that Bach's librettist Picander wrote a second text to this music. In the funeral music for Leopold von Anhalt-Cöthen (1729), the Köthener Trauermusik, the aria starts with the words 'Mit Freuden, mit Freuden sey die Welt verlassen': 'With joy, with joy the world be left'.

Thiemo Wind

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