The opening movement of the Mass in B minor will forever remain the benchmark of my piano and transcription technique. I am pleased with my progress in both areas over the past two years, culminating into this second edition.
In this revision I have completely rewritten the first and last 4 bars, especially in b.4 where a sixth voice of the descending scale by violin I is added, and even though now that the bass is doubled the other vocal parts are not sacrificed. In between there were only two instances of octave transpositions; the rest remains the same as my first version, but with improvements in typesetting and readability throughout. Below are my revised transcription notes:
Priority is given to vocal parts since the core of this movement is the five-part fugue sung by the choir. During the instrumental interlude, parts that contain the subject, countersubject, or other important motifs, and the bass are always included. Additional parts are selected to fulfill the figured bass realization. Sometimes a part is formed from fragments of different instrumental parts. As the choir reenters, the instrumental parts are gradually taken over.
At the end of the movement marks Sequitur Christe in the manuscript, which literally means "followed by Christe." There are different interpretations on this, for obviously one movement is to be followed by the next, but whether it means attacca (continue without pause) is not clear to me. The Masses in the Renaissance/Baroque period open with Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie usually in a single movement without indication of tempo change. For Bach's Mass I am inclined to treat this as a breath mark and then play the next movement at a related tempo.
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Mass in B minor, BWV 232 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
1. Kyrie eleison
Arr.: Ruoshi Sun (2021, rev 2024)
Piano: Ruoshi Sun (2024) on CLP-785
Temperament: Werckmeister
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17 сен 2024
