The Violins in Bach's St. John Passion

Bach’s St. John Passion comes down to us in two main sources: a score begun by the composer near the end of the 1730s but mostly copied a decade later by another scribe; and a set of parts documenting at least four different performances over a span of twenty-five years. ¹ While the score presents a relatively smooth appearance, the parts confront the reader with a minefield of insertions, deletions, reworkings, and reinstatements, all carried out by an equally daunting variety of means: crossing out, writing in, cutting away, sewing over. No one attempting to steer a path through this terrain will likely venture forth without the guidance provided by Arthur Mendel’s critical report to his edition of the Passion in the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. ² Not that Mendel makes the going easy—to put it mildly. But he does seem to have gone everywhere first and virtually never to have put a foot wrong. In one instance, however, I have found it impossible to follow Mendel’s lead.