ABSTRACT
Extant details of information concerning Bach's own performances of his cantatas are few indeed. It is true, the original performance parts of quite a large number of the works have been preserved. But representing, as they do, a period in which essential matters pertaining to the realization of the written score in actual sound were still left to improvisation or verbal communication—rather than being recorded on the page —the original parts give us little more than the straight musical text with a minimum of performance directions. It is all the more important to draw from these original sources all the pertinent information they will yield. 1
