Friday, 7 October 2011

Erbarme Dich from Bach St Matthew Passion



Erbarme dich,
Mein Gott, um meiner Zähren willen!
Schaue hier,
Herz und Auge weint vor dir
Bitterlich.




Have mercy Lord,

My God, because of this my weeping!
Look thou here,
Heart and eyes now weep for thee
Bitterly.

4 comments:

  1. This Aria for Alto, here sung by a counter tenor, comes at the moment after Peter denied Jesus for three times. It always moves me to listen to it. Note that the violin obbligato melody is what is given to you as assignment this week.

    Chee Yean

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  2. i'm sorry sir...can you explain again wat we should need to mention in our assignment??
    thanks~
    kahmen

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  3. First, find the imperfect cadence, its splits the melody into two parts, it should be quite clear by just looking at the rhythmic features of both parts - they look totally different.

    Then explain how Bach managed to create such a long melody without coming to a stop. Your description should be based on how he avoids the arrival of tonic at the very end through play of intervals and rhythm.

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