Hearing Bach's Passions - Daniel R Melamed

Bach's surviving passions are an essential part of the modern repertory. These large, complex pieces are well loved, but behind these familiar passion settings lurk questions and problems that emerge from our distance from their original context. Bach scholar Daniel Melamed provides unique insight into Bach's passion settings. Hearing Bach's Passions uses the Bach repertory to introduce readers to some of the intriguing issues in the study and performanceof older music, and explores what it means to listen to this music today.

...an extremely useful and illuminating study of the issues at hand ... will be an extremely valuable addition for those concerned with issues of performance practice, authenticity and scoring.
John Butt, Early Music

...the picture it draws is a useful corrective, and there are some apercus and helpful observations.
TLS

...engaging and thought-provoking for specialists and non-specialists alike, and essential reading for anyone looking for an accessible introduction to Bach's sacred music and the issues surrounding its scholarly interpretation and performance.
Alan Howard, Music and Letters, Vol. 88, No. 1