Varied Bach ritornelli

Eventually I will develop this into a future post.

Here are snippets from the opening and closing ritornelli of the bass aria “Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder” of the Saint Matthew Passion, as presented in the NBA.  Note that there is an extra, ornamental note in the opening but not the closing:

SOURCE:  composite of bb. 4 and 56 from St. Matthew Passion no. 42, from NBA Ser. II vol. 5, pp. 189 and 193.

The BG edition lacks the extra note throughout.  But the NBA Notenband is misleading here—as Bach’s autograph score indicates the closing ritornello only by means of a da Capo (as indeed do all the surviving authentic performance parts).  The score (a fair copy from 1735) includes the ornamental note, but none of the parts have it, nor does the subsequent manuscript copy of the “early” version.  I am puzzled that the NBA would give this reading in the opening and not the closing.  Exploring a few recordings, I note that the McCreesh recording has the ornamental extra note in both the opening and closing.

I haven’t yet consulted other editions.  I wondered too if this had been corrected in a subsequent printing of the NBA volume, and—more importantly—if it has been updated in the NBA performance parts.  My copy of the Kritischer Bericht does not list this oddity among the errata, so I assume it wasn’t considered to be an error, as surely it must have been noticed.

More to follow on this.  Some day....