Morimur

In music of the Baroque era, it was popular to use the medium of numbers for riddles and hidden messages. Research on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach has over the years unearthed numerous coded references, for instance to his name, and a veritable theology in numbers and notes has been deduced from his sacred music.

The unexpected insight that purely instrumental works, such as the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin can also be read this way is the discovery of Professor Helga Thoene, of the University of Düsseldorf. Her interpretation of the Ciaccona from the Partita in D Minor BWV 1004 as an "epitaph in music" for Maria Barbara Bach is based upon the chorale quotations concealed in the piece as well as on the symbolism of the numerical patterns, interpreted by means of gematria: "Frequently we can identify two or even three lines of a chorale in interlocking counterpoint and discover that they define the harmonic progression of a phrase, or even of an entire movement. Often the secret chorale quotations are embellished in the contrapuntal texture with broken chords containing the notes of the melody, sometimes in alternating registers. The quotations are also highlighted by musico-rhetorical figures that reflect the unstated words or emotional contents of the chorale (...) The abstract figures in this wordless music speak a specific but clandestine language that can be made intelligible through decryption."

Professor Thoene published her findings on the Ciaconna in the Cöthener Bach-Hefte, an academic journal devoted to Bach studies, in 1994. Intrigued by the implications of this text, Christoph Poppen discussed with producer Manfred Eicher the possibility of a recording that would make the "hidden chorales" audible and a collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble was proposed. Widely acclaimed for their adventurous reconstructions of early music (including Lassus, Guillaume de Machaut, and "Officium" with saxophonist Jan Garbarek) the Hilliard singers rise to the challenge of illuminating Bach's thought. "What we hear [on "Morimur"] is surely something of what went on inside Bach's head as he composed the pieces," says tenor John Potter. What words and musical notation present analytically becomes an audible reality in this recording.

The five movements of the Partita No. 2 are linked together by various chorales on "Morimur". (It is striking, too, to hear Bach chorales sung by a small ensemble). So: the Partita is played in its entirety.

The album's dramaturgy climaxes with a revelatory version of the Ciaconna for violin and voices, where the Hilliard singers intone the single verses in parallel with the solo instrument. Herbert Glossner, in the liner notes: "The present recording of the Ciaconna with members of the Hilliard Ensemble makes perceivable the ingenious interplay between the virtuoso and harmonically complex violin part and the lines of the chorales. This recording turns the piece into a work literally never heard before." Except perhaps in the composer's own mind.

Ex Deo nascimur/In Christo morimur/Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus is a Trinitarian formula summing up the central articles of Christian faith. ("We are born of God, We die in Christ, We are reborn through the Holy Spirit") Amongst her many discoveries, Professor Thoene finds this saying embedded, encrypted, throughout the D Minor Partita and stressed particularly in the Cicaonna; the discovery adds weight to her thesis that the work was conceived originally as a tombeau for Bach's wife.