For Instance, The Choir Need Neither Receive Or Deserve A Flogging
Sir Donald on performance practice
The conditions under which poor Bach worked were neither metropolitan nor otherwise oputlent. He furnished his church cantatas week by week, as the parson furnished his Sunday sermon; and a trustworthy tradition tells us that the performances were generally atrocious and that a subsequent flogging for the ringleaders of the choir was almost part of the ritual.
To perform Bach properly, we must understand the capacity and character of his instruments and must not read irrelevant elements into his aesthetic system; but some contemporary elements were irrelevant and need not be reproduced. For instance, the choir need neither receive nor deserve a flogging.
