Morimur (after J.S. Bach)

"The idea behind this release is the intriguing one, that by covertly slipping into his works snippets of Lutheran chorale tunes, Bach was offering hints as to those pieces' hidden meanings. ... What this disc sets out to do is to take the Second Partita and turn its notional Easter connotation of "in Christo morimur" (in Christ we die) into an audible one by interspersing its five movements with relevant verses and fragments from the chorales in question, suitably paschal numbers such as Christ lag in Todesbanden and Jesu, Deine Passion. Most fascinatingly of all, though, the great final Chaconne - a piece thought to have moving extra significance as a tombeau for Bach's first wife - is played twice, the second time with the Hilliard Ensemble adding the chorale quotations to the texture. ... No one would pretend that this project represents anything that Bach would ever have heard in performance, but the thought of those fleeting, ghostly chorale fragments being something he could have heard in his head is one that is hard to resist. And in the end, when the mind has cleared itself of musicology, this is above all one of those increasingly rare things - a moving and intelligently programmed disc that is effective from beginning to end."
- Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone

In music of the baroque era it was popular to use the medium of numbers for conveying secrets and riddles, and Bach studies have illuminated many new "meanings" in his sacred works. Now "Morimur" explores the coded references, and hidden messages in his solo violin music, opening a window on Bach's thought at a time when he was deeply affected by the sudden and tragic death of his wife, Maria Barbara, in 1720.
Building on the research of Professor Helga Thoene, violinist Christoph Poppen and the Hilliard Ensemble have realised a unique project for ECM New Series: They offer a stunning experience by interweaving the verses of the "hidden chorales" of the Ciaccona with Bach's harmonically complex violin part.