Katabasis

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The katabasis (from ancient Greek καταβαίνειν katabaínein , German `` descend '' , `` descend '') is a musical figure that - through appropriately falling tones - expresses submission, pain and awe.

The musical symbol is connected to a text passage that demands submission and prosksynesis and functions through the musical reality as an image of the thought expressed by the text.

The figure clarifies the meaning of the text as a kind of image, but on the other hand, detached from the text, so to speak, a musical descent is carried out. The katabasis thus not only describes a "tone-text relationship", but also an experience in the music itself. (See synaesthesia )

example

In the second part of the motet Singet dem Herrn a new song ( BWV 225) by JS Bach , the passage “[…] (God) knows, we are just dust […]” (measure 173) contains a typical katabasis.

Bach underlines the humble, even “petty” fact that man consists only of dust with a katabasis. The soprano performs a small but obvious "bowing act" by descending from C '' to F '. The composer not only lets the soprano but all other voices (alto, tenor, bass) take this downward path. Through this katabasis, Bach lets people feel their knowledge of transience both in the text content and in the music.

literature

  • Dietrich Bartel: Handbook of musical figures. Laaber 1985.
  • Georg J. Buelow, u. a .: Art. Rhetoric and music. In: NGroveD SE. Vol. 21, p. 268.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Sing a new song to the Lord. (BWV: 225).