Turba

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judgment and mockery of Jesus in a representation of the Passion. Turbae choirs, in this case soldiers and the people, play a major role here because they drive the mood against Jesus; Painting by Giotto di Bondone , 14th century.

Turba ( Latin for “crowd”, “crowd”, but also “the tumult”, “the hustle and bustle”, “the noise”, pl. Turbae ) is the technical term for choirs that represent groups of people in passions , oratorios and other sacred musical works who are directly involved in the action, in contrast to the choirs who reflect or comment on the action. They also complement the soliloquents who represent individual actors in the respective stories.

For example, Heinrich Schütz puts the following groups together to form turba choirs in his St. Matthew Passion :

  • The disciples of Jesus
  • The whole bunch
  • High priest
  • High priests, scribes and elders
  • High priests and pharisees
  • Jews and soldiers
  • Captain and soldiers

Similarly, the Turba choirs can be found in different scenes in the St. Matthew Passion and the St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach . They represent the disciples of Jesus , the Jewish people or the soldiers. In some cases, through the use of the excited masses of the people, a strong dramaturgy is achieved in the Passions, which contrasts sharply with the gentleness of Jesus.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary . Vol. II, Darmstadt 1995, Col. 3257.
  2. ↑ Bruno Grusnick (Ed.): St. Matthew Passion according to the complete edition: Heinrich Schütz, New Edition of all Works, Vol. 2, Kassel 1957
  3. ↑ See: They shouted even more . In Günter Jena : Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Experiences and thoughts of a conductor . Munich 1993, pp. 254-261.