Johann Friedrich Fasch’s Mich vom Stricke meiner Sünden – a work for Zerbst?

Abstract

Johann Friedrich Fasch reports in his autobiography, that he composed ‘strong’(‘starke’) Passion in his first year as Kapellmeister of Zerbst and, based upon this single piece of evidence, the date 1723 has generally been accepted as the possible year of composition for Fasch’s oratorio Mich vom Stricke meiner Sünden. That is, until 1997 when the completion a major study of the Zerbst Passion tradition and of the Zerbster Gesangbücher cast great doubt on this assumption. Evidence from the court records rules out the performance of Mich vom Stricke meiner Sünden, as part of the liturgy in the Schloßkirche. In this paper the two sources of the work will be compared and the evidence that suggests that the work was completed prior to Summer 1722 will be examined, in particular the evidence provided by the Zerbst Cantional, to demonstrate that the forms of the melody in Mich vom Stricke meiner Sünden are at variance with the those used by Fasch in sacred cantata works from his first year of employment at Zerbst. To conclude, the circumstances of a performance in Greiz are discussed.