A language learners’ forum

Bach: St. Matthew Passion - 20. Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen - Herreweghe

Since I was a teenager, I have listened to Bach, thanks to my father.
This is my favorite passage.

My question is, how much has changed from this work regarding sound compared to modern German?

Does it sound different in modern language standards?

Just curious.

https://youtu.be/pl9pFtkAsiE

https://youtu.be/JMZhWpg9OsM

https://youtu.be/SguNpDynB2k

For those interested in a German podcast on the theme of learning how to learn, a recent podcast episode in the SWR2 Wissen series called "Neuronale Fitness - Wie lernt das Gehirn?" may be of interest.

Recent podcasts in the series can be found here: https://www.swr.de/swr2/programm/podcast-swr2-wissen-100.html

mentecuerpo wrote:Bach: St. Matthew Passion - 20. Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen - Herreweghe

Since I was a teenager, I have listened to Bach, thanks to my father.
This is my favorite passage.

My question is, how much has changed from this work regarding sound compared to modern German?
...

Hi.
Do you mean how the written German has changed, or really how the sound of the language has changed? We've only got the text from Bach, no recording, so we can't really know exactly how they pronounced the words in Bach's time.

tungemål wrote:
Hi.
Do you mean how the written German has changed, or really how the sound of the language has changed? We've only got the text from Bach, no recording, so we can't really know exactly how they pronounced the words in Bach's time.

Good point! Has written German from Bach's time changed a lot compared to modern German? Probably, yes.

Can a modern German speaker understand the songs singed in Bach's pieces?

Just curious.

Thanks.

mentecuerpo wrote:Good point! Has written German from Bach's time changed a lot compared to modern German? Probably, yes.

What do you mean by "a lot"? Without looking at any examples, Johann Sebastian Bach lived in 1685 – 1750, which is relatively not that long ago for the language to change a lot. If we compare it to English, Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) and Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731) are popular writers and their novels (Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe, for instance) are pretty much readable to these days.

mentecuerpo wrote:songs singed

Irregular verb, "sung". The verb bothered me, so I couldn't help correcting

I would also say that the language has hardly changed at all since Bach's time. Here is the text of die Matthäus-Passion with a translation:
http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/notes_tran ... bwv244.htm

There may be couple of words that are oldfashioned or in a literary or religious style, but I guess native Germans would be familiar with them. Then there are a few variants: for instance "Herze" instead of "Herz".

„Dieser schreckliche Hut! Wo hat sie ihn her?

https://www.dw.com/de/etwas-durch-die-b ... l-18745487

Deepl.com translates "wo hat sie ihn her?" as "Where did she get it?"

Can you please tell me what "her" means in the sentence above?

DaveAgain wrote:

„Dieser schreckliche Hut! Wo hat sie ihn her?

https://www.dw.com/de/etwas-durch-die-b ... l-18745487

Deepl.com translates "wo hat sie ihn her?" as "Where did she get it?"

Can you please tell me what "her" means in the sentence above?

"her" means "from" - indicating coming from somewhere far from the speaker. Can also refer to time.

Compare "woher" which means "where from".

"Wo hat sie ihn her?" means "where did she find it?"

Here is an article on the adverbs hin and her:
https://www.thegermanprofessor.com/hin-or-her/

- hin generally indicates movement in a direction away from the speaker toward a particular destination.
- her generally indicates movement from a point of origin in a direction toward the speaker.