The Carus Choir Coach offers choir singers the unique opportunity to study and learn their own, individual choral parts within the context of the sound of of the entire choir and orchestra. For every vocal range a separate CD containing each choir part is available. The CD is based on recorded interpretations by renowned artists who have performed the work from carefully prepared Carus Urtext editions. Each choir part is presented in three different versions:
- Original recording
- Coach: each part is accompanied by the piano, with the original recording sounding in the background
- Coach in slow mode: the tempo of the coach slows down to 70% of the original version – through this reduction passages can be learned more effectively.
For many choral singers Jesu, meine Freude is not just a motet by Bach, but the motet par excellence. Bach’s motets as a whole have to be described as exceptional works, but even amongst these this is an exceptional work which is out of the ordinary not only in terms of its length. The formal conception, with its alternating chorale and Bible verses in 11 sections in a symmetrical structure, is also unique. The motet was very probably composed for a funeral, but no further details about this are known. By comparison, there are clear indications that the motet, as we now know it, was probably not composed in one go, but was composed over a long period of time.
