Bach's St John Passion sparks embodied music project at Royal Academy of Music

Professor Bettina Varwig of the University of Cambridge leads a research project exploring how 17th- and 18th-century listeners experienced music physically. Her work, in collaboration with violinist Margaret Faultless and tenor Nicholas Mulroy at the Royal Academy of Music, culminated in a two-day workshop on Bach's St John Passion. Participants were encouraged to move, kneel, and gesticulate, contrasting with modern concert hall norms of silence and stillness. Varwig cites historical accounts of music melting earwax, constricting chests, and rattling teeth. The project aims to make embodied listening the norm in classical music. Hector Berlioz's 1829 description of Beethoven's Op 131 quartet—hair tingling, teeth chattering—is cited as evidence that physical responses persisted into the 19th century. The Promenade concerts (1895) allowed movement, but stillness became standard. Varwig envisions a future where performers and audiences engage physically and emotionally. Separately, the article notes Keir Starmer's musical interests, including Shostakovich and Beethoven, and his support for music education, though funding for Arts Council England has not increased.