A Guide to Bach’s St. Matthew Passion

Posted by DJL on Mar 29, 2013 in Music | 1 comment

There are two types of worship services most regularly associated with Good Friday. One is the traditional service of the “Seven Words from the Cross.” The service, often held between noon and three – the hours Christ hung on the cross – is composed of hymns, readings and a brief meditation on each the seven words Christ uttered from the cross as recorded by the four evangelists.

The other common occasion for worship on Good Friday is the Tenebrae service, usually held in the evening and arranged around the passion story as recorded by St. John. Tenebrae comes from the Latin word for “shadows,” and at various parts of this service of readings and hymns, candles are extinguished and elements of the altar are either draped in black or carried out of the church until the sanctuary is left dark, bare, and silent.

A third tradition that arose in the middle ages and is less common today was to set the biblical accounts of the passion to music. Reaching the highpoint in the Baroque era, these musical passions grew from simple melodies attached to single verses from the passion narrative to rich and complex orchestral and choral works that continue to move and inspire believers and non-believers alike. Chief among these works – and, indeed, one of the most famous and beloved pieces of music in the Western canon — is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Passion According to St. Matthew.

As with almost every other form of music he touched, Bach took the Passion oratorio to new heights. As one article describes

Even by the standard of the Baroque passion, the Passion According to St. Matthew is exceptional for its musical richness and its grand scope. Musically, the score is of imposing length, and calls for double orchestra and double choir—three choirs, at one point. The musical textures range from complex counterpoint to simple hymns. Dramatically, the point of view shifts regularly, from the narrative of the Evangelist, to the actual words of Jesus and his disciples, to reflections that speak for the individual believer. But in Bach’s hands, the effect that the Passion gives is not one of a brilliant collage, but a single, sustained, somber meditation—appropriate for a work that was first performed as part of a church service.

Interestingly, while it is now regarded as one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, the St. Matthew Passion was not well received at first. As James Gaines writes in his wonderful Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment, Bach wrote this piece during a contentious time during his regularly troubled relationship with the town council of Leipzig:

One would think the performance of his first version of the St. Matthew Passion the following Easter might have quieted [the council] down a bit. Besides being the greatest of all Bach’s passions, besides being perhaps the greatest oratorio and one of the most ambitious and powerful works of music ever written, the St. Matthew Passion was also one that used to maximum effect the new forms of recitative and da capo aria with which Bach had been enriching the repertoire of Lutheran church music for several years. Clearly, however, his superiors and parishioners were not particularly grateful for this technical and aesthetic achievement, because the only recorded review of the St. Matthew Passion in Bach’s lifetime was from an aged widow in the congregation: “God help us! It’s an opera-comedy!”

Performed several times between 1727 and 1729 and revised in the 1730s, the St. Matthew Passion never received great critical acclaim during Bach’s lifetime and disappeared for nearly a century until it was revived in 1829 by Felix Mendelssohn and became a fixture of the Bach – and Christian – canon ever since.

Below is a 2008 audio program offering “A Visitor’s Guide to the St. Matthew Passion.” Hosted by NPR’s Lynn Neary, the 50-minute program features excerpts of the Passion with comments from top scholars, conductors, and musicians. It’s a marvelous piece and, quite frankly, I can’t think of a better way to observe Good Friday (except, of course, by going to church!) or Holy Saturday as we contemplate the mystery and wonder of Jesus’ sacrifice of love.

Below is also a recording of the St. Matthew Passion available on YouTube and below that a copy of the original score (courtesy of Minnesota Public Radio) should you want to follow along!

Original Manuscript of Matthaeus Passion

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