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sermon at the Good Friday service
(in either 1727 or 1729). Bach also
collaborated with the Leipzig poet
Picander to create a libretto, which
both presented the biblical drama
and offered contemplations upon
the content. The St. Thomas Church
for which it was written added an
extra layer of drama to proceedings;
by using its two organ lofts, Bach
was able to distribute his forces
as a double choir across the venue.
Although he had employed such
techniques in other works, such as
the motets, its use here with the
addition of two orchestras and
organists allowed for the widest
variety of dramatic textures.
In addition to the original
material, Bach also inserted a
number of Lutheran chorales.
When Martin Luther had started
translating services into German,
new melodies had been required.
These formed well-known hymns
that became the mainstay of
congregational worship. Bach
harmonized many hundreds of
such melodies, regularly using
them as the basis of cantatas or
chorale preludes. In the St. Matthew
Passion, the chorale melodies date
from between 1525 and 1656, and
would therefore have been familiar
to his audience. Most are presentedBAROQUE 1600 –1750
in four-part harmony, but three
are referenced as accompanying
elements in other movements. In
this way, Bach was able to mix the
known with the new—essential for
a congregation first experiencing
such an intense, large-scale work.Musical characterization
Rather like an opera, the key
roles in the St. Matthew Passion
are taken by soloists, but in the
absence of physical drama and
costumes, Bach often gives them
distinct musical characterizations.
The tenor Evangelist, the narrator,
always uses recitative secco with
continuo (speechlike solo singing
with a sparse bass accompaniment)
to deliver the Gospel texts. This
allows the narrative to be strong,
clear, and unambiguous. The words
of Jesus, however, are recitatives
accompanied by the strings from
the first orchestra. In playing
sustained notes and highlighting
key words, they add an unworldly
sound to the Vox Christi (voice of
Christ)—often likened to a halo.
Such characterization is perhaps
most strongly heard when, almost
operatically, Jesus utters his last
words without the accompaniment
of strings, resulting in the trulydevastating pathos of abandonment.
However, in the hands of Bach, this
same absence of strings in the
soprano aria “Aus Liebe will mein
Heiland sterben” (“Out of Love My
Saviour Is Willing to Die”) suggests
a different, almost plaintive mood.
Throughout the work, Bach is
clearly aware of the need to use
the orchestra to ensure that his
congregation receives the full ❯❯Cantatas and oratorios
The oratorio had traditionally
been a concert piece for
orchestra, choir, and soloists,
depicting a biblical episode or
the life of a saint. It differed from
opera only in being unstaged
and lacking interaction between
characters. The cantata often
used similar forces but was
performed in church before
and after the sermon and was
a series of reflections on the
service’s biblical texts. Both
genres used operatic elementssuch as recitatives, arias, and
choruses, but the cantata tends
to use them more subtly in
order to imply the drama.
By the High Baroque period,
it is difficult to differentiate the
cantata from the oratorio. Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio, for example,
is actually a cantata. Bach,
whose cantatas are considered
to be some of the most sublime
religious music ever written,
also wrote secular works in
the genre, such as the Coffee
Cantata, which is essentially
a short comic opera.Bach played the organ and taught
for 27 years at the St Thomas School
in Leipzig, as shown here in an 1882
engraving. He and his pupils supplied
music for the city’s four main churches.One who has completely
forgotten Christianity
truly hears it here
as Gospel.
Friedrich NietzscheUS_098-105_JS_Bach_Passion.indd 103 26/03/18 1:00 PM