It was only in 1721, 3 years before Bach’s first Easter in Leipzig, that the local church authorities allowed the then-cantor, Johann Kuhnau, to perform a Passion Oratorio in concertante style for the Good Friday evening service. Up until then, the long-standing tradition in Leipzig (as opposed to other, more progressive locations in Germany) had been for the congregation to sing multi-stanza hymns paraphrasing the Passion Story (the story of Christ’s arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and burial) which dated back to the Luther years.
Kuhnau seized the opportunity to, unknowingly, blaze the trail for Bach. Even though we only have fragments of the “St. Mark Passion” that he presented that year, we can see traces of the model that Bach adopted in 1724 with his St. John Passion: unaltered biblical narrative for soloists and choir with interpolations of hymn strophes and “madrigal pieces” of poetry in the form of arias, which pause the action at key points and present opportunities for reflection and introspection.
After performing the St. John Passion two years in a row (not without significant variances in 1725), Bach decided to address what he perceived as a shortcoming – its libretto. The poetry in it was compiled from different sources (possibly by Bach himself) and, as masterful as the music is, on a certain level this aesthetic problem can’t be concealed. Bach went to Christian Friedrich Henrici, alias Picander, to commission a libretto based on St. Matthew’s account of the Passion story. This would mark the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration between Bach and Picander over the years.
We don’t know much about how Bach and Picander worked together, but we can assume that Bach gave Picander some directives: to use the intact Gospel text for the narrative; to incorporate madrigalian poetry more evenly throughout the gospel scenes than it was the case in St. John; and to precede most arias with “ariosos” as transitional devices. Bach probably also influenced the selection of chorales, given how well he knew the Lutheran hymnal. It’s clear that Bach thoroughly appreciated and valued Picander’s work, as he acknowledged him prominently on the cover page of his autograph copy of the Passion. Christoph Wolff categorically says, “Without such strong poetry to work with, Bach would hardly have been able to create his refined and deeply moving masterwork.”
The churches of St. Nicholas and St. Thomas had worked out a rotational schedule to host the Good Friday Vespers service, and 1726 was St. Nicholas’ turn. This was fortunate since Bach had a clear vision for scale, resources and space that his new Passion would demand – which could only be satisfied at St. Thomas. So for 1726 he scheduled Reinhard Keiser’s “St. Mark Passion” (a piece he had already presented during his Weimar years) at St. Nicholas, thus giving himself and Picander two years to complete “The Great Passion”. After its first performance in 1727, Bach continued to revise the work, which was performed again at least two more times, in 1736 and in the early 1740’s. The “definitive” version is considered to be the 1736 one, preserved in Bach’s autograph copy.
What in Bach’s vision for the St. Matthew Passion determined such a large scale for the work?
Whether a result of Picander’s own inspiration or through his collaboration with Bach, the SMP libretto approaches the Passion story from two main points of view: that of the “Daughters of Zion” (a Biblical image representing Jerusalem and, by extension, the people directly involved in the narrative) and the “Faithful” (representing the listeners, i.e. the present-day congregation). These two groups are set in juxtaposition in the text and interact with one another.
In alignment with the libretto structure, Bach scores the Passion for double forces — double choir, double orchestra, and solo vocal roles associated with each group as well. Collectively, Bach calls each group a “Coro” in the score. There is a lot of discussion and a rich variety of approaches among contemporary scholars and conductors in terms of the intended size of these Coros, but the fact remains that this structure has strong implications not only for resourcing a performance but also for the setup and layout of the performers within the venue. The opening and closing choruses of the first part of the Passion even incorporate a third choir of soprano ripienists (usually children) to sing the chorale lines, which could have been set up separately from the main groups. St. Thomas’ had a “swallow’s nest” gallery at the front with a small organ, and contemporary documentation shows unequivocally that the performance used “both organs”, so it’s likely that the children were there.
From a musical perspective, Bach was drawing upon his extensive experience writing cantatas, and, per usual, pushing the boundaries in terms of language and style. The SMP includes choral fantasias and chorales, recitatives both “secco” and accompanied, ariosos, and arias, as well as movements combining some of these forms. Both choirs are SATB and the orchestras include flutes, recorders, oboes (including da caccia and d’amore), strings, viola da gamba, lute, and continuo (organ/harpsichord, cello, violone).
The solo vocal roles include the Evangelist (tenor), Jesus, Peter, Judas, Pilates, High Priests I & II (basses), Maids I & II, and Pilate’s wife (sopranos). The choirs sometimes engage in a dialog with each other as described before, and in other moments (like the chorales) they join together. They also assume roles in the story at times, like Jesus’ disciples, angry mobs (turbae), or onlookers.
In driving cohesiveness for its libretto and deploying his genius and craft to set it into music, Bach created a masterpiece that stands as a crown achievement within his own oeuvre and indeed all of Western music. In the coming entries we’ll go deeper into each part and scene to unlock their ability to speak to us.
