Johannes Passion

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Johannes Passion (English: St. John Passion) is a musical composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. Originally meant to be performed for the first time in the St. Thomas church in Leipzig, the St. John Passion was first performed in 1724 in the St Nicholas church. It is shorter than the St. Matthew Passion and researchers have discovered that Bach revised the work several times before producing a final version in the 1740s. Alternate numbers that Bach introduced in 1725 but later removed can be found in the appendix to scores of the work such as that of the Neue Bach Ausgabe (and heard in the recording by Emmanuel Music directed by Craig Smith, cited below).

The text for the body of the work is taken from The Gospel According to St. John chapters 18 and 19. Bach used Martin Luther's translation of the Bible with only slight modifications. The text for the opening prayer "Herr, unser Herrscher, dessen Ruhm" as well as the arias, chorales and the penultimate chorus "Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine" each come from various other sources. It is interesting to note also that the recitative "Und siehe da, der Vorhang im Tempel zerriß" is not found in the book of John but rather comes from the Gospel According to St Matthew.

The work has been criticized--especially in recent years--for its allegedly anti-Semitic text, which some have seen as being influenced by an infamous work written by Protestant reformer Martin Luther named "On the Jews and Their Lies" (1543). This debate is closely connected to an overall controversy having to do with the tone of the Christian New Testament's "Gospel of John" with regards to Judaism, and indeed to the larger theme of the censorship of art. A balanced discussion of the claims of anti-Semitism is provided in Michael Marissen's Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's "St. John's Passion."

It is observable that the St. John Passion of Bach (as well as the St. Matthew Passion) has minimal statements that are derogatory of Jews when compared with other musical settings of the Passion. Marissen compares Bach's St. John with the Brockes-Passion set by Handel and other composers, and the latter contains many anti-Semitic lines that have no parallel in Bach's work. (See on this Marissen, pp. 28ff..) Another work which can usefully be compared is Metastasio's libretto La Passione di Nostro Signore Gesu Cristo set by Caldara, Jommelli, and Salieri, the second part of which has a recitative and aria by Joseph of Arimathea predicting woes on Jerusalem for rejecting Christ. Even the Passion cantata Die Letzten Leiden des Erloesers (Wq. 233) by Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel arguably has more references to the Jews in a derogatory fashion than does the St. John Passion of Sebastian. Although many quite understandably are sensitive to any suggestion of anti-Semitism in the wake of 20th century events like the Holocaust, others would argue that it would be truly unfortunate to divorce the St. John and St. Matthew from their historical context.

[edit] Versions

Unlike the St. Matthew Passion, to which Bach made very few and insignificant changes, the St. John Passion was subject to several major revisions. 1724, the original version, is the one most familiar to us today. In 1725, Bach replaced the opening and closing choruses and added three arias while cutting one, 'Ach mein sinn' from the original version. The opening chorus was replaced by O Mensch bewein dein Sünde groß which was later transposed and reused at the end of part one of the St. Matthew Passion. The closing chorale was replaced by a setting of Christe, Du Lamm Gottes, taken from the cantata BWV 23. The three new arias are not known to have been reused. In the 1730s, Bach revised the St. John Passion again, restoring the original opening chorus and final chorale, and removing the three new arias. He also (probably due to objections by the ecclesiastical authorities) excised the two interpolations from the St. Matthew gospel which appear in the work. The first of these he simply removed; for the second he composed a new instrumental sinfonia. He also inserted an aria to replace the still-missing Ach, Mein sinn. Neither the aria nor the sinfonia have come down to us.

In 1749, he reverted more or less to the original of 1724, making only slight changes to the orchestration, most notably replacing the by-then almost obsolete violas d'amore with muted violins.