Johannes Passion
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The Johannes Passion (English: St. John Passion), BWV 245, 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 of 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 two recitative passages, dealing with Peter crying after his betrayal and the temple veil ripped during the crucification are not contained within the Gospel of John, but of Matthew. These interpolated passages were later eliminated.
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[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. The original version from 1724 is the one most familiar to us today. In 1725, Bach replaced the opening and closing choruses and added three arias (BWV 245a-c) 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 excised the two interpolations from the Gospel of Matthew which appear in the work, probably due to objections by the ecclesiastical authorities. The first of these he simply removed; he composed a new instrumental sinfonia in lieu of the second. He also inserted an aria to replace the still-missing Ach, Mein sinn. Neither the aria nor the sinfonia have been preserved into present days.
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.
[edit] Criticism
The text Bach set to music has been criticized as anti-Semitic. This accusation is closely connected to a wider controversy regarding the tone of the Christian New Testament's Gospel of John with regards to Judaism. Michael Marissen's Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's "St. John's Passion" examines the controversy in balanced detail. He concludes that Bach's St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion contain fewer statements derogatory toward Jews than many other contemporary musical settings of the Passion.
Marissen compares Bach's St. John with the Brockes-Passion set by Handel and other composers, which 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 Gesù 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 has a larger number of negative references to the Jews 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 the St. John and St. Matthew must be considered within their own historical context.
[edit] Further reading
- Michael Marissen, Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's "St. John's Passion." NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-511471-X
- Alfred Dürr, Johann Sebastian Bach, St. John Passion: Genesis, Transmission, and Meaning, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0198162405.
