3-24-14<\/p>\n
At Christmastime many people listen to Handel\u2019s \u201cMessiah.\u201d Some of us listen to excerpts; some listen to the entire work. Some people attend performances at local churches or watch television broadcasts. For some people it is their only exposure to Baroque music during the year\u2026 and for too many, sadly, their only exposure to church music. Yet, in the words of the Sursum Corda portion of the liturgy, it is meet and right so to do. In all times and in all places \u2013 or, as often as possible \u2013 we should commune with our God. And that should apply to Easter as much as Christmas; with other supernal music as much as the traditional \u201cMessiah.\u201d<\/p>\n
If we would wade into the waters of debate about the relative importance of dates in the Christian calendar, we would be reminded that over the centuries, Christmas was a relatively minor celebration, at least compared to Easter. (And that the Feast of the Ascension \u2013 marking Jesus\u2019s physical rise to Heaven, completing the affirmation of His divinity, closing the theological circle of the Incarnation, begun with the Virgin Birth \u2013 was once more observed than it is in today\u2019s churches.)<\/p>\n
A propos these observations, I offer a suggestion that we all reverently replicate the consideration we give to Easter, and the attention we pay to the \u201cMessiah,\u201d by something new this Lenten season. Lent should be more than giving up chocolate, anyway!<\/p>\n
Additionally, Lent gives us 40 days (that is, more than the week or so that Christmas affords) to enjoy music, and contemplate this season, concerning the most profound event in the history of humankind.<\/p>\n
Let us avoid the temptation, for a time, to watch and wait upon events that explode in our midst, as compelling as are Russian osmotic invasions, or the perplexing disappearance of passenger planes. Let us look inward and commemorate an event 2000 years old but as immediate as the seconds and minutes of our fleeting lives. <\/p>\n
I suggest we listen to one of the greatest creative works of the human race, Johann Sebastian Bach\u2019s \u201cPassion According to St Matthew.\u201d The word Passion refers specifically to the rejection, betrayal, suffering, humiliation, torture, pain, and death of Jesus. That we should focus on these details indicates no prurience: that any person, much less the Son of God who could have waved it all away, endured such things, for us, ought to inspire our devotion.<\/p>\n
So the \u201cSt Matthew Passion\u201d enables us to understand, to internalize, to enrich our faith. There is a link below to an astonishing performance. I commend it, to watch in portions or in one dedicated private time. If you cannot, I will still explain why it is beneficial, and how art can serve our appreciation of the gospel.<\/p>\n
Johann Sebastian Bach\u2019s setting of the Passion story is based on Matthew chapters 27 and 28. Christian composers, as early as the eighth century, but mainly in the 16th-18th centuries, wrote Passions to be distinct from other church music. Passions used large ensembles, sometimes two choirs, orchestras, and organs. They were dramatic presentations, with \u201cnarrators\u201d and soloists. Sometimes they were performed outside churches, occasionally in costumes and with dramatic action, a halfway-house to oratorios or opera.<\/p>\n
In Bach\u2019s version, he declined costumes but achieved great drama. In our video link you will see a stark and spare performance stage, singers in simple suits or dresses. There are no props; it is not in a cathedral. However you will notice profound symbolism in the changing placement of the singers; the colors that light the performance stage; and the illuminated Cross that floats above the performers \u2013 changing shades, morphing from dark to light to dark. <\/p>\n
This video \u2013 made in 1971, and conducted by the legendary Bach interpreter Karl Richter \u2013 is an immense work of art in itself. <\/p>\n
You will be grateful that the text, translated to English, is on the screen. When subtitles do not appear, it is because singers are repeating phrases. This impactful video allows you to appreciate the myriad of subtleties Bach used to emphasize the STORY of the Passion, behind the lyrics and melodies. Words are biblical passages, or the librettist\u2019s paraphrases.<\/p>\n
Take note of the highlighting of meaningful words, by orchestral emphasis. Notice that solo voices have keyboard accompaniment; Jesus has keyboard and strings\u2026 except for His dramatic cry \u201cWhy hast Thou forsaken me?\u201d <\/p>\n
Notice the music (instrumentation and style of play) reflecting singers\u2019 hope, sorrow, or desperation. <\/p>\n
Notice the musical (and the camera\u2019s) emphasis on words like \u201cBarabbas!\u201d and \u201ckill Him!\u201d and \u201ccrucify!\u201d Notice Bach\u2019s use of musical devices \u2013 pulsating rhythms for tension; short bursts by the flutes to suggest tears; upward modulation when hope is displayed. <\/p>\n
Note the repetition of musical themes (popular church tunes) by the choruses to unify the narrative themes. <\/p>\n
This is a monumental work of art. <\/p>\n
The \u201cSt Matthew Passion\u201d was considered by Bach to be his most significant work. It was first performed in Leipzig at the St-Thomas Church in 1727, and many Holy Weeks thereafter; he frequently revised it. His autograph score shows loving attention, written in red or brown inks according to the biblical and dramatic libretto sources, and employing calligraphy in careful Gothic or Latin letters. He preserved it as an heirloom. <\/p>\n
Baroque music and Bach\u2019s genius temporarily were out of fashion after his death in 1750, and the \u201cSt Matthew Passion\u201d was never performed again until 102 years after its debut. Felix Mendelssohn had discovered it, conducted a condensed version in Berlin\u2026 and the Bach Revival, which has never stopped, began. Mendelssohn, a Jew converted to Christianity, found his Lutheran faith much strengthened by Bach\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
Other famous Passions of our time include the play in Oberammergau, a small Bavarian town of two thousand inhabitants, half of whom stage and act in the seven-hour re-creation of Holy Week events. The play has been produced every ten years since 1634 when the town, threatened by the bubonic plague, collectively prayed for mercy and vowed to share with the world this portion of the gospel story if they were spared. In Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, every July the Canadian Badlands Passion Play is presented in a thirty-acre canyon bowl that forms a natural amphitheater. And of course many people watched the movie \u201cThe Passion of the Christ\u201d a decade ago. <\/p>\n
None can be more powerful than Bach\u2019s version. If you are unfamiliar with, or dislike, \u201cclassical music,\u201d this video will not kill you. If the hairstyles or once-cool eyeglasses of 1971\u2019s performers look squirrely, just imagine how we would look to them; or how a magical capture of the actual 1727 debut in Leipzig would look to us. Or how the original suffering and death of Jesus, nearly 2000 years ago, would have seemed if we were there\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026 ah! THAT is the art of J S Bach. This performance of the \u201cPassion of Jesus Christ as Recorded by St Matthew,\u201d DOES bring us back to the amazing, profound, and significant events of our Savior\u2019s willing sacrifice for us. It is REAL. All the elements of Art \u2013 not just music and words, but the nuances of staging \u2013 drive the meaningful messages home. To our hearts.<\/p>\n
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