4-3-15<\/p>\n
Some non-Christians, and many Christians, are a little confused about the term \u201cPassion\u201d when describing the final week of Jesus\u2019s earthly life, the pre-risen Savior. Normally, being passionate is a good thing, something we all seek or endorse.<\/p>\n
In fact Passion is from the Latin, patere, meaning to suffer. It describes an emotion at the extremities of enthusiasm or sorrow. Diderot, father of the modern dictionary concept, described Passion as “penchants, inclinations, desires, and aversions carried to a certain degree of intensity, combined with an indistinct sensation of pleasure or pain.\u201d The fine line between joy and aversion, desire and rejection. (The passion fruit is not a putative aphrodisiac; when sliced in half, the pulp encases seeds bundled in the shape of a cross.)<\/p>\n
Advising students, \u201cBe passionate about what you pursue,\u201d and Mel Gibson\u2019s Passion of the Christ are different sides of the very same coin.<\/p>\n
And so, on Holy Week, we may pause at the supernal St Matthew Passion of Johann Sebastian Bach. Listen to it. Learn from it. For Holy Week vespers services, Bach wrote the St Matthew Passion, performed in Leipzig\u2019s St Thomas and St Nicholas churches on alternate years, for decades. He periodically made improvements to this, possibly his most favored of approximately 1800 works he composed. <\/p>\n
Bach employed a \u201csurround-sound\u201d structure in the St Matthew Passion:
\nstereophony. At St Thomas Church, certain movements were performed from the
\neast organ loft, the \u201cswallow\u2019s nest\u201d opposite the main musician\u2019s gallery at the
\nwest end of the church, a double-choir structure \u201cthat produced a splendid and
\nfestive effect.\u201d Smaller groups of musicians and singers performed from the church\u2019s many corners; worshipers heard music coming from every direction.<\/p>\n
The structure of Bach\u2019s Passions were strictly traditional; he changed little of the form he inherited. The straight biblical narrative was distributed among soloists (evangelists and various soliloquentes, or individual speakers including Jesus, Peter, Pilate, et al) and choirs (various turbae or crowds: high priests, Roman soldiers, Jews, etc). The Passion\u2019s flow was dotted by narration, hymn strophes, and contemplative lyrics, \u201cmadrigal pieces\u201d of free verse, mainly delivered as arias. One can begin to appreciate the spectacle that audiences beheld: a combination of church and theater, Greek-style drama and opera, music and voice, costume and acting.<\/p>\n
Bach revised the St Matthew Passion several times through the years (his best works were repeated in his churches, and performed elsewhere, just as he occasionally performed works of esteemed contemporaries), and, of his manuscript scores that survive today, none bears such respect as St Matthew. In 1736, at least, he considered it his most significant work. His autograph score shows loving attention, written in red or brown inks according to the biblical and dramatic libretto sources; calligraphy in careful Gothic or Latin letters; and preserved as an heirloom. In fact it appears that a later accident, perhaps a spill, damaged portions of some pages, and Bach lovingly repaired those sections with paste-overs.<\/p>\n
For half a century after Bach\u2019s death his musical style was out of style, and he slipped into relative obscurity. Eventually, however, the floodgates opened. The great German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe discovered Bach\u2019s music and described it: \u201cEternal harmony carries on a dialogue with itself on what God felt in his bosom shortly before the creation of the world.\u201d The composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, a Lutheran converted from Judaism, was awestruck by the St Matthew Passion and staged a legendary performance on Good Friday, 1829. Its revival was repeated, and Mendelssohn brought his enthusiasm for Bach to England, where Felix was a favorite of the German-descended Queen Victoria (of Saxon and Hanoverian royalty). <\/p>\n
Since then it is performed regularly, everywhere and at any time through the year. However, it is most appropriate during Holy Week. Its parts were performed on
\nseparate nights of daily services between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, each re-creating the events of Holy Week \u2013 Jesus\u2019s entry to Jerusalem; the contention with the Jewish Sanhedrin and Roman authorities; the Last Supper; His betrayal; the trials and persecution; the Crucifixion. <\/p>\n
… The Passion that Christ endured for us, willingly taking on Himself the punishment and death we deserve as sinners who have separated ourselves from God.<\/p>\n
As I have recommended before, if you are a person who listens to traditional hymns or Handel\u2019s Messiah at Christmastime, or even if you are not, you will profit from setting some time aside and listening to Bach\u2019s St Matthew Passion, and absorb its musical grandeur, its setting, its cultural history… its meaning. No less today than when it was first performed 275 years ago. Or when events took place, 2000 years ago.<\/p>\n
Bach took the same care that the early evangelists, or recipients of their Epistles, might have shown to ancient events and texts. It is notable that history came to call Bach \u201cThe Fifth Evangelist,\u201d the accolade bypassing even his spiritual mentor Martin Luther.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
A performance of the Passion based on St Matthew\u2019s Gospel. The great Bach interpreter Karl Richter conducts the Munich Bach Orchestra and the Munich Bach Choir. With English subtitles. This production is a work of art in itself: an appropriately bleak but very expressive setting. The cross, overhead the performers, grows lighter and darker responding to the dramatic narrative.<\/p>\n