ProgLibSMP1

Johann Sebastian Bach St. Matthew Passion
(1685 � 1750)

��Bach has created, in the St. Matthew Passion, a masterpiece such as it is granted to the human race to have bestowed on them but rarely as the centuries grow and wane��
Philipp Spitta in Johann Sebastian Bach

Hard to believe though it may be today, had it not been for the perseverance of the young nineteenth-century composer Felix Mendelssohn, Bach�s masterpiece might well still lie forgotten among the papers of the German teacher Karl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832). As the director of Berlin�s Singakademie, Zelter was not only Mendelssohn�s instructor and mentor, but was also owner of the 164 precious pages of the St. Matthew Passion. Zelter felt that the Passion should not be performed; that no one could do it justice. Young Mendelssohn, however, took just the opposite point of view. Why shouldn�t the world be able to hear once again, this, the most glorious of all Bach�s religious music? With his friend Eduard Devrient he implored Zelter to let him present a performance. The year was 1829, one hundred years from the time of the work�s first presentation under Bach himself, and finally the two convinced Zelter to let them proceed.
Mendelssohn, who was then just twenty years old, conducted the performance on March 11, 1829 to great public acclaim. Until that time, the elder Bach was not considered a master of religious music, but as a result of Mendelssohn�s efforts, Europe became aware of Bach�s true importance for the first time.

If the 1829 performance of the St. Matthew Passion was a historic success, the first performance one hundred years before went by, in contrast, virtually unnoticed. The premiere took place on April 15 (Good Friday) 1729 in the St. Thomas Kirche at Leipzig, where Bach served as music director and cantor. On the same date, in the same city, a Passion by one Gottlieb Fr�ber was being presented, and to this performance went the majority of the audience, and the acclaim.

Of those compositions that have come down to us today, the St. Matthew Passion is considered Bach�s greatest oratorio achievement. As historians have indicated, Bach�s achievement was remarkable in that he was able to assimilate the accumulation of thirteen centuries of ideas and interpretation of the Passion into one magnificent work. Before him there had been the 5th century choral Passions that were chanted in plainsong during Holy Week (the Matthew text was given on Palm Sunday, Mark�s on Tuesday, Luke�s on Wednesday, and John�s on Good Friday). During medieval times there had been the Passion plays that told the story of the Crucifixion in drama form. Later, the Passion form became a blending of sacred and secular styles with everything from poetry to operatic arias and recitatives included. This was Bach�s heritage that he endowed with his own unique gifts to give us ultimately the greatest Passion ever created.
Bach had written the St. John Passion in 1723 and for this he had compiled the texts by himself, but when he began the composition of the St. Matthew Passion he called upon the services of his literary friend, C. F. Henrici, who wrote under the name Picander, to supply and organize the text.

The dramatic plan of the Passion is simple. The story is presented in a series of tableaux or pictures and at traditional places the tale is interrupted while the previous action becomes the subject of a pious meditation. Recitatives lead up to most of the arias. As Schweitzer comments: �At minor resting points the feelings of the Christian spectators are expressed in chorale verses. The choice of these fell to Bach, since no poet of that epoch (Picander included) who had any respect for himself would be troubled with a secondary task of that kind. It is just in the insertion of these choral strophes that the full depth of Bach�s poetic sense is revealed. It would be impossible to find, in the whole of the hymns of the German church, a verse better fitted to its particular purpose than the one Bach has selected.�

Structurally, the Passion is divided into two parts, equal in length, but not in accordance with the break between the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh chapters of the Gospel According to St. Matthew. Bach closes the first part with the capture of Jesus and the flight of the disciples, having included the conspiracy of the high priests and scribes, the anointing of Christ, the Lord�s Supper, the prayer on the Mount of Olives and the betrayal by Judas. The hearing before Caiaphas, Peter�s denial, the judgment of Pontius Pilate, the episode of the death of Judas, the progress to Golgotha, Crucifixion, death and burial of Christ are all included in part two.
The profound effect of the story Bach unfolds is heightened by his use of double chorus, double orchestra, and organ accompaniment, as well as soloists, and a third chorus of trebles for the first and last numbers of part one.

In Bach�s copy of Luther�s commentary on the New Testament, he underlined a number of passages that describe the Passion of our Lord. �Christ�s suffering is the fulfillment of Scripture and the accomplishment of the redemption of the human race.� He also wrote, �The ultimate end....of all music�.is nothing other than the praise of God and the recreation of the soul.� This was clearly central to Bach�s Christian beliefs, which he demonstrated in his settings of the Passion and the B minor Mass as well as in many cantatas.

How far did Bach identify himself, through the symbolism hidden in some of his music, with his Redeemer? We may discover an answer when we examine the secret mathematical structures that govern some of Bach�s music.