ST. JOHN PASSION

The St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is a large-scale musical work for choir, vocal soloists, and Baroque orchestra including strings, harpsichord, and winds. While it’s not known who wrote the libretto, or lyrics, the text that forms the basis of the work comes from a number of sacred and secular sources.

Crafted in two major musical sections, St. John Passion is classified as an oratorio, like Messiah by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Although an oratorio is similar to an opera in that it tells a story through arias and choruses, which are sung, oratorios focus on sacred texts and topics.

The setting for the story of St. John Passion comes from chapters 18 and 19 of the Gospel of John from the New Testament. This biblical passage is often read on Good Friday, and deals with the capture, judgement, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Bach also incorporates Lutheran hymns into the music as well as poetry by contemporary poets Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747), Christian Weise (1642-1708), and Christian Heinrich Postel (1658-1705).

Bach wrote St. John Passion in 1724 during his first season as Thomaskantor, or church music director, in Leipzig. Intended for Good Friday Vespers at St. Thomas Church, where Martin Luther had preached nearly two centuries earlier, it was performed instead at St. Nicholas Church as a result of a last-minute venue change.

St. John Passion was subject to numerous revisions by the composer. However, after twenty-five years of performing revised adaptations of St. John Passion, Bach returned in 1749 to his original version with only minor changes including an adjustment to the orchestration. This is the work most often heard today. The first performances of St. John Passion used an orchestra featuring a diverse palette of musical colours with the inclusion of flute, viola d’amore, and viola da gamba. By the time Bach was an established composer, these three instruments were long past the peak of their popularity.

After Bach’s death, his music was mostly forgotten for the remainder of the 18th century. St. John Passion was among the first works to be rediscovered as part of a revival of Baroque music in the early 1800s. While it has remained a popular work ever since, there is controversy as to whether the Gospel of John in the Lutheran Bible should be interpreted as antisemitic. Since World War II, it has frequently been the practice to replace the word “Juden” with “Leute”, or people, in performances of the oratorio.

In his book Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism and Bach’s St. John Passion, Canadian scholar Michael Marissen (b. 1960) argues for a more sensitive and nuanced discussion of the topic, drawing attention to the hymns and arias which offer commentary on the passages which blame the Jews for Christ’s death on the cross. While Bach was not at liberty to rewrite biblical text, his musical interpretation of the Gospel of John emphasizes the core principle of Lutheranism that Christ died to atone for the sins of all of humanity.

Program Notes by Tamsin Lorraine Johnston