Catalogue

Summary:

The transfer of the St. Matthew Passion out of the Good Friday liturgy into the concert hall (first in 1829 in Berlin under Felix Mendelssohn) was just the start of its adaptation to the modern world. One familiar element today was not part of the work’s original presentation in 1727: Many English-speaking listeners today choose to follow a recording or performance from a printed translation. The result in some ways resembles the experience of a listener in the eighteenth century but in some respects has the potential to change the focus of our listening.

The relatively well-to-do segment of Leipzig society that attended services in the St. Thomas and St. Nicholas Churches could purchase printed librettos of the vocal-instrumental works performed there. A few printed texts of weekly cantatas survive, and passion librettos were also presumably available, as they were in other German cities. Until just a few years ago nobody had ever seen such a document from Bach’s Leipzig. We did have reprinted librettos for the St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 and the St. Mark Passion BWV 247 that appeared in retrospective anthologies of poetry by the works’ librettist Christian Friedrich Henrici (“Picander”). These are literary presentations, not liturgical documents, but there is a good chance that they looked very much like the original librettos.

The anthologized text of the St. Mark Passion offers the complete gospel narrative along with the chorale stanzas and new poems the librettist interpolated. Though Bach’s musical setting of this libretto unfortunately does not survive, the text shows that compared to the St. Matthew and St. John Passions this work contained fewer arias based on new poetry (only six, plus the opening and closing choral arias, with no orchestrally-accompanied recitatives), and proportionally more chorale stanzas. The emphasis in this libretto was on the placement and significance of a smaller number of interpolations, most of them chorales, rather than on poetic elaboration. The discovery a few years ago of an original libretto for the St. Mark Passion from 1744, which looks exactly like the reprint, confirmed that Leipzig listeners saw the text in this layout, with the complete gospel narrative along with the interpolated commentaries.

The libretto of the St. Matthew Passion is constructed somewhat differently. Of course it, too, is built around a gospel narrative, but also contains numerous short lyric poems meant to be set as solo arias. Many of those are paired with longer poems in blank verse intended to be set as orchestrally-accompanied solo recitatives, for example the accompagnato “Er hat uns allen wohl getan” that precedes the aria “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben.” Some of the new poems are cast as dialogues between two allegorical figures, Daughter Zion and a Believing Soul, whereas others are in anonymous voices. Overall the new poetic movements are more numerous, weightier and more complex, and play a much larger role in the libretto than in the St. Mark Passion, where chorales dominate. (Bach’s St. John Passion BWV 245 falls somewhere in between, with a closer balance of chorales and new poetry.)

We do not have an original printed libretto of the St. Matthew Passion but do have that anthologized reprint, and the presentation there reflects a different emphasis in the text and its musical setting compared to the St. Mark Passion. The print omits the gospel narrative, giving only the newly-written poems that Bach set as solo arias, duets, and framing ensemble arias for chorus. In this presentation of the text, brief cues introduce each piece of new poetry and point the reader to the moments in the passion narrative upon which it comments. For example, the aria “Erbarme dich” is labeled “When Peter cries.” Nor are the chorales mentioned, not even by the first lines of the chosen stanzas, a common shorthand in eighteenth-century librettos. The only exception is the verse of “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig” that is part of the design of the opening movement.

This partial presentation of the text, omitting the gospel and the chorales, focuses the attention of the reader and listener decisively on the new poetry and on two responses to it almost certainly intended by poet and composer: contemplation and emotional engagement. The contemplative element lies in the poet’s aim of encouraging reflection on the meaning of the passion story for the contemporary believer; many of the new texts are in the first person (I, me, mine, we, us, our) and can be read as drawing the listener into the narrative. In fact reflection on the passion narrative was at the head of Luther’s guidance for the believer’s encounter with the story. This is why so some poetic texts interpolated into passion settings begin with commands like “betrachte,” “erwäge,” or “besinne dich,” words that all mean “consider” and urge reflection; or (like the opening movement of the St. Matthew Passion) instructions to “come” and “see.”

The emotional element starts with the expressive poetic language of the new texts but lies particularly in Bach’s musical settings of them as accompanied recitatives and arias. These types were borrowings from 18th-century opera; they appeared there at moments when the plot was interrupted for expressions of characters’ emotional states, and sought to move the affections (that is, change the emotional state) of the listener. Some types were conventional and find exact parallels in the passion, like the rage aria “Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder” or the lament “Erbarme dich,” designed to provoke specific responses.

On the other hand, most of Bach’s musical setting of the gospel words, however vivid, is more concerned with the delivery of the story than with its interpretation and expression. (Some of the choral numbers that set the words of groups do go further; this has been a particular point of contention in modern debates about potentially problematic sentiments in passion settings, some of which are expressed in vehement and affective ways in choruses.) Like the narrative, the chorale stanzas were familiar, and most of Bach’s settings are musically relatively neutral, aiming to present the established tunes and their words in a straightforward way. Overall, the settings of most of the gospel narrative and of the chorales probably did not strike contemporary listeners as particularly moving by their musical design, and these pieces were relatively generic from passion setting to passion setting.

The new poetic texts set as arias and recitatives, in contrast, were distinguishing features of individual passion settings. They encouraged the contemplation of the significance of the story to the modern believer, and used conventional musical tools to produce personal and emotional responses. We cannot be certain how Bach and Picander’s listeners approached the St. Matthew Passion, but the construction of the text and music strongly suggest that the recitative and aria settings of poetry were the focus of the listening experience. The narrative was infinitely familiar, as were most of the hymn stanzas; the poetry and its affective musical settings were new.

It is thus possible that the anthologized text of the St. Matthew Passion—the one that offers just the new poetry of recitatives and arias—represented not only a space-saving way to reprint the libretto but also an early eighteenth-century mode of listening, one that focused on the theological and affective import of the moments at which the narrative broke off for commentary. That is, it points to a particular reflective way of experiencing the passion.

What about listeners today, translation in lap? Given the international spread of today’s listeners, many are unlikely to understand the sung German text, so a translated version certainly helps bridge a gap. It should be said, though, that we do not know how well Bach’s listeners would have made out the sung words of new poetry; the acoustics of Bach’s churches combined with the complexity of the musical settings probably made a printed text helpful even to native speakers. In this regard, having a text in a present-day performance is not so different from the eighteenth-century experience of the work, at least for those who purchased a libretto. (Bach probably hoped they did buy one; in Germany, profits from the sale of church music texts typically went to the music director.)

But a full translation could present a different view of the work because a complete text arguably emphasizes the narrative gospel text. One reason is the sheer amount of gospel prose compared to other texts. Another is that as in an opera performance with supertitles or a movie with subtitles, we are used to reading English words primarily as guides to plot and story, learning from them what is happening more than what is felt. A translation might lend itself better to following the narrative than to supporting the contemplative and reflective moments in the passion setting. So experiencing the St. Matthew Passion mediated through a full printed translation might throw the emphasis onto the narrative rather than onto the arias and accompanied recitatives. This, of course, would be the opposite of what is suggested by the work’s reprinted libretto.

There is also the problem of comprehension. The narrative is relatively straightforward factually. Of course its details have been the topic of millennia of interpretation, but the libretto’s relation of the actions and words of the various characters is comparatively easy to understand. Many listeners, whatever their religious upbringing, will have an ear for scriptural prose that makes the gospel text more or less recognizable in its type, and for some the telling of the story itself is familiar.

The poetry, on the other hand, is stylistically alien, baroque in its language and metaphors, and obscure in its theology. How many modern readers, for example, will know what to make of the aria “Können Tränen meiner Wangen” and its hope that the speaker’s heart will serve as the sacrificial vessel (Opferschale) to collect the blood streaming from Jesus’s scourging wounds (if, that is, the speaker’s tears do not suffice to salve them)? Even a translation does not really help bridge the gap of language and theology; much of the eighteenth-century significance of the poetic texts is probably lost on a modern reader-listener (in German or in a translation), effectively emphasizing the much more graspable narrative by default and leading to a different way of listening.

There is no correct way to perform a musical work and no correct way to listen to it—we have learned this the hard way after any number of attempts to recreate “authentic” experiences. With or without a text to follow there are multiple ways to hear the St. Matthew Passion. At the least, a printed translation lets us hold up our experience of the work against that of a listener in the piece’s own time—and reflect on ways in which those experiences were both similar and different.

Tracklist:

St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 1, Chor. “Kommt, ihr Töchter helft mir klagen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 2, Rezitativ. “Da Jesus diese Rede vollendet hatte”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 3, Choral. “Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 4, Rezitativ. “Da versammleten sich die Hohenpriester”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 5, Rezitativ. “Du lieber Heiland du”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 6, Aria. “Buß und Reu”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 7, Rezitativ. “Da ging hin der Zwölfen einer”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 8, Aria. “Blute nur, du liebes Herz!”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 9, Rezitative und Chöre. “Aber am ersten Tage der süßen Brot”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 10, Choral. “Ich bin’s, ich sollte büßen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 11, Rezitativ. “Er antwortete und sprach”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 12, Rezitativ. “Wiewohl mein Herz in Tränen schwimmt”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 13, Aria. “Ich will dir mein Herz schenken”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 14, Rezitativ. “Und da sie den Lobgesang gesprochen hatten”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 15, Choral. “Erkenne mich, mein Hüter”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 16, Rezitativ. “Petrus aber antwortete und sprach zu ihm”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 17, Choral. “Ich will hier bei dir stehen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 18, Rezitativ. “Da kam Jesus mit ihnen zu einem Hofe”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 19, Rezitativ und Choral. “O Schmerz! Hier zittert das gequälte Herz!”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 20, Aria mit Chor. “Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 21, Rezitativ. “Und ging hin ein wenig”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 22, Rezitativ. “Der Heiland fällt vor seinem Vater nieder”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 23, Aria. “Gerne will ich mich bequemen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 Pt. 1: No. 24, Rezitativ. “Und er kam zu seinen Jüngern”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 25, Choral. “Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 26, Rezitativ. “Und er kam und fand sie aber schlafen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 27, Aria und Chor. “So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 28, Rezitativ. “Und siehe, einer aus denen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 29, Choral. “O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde groß”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 1 No. 30, Aria mit Chor. “Ach, nun ist mein Jesus hin!”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 31, Rezitativ. “Die aber Jesum gegriffen hatten”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 32, Choral. “Mir hat die Welt trüglich gericht'”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 33, Rezitativ. “Und wiewohl viel falsche”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 34, Rezitativ. “Mein Jesus schweigt zu falschen Lügen stille”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 35, Aria. “Geduld!”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 36, Rezitative und Chöre. “Und der Hohepriester antworte”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 37, Choral. “Wer hat dich so geschlagen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 38, Rezitative und Chor. “Petrus aber saß draußen im Palast”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 39, Aria. “Erbarme dich”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 40, Choral. “Bin ich gleich von dir gewichen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 41, Rezitative und Chor. “Des Morgens aber hielten alle Hohepriester”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 42, Aria. “Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 43, Rezitativ. “Sie hielten aber einen Rat”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 44, Choral. “Befiehl du deine Wege”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 45, Rezitativ und Chor. “Auf das Fest aber hatte der Landpfleger”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 46, Choral. “Wie wunderbarlich ist doch diese Strafe”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 47, Rezitativ. “Der Landpfleger sagte”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 48, Rezitativ. “Er hat uns allen wohlgetan”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 49, Aria. “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 50, Rezitative und Chöre. “Sie schrieen aber noch mehr”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 51, Rezitativ. “Erbarm’ es Gott”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 52, Aria. “Können Tränen meinen Wangen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 53, Rezitative und Chor. “Da nahmen die Kriegsknechte”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 54, Choral. “O Haupt voll Blut und wunden”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 55, Rezitativ. “Und da sie ihn verspottet hatten”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 56, Rezitativ. “Ja freilich will in uns das Fleisch und Blut”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 57, Aria. “Komm, süßes Kreuz, so will ich sagen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 58, Rezitative und Chöre. “Und da sie an die Stätte kamen”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 59, Rezitativ. “Ach Golgotha”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 60, Aria mit Chor. “Sehet, Jesus hat die Hand”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 61, Rezitative und Chöre. “Und von der sechsten Stunde an”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 62, Choral. “Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 63, Rezitativ. “Und siehe da, der Vorhang im Tempel zerriß”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 64, Rezitativ. “Am Abend, da es kühle war”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 65, Aria. “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 66, Rezitative und Chor. “Und Joseph nahm den Leib”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 67, Rezitativ mit Chor. “Nun ist der Herr zur Ruh gebracht”
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Part 2 No. 68, Chor. “Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder”