Passion

A Passion is a large-scale setting of one of the four Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus, combining gospel narration (sung by an Evangelist tenor in recitative), the words of the various characters set as solo parts, choruses for the crowd (turba), reflective arias on freely written poetic text, and Lutheran chorales sung by the congregation or choir. The form sits between oratorio and liturgy — historically performed in Lutheran churches during Holy Week — and is built so the listener moves between dramatic identification with the events, personal contemplation through the arias, and communal response through the chorales. Bach's 'St Matthew Passion' (BWV 244, 1727) and 'St John Passion' (BWV 245, 1724) are the genre's enduring summits.

Sung Passion narratives can be traced to the medieval Holy Week liturgy, where the Gospel account was chanted by a deacon. Reformation-era Germany developed the responsory Passion, with the Evangelist's chant interrupted by polyphonic settings of the crowd's lines; Heinrich Schutz's three Passions (1665-66) represent the high point of this older style. Bach's two surviving Passions (he composed several others now lost) integrated the Gospel narrative with newly composed poetic meditations by Picander and others, and with chorales sung by the congregation. After the 18th century the genre fell mostly dormant until Mendelssohn's 1829 revival of the 'St Matthew Passion', and the form has been recomposed in the 20th century by Penderecki and others.

Distinguish the four textual layers: the Evangelist's narration of John's or Matthew's text; the words of Jesus and other characters; the chorus's turba interjections playing the crowd; the contemplative arias on free poetry; and the Lutheran chorales. Crowd choruses such as 'Crucify him!' from the 'St John Passion' are deliberately violent in their contrapuntal density. The chorales' familiar melodies were known to Bach's congregation and would have been recognized line by line.

Begin with the opening chorus and final chorus of the 'St Matthew Passion' (BWV 244, 1727). For a shorter, more compressed introduction, the 'St John Passion' (BWV 245, 1724) runs about two hours and is more dramatically immediate. Karl Richter's 1958 and 1971 recordings remain widely admired; for period instruments, John Eliot Gardiner or Philippe Herreweghe.

Mendelssohn's 1829 Berlin performance of the 'St Matthew Passion' — the first full performance since Bach's death in 1750 — is often cited as the start of the Bach revival, though the audience that night heard a heavily abridged version with Romantic-era orchestration. The chorale 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden' that recurs through the 'St Matthew Passion' uses a melody by Hans Leo Hassler originally composed for a secular love song in 1601.