The content of these posts is drawn extensively from Markus Rathey’s Bach’s Major Vocal Works: Music, Drama, Liturgy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016) and Michael Marissen’s translations in Bach’s Oratorios: The Parallel German-English Texts with Annotations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
You can find a beautifully-filmed recording of the St. Matthew Passion by the Netherlands Bach Society here, including an English translation of the German text. NPR Classical also presents a “guided tour” through the St. Matthew Passion here.
Famed musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber announced last week that he would be playing one of his musicals on his YouTube channel every Friday afternoon during the COVID-19 quarantine. The first musical up was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a dramatic and humorous take on the story of the Old Testament Joseph, son of Jacob, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, eventually rose to significance as Pharaoh’s right-hand man, and finally reunited with his brothers, granting them forgiveness for their cruelty. The movie is flashy, the songs are clever and catchy, the acting is comical, and the story is heartwarming.
Unfortunately, Andrew Lloyd Webber is no biblical scholar.
The composer frames the action with songs that relay his chosen theme of the story, namely “Any dream will do”. Lloyd Webber focuses on Joseph’s grit and determination and the brilliant way he pulls himself up by his bootstraps to make his dreams come true. His reliance on the promises of God is barely hinted at once or twice. As a composer and creator of musicals, Lloyd Webber must interpret the story he chooses. The songs he composes tell the audience Lloyd Webber’s interpretation through their lyrics, through their placement within the musical, and through their music itself.
Like Andrew Lloyd Webber and today’s composers of hit musicals, Bach also interprets the theme of the biblical story through the text, the placement of his music within the story, and the music itself. Thankfully, Johann Sebastian Bach is a biblical scholar. As Rathey writes, “The Gospel according to Matthew…is…interested in the human side of Jesus’ suffering, and so is the setting of this story by Bach. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion interprets the death of Christ as a manifestation of divine love” (6). Bach’s chosen theme for his St. Matthew Passion reflects his theological awareness and his devotion to the Christian faith.
Bach’s musical work shows an understanding of Christ’s Passion and its meaning for all believers; however, it was a local poet, Christian Friedrich Henrici, better known as Picander, who supplied the libretto for the St. Matthew Passion instead of Bach himself. Picander frequently supplied the texts for Bach’s musical works. Bach and Picander’s collaboration provide the theological interpretation of the work.
We can understand the text of the St. Matthew Passion as having three parts: first, the biblical text, taken from Luther’s German translation of the Bible. This text serves as the narration of the story and includes words spoken by biblical figures as well as by the Evangelist, or Matthew himself. You’ll notice that the characters of the Passion story have “lines”. Jesus speaks, Pilate speaks, Peter speaks, Judas speaks. This biblical text had to be presented verbatim and was not permitted to be poetically paraphrased.
Secondly, we hear poetically-rendered responses of the individual believer in the recitatives and arias. A recitative is a sung part that follows natural speech patterns. I often compare it to a pastor chanting a prayer. The text does not repeat, the music does not necessarily show off the singer’s vocal aptitude. In opera, recitatives typically serve to move the story along; however, in the St. Matthew Passion, that is the job of the Evangelist and the biblical characters. Instead, the recitatives in this passion are a short reflection by the individual believer on the biblical text (in the text provided by the Netherlands Bach Society, they are labeled “ariosos” and the word “recitative” is given to the Evangelist’s and other characters’ parts). An aria, also a reflection on the biblical text, usually features more instrumental accompaniment and shows off the singer’s vocal prowess.
Thirdly, we hear the communal response of all believers, of the congregation itself. These are in the form of chorales or, as we more commonly call them, hymns. These, like the hymns in our modern hymnals, are written in four-part harmony. Although the Leipzig congregation of Bach’s day did not actually perform these in the passion, they knew them, were familiar with their melodies, and considered them their songs. In this way, they were involved in the response to the biblical text.
Picander’s poetic responses in the form of arias and recitatives and the well-known congregational hymns provided the theological interpretation of the biblical text. As we continue our look at Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, we will see how the text and the music work together to present this theme as well as notice how well-known hymns—even to us modern day Lutherans—expand upon this theme and our response to it.
Reading questions:
1. Who wrote the text for the St. Matthew Passion?
2. What are the three categories of the text discussed above?
3. What is a recitative?
4. What is an aria?
5. What is a chorale? What do we more commonly know it as today?
6. Which specific book is most of the German text of the St. Matthew Passion taken from?