ST. MATTHEW PASSION
MUSIC
St. Matthew Passion,
BWV 244, also known as The Passion according to
St. Matthew; in German
Matthäus Passion or
Matthäuspassion. Passion music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Its earliest verified performance was April 11, 1727 - Good Friday - at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. It is the longest and most elaborate of all works composed by this Baroque master and represents the culmination of his sacred music and, indeed, of Baroque sacred music as a whole.
TEXT
The St. Matthew Passion is one of hundreds of sacred pieces Bach wrote during his long tenure as director of church music and cantor of the school at Thomaskirche. The story for the work was taken mostly from the Gospel According to Matthew, but the actual verses that Bach set to music were provided by several contemporary poets. His principal contributor was Christian Friedrich Henrici, a poet who wrote under the name of Picander and also supplied the text for Bach’s secular Peasant Cantata (1742).
STORY
The St. Matthew Passion is divided into two parts, and its performance takes somewhat less than three hours. The first part concerns Jesus Christ’s betrayal, the Last Supper, and his prayers and arrest in Gethsemane. The second part presents the rest of the biblical story, including the Crucifixion, death, and burial of Christ. The piece is performed by a double orchestra, a double choir, four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), the evangelist and Jesus Christ.
The St. Matthew Passion was performed several times during the composer’s life, and a copy of its original manuscript exists in Bach’s own handwriting. However, after his death in 1750, the
St. Matthew Passion, along with most of Bach's compositions, was forgotten. Nearly eight decades later the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn reintroduced the work when he conducted a 400-member chorus and a full orchestra in a 19th-century premiere at the Berlin Sing-Akadamie on March 11, 1829.