Bach - St John Passion
Ahead of our performance of Bach’s St John Passion, Co-Artistic Director Ben Cunningham reflects on this monumental work.
Opening
The opening chorus of Bach’s St John Passion is one of the most gripping beginnings to any piece of music that I know. From the very get-go the audience, and indeed the performers, are swept along by the pulsating bass and the circling semi-quavers in the upper strings (perhaps evoking the stream which Jesus and his disciples cross at the beginning of the Gospel text) which combine to create the agitated, tense affekt. At the same time we are reminded of the eventual outcome of Jesus being nailed to the cross by the harsh, close dissonances in the flutes and oboes, and their angular melodic lines add to the feeling of anguish that largely pervades the chorus.
A quickly descending chromatic bass line ramps up the tension before the choir first enters with the words Herr, unser Herrscher (Lord, our ruler). The choir picks up the spinning quaver figure from the upper strings before beginning a more fugal section, and the upper string figure transfers to the cellos and double bass at the bottom of the texture. These two types of section alternate throughout the movement, with Bach employing moments of word painting, such as depicting the descent of Jesus from Heaven at the Incarnation.
The movement is intensely dramatic and one gets the sense that danger isn’t far away.
Evangelist and recitative
For our performance on 1 February, we are extremely excited that James Gilchrist, one of the finest tenors in the country is to sing the role of the Evangelist.
The Evangelist is the narrator for the Passion story, which is primarily sung in free recitative. Alfred Dürr has written of Bach’s recitative in the John Passion that, “[his] recitative, here and elsewhere, is dramatic and expressive. This is seen in the composer’s predilection for rich and often daring harmonies, wide intervallic leaps, and sharply contrasting note values.”
This can be seen clearly from the very first section of recitative which immediately follows the opening chorus. Bach characterises both Jesus and his betrayer, Judas, in the opening eight bars.
In bars 1-4, where the Gospel text concerns Jesus, Bach doesn’t modulate (staying in C minor), the note values are largely quavers and the main intervallic leaps are 2nds and 3rds. However, the next four bars, concerning the ‘enemy’ Judas, starts with a dissonant chord, modulates to F minor, the note values are largely semi-quavers (making the music faster and more agitated), and leaps in the melodic line increase (the highly expressive interval of the sixth is used three times).
Two of the most famous bits of the Evangelist’s role are not in fact taken from the Gospel of St John, but rather are interpolations from St Matthew. These Peter’s denial and the Cock crow (movement 12), and the veil of the Temple being rent in two pieces after the death of Jesus (movement 33).
Christus
The role of Jesus in the John Passion is an intriguing one. Unlike in his Matthew Passion, where string chords accompany Jesus’ recitative, Bach sets Jesus’ declamations (of which there are relatively few) to simple recitative, recitativo secco, like that of the Evangelist.
Whilst Jesus has relatively little to say in John’s Gospel, mostly due to his refusal to engage with the charges set before him by Pilate on behalf of the Pharisees, what he does say comes with immense power and grandeur. Throughout his Gospel, John portrays Jesus almost as more God than man, in all majesty and might. This is exemplified in Chapter 1 v. 14 (part of the famous reading from the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols):
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This power is portrayed throughout the Passion story: Jesus does not pray to his Father for his cup of suffering to be lifted from him; he is not betrayed by a kiss, but willingly gives himself up; it is Pilate that runs back and forth from crowd, and the Pharisees to Jesus in the trial scene while Jesus stays where he is; Jesus requires no help carrying the cross to Golgotha; and, he does not cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.
Musically, Bach extols Jesus’ Kingship through writing mostly long note values, strong melodic lines and consonant harmonies.
Ich folge
The first two arias in the John Passion come extremely close together. The alto aria (one of only two in the piece) Von den Strikken, characterised by a plodding basso quasi-ostinato and oboe parts reminiscent of the opening chorus, comes before the famous soprano aria Ich folge dir gleichfalls (I follow you likewise). In between the two comes just three bars of recitative, but Bach does not miss this opportunity to play a musical joke.
The soprano aria concerns Peter’s initial willingness to follow Jesus “with joyful steps” (although we know that soon he is to deny Jesus three times), and as such not only do we have lots of canonic and fugal techniques on display in the aria itself, but the very theme of the aria is derived from the preceding recitative.
Thus, the aria quite literally follows after the recitative both in time and in musical material.
One might, quite rightly, question why, if this aria is so explicitly about Peter’s discipleship, Peter himself (sung by a bass) is not singing the aria. One of my students at Winchester College wrote the following: “[the fact that the aria is sung by a soprano not a bass] would suggest that everyone (especially those in the Leipzig congregation) is invited to place themselves in Peter’s shoes, and pledge to follow Jesus.”
Es ist vollbracht
Es ist vollbracht (It is accomplished), the most famous aria from of the Passion, falls to an alto. The scoring of this movement is of particular note, and initially, at least, contradicts John’s portrayal of Jesus as a majestic figure, as discussed in an earlier post. The delicate sound of the viola da gamba combined with that of the alto voice conveys a sense of otherworldliness and fragility that truly depicts the sorrow felt by the followers of Christ at his death and the “night of sorrow” that ensues.
The middle section of this aria is the total opposite, however. At the words ‘Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht’ (The hero from Juda triumphs in his might), the music changes from Molt’ adagio to Vivace (two tempo markings at the opposing ends of the spectrum), from F# minor to D major, the whole string section enters imitating trumpets through their triadic arpeggiations, and the range of the music increases dramatically. A brief coda follows, returning to the original music, and to the stark landscape of the opening section.
Chorales
At the heart of the Passions of J.S. Bach are the chorales. Unlike in the Matthew Passion, in the John they do not form the basis of large choruses, but are presented in simple hymn form throughout the Passion as well as in a Bass aria (Mein teurer Heiland). Bach’s harmonisations of these hymns are ingenious and reflect the text brilliantly.
The Bach scholar and performer John Butt asserts that there are three time zones to the Passions: the storytelling in the recitative and turbae choruses exists in Christ’s present of c.33 AD; the meditative arias participate in the present of any given performance; and, the chorales are in the “Lutheran time zone” and therefore allow the congregation to participate in prayer with the whole Lutheran Church past, present and future.
Interestingly, the now famous chorus from the Matthew Passion, O Mensch bewein, stood as the opening movement of the John Passion in its second incarnation in 1725.
Turbae sequences
Perhaps the most exhilarating moments in the John Passion come where the chorus play the roles of High Priests, soldiers, and the assembled crowd often in quick succession. Although this type of chorus plays a role in the First Part of the Passion, it is in the Court and Trial scenes of the Second Part where the chorus truly takes on these roles.
While most of these choruses are in some way linked through a web of connectivity, one of my favourite turba choruses is Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen (Let us not tear it) where the chorus is assuming the roles of the soldiers casting lots over Jesus’ robes.
The underlying harmony is inspired and occasionally surprising, but the genius for me is in the motivic writing.
There is a vivid portrayal of the rending of the coat in two in the second bar, through its syncopations, jarring against the main beats of the bar. And in the fourth bar, the oscillating semiquavers seem to depict the shaking of the dice as they cast their lots. Finally, the decision to cast the lots is represented by a strong cadential figure in bars five and six of the theme.
