Libretto by Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander)
First performance: Leipzig, April 11, 1727 (Good Friday)

Evangelist (tenor)
Jesus (bass)

Chorus I:  S-A-T-B
Soloists for chorus I:  soprano, alto, tenor, bass
Orchestra I:  2 recorders, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 oboes d'amore, 2 oboes da caccia,
strings, viola da gamba, continuo

Chorus II:  S-A-T-B
Soloists for chorus II:  soprano, alto, tenor, bass
Orchestra II:  2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 oboes d'amore, strings, viola da gamba, continuo

III:  Soprano choir in ripieno

Program Notes by Martin Pearlman

The St. Matthew Passion, the second of the two Bach passions that have come down to us, is an astonishing musical conception and the largest work in Bach's output.  It was the last major religious work in which he did not borrow significantly from his earlier music.  The libretto is by Christian Friedrich Henrici, who wrote under the pen name of Picander and was the librettist for many of Bach's cantatas.   This monumental work was first performed on Good Friday of 1727.  It is thought to have been performed again two years later, but in 1736, when Bach performed the work yet again, he made significant revisions.  The earliest musical material that we have comes from that 1736 version, and it is in its revised form that we know the work today. Bach clearly felt it to be a finished work at that point: he meticulously copied out this revised version in a beautiful manuscript using red ink for biblical passages and for the chorale tune in the opening movement.

The work is written for two separate choruses, each with its own orchestra.  In addition, there is a third chorus of sopranos that sings chorale tunes in the opening and closing movements of Part I.  Among the significant changes that Bach made in 1736, he divided the continuo, which had originally been shared between the two orchestras, so that each orchestra now had its own bass section.  In addition, he replaced the simple chorale that ended Part I with the massive chorale fantasia O Mensch bewein' dein Sünde groß, which originally had been the opening chorus of his St. John Passion.  It was also in 1736 that a gamba replaced the lute as the solo instrument in the aria Komm süßes Kreuz. 

The drama of the St. Matthew Passion is multi-layered.  The narrative portions are from the gospel of St. Matthew (chapters 26-27) and are sung primarily in recitative by the Evangelist, Jesus and singers in several minor roles.  In a second layer are arias and choruses on poetry by Picander that reflect on the narrative.  This is played out between the two choruses and orchestras, each of which has its own soloists.  The division of performing forces into two groups is in Picander's poem, where the arias and choruses outside the gospel narrative are in the form of a dialogue between "the Daughters of Zion" and "the Faithful."  Every aria or chorus represents one or both of these allegorical characters and is sung and played by the appropriate chorus and orchestra or by soloists associated with it.  In a few choruses, including the opening chorus, they engage in a dialogue that turns at times to questions and answers.  The dialogue between the two is a dialogue across the centuries between those who actually witnessed the passion and those who know it through their faith.

Still another layer to the drama is in the chorales, which play a central role in the work.  The Lutheran hymns, which were familiar to the members of Bach's congregation, represent the congregation and their involvement in the passion (although the congregation did not sing them along with the performers).  Not only are simple chorales sung at important moments in the drama, but chorale tunes are worked into other pieces, such as the great closing chorus of Part I, O Mensch bewein' dein Sünde groß, in which the soprano line is a chorale tune.  In the tenor recitative O Schmerz, the second chorus answers each phrase of the soloist with a phrase of a four-part chorale. 

In the massive opening chorus, Kommt, ihr Töchter, we hear a profound mixture of all these elements.  It begins with the Daughters of Zion (chorus I) asking the Faithful (chorus II) to join in their lament.  Following a question and answer dialogue, the faithful do join in the lament.  Then, layered on top of the elaborate music of their dialogue, a third choir of sopranos begins to sing the chorale O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (O innocent lamb of God) at the moment that they speak of Jesus as a lamb.  The chorale tune in the key of G major is a brighter moment in the dark E minor of this chorus of lamentation.

Symbolism

This work is full of extraordinary pictorial details, as well as religious and musical symbolism.  To cite just a few, there is the moment when Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him and the chorus asks, "Is it I?" eleven times, accounting for all the disciples except Judas.  In recitatives, Jesus is accompanied by a "halo" of string chords whenever he speaks, except when he asks, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"  In the opening chorus, the main motive is momentarily obscured when the soprano and alto parts cross over each other at the first mention of the word "cross."  At the mention of the crucifixion, the evangelist frequently shifts from a key with flats to a key with sharps or to a sharped note, the sharp sign being visually a cross.  In fact, some writers have suggested that the contrast between sharp keys and flat keys is used on a larger structural level to depict the contrast between body and spirit.  One of the principal turning points from flats to sharps in Part I is in the middle of the sentence, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  Following the death of Jesus on the cross, the work shifts from music that is predominantly in keys with sharps to a closing section entirely in flats.

Performance issues:  soprano chorus and harpsichord

An intriguing entry in the church records in Leipzig shows that the St. Matthew Passion was performed in 1736 at the Thomaskirche "with both organs."  Here we have a clue not only as to what keyboard instruments were used, but also as to the placement of the third (soprano) chorus.  In Bach's time, the two organs at the Thomaskirche were on opposite walls.  The gallery on the east wall with the smaller and older organ was too small to hold a chorus and orchestra, and it would, in any case, have been extremely difficult to keep two orchestras and choruses together across such a distance in such complex music.  If the small organ was used at all -- and we are told that it was -- it must have been used with the small soprano chorus, which sings two chorales in Part I.  That could have created a dramatic effect with the chorales sounding from across the church. 

In the main organ loft, each orchestra had to have its own keyboard instrument -- at least in the definitive 1736 version.  One would have been the organ in that gallery, but what would the second instrument have been?  There are two possibilities: either a small portative organ could have been brought in or, perhaps more likely, a harpsichord could have been used.  Recent scholarship has shown that Bach did occasionally use a harpsichord in his church music, and at least one performance of St. Matthew must have used it, since a copy of the continuo part for the second orchestra, written out by Bach's son Johann Christoph Friedrich specifies harpsichord.  Using a harpsichord could give the second orchestra a distinctive sound and could increase the dramatic contrast between the two ensembles. 

A final thought about the soprano chorus, the third chorus that sings the chorale in the opening movement:  a modern tradition has grown up of using boys for that chorus, but in Bach's day, the sopranos in all the choruses were boys.  There is no reason to think that he necessarily wanted a different vocal sound for that one chorale line.  Thus if a performance today has women sopranos in the main choruses, it might be reasonable to use women for the soprano chorus, as well. 

Orchestration Chart

© Boston Baroque 2020

Boston Baroque Performances

St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244

April 3, 1992
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor

Soloists:
Frank Kelley - Evangelist
Myron Myers - Jesus
Patrice Michaels Bedi, soprano
Pamela Dellal, mezzo-soprano
Bruce Fowler, tenor
William Sharp, baritone

April 13, 1984
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor

Soloists:
Frank Kelley - Evangelist
James Maddalena - Jesus
Nancy Armstrong, soprano
Jeffrey Gall, countertenor
Kim Scown, tenor
Sanford Sylvan, baritone

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