Music for the Passion
How Holy Week and Easter inspired composers across the centuries, with music that lives on today
Holy Week and Easter Day are rapidly approaching, and we are once again reminded of the deep inspiration the stories of the end of Christ’s life and resurrection have given to composers through the centuries…
The Passion story of Good Friday leading up to Christ’s crucifixion was a particularly fertile source for composers, with the accounts by different apostles giving rise to a variety of musical settings. A setting by one composer would often inspire another, leading to a sort of chain reaction of divine and musical inspiration. Take for example a St Mark Passion from the early years of the 18th century. It was set by Reinhard Keiser - or at least it’s commonly attributed to him; it may have been composed by his father Gottfried or another composer entirely, Friedrich Bruhns: the precise origin is lost to the mists of time. The work was nonetheless known to have been performed in Hamburg in 1707 and 1711, in Weimar in 1712, then in Leipzig in 1726 and 1747. But the versions in Weimar and Leipzig were not the same as the first Hamburg versions - they were adaptations by none other than J.S. Bach himself, who (it appears) added several chorales and an opening Symphonia, and (for Leipzig) split the Passion into two, to suit the order of service that year. Not satisfied with these modifications, Bach returned to the work for Leipzig again in 1747, and combined it with seven arias from Handel’s Brockes Passion.
Bach was, by 1747, deeply familiar with setting sacred music in general and the Passion story in particular. His two monumental masterpieces, St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, are cornerstones of the Baroque repertoire. It’s fascinating to look through the revisions Bach made to these two works, changing them again and again for different productions. The St Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday of 1727 (the year after his first version of Keiser’s St Mark Passion), and revised and performed again in Leipzig in 1736 and 1742; he made further changes to the score in subsequent years but it wasn’t performed again during his life. The St John Passion was a slightly earlier work, first performed on Good Friday of 1724, again in 1725 (with changes), and several times (with further revisions) in the 1730s. Interestingly he reverted to the 1724 version for the final performance of his life, in 1749, with only slight changes (notably replacing the by then obsolete viola d’amore with muted violins).
It is perhaps strange to consider, knowing today the cultural importance of these two works, that after Bach’s death in 1750 they gathered dust for more than half a century, almost forgotten, and were never heard outside these performances in Bach’s lifetime until the 1820s, when a twenty-year-old Mendelssohn revived the works in Berlin to great acclaim - and the rest, as they say, is history.
There are several chances to hear both of these works this Passiontide throughout the UK, in strikingly different presentations, which I’ve listed and linked below:
Dunedin Consort: St Matthew Passion - Glasgow (21st March) and Edinburgh (22nd March)
Ex Cathedra: St John Passion - Birmingham (29th March)
Academy of Ancient Music: St Matthew Passion - London (29th March)
London Handel Orchestra: St John Passion - London (29th March)
Manchester Baroque: St Matthew Passion - Manchester (29th March)
Oxford Bach Soloists: St John Passion - London (29th March) and Oxford (30th March)
London Handel Players: St John Passion - Hook (30th March)
There’s even a chance to hear Handel’s Brockes Passion in London on 27th March, as part of the London Handel Festival, with The English Concert. I wonder if, one year, Keiser’s St Mark Passion will be revived?
The Passion story is not the only source of inspiration to come from Holy Week and Easter. The famous Stabat Mater text (“There stood a mother”) tells the moving story of Mary standing at the foot of Christ’s cross, and has been set to music countless times. There’s a particularly exciting chance (four chances, in fact) to hear one of the most famous versions, by Pergolesi, along with new music by Alex Mills, performed by Figure with Dame Emma Kirkby, Rowan Pierce and Catherine Carby, staged by Sophie Daneman in the atmospheric Stone Nest in London, on Wednesday 20th March through Saturday 23rd March.
The Stone Nest, London
Picking up on the theme of the Stabat Mater is Buxtehude’s 1680 Membra Jesu Nostri. Based on a mystical medieval hymn, the text guides the imaginary observer through Christ’s sufferings by gradually directing their gaze upwards from his feet (Ad Pedes) to his face (Ad Faciem). There’s a performance that is bound to be highly atmospheric at Winchester Cathedral, with the cathedral’s Chamber Choir along with Fretwork, on Sunday 24th March, conducted by Joshua Stephens.
Fretwork
After the deeply moving music inspired by Christ’s Passion and the events of Good Friday, Easter Day itself arrives as a wonderful celebration of Christ’s miraculous resurrection. And, likewise, it has given us wonderful music. I recently interviewed Peter Whelan for Continuo Connect; he will be directing Bach’s Easter Oratorio with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at London’s Southbank Centre on Wednesday 27th March. Before the interview I was much less familiar with the Easter Oratorio than I had been with Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions, but hearing Peter wax lyrical about it encouraged me to seek out a recording… and I have not been able to stop listening to it over and over again since. It’s a wonderful, celebratory work, which Peter calls “an extremely joyous, reassuring, and deeply moving piece”.
That’s all for now, and as ever we are spoiled for choice with so much early music to hear! Find more on Continuo Connect, and don’t forget to tell others and spread the word. Given the amount of awe-inspiring music to be heard over Easter, it’s an excellent time for newcomers (and veterans alike) to discover and re-discover the wonders of Baroque music.
Until the next time -
Tim & the Continuo Connect team
Main photo by Ismael Paramo on Unsplash