St Mark Passion (Bach)

The St Mark Passion, BWV 247, is a lost oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach .

History
The design and layout of this passion music, as it should be performed on Good Friday in 1731 , are well known. The text of the recitative comes from the Gospel of Mark, chapters 14 and 15. The well-preserved texts of the choruses and arias written by Bach fixed lyricist Picander ( pseudonym Picander). Additionally processed Bach in the St Mark Passion relatively less arias and much more coral than in the St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion . Therefore, it is suggested that Bach in the St Mark Passion some coral fantasies - for solo voice or choir with elaborate instrumental parts - had recorded.

Reconstruction
The music of the St Mark Passion is lost, but Pica managers text, used the lyrics of the corals and of course the biblical story of St. Mark are preserved. In the 20th and 21st centuries have many Bach researchers (including Alfred Dürr, Diethard Hellmann, Gustav Adolf Theill, Andor Gomme, Rudolf Kelber, Simon Heighes, John Koch, Alexander Ferdinand Grychtolik Volker Bräutigam, Jos van Veldhoven and Ton Koopman ) tried to reconstruct the St Mark Passion. They thereby applied the so-called parody technique far. At the time of Bach was common to reuse the music of arias, choruses and chorales (parody). Bach himself parodied regularly, especially the so-called secular cantatas : cantatas with a non-religious theme that often were written for special occasions, like a royal birth or marriage. Arias and choruses there he used, with a different text, again in church cantatas.

In the reconstructions were sought from other work of Bach arias and choruses that fit on the surviving text in terms of melody and structure. Music Scientists have long ago, based on text comparisons, the conclusion that finding the arias and choruses of Markus Passion should be in the well-preserved Cantata BWV 198 " Laß Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl "from 1727, the Trauerode for Electress Christiane von Brandenburg-Bayreuth Eberhardine . This led to various reconstructions based on this cantata. However, those of Dutilleux showed that it is possible to share with all other cantatas (eg BWV 25 "Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe" and BWV 179 "Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht niece Heuchelei sei") for this purpose. His reconstruction - as long as Bach's original music remains untraceable - obviously ashypothetical as any other.

A problem with the reconstruction was the fact that Bach never recitatives parodied. The melody of the recitatives from Bach's cantatas are so tailored to the text that it is not possible to use them for Mark's gospel text. In different ways have tried to find a solution. Merchant decided to compose himself recitatives in the style of Bach. Other processors used recitatives from the St Mark Passion of Bach's contemporary Reinhard Keiser (a work that copied Bach personally) or the Gospel text left declaim by a speaking voice.

[Literature edit ]

 * Butt, John: Reconstructing Bach. Early Music. November 1998 673-675.
 * Melamed, Daniel R .: Hearing Bach's Passions. Parody and Reconstruction: the St Mark Passion BWV 247 New York. Oxford University Press, 2005.
 * Terry, Charles Sanford: Bach: The Cantatas and Oratorios, the Passions, the Magnificat, Lutheran Masses and Motets. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1972, 5 vols.
 * Theill, Gustav Adolf Die Markus Passion von Joh. Seb. Bach (BWV 247). Steinfeld: Salvator, 1978.