St. Matthew Passion (Bach)

The St. Matthew Passion or Matthew Passion ( BWV 244) is an oratorio composed by Johann Sebastian Bach . It is one of his most famous compositions and one of its longest. The St. Matthew Passion tells the sufferings and death story of Jesus according to the Gospel of Matthew .

Content

 * 1 Dated
 * 2 Style of composition
 * 3 Choir and orchestra
 * 4 Text of the St. Matthew Passion
 * 4.1 Dutch Matthäus
 * 5 Symbolism
 * 6 Version History
 * 6.1 Netherlands
 * 6.1.1 Matthäus in Amsterdam
 * 6.1.2 Matthäus in Naarden
 * 6.1.3 Matthäus in Leiden
 * 6.2 Belgium
 * 6.2.1 Matthäus in Antwerp
 * 6.2.2 Matthäus in Ghent
 * 7 Other St. Matthew Passions
 * 8 to Know
 * 8.1 Conventions
 * 9 References
 * 9.1 Nuts
 * 9.2 Literature
 * 9.3 See also
 * 9.4 External links

[Dating edit ]
About the dating of the composition and the first implementation are experts disagree. Traditionally, it is thought that Bach's St. Matthew Passion composed in 1728 and that the piece was first performed in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on 15 April 1729 , Good Friday . Other sources speak of a first performance on April 11, 1727 (during vespers -dienst on Good Friday). Possible confusion has arisen because Bach in 1728 some (small) has made changes in the composition. In 1736 and 1742 Bach applied again to the score. In 1736, Bach replaced the simple choraal "Jesum lass ich nicht von mir" BWV 244b by the impressive chorale "O Mensch bewein deine Sünde groß", originally the opening chorus of the St. John Passion was. Today's version of 1736 is considered the final version.

Style of composition [ edit ]
Two sizes of the opening movement. The red part is performed by the other band, the other choir.

The St. Matthew Passion was written for two choirs (groups of singers and instrumentalists). A composition with double choirs (cori spezzati) at the time of Bach, especially in the Venetian opera usual. Nowadays it is otherwise common to only one group of soloists and a continuo group play.

The passion is consistent with the method Bach also applied in many cantatas. There are a number of main elements: The two choirs perform at several moments in the St. Matthew Passion different roles. At six places a dialogue between believers and the eyewitnesses. Choir I "play" about the role of the "Daughters of Zion", a personification of Jesus' contemporaries and thus eyewitnesses of the story. Choir II is the "believers" when and where in the world. Elsewhere in the St. Matthew Passion state choir I for the higher, divine and choir II for the lower, worldly. On other places both choirs together form one large choir.In the figure below indicates which color is which part choir to sing and play.
 * Recitatives (the story according to the Gospel of Matthew), sung by soloists. Of these two types: the secco recitative (summarily escorted Long chords, and recitativo accompagnato (a recitative in which the coaching has a more polyphonic character)
 * Corals (which admittedly uitgecomponeerd the existing text and melody follow standard corals)
 * Arias (personal gedichte texts, most in ABA form ( da capo ))
 * Portions chorus (usually comments from the crowd on the events)

The St. Matthew Passion has a clear structure. After the grandiose opening chorus tells the Evangelist the sufferings and death story of Jesus with minimal musical accompaniment. This story line is interrupted by recitatives , arias and corals, to give an individual or collective reflection on the story. The St. Matthew Passion ends with the death and burial of Jesus with the final chorale "Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder".

Choir and orchestra [ edit ]
The St. Matthew Passion is usually performed in the following line:

Soloists Chorus 1: Chorus 2: Orchestra 1: Orchestra 2: In addition to the solo singing come sometimes groups of people, like the disciples, a crowd of people, a group of soldiers or priests. These are sung by the two choirs.
 * Evangelist ( tenor ) - sings the literal text of the Gospel
 * Jesus ( bass )
 * Judas (bass)
 * Peter (bass)
 * High Priest (bass)
 * Pilate (bass)
 * first and second virgin ( soprano )
 * first and second priest (bass)
 * Pilate's wife ( soprano )
 * Two witnesses ( alto and tenor)
 * Soprano
 * Alto
 * Tenor
 * Bass
 * Soprano
 * Alto
 * Tenor
 * Bass
 * Violin 1
 * Violin 2
 * Viola
 * Hobo 1 (+ Oboe d'amore & Oboe da Caccia)
 * Hobo 2 (+ Oboe d'amore & Oboe da Caccia)
 * Traverso 1 (+ Recorder)
 * Traverso 2 (+ Recorder)
 * Viola da Gamba
 * Violoncello
 * Bassoon
 * Double bass
 * Organ
 * Violin 1
 * Violin 2
 * Viola
 * Hobo 1 (+ Oboe d'amore)
 * Hobo 2 (+ Oboe d'amore)
 * Traverso 1
 * Traverso 2
 * Viola da Gamba
 * Violoncello
 * Bassoon
 * Double bass
 * Organ

[Text of the St. Matthew Passion edit ]
The recitatives from Chapter 26 and 27 of the Gospel according to Matthew . The lyrics of the arias and ariosos supplied by Bach fixed lyricist Picander . The corals are based on existing hymns for Lent. So are several verses from O Sacred Head, Now Wounded and Befiehl du deine Wege of Paul Gerhardt recorded.

Dutch Matthäus [ edit ]
In 1948 there will be an English version of the St. Matthew Passion by the poet Jan Engelman is paid to which relatively little attention. In 2006, there is again a Dutch version. This is by Jan Rot free retranslated. Rot has worked here for five years. The Passion was performed by the Residence Orchestra, The Residential Bach Choir and the Hague Matrozenkoor led by Jos Vermunt . The first application in the Dr. Anton Philips Hall in The Hague, was a huge success and gave a standing ovation from twenty minutes. In 2008, the poet Ria Borkent prompted by the Christian Literature Discussion (CLO) to recreate a Dutch version in honor of their 15th anniversary. "The re-translation had to be artistically good, singable, do justice to the content of the message of the original St. Matthew Passion, and as much as possible in contemporary Dutch."According CLO comes Borkents rephrasing "fully meet these expectations." [1] The execution was entrusted to Pieter Jan Leusink and on Good Friday of 2011, the EO sent the concert on television.

[Symbolism edit ]
Bach plays a lot with numbers. Thus, the numerical value of the name BACH is equal to 14 (B is the 2nd letter of the alphabet, A is the 1st, 3rd and C H 8th together is 14). The number 14 comes in the St. Matthew Passion frequently, for example there are 14 corals, thus passed back to the name Bach. Less known is that 14 times to the heart is made. [2]

The St. Matthew Passion has a total of 68 tracks. Besides the 14 corals are 27 passages in which the Gospel is sung, and 27 other pieces. The number 27 stands by Bach for the trinity of God (3 × 3 × 3). The 27 pieces of gospel text consists of a total of 729 measurements, which is the square of 27. [3]

The paper by the chorus: "Herr, bin ich's?" sung. This is the part where Jesus and the 12 apostles at the Last Supper takes part and announces that he will be betrayed by one of them. The word "Herr" is sung eleven times, not 12 times, Judas (traitor) After all, does not sing along.

Excerpt from Bach's own "clean copy" of the St. Matthew Passion, with the text: "Eli, lama asabthani" [4]

Another clear example of symbolism found in the musical Jesus: all texts singing Jesus, he is, as an aureole, accompanied by gentle strings, except for his last words. These famous words are, in Bach's St. Matthew Passion [5] "Eli, Eli, lama asabthani" translated "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me '; the complete abandonment of Jesus is here illustrated by the absence of the strings.

The St. Matthew Passion ends with a big seventh as for attitude . The attitude should dissolve. This symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. But the symbolism also comes in a less subtle way back. The guidance of the Christ in the recitatives happens for example with a basso continuo . In total, these plays bass accompaniment 365 notes, the number of days in the year. Bach used to indicate that Jesus is the foundation of all days of the year.

From around 1950 there by Bach connoisseurs busy looking for all kinds of hidden symbolism in the St. Matthew Passion. As Bach would have birth and even his date of death have processed musically. Critics point out that those who are looking for something long enough by itself will find and assume that much of the found "messages" coincidental.Working with numbers, symbols and rhetoric was in baroque music, incidentally a practice that occurred with other composers, especially when Heinrich von Bibern .

The St. Matthew Passion consists of a short first part and a long second part. This Bach would be a cross shape indicated. The first part then forms the horizontal bar and the second part of the long vertical bar. The announcement of the denial by Peter and the denial itself takes place around the "intersection" of this cross. Exactly halfway through the first part, Jesus announces that Peter will deny him three times, and after about the same time in the second part will this actually took place. [6]

[Execution History edit ]
As far as known Bach himself in Leipzig cared four performances of the St. Matthew Passion: in 1727 , 1729 , 1736 and 1740 . After Bach in 1750 was deceased, she became like his other music into oblivion. On 11 March 1829 kept Felix Mendelssohn for the first time since Bach's death a shortened version with the Singakademie in Berlin . Already in 1925 they tried to come to performances, which could be approximations of how the piece may have sounded in Bach's time. The "authentic" performance practice, however, only in the last quarter of the twentieth century, through the influence of Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt and Koopman, the former interpretations have supplanted with larger orchestras and choirs.

[Netherlands edit ]
The piece will be performed in the passion of time. In 1870 the St. Matthew Passion was first performed in the Netherlands by Toonkunst Rotterdam led by Woldemar Bargiel . The big St. Matthew tradition in the Netherlands has come about thanks to Willem Mengelberg in Amsterdam and the Dutch Bach Society in Naarden . Today there are over 100 places in the Netherlands where the Passion is performed, from large concert halls to smaller parish churches.

[Matthew Amsterdam edit ]
Four years after the first performance in the Netherlands in Rotterdam was the Amsterdam premiere by Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam and the Park Orchestra, led by Johannes Verhulst . On April 8, 1899 Willem Mengelberg conducted for the first time with the Concertgebouw Orchestra from the St. Matthew. Mengelberg took it to scale, with a large orchestra and choir (450 people), with a romantic organ, clarinets instead ofoboes da caccia and oboe d'amore, a piano instead of basso continuo , and without lute or viol . He also shortened the piece strong, like Mendelssohn, the man who Matthäus again put on the repertoire, already had done.

Mengelberg's approach provoked mixed reactions: especially the great chorus shouted objections - but a tradition was well established. Mengelberg was otherwise look for variations in the field of play and the occupation. The recording of the performance on Palm Sunday in 1939 at least gives something of his views.

Kcov Excelsior [7] in Amsterdam since 1953 annually conducts the St. Matthew Passion in the concert hall. Thus Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam performs well (almost) annual St Matthew Passion at the Concertgebouw in.

Matthäus in Naarden [ edit ]
On Good Friday, April 14, 1922, afternoon at two o'clock, was first by the Netherlands Bach Society, the St. Matthew Passion in the Great Church of Naarden performed under the first conductor, Johan Schoonderbeek. The performance in Naarden became a tradition. It happened at a time when Willem Mengelberg in Amsterdam furore with his more romantic and quite a cropped version of the St. Matthew Passion at the Concertgebouw, with choirs of up to 450 people. The first act of the Dutch Bach Society was therefore right to bring the almost complete version performed.

St Matthew in Naarden would over the years more and more to follow developments in the early music practice. But initially, the differences between Amsterdam (Mengelberg) and Naarden (Anthon van der Horst, Charles de Wolff) was not as great as using the same musicians (Concertgebouw Orchestra) and soloists. From 2005, pursues the current conductor, Jos van Veldhoven, to an even more original and limited occupied implementation.

The implementation in Naarden has become a society event, which is attended by many dignitaries such as government members.

Matthäus Leiden [ edit ]
In 1983, however, there was a break in the Dutch Bach Society, this break had its rise in a modified subsidy from the national government, was granted from 1983 only still project-based subsidy, while the continuity of execution as the St. Matthew Passion precisely a structural character required. Charles de Wolff, together with the nearly full choir and (later) Concertgebouw Chamber decided to end cooperation with the Dutch Bach Society, then in the Bach Choir Holland in Peter continue to pursue the St. Matthew tradition Leiden.

Matthäus in Antwerp [ edit ]
In Antwerp brought Louis Moisture in 1926, the St. Matthew Passion with his oratorio choir Chorale Caecilia on the Dutch version of priest-poet Maurice Van Hoeck . [8] The Passion was performed earlier, led by the moisture, but 1926 was start of an annual tradition that would last until 1968. In 1928 he performed in Paris this work on an English text. [9] The choir took over in 2007, the tradition again under the direction of conductor Paul Dinneweth .

Matthäus in Ghent [ edit ]
The St. Matthew Passion in Ghent brought annually by the Royal Ghent Oratorio Society . In 2014 she sang this work in Ghent for the 60th consecutive year since 1955. In 1988 and 1992 they brought the play at Notre Dame in Paris. This association also provides the Passion since 2000 in the Dutch Holly .

In 1989 took VRT Charles Borromeo Church in Antwerp for the first complete performance of the St. Matthew; conductor was Sigiswald Kuijken .

In the Lemmens Institute in a four-year cycle alternating twice the St. Matthew Passion, once the St. John Passion conducted and once the B Minor Mass.

Other St. Matthew Passions [ edit ]
The St. Matthew Passion by Bach is not the only St. Matthew Passion, but the best known; Jacob Obrecht composed his passion in 1471, Heinrich Schütz in 1666 and Orlando di Lasso in 1575. In post-modern music literature is the "St. Matthew Passion, for 19 singers' by Baudouin Tarenskeen in 2009 awarded the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize . [10] In 2002, Egon Kracht an alternative instrumental version on Bach's St. Matthew Passion 'he played in Dutch theaters with Egon Power & The Troupe. [11]

Interesting facts [ edit ]
In 2008, the winning composer David Lang the Pulitzer Prize for composition with the work The little match girl passion. In it he tells Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about the girl with the matches after the model of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. According to the composer, this was a chance to get started with the architectural purity of Bach.

Conventions [ edit ]
In the Netherlands, the custom arose after failing to applaud the performance because of the religious atmosphere of the piece - after a church service they simply do not fold. Moreover, the lock - the death of Christ - not a cause for enthusiasm. This tradition is increasingly broken and is hardly observed.