Johann Sebastian Bachs St John Passion (BWV 245):

A Theological Commentary
 Studies in the History of
Christian Traditions

Editor in Chief

Robert J. Bast (Knoxville, Tennessee)

In cooperation with

Paul C.H. Lim (Nashville, Tennessee)

Eric Saak (Liverpool)
Christine Shepardson (Knoxville,Tennessee)
Brian Tierney (Ithaca, New York)
Arjo Vanderjagt (Groningen)
John Van Engen (Notre Dame, Indiana)

Founding Editor

Heiko A. Oberman

volume 168

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 Johann Sebastian Bachs
St John Passion (BWV 245):
A Theological Commentary
With a New Study Translation by Katherine Firth
and a Foreword by N.T. Wright

By

Andreas Loewe

leiden | boston
Cover illustration: High Altar Reredos of St Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Dr Carsten
Murawski. Courtesy of St Pauls Cathedral.

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For Katherine

Contents

List of Tables and Figures ix

List of Abbreviations xi
Foreword xiii
N.T. Wright
Acknowledgements xix

Introduction 1
1 From the Fifth Evangelist to the Birth of the Neue Bachausgabe 3
2 Theological Bach Research: Back to the Sources 6
3 Considering Anti-Judaism in Bachs Music 9
4 Bach and Theology Re-assessed 10
5 Purpose and Scope of This Study 12

part 1
Composer and Work

1 Learning the Craft of a Church Musician 21

1 Bachs Schooling 21
2 Singer, Instrumentalist, Church Musician 24
3 Singing preaching and praising of God 29

2 It pleased God that I should be calledBachs Office and Craft 32

1 The Purpose of Church Music 36
2 Gnaden-Gegenwart: Gods Presence in Sacred Music 39
3 Music for the Glory of God 41

3 Proclaiming Scripture through MusicThe Development of Bachs

Cantatas 44
1 Musical and Textual Models for Bachs Early Cantatas 45
2 The Modern Cantata 49
3 From Kthen to Leipzig: from Capellmeister to Lutheran Cantor 54
4 The Leipzig Cantatas: Words and Music that Amplify Scripture 60
5 Composing, Rehearsing and Performing the Cantata 66

4 Bachs St John Passion 68

1 The Development of the Lutheran Responsorial Passion 70
viii contents

2 The Liturgical and Homiletic Context of Bachs St John Passion 74

3 The Libretto of Bachs St John Passion 78
3.1 Textual Elements of the St John Passion: Biblical Text 80
3.2 Textual Elements: Madrigalic Texts 84
3.3 Textual Elements: Chorales 86
4 The Purpose and Message of Bachs St John Passion 91

part 2
Commentary

5 Introduction to the Commentary 99

6 Study Translation 100

Katherine Firth

7 Commentaries and Sermon Collections 135

1 Abraham Calovs Great German Bible (1682) 136
2 Johannes Olearius Haupt Schlel (1681) 136
3 Sermon Collections: Martin Luther (15281529) 138

8 Commentary 141
1 Prima ParteFirst Part of the Passion 141
ExordiumPrologue 141
HortusJesus in the Garden of Gethsemane 147
PontificesJesus Before the Chief Priests 160
2 Parte Secunda: Nach der Predigt 184
PilatusJesus Before Pilate 184
CruxJesus Dies on the Cross 259
SepulchrumJesus is Laid in the Tomb 290

Bibliography 299
Index of Names 322
Index of Places 325
Index of Bachs Works by BWV Number 326
Index of Themes 328
List of Tables and Figures

Tables

1 Libretti published in Salomo Francks Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer,

Geist und Weltlicher Poesien Zweyter Teil and Evangelische Sonn- und
Festtages-Andachten (1716) 53
2 Libretti published in Zieglers Versuch in gebundener Schreib-Art
(1728) 62
3 Libretti published in Picanders Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische
Gedichte 63
4 Libretto of Bachs St John Passion as first performed in 1724 (I) 82
5 Libretto of Bachs St John Passion as performed in 1725 (II) 83
6 Known and Unknown sources of Free Poetry in Bachs St John
Passion 86
7 Consolation and Commitment in Arias and Ariosos of Bachs St John
Passion 87
8 Interior Questions and Answers in the Chorus Arias of Bachs St John
Passion 88
9 Actus Chorales in Bachs St John Passion 89
10 Petitions from Stockmanns Passion Chorale in Bachs St John Passion 90

Figures

1 Dedication of Solomons Temple: Frontispiece of the 1673 Eisenachisches

Gesangbuch, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbttel, TL 45 37
2 Exterior and Interior of St Thomas Church Leipzig: Frontispiece of the 1710
Leipziger Kirchen-Staat, Niederschsische Staats- und
Universittsbibliothek Gttingen, 8 H E RIT I, 11920 57
3 Picanders Texts for the Passion-Music according to the Evangelist
Matthew set to music by Bach in the St Matthew Passion, 1727, from the 1748
Ernst-Scherzhafte und Satyrische Gedichte, p. 471, Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek Mnchen, P.O. germ. 600 e/2 65
4 Frontispiece of Bachs copy of Calovs annotated New Testament from the
Great German Bible, Concordia Theological Seminary, St Louis,
Missouri 137
5 Mors: Olearius commentary on Johns account of the death of Jesus,
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Mnchen, 2 Exeg. 650 e-5 139
x list of tables and figures

6 Autograph Score, p. 11: Different Cross-motifs (13, 24 and 14, 23) on

Jesum von Nazareth, Bach Digital Project 151
7 Autograph Score, p. 12: Cross-motifs (14, 23) on Jesum von Nazareth,
Bach Digital Project 155
8 Autograph Score, p. 17: Cross-motif (14, 23) on Jesu nach und, Bach
Digital Project 165
9 Intrade Herrn Sebastian Knpfers, Kritischer Bericht 179
10 Autograph Score, p. 34: Answers to Questions, though not in Bachs hand,
Bach Digital Project 203
11 Johann Saubert, DYODEKAS emblematum sacrorum (1625): The alto voice
as an expression of the Holy Spirit, Bibliothque Municipale de Lyon, SJ
CS 320/5 272
List of Abbreviations

ADB Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1890)

Ant. Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, with an English Translation by
Louis H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library 411 (Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1969)
BB Robin A. Leaver, Bachs theologische Bibliothek: Eine kritische Bibliogra-
phie (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hnnsler, 1985)
BBKL Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (Herzberg: Traugott
Bautz, 1993)
BD Werner Neumann and Hans Joachim Schulze, eds., Bach-Dokumente, 3
vols (Kassel: Brenreiter, 19631972)
BWV Wolfgang Schmieder, ed., Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der
musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach-Werke-Verzeich-
nis [Bach Works Catalogue] (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1980)
CB Abraham Calov, ed., I. N. J./ Die Heilige/ Bibel/ nach S. Herrn D. Martini
Lutheri. Deutscher Dolmetschung und Erklrung/ mit groem Flei/
und Kosten ausgearbeitet/ und verfasset/ von/ D. Abraham Calovio (Wit-
tenberg: Christian Schrter, 16811682)
ES Reinhold Vormbaum, ed., Evangelische Schulordnungen, I: Die evange-
lischen Schulordnungen des Sechzehnten Jahrhunderts (Gtersloh: Ber-
telsmann, 1860)
HS Johannes Olearius, Haupt Schlel der gantzen Heiligen Schrifft, 3 vol-
umes in 5 parts (Leipzig: Tarnoven, 16781680)
Kritischer Bericht Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes-Passion BWV 245, Arthur
Mendel, ed., Neue Bach-Ausgabe Serie II: Messen, Passionen, orato-
rische Werke, 5 vols (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1974), IV: Kritischer Bericht von
Arthur Mendel
KS Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montarini, eds., Friedrich Nietzsche Werke.
Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, 19691978)
Livy, History of Rome Titus Livius [Livy], Ab Urbe condita libri, W. Weissen-
born, H.J. Mller eds. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1898)
NBR Hans David and Arthur Mendel, eds. et al., revised and enlarged by
Christoph Wolff, The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach
in Letters and Documents (London: W.W. Norton, 1998)
WA Martin Luther, D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe,
Joachim Karl Friedrich Knaake, ed. et al. (Weimar: Hermann Bhlau,
18831985)
WA Br Briefwechsel, Luthers Letters
xii list of abbreviations

WA Tr Tischreden, Luthers Table Talk

War Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, with an English Translation by H. St.
J. Thackeray, Loeb Classical Library 203 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1967)
Foreword
N.T. Wright*

St Johns account of the trial and death of Jesus contains some of the densest,
as well as the most vivid, writing in his already astonishing Gospel. Roman
historians have long agreed that the detailed presentation of the to-and-fro
between Jesus, Pontius Pilate and the Judaean leaders and crowds carries strong
historical verisimilitude: this is, more or less, how such Roman trials would
have been. But the dramatic arguments between the representatives of Gods
kingdom and the Emperors kingdom are not simply a striking account of
totalitarian sneering on the one hand and theological courage on the other,
though they are that. They are the place where John draws together, at last, all
the rich, complex strands that have made his Gospel what it is. The hour has
come: this is where it was all leading. Bachs music, of course, matches John
stride for stride in its dense complexity as well as its beauty and power.
This is where it was all leading, going back to the very beginning; which is, of
course, where John echoes the book of Genesis: in the beginning was the Word
and the Word became flesh (John 1.1, 14). Johns book is about the one God
who made a good world and who loves it still, even though when he comes in
person, as light into the darkness, the darkness did not understand him, just
as the world itself, his own creation, did not know him. All that, woven into
passage after passage in the Gospel, comes to full expression, as Pilate cannot
be bothered to work out what Jesus is talking about. He came, says John, to his
own, and his own did not receive him: all of that, too, is set before us throughout
the Gospel, as Jesus own people refuse his message, and it now comes to full
expression as the angry chief priests insist that they have a law according to
which Jesus should die, that if Pilate lets him go he is not the friend of the
Emperor, and, chillingly, that they themselves have no king but the Emperor
(John 19.15d, movement 23f).
But the Gospel which opens with that prologue, so exactly anticipating the
climax at the heart of Bachs St John Passion, continues as the exposition of how,
precisely within this framework of misunderstanding and rejection, the Word
has become flesh and dwelt among us, so that we beheld his glory, glory as of
the Fathers only Son, full of grace and truth (John 1.14). To understand Johns

* The Rt Revd N.T. Wright is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, The School of
Divinity, University of St Andrews.
xiv foreword

Passion narrative, we have to understand that climactic verse in the Prologue.

John is writing, as it were, a new first chapter of Genesis; and, just as the climax
of the first chapter of Genesis is the creation of humankind in the image of God,
so the climax of the Prologue of John is the coming into the world of the True
Image, the Proper Man in Luthers phrase (Martin Luther, The Freedom of a
Christian, 1520). So when, in the Passion narrative, Pilate brings Jesus out to the
crowds on the sixth day of the week, the day when humans were created as the
climax of Gods creation, and declares Sehet, welch ein Mensch (Behold, what
a person, John 19.15b, movement 21c), we ought to hear both the shocking irony
of the callous Roman governor sneering at Jesus and the massive theological
affirmation: here is the true Man, completing Gods loving work of rescuing his
creation.
The Word became flesh, says John in the Prologue, and he pitched his tent
among us, tabernacled in our midst (John 1.14). With that, we are introduced
to another major theme of the whole Gospel. The glory of Israels God had
abandoned the Temple at the time of the exile, and nowhere in the post-exilic
writings does it say that the divine glory has returned to take up residence
among his people. Now at last, declares John, it has happenedbut not in the
Temple made with hands, Herods rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, but in and as
a human being, the human being, the perfect image, Jesus himself. The older I
get, the more it seems to me that this theme, the glory of Israels God returning
at last in the form of Jesus, is the central theme of the whole New Testament,
and the stranger it seems to me that for so long the church and the world of
scholarship have simply not seen it. The glory shines forth as Jesus changes
water into wine, revealing his glory and, in the next breath, declaring that the
present Temple will be destroyed and a new one, not made with hands, built
in its placereferring, says John, to the temple of his body. And now, though
the word glory is not found in the Passion narrative, John has structured his
Gospel in such a way that we ought to be, in heart and mind, in the Temple,
beholding the glory: when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem in chapter 12, the narrative
breaks off, and we have no fewer than five chapters of meditation, the so-called
Farewell Discourses, where we find ourselves in the presence of the living God,
promised that we, too, shall be filled with his Spirit, and commissioned for
our own tasks to shine as lights into the dark world. The glory of the Lord is
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. All of that, if we know what we are
about, we should have in our heads and our hearts as we come to the Passion
narrative.
Bach, of course, knew exactly what he was about. When he finally decided
on the opening chorus of his St John Passion as we know it today, he picked
out that very theme, with wordplay which works in German though not easily
foreword xv

in English: Herr, unser Herrscher, dessen Ruhm in allen Landen herrlich ist! Zeig
uns da du, auch in der grten Niedrigkeit, verherrlicht worden bist!Herr,
Herrscher, herrlich, verherrlicht worden bist: Glorious Lord, our glorious master,
your glory is honoured in all the world, you are glorified even in the darkness.
This is spot on as an introduction to what John is trying to say.
Within and among these themes of the true Man, the true Temple, the true
Glory, John has woven the sharp discussion of Jesus as the King. Are you the
king of the Jews? (John 18.33b) My kingdom is not from this world (18.35); You
say it, I am a king (18.37b); Do you want me now to let go for you the king of
the Jews? (18.39); Everyone who makes himself a king is against the Emperor
(19.12c); That is your king! (19.13); Shall I crucify your king? (19.15c) We have
no king but the Emperor (19.15d). Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews (19.19);
Do not write: the king of the Jews, but rather that he said: I am the king of the
Jews (19.21b). And when we pause and ponder the ancient Biblical vision that
the true King of Israel, when he arrived, would be the king of the world, with a
dominion from sea to sea, we realise what is at stake: two visions of all of reality,
the Emperor-vision, in which truth is a function of power, creating kingdom by
violence, and the Jesus-vision, in which truth is a function of redemption, and
redemption generates kingdom by love. Jesus, having loved his own who were
in the world, loved them to the uttermost, eis telos, to the end (John 13.1). This
is the victory that overcomes the world and launches, at last, the project of new
creation, a new creation that takes us not away from the world but out into the
world with the news of resurrection and, once more, love.
All this is drawn to its head as Jesus dies on the cross, with the single Greek
word tetelestai, It is finished (John 19.30a). For us, finished can mean, simply,
stopped, its over; thats enough of that. But tetelestai means much more, It
is completed; the work is done, is accomplished. And, tellingly, it echoes the
word spoken at the end of the sixth day in Genesis 1: God finished all his work
which he had made. Not, God stopped, as though he was bored; rather, God
completed the full task. Now, on the sixth day, God completes his work. Again,
Luthers German gets it exactly right: Es ist vollbracht, from the verb vollbringen:
it is brought to the full. And the result, for the moment at least, is the same as
in Genesis: on the seventh day God rested from all his work. Thus Bachs setting
closes with the great chorus Ruht wohl, Rest well (movement 39). This is not
the final end; as the short closing chorale will tell us, this rest is but the prelude
to the first day of the new week, the day of resurrection. But, for now, we watch
the Lord of Glory laid to rest in the tomb with his work complete. And, as in
all the Gospel Passion stories, the scene is filled out with the smaller characters
with whom we are quietly invited to identify: Judas and Peter, of course, most
worryingly, and perhaps also the angry and incomprehending crowds, but also
xvi foreword

the bystanders, the three Marys at the foot of the cross, the beloved disciple,
and then the faithful and brave Joseph of Arimathea.
What has Johann Sebastian Bach done with this huge, towering narrative?
He has turned it into a world and invited us to come into that world and
make it our own. That is what art, at its best, always does. Working in the
early eighteenth century, before the split-level world of the Enlightenment
had separated out aesthetics from faith (as it also did with justice), Bach
produced one of the greatest-ever syntheses of art and faith, art as expression
of faith and art as invitation to faith, a faith which could never remain a bare
belief but must turn itself into story and song, into life and love. As you will
discover in this commentary and when listening intently to Bachs music, Bach
loved to paint words and themes into the music; in the first half of the St
John Passion, the cheerful little song which says we are going to follow Jesus
joyfully with happy steps (movement 9) comes crashing to the ground as Peter
denies Jesus and weeps bitterly (a bit of text Bach borrowed from Matthew;
John leaves Peters tears unstated but strongly implied, movement 12b). And
in the powerful and extraordinary tenor aria Erwge, in the middle of the
second half of the Passion (movement 20), reflecting on the brutal scourging
of Jesus, Bach takes words which, we might have thought, belong more in a
high late-mediaeval spirituality than in an austere Lutheran atmosphere, words
which speak of the bloodstained back of Jesus as appearing like a rainbow in
the sky after the heavy, drenching rain, the rainbow which speaks of forgiveness
after our sins have been washed away. Bach creates not only the musical effect
of the waterfloods but also, breathtakingly (literally if you are the soloist) the
effect of the rainbow, overarching the horizon with the message of healing and
new creation.
But all this is simply the tip of the iceberg. As many commentators have
pointed out, no detail is left to chance; like Shakespeare, Bach did nothing
by accident. The choice of key, the orchestration, the dense harmonies, so
much harder to sing than those in the later St Matthew Passion (perhaps, we
speculate, Bach had had some sharp comments from weary singers?)all
of these contribute both to the overall effect and the unfathomable detail.
Wherever you look, or, better, listen, you will find the music telling us in our
hearts and souls as well as our minds what this story is about, and inviting us
to come into the world of the story and make it our own, have our own lives
turned inside out and upside down by the glory of Gods love made flesh.
In particularand this is, as it were, the secret heart of the second half of
the Passion in particularBach creates a musical arch, as several movements
come together, matching one another on either side of a central point. Hail,
beloved king of the Jews (John 19.3, movement 21b) is matched musically
foreword xvii

by Do not write: the king of the Jews (John 19.21b, movement 25b). Crucify,
crucify (John 19.6b, movement 21d) is echoed by Away, away, crucify him (John
19.15b, movement 23d). We have a Law, and according to that Law he shall die
(John 19.7c, movement 21f) is matched by If you let this one go, you are no
friend of the Emperors (John 19.12c, movement 23b). (Bach employs the same
technique elsewhere, for instance in the motet Jesu Meine Freude, BWV 227, a
meditation on Romans 8.) And in the centre of this musical arch, surrounded
by the shouting of the crowds and the cynical vacillation of Pilate, is the simple
but utterly profound chorale Durch dein Gefngnis, Gottes Sohn, Through your
prison, Son of God (movement 22), which itself makes something of an arch
as the stately tune rises and then falls, and declares that all this is happening
so that through the unjust fate of Jesus our own freedom is accomplished. And
at this point Bach has brought the preceding music around so that it ends in
the key of E major, the only time in the work it is used. E major has four sharps
in its key signature, and a sharp is of course two crosses superimposed, so that
the conductor, turning the page of the full score to this chorale, is faced with
literally dozens of crosses declaring that here, at the centre of the worlds rage
and blindness, stands the symbol which makes sense of it all, in which we can
find our life and our hope. And the chorus which follows, If you let this one go
(movement 23b), continues in E major, forcing the crowd to declare musically
where their rage is all going.
And so to Bachs meditation on that final word, Es ist vollbracht (John 19.30a).
For John this is not a shrug of the shoulders, Well, thats over at last, but a
powerful statement of the completion of the work of redemption, the sixth-day
achievement of the Proper Man. Here Bach, in the great Alto aria (movement
30) accompanied by the already archaic viola da gamba, looks back on this past
event, this supreme accomplishment, and makes it quite clear what vollbracht
means with the striking, almost shocking, bursting in of the military theme:
Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht und schliet den Kampf, the Hero of Judah
triumphs with power and concludes the battle. You only understand vollbracht
when you know that this is the victory of all victories, the overcoming of the
world that Jesus had spoken about in the Farewell Discourses. But, equally, and
Bach achieves this unforgettably, you only understand the nature of that victory
when you stand at the foot of the cross, as the martial music suddenly stops, and
the weight and depth of the accomplishment are once again affirmed with full
solemnity.
Which points us to the question, what does all this say to us today? Art tells
us what it tells us, but this note of victory through the completed work of the
cross speaks right into todays world. My kingdom, said Jesus, is not from this
world, because if it were my servants would be fighting (John 18.36, movement
xviii foreword

16e). But this does not mean that Jesus kingdom is an otherworldly one, with
no visible connection to the real world, the world where Emperors still sneer
and the crowds still bay for blood. On the contrary, Jesus kingdom is for this
world; that is its point, that is why the world will still hate Jesus followers.
The church today stands between the Pilates of the secular state and the Chief
Priests of the shrieking fundamentalisms. Our task is not to fight back, or to
shriek back, but to bear witness with our lives, with our communities, with
our faith and hope and above all our love, to the different sort of kingdom, the
kingdom through which is revealed the strange glory of Israels God, the glory
of the healing and rebirth of creation itself, the glory of the love which has loved
us to the uttermost.
Johns Gospel has often, quite rightly, been seen as the very heart of an
authentic Christian spirituality. But that spirituality can never be an escape
from the world, but rather a commission to go into the world. The risen Jesus
breathes his spirit on his followers and says, As the Father sent me, so I send
you (John 20.21). And with that As so we find ourselves thinking and
praying back through the entire story, and particularly the entire story of the
Passion, and asking ourselves, What might it look like for the church to bear
that same witness to the Pilates and the Chief Priests of our day? And, though
this does not provide the answer, the question is framed again in John 21, as
the risen Jesus asks Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me? (John 21.17),
then commissioning Peter, forgiven and restored, to tend and feed his lambs
and sheep. Bach brings us, in all our multi-dimensional human reality, into the
very heart of Johns Passion narrative. As you ponder Bachs St John Passion, you
might pray that the Holy Spirit would awaken in us the answer which Peter gave
to Jesus question: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you (John 21.17); and that,
with that grateful love welling up afresh, we might discern, and then undertake,
the tasks which will again turn the living Word into loving flesh.
Acknowledgements

This work was first conceived in Holy Week 2002 as part of a week-long music
project under the patronage of Ton Koopman, Holy Week with JSB. Held at St
Marys Parish Church Slough, Berkshire, the project led to a liturgical perfor-
mance of Bachs St John Passion by young performers from Arts at St Marys
Slough on the afternoon of Good Friday 2002. I am grateful to the Rector and
Parish Wardens of Upton-cum-Chalvey and members of the Arts at St Marys
Slough team for their ready support of the initiative, Katie Hawks for selecting
and rehearsing the musicians, and all participants of Holy Week with JSB who
requested theological reflections on the St John Passion. Without their interest
in the theological meaning of Bachs work, this project would not have started.
Without the uncountable contributions of my partner, Dr Katherine Firth, this
book would not have been completed: Katherine helped establish the method-
ology of joint close textual and musical analysis. She provided advice as a musi-
cologist, librettist, and literary scholar. She worked on the project as translator,
grant writer, research associate, writing consultant and editor, both paid and
unpaid, over the decade this project has taken to come to fruition.
This book was written in three different settings, on two continents. Initial
research took place in the two years immediately following Holy Week with JSB,
and further work was undertaken during four years at Cambridges University
Church, Great St Marys. Most of the work was written in earnest during my
time as Gavan Lecturer in Theology and College Chaplain at Trinity College, the
University of Melbourne. Many colleagues on the way have helped make this
project possible: at the end of Holy Week with JSB, the parishs Rector Dr David
Miell presented me with a Neue Bachausgabe full score of the work for my
musical analysis. In Cambridge, my colleague Canon Dr John Binns and Selwyn
Image proved to be thoughtful interlocutors. Great St Marys Director of Music
Sam Hayes, the Cambridge University Baroque Ensemble and Michaelhouse
Singers readily put on liturgical performances of some of Bachs choral works,
and my parishioners and friends took great interest in Bach, his music, and this
project: thank you.
At Trinity College Melbourne, the Warden, Canon Professor Andrew
McGowan, Dean Campbell Bairstow, Chief of Staff Dr Brenda Holt and Head of
Academic Programs Dr Sally Dalton-Brown welcomed me into a warm and sup-
portive research community. Trinity provided outstanding institutional sup-
port, enabling me to attend conferences in the field, as well as visit colleagues,
archives and libraries in Germany, Israel and the United States. Trinity College
Director of Music Michael Leighton Jones and I led two choir tours to Leipzig
xx acknowledgements

with the splendid Choir of Trinity College; the first Australian choir to lead
choral worship at St Thomas Church, Leipzig. With Michael I was also able
to work closely with Jeremy Summerly and Stephen Layton on curating a num-
ber of performances of the Passion and with Thomaskantor Christoph Biller on
performing some of the Passions chorales. I learnt much from their interpreta-
tions of the works and am privileged to have worked with them.
My colleagues at Trinity College Theological School actively furthered my
research: the Dean of School, the Revd Professor Dorothy Lee was always ready
to discuss the finer points of the Johannine Passion narrative over a cup of tea,
Dr David Gormley OBrien shed light on the reliability of Josephus and Dr Meg
Warner helped me with my reading of Olearius Hebrew variants. Towards the
end of the project two Trinity colleagues helped me transition from College
Chaplain to Dean of Melbourne: Canon Dr Ray Cleary, Acting Dean of St Pauls
Cathedral Melbourne, and the Revd Christopher Carolane. At St Pauls, my
colleagues on the Cathedral Chapter and on the staff team enabled me to
take some research time to complete and review the manuscript. Thank you,
colleagues old and new, for your generosity of time and friendship.
Much of my research was supported by a number of competitive grants
from the University of Divinity, Melbourne, making it possible for me to work
closely with a research assistant: the Director of Music of St Pauls Cathedral
Melbourne, Philip Nicholls, worked with me on the musical analysis of the
second part of the work as an important collaborator, and reviewed the entire
manuscript. In this, he was capably aided by Samuel Allchurch of Trinity
College Melbourne and Caius College Cambridge. At the University of Divinity
Melbourne I should like to thank the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Sherlock,
the Director of Research, Professor Mark Lindsay, and the Head of Biblical
Studies of the United Faculty of Theology, Associate Professor Sean Winter, for
their support. Thanks are also due to the S.R. Stoneman Foundation for the
use of Stonemans home Duneira on Mount Macedon, Victoria for two summer
writing weeks, and to Allan Myer for enabling me to visit archives and specialist
collections in Germany.
I am very grateful to Professor Tom Wright of St Andrews University for
contributing the Foreword to this book. Among my Australian colleagues in
the field I should like to thank Principal Fellow Jan Stockigt and Dr Sue Cole
at the Conservatorium of Music, the University of Melbourne, Professor Peter
Tregear at Australian National University, and Dr Samantha Owens at the Uni-
versity of Queensland for their friendship and insight, and Hans Schroeder
and the Australian Bach Society for their enthusiasm for this project. Among
my international colleagues I am indebted to Professor Christoph Biller and
Professor Martin Petzoldt in Leipzig, Professor Ruth HaCohen and Dr Edward
acknowledgements xxi

Breuer at the Hebrew University Jerusalem, Professor Robin Leaver and Pro-
fessor Markus Rathey at Yale, Dr Nikolaus Bacht at the Humboldt University
Berlin, series editor Professor Robert Bast, the two anonymous reviewers and
my editor at Brill, Ivo Romein, for many interesting conversationselectronic
and in personon Bach, music and theology in general, and earlier drafts of
this book in particular.
Numerous collections provided access to manuscript materials, early
printed books and out of print materials: I thank the librarians of Trinity Col-
lege, and the University of Melbourne for obtaining specific works for me; staff
at the Schsische LandesbibliothekStaats- und Universittsbibliothek Dres-
den, the Bacharchiv and the Stadtarchiv Leipzig, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Preussischer Kulturbesitz, as well as the Israel State Archives in Jerusalem for
giving me access to their collections; and staff at Brenreiter Verlag for readily
providing digital copies of out of print books and journals. Particular thanks are
due to the staff of the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbttel, the Niedersch-
sische Staats- und Universittsbibliothek Gttingen, the Bayerische Staatsbi-
bliothek Mnchen, the Archives of Concordia Theological Seminary, St Louis,
Missiouri, the Bibliothque Municipale de Lyon, and the Bach-Digital Project
for creating digital images of resources for me, and granting reproduction rights
for the images contained in this work.
My family and friends have lived with Bach and this project for a long time:
thank you for your patience. I should like to thank my mother, Dr Brigitte
Loewe, for first introducing me to the music of Bach through his Klavierbchlein
fr Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and for introducing me to the thought of Martin
Luther; my sister, Eva Loewe, for her love and support; my Saxon family from
Bachs neighbourhood, my Lower Saxon and Munich family for their friendship
and hospitality; my Melbourne family for attending many of my Bach perfor-
mances and lectures, and all of them for their love. Thank you also to Perry
So and Anna Graber for their wonderful facsimile of a Bach autograph score,
to Dr Carsten Murawski for the image of the stunning High Altar piece at St
Pauls Cathedral for use on the cover of this work, to Dr Yazeed Said for host-
ing me at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, to Anna Sander, Dr
Julian Littlewood and Dr Joy Littlewood and Dr John Bithell, to Anne Marie
Koper and Sander Pinkse, John and Deirdre Kraimer, and Christoph and Char-
lotte von Friedeburg for their hospitality on research visits during the course of
this project.
Above all, a heartfelt and profound thank you to my partner Katherine:
thank you for your love for me, for your belief in this project and your untold
contributions to it. This book is for you, my Love.

St Pauls Cathedral, Melbourne, 2013

Introduction

The performance of the St John Passion at St Nikolai Leipzig in Lent 1724 is

the first surviving example of Bachs new Passion genre, making the St John
Passion and its longer successor, the St Matthew Passion, milestones for later
composers of Passions.1 In spite of the significance of Bachs St John Passion as
the principal textual model and musical inspiration for numerous later Passion
compositions, there is currently no comprehensive single work in English that
examines both the development of the new genre and provides a sustained
analysis of the words and the music of Bachs St John Passion.
This volume documents the genesis of Bachs Passion genre and provides a
thorough interpretation of the libretto and music of his first surviving Passion.
The first part of this volume examines the development of Bachs St John Passion
as a principally Lutheran art form by considering the composers own thorough
Lutheran upbringing and his self-understanding as a Lutheran church musi-
cian, while the second part presents a theological and musical commentary of
the work in order to show how Bach communicated and anchored the Chris-
tian Passion narrative in the devotional story of his community through his
music.2 Those familiar with the life and education of Bach, the development
of the Lutheran Passion tradition in general and Bachs work in particular, may
wish to move directly to the second part of the volume, and the close reading
and musico-theological analysis of Bachs St John Passion.

1 Drawing on Bachs necrologue in: Werner Neumann and Hans Joachim Schulze, eds., Bach-
Dokumente, 3 vols (Kassel: Brenreiter, 19631972) [cited as BD], 3, no. 666, Philipp Spitta,
Johann Sebastian Bach, 2 vols (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 18731880), 2, p. 333f., suggests
that in 1717 Bach may well have written a now lost Weimar Passion, a number of arias he used
for his 1725 revision of the St John Passion (Version II), see Table 6, below, page 86. For other
potential Passions by Bach, see: Daniel Melamed, Hearing Bachs Passions (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005), pp. 78130.
2 Two previous studies reflect in detail on Bachs St John Passion: Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian
Bach: Johannespassion BWV 245, Meisterwerke der Musik: Werkmonographien 7, Musikge-
schichte 55 (Mnchen: Wilhem Fink Verlag, 1991) centres on a number of selected move-
ments, while Alfred Drr, Johann Sebastian Bachs St John Passion: Genesis, Transmission and
Meaning (Oxford: University Press, 2000) and Eric Chafe, Tonal Allegory in the Vocal Music
of J.S. Bach (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) primarily reflect on the meaning
inherent in the musical structure of the work. Both works select only a number of movements,
rather than comment on the entire Passion.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/9789004272361_002

2 introduction

Central to this interpretation of Bachs St John Passion is a new annotated

translation of the libretto by Dr Katherine Firth. Making use of the Neue Bach-
ausgabe score as its German textual base, Firths translation provides an accu-
rate modern English study text that will enable English-speakers with little or
no knowledge of German to understand the poetic, linguistic and theological
richness of the original libretto. The translation eschews the Cranmerian idiom
first introduced by John Troutbeck in his adaptation of the work for the 1872
Novello edition of Bachs work.3 Because Troutbecks translation served as a
model for almost all subsequent translators, the use of this outdated idiom has
persevered well into the twenty-first-century.4 Although Peter Pears collabo-
ration with Imogen Holst in producing an English language performance text
for Benjamin Brittens 1971 recording of the work resulted in a highly innova-
tive and dynamic English paraphrase of the libretto, it still used the English of
the reformation.5 Even relatively recent translations, such as Alfred Claytons
2000 translation in Drrs examination of the St John Passion, still rendered
the text into archaic English.6 A notable exception to the rule is the literal
annotated translation of the libretto in Michael Marissens 1998 Lutheranism,
Anti-Judaism, and Bachs St John Passion which, like the present translation, was
also intended as a study rather than a performance text.7

3 Johann Sebastian Bach, tr. and adapted by John Troutbeck, St John Passion (London: Novello,
Ewer and Co., 1872).
4 Inspiring for instance Henry S. Drinkers translation in Johann Sebastian Bach, Arthur
Mendel, ed., St John Passion: Vocal Score (New York: Schirmer, 1951), reused, with slight vari-
ants, for the 1981 Neue Bachausgabe piano reduction, St John Passion: Vocal Score with Piano
Reduction by Walter Heinz Bernstein (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1981), as well as the performance
score commissioned for David Willcocks 1973 Decca recording of the St John Passion by
Peter Pears and Andrew Raeburn: Johann Sebastian Bach, The Passion of our Lord accord-
ing to St John, tr. Peter Pears and Andrew Raeburn, Ace of Diamonds GOS628630 (London:
Decca, 1973). Z. Philip Ambrose, J.S. Bach: The Vocal Texts in English Translation with Com-
mentary (Bloomington: Xlibris, 2005) still renders the text into a now outdated Cranmerian
idiom.
5 The innovative nature of Pears and Holsts paraphrase is apparent from the very beginning of
the work: Johann Sebastian Bach, tr. Peter Pears and Imogen Holst, St John Passion, BWV 245,
SET531533 (London: Decca, 1971), Sire, Lord and Master/ unto thee be praise and glory
evermore./ Ah, by thy loving sacrifice/ thou, Lord, the only Son of God/ art risen on high/
from deepest woe and bitter pain/ triumphant over death.
6 Alfred Claytons translation of the libretto in Drr (2000), pp. 132177.
7 Michael Marissen, Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bachs St John Passion: With an annotated
literal translation of the Libretto (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
introduction 3

Firth provides a translation of the libretto into contemporary English that

remains as close to the word choice, grammar, sequence and structure of the
original libretto as possible. Her translation takes into account repetitions and
cognate variations in the German text, such as deliberate word clusters. The
notes to her translation highlight and comment on multiple and variant mean-
ings in the German original. The second part of the book, with its theological
and musical commentary, in turn, provides full details of variant textual read-
ings in the three different versions of the work, and comments in depth on the
provenance of texts and the way in which Bach translates specific textual con-
cepts into music.

1 From Fifth Evangelist to the Neue Bachausgabe

This work builds on generations of international Bach research. The view of

Bach as a writer of divine music, whether articulated by nineteenth-century
philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche or musicologists like Philipp Spitta,
significantly influenced Bach reception and scholarship at the turn of the twen-
tieth century. While Nietzsche felt that when listening to Bachs music it is as
if we were present at the moment at which God created the world, Spitta was
convinced that the subject of his groundbreaking work ceaselessly pointed to
the highest and holiest that we possess.8 Following the First World War, the
idea that Bachs music was at once deeply mystical and profoundly in tune with
divine revelation was further developed, principally by the two Nobel peace
prize winners among the students of Bachs work. Albert Schweitzer under-
stood Bach to be the great German mystic; Nathan Sderblom believed him
to be the fifth evangelist.9 Both Schweitzer and Sderblom set the tone for the

8 Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Wanderer und sein Schatten, in: Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Mon-
tarini, eds., Friedrich Nietzsche Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe [cited as: KS] (Berlin: de
Gruyter, 19691978) 2: 615: Bei Bachs Musik ist uns zumute, als ob wir dabei wren, wie Gott
die Welt schuf, see also his reflections on the influence of Bachs music in Menschliches,
Allzumenschliches KS 2: 219. Spitta (1873), 1, p. xix: Mit seinem unablssigen Hinweis auf
das Hchste und Heiligste, was wir besitzen. For other, nineteenth-century biographies, such
as C.H. Bitters, Johann Sebastian Bach (1865), soon after eclipsed by Spittas, see: Daniel
Melamed and Michael Marissen, An Introduction to Bach Studies (New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1998), pp. 33 ff.
9 Albert Schweitzer (Nobel peace prize 1952), J.S. Bach, translated by Ernest Newman (London:
A.C. Black, 1911), p. 280. Nathan Sderblom (Nobel peace prize 1930), Christian Fellowship: Or,
The United Life and Work of Christendom (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1923), p. 145: If I were
4 introduction

popular perception of Bach as a musical giant with unrivalled insights into

the revelation of God who communicated these insights by a combination of
perfection [and] genius.10 German scholars of Bachs music such as Friedrich
Smend and Martin Jansen took up the baton, claiming Bach not only for
God, but for Germany. In 1926 Smend confirmed the view that Bach was one
of our greatest, while nine years later Jansen testified to our German evan-
gelist.11 For Jansen Bach was the Master of Baroque Music who was con-
vinced of the all-powerful nature of music and who, in his compositions,
built on holy ground within the firm conviction that the All-Knowing and All-
Comprehending would receive his efforts by grace, and bless them.12 Though
flawed in their promotion of a great man theory and their positioning of Bach
as a figurehead for the Germanisation of Lutheranism, the first generation of
modern Bach scholars nevertheless produced a comprehensive overview of
Bachs life and work.13 Philipp Spittas work in particular laid the foundations
for the later documentation of the composers life, both by examining his musi-
cal output and by compiling the first compendium of manuscript and contem-
porary printed materials on Bachs life.
While many of their insights on the form and structure of Bachs music have
stood the test of time, by the middle of the twentieth century the assessment of
Bach as a genius intent to create pure music promoted by the first generation
of Bach scholars was significantly revised. Instrumental in this was Friedrich
Blumes 1962 seminal Outlines of a new picture of Bach (Umrisse eines neuen

asked for a fifth Gospel I should not hesitate to name the interpretations of the secret of
the redemption that reached its climax in Johann Sebastian Bach.
10 Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music, in: idem, Copland on Music (Garden City: Dou-
bleday, 1960), pp. 2351, p. 36.
11 Friedrich Smend, Die Johannes-Passion von Bach. Auf ihren Bau untersucht, in: Bach-
Jahrbuch 22 (1926), pp. 105128, p. 128: Eines unserer Grten; Martin Jansen, Bachs
Zahlensymbolik, an seinen Passionen untersucht, Bach-Jahrbuch 34 (1937), pp. 96117,
p. 117: Unseres deutschen Evangelisten.
12 Jansen (1937), p. 96: Der von der Allmacht der Musik berzeugte Meister des Barocks,
p. 117: In der festen berzeugung, da er so auf auf heiligem Grund baue und da der
Allwissende und Allverstehende sein Mhen in Gnaden annehme und segne.
13 For the view that the first generation of Bach scholars purposefully exchanged a contextual
view of Bachs work in order to promote a true liturgical view of the Cantata (Wahre
liturgische Kantatenanschauung), see: Sven Hiemke, Bach-Deutungen im Umfeld der
kirchenmusikalischen Erneuerungsbewegung, in: Michael Heinemann and Hans Joachim
Hinrichsen, eds., Bach und die Nachwelt, 4 vols. (Laaber: Laaber, 2000), 3, pp. 63113,
p. 69.
introduction 5

Bach-Bildes).14 The popular perception of Bach appears to have been little

affected by Blumes reassessment. Certainly, when Aaron Copland reflected on
Bachs music for a popular audience in the 1960s, he continued to promote the
image of Bach as a divinely inspired musician:

If one were asked to name one musician who came closest to composing
without human flaw, I suppose general consensus would choose Johann
Sebastian Bach. Only a few musical giants have earned the universal
admiration that surrounds the figure of the eighteenth-century German
master.15

This popular perception of Bach as a musical giant who single-handedly and

almost in isolation transformed the musical landscape of the first half of the
eighteenth-century remains in need of revision. This book therefore closely
examines Bachs educational background to establish that his insights into the-
ology were by no means exceptional but shared by an entire generation of stu-
dents and musicians. It documents his collaborations with other contemporary
artists to demonstrate that his church music was shaped in constant interac-
tion with others collaborators, whether theologians, librettists or composers. It
examines his cultural context to identify the external factors that determined
Bachs work, such as the needs of his patrons or the limited musical resources
available in the places of his employment.
When Copland composed his panegyric to the intangible greatness of Bachs
music, the work of a second generation of Bach scholars was already well
underway.16 The time between the bicentenary celebrations of Bachs death
in 1950 and the tercentenary celebrations of his birth in 1985 generated an
immense body of scholarship, of which Werner Neumanns and Hans-Joachim
Schulzes Bach-Dokumente (19631984) and the publication of the Neue Bach-
ausgabe (19542007) under the directorship of Werner Neumann and Alfred
Drr are outstanding examples. The systematic publication of archival materi-
als lodged in collections in Leipzig and elsewhere covered an incredible field
that ranged from analyses of portraits of the composers family and personal
receipts for purchases made by the composer, to the publication of the statutes

14 Jansen (1937), p. 97; Friedrich Blume, Umrisse eines neuen Bach-Bildes: Vortrag fr das
Bachfest der internationalen Bach-Gesellschaft in Mainz, 1. Juni 1962, Musica 16 (1962),
pp. 169176, and reactions from first generation scholars, such as Friedrich Smend, Was
bleibt? Zu Friedrich Blumes Bach-Bild, Der Kirchenmusiker 13 (1962), pp. 178188.
15 Copland (1960), p. 36.
16 Copland (1960), p. 38.
6 introduction

of St Thomas School and thorough accounts of the devotional life at the prin-
cipal Leipzig churches.17 These documents have greatly facilitated subsequent
research into Bachs context and cultural background. At the same time, the
reassessment of the view that Bachs music was unique and able to develop
in relative isolation from contemporaries promoted by some first generation
scholars, has been consistently tempered by research into the precursors and
contemporaries of Bach.18

2 Theological Bach Research: Back to the Sources

From 1976 onwards the religious content of Bachs work began to be closely
scrutinised by an association of international Bach scholars, the Internationale
Arbeitsgemeinschaft fr theologische Bachforschung (International Working
Group for Theological Bach Research), a group of music historians, musicolo-
gists andpredominantlyLutheran theologians. Established at the 51st
Bach Festival of the Neue Bachgesellschaft (New Bach Society) by Walter Blan-
kenburg, Renate Steiger and Christoph Trautmann, until the turn of the twenty-
first century the Working Group considered the paradigm that Bach was a the-
ologically trained musician who intentionally set out to communicate Chris-
tian doctrines through music: vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular.19
Significant discoveries, such as the authentication of a three-volume commen-
tated Bible from Bachs estate annotated in the composers hand, enabled more
sustained engagement with Bachs theological understanding and generated a

17 For instance: Conrad Freyse, Das Portrt Ambrosius Bachs, Bach-Jahrbuch 46 (1959),
pp. 149155; Hans Besch, Eine Auktions-Quittung J.S. Bachs, in: Festschrift fr Friedrich
Smend: Zum 70. Geburtstag dargebracht von Freunden und Schlern (Berlin: Merseburger,
1963), pp. 7479; Hans Joachim Schulze, ed., Die Thomasschule Leipzig zur Zeit Johann
Sebastian Bachs: Ordnungen und Gesetze, 1634, 1723, 1733 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1953), Gn-
ther Stiller, Johann Sebastian Bach und das Leipziger gottesdienstliche Leben seiner Zeit
(Kassel: Brenreiter, 1970), tr. Herbert Bouwman, Daniel Poellot, Hilton Oswald, ed. Robin
Leaver, Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig (St Louis: Concordia, 1984).
18 For instance: Friedrich Blume, Das Werk des Michael Praetorius in: Martin Ruhnke, ed.,
Syntagma Musicologicum (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1963), pp. 229274, Kurt von Fischer, Die
Passionshistorien von Heinrich Schtz und ihre geschichtlichen Voraussetzungen, Musik
und Gottesdienst 20 (1966), pp. 4859.
19 In 1998 one of the Working Groups founders, Renate Steiger, published the history of
the Working Group in: Renate Steiger, ed., Theologische Bachforschung heute, 197696:
Dokumentation und Bibliographie der Internationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft fr theologische
Bachforschung (Berlin: Galda & Wilch, 1998).
introduction 7

wealth of academic research, including one of the first significant assessments

of Bachs understanding of theology in English, Robin Leavers 1976 The Calov
Bible from Bachs library.20
Leaver was not only instrumental in opening up theological Bach research
to an international audience, but also was among the first scholars to pro-
mote the idea of Bachs theological library.21 Based on the list of mainly the-
ological works numbered after Bachs death in the Specification of the Estate
Left by the Late Mr Johann Sebastian Bach, Leaver contributed to an under-
standing of Bach as the learned musician whose insights about God were
gained not as much by divine inspiration as by solid theological learning.22
By the time of the tercentenary of his birth in 1985 the understanding of
Bach as a theologically schooled composer who used his learning and read-
ing in order to shape music to communicate a distinctive theological message
had become firmly established. Leaver postulated that Bachs liturgical choral
music functioned in ways that can be compared to a Lutheran expository ser-
mon; indeed, Luther scholar Jaroslav Pelican already numbered Bach among
the theologians, carefully positioning the composer in a theological middle
ground between Lutheran Orthodoxy and eighteenth-century Pietism.23 This

20 For instance: Christoph Trautmann, Calovii Schrifften. 3 Bnde aus Johann Sebastian
Bachs Nachla und ihre Bedeutung fr das Bild des lutherischen Kantors Bach, Musik
und Kirche 39 (1969), pp. 145160; Helene Werthemann, Bachs Fundament aller gottge-
flliger Kirchenmusik, in: Frank Beyer and Christoph Trautmann, eds., 51. Bachfest der
Neuen Bachgesellschaft: Bachfest-Vortrge 1976 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1976), pp. 317; Robin
A. Leaver, The Calov Bible from Bachs Library, Bach: The Journal of the Riemenschnei-
der Bach Institute, 7.4 (1976), pp. 1622, and idem, J.S. Bach and Scripture: Glosses from the
Calov Bible (St Louis: Concordia, 1986).
21 Robin A. Leaver, Bachs theologische Bibliothek: Eine kritische Bibliographie (Neuhausen-
Stuttgart: Hnnsler, 1985) [cited as: BB].
22 BD 2, no. 627, Hans David and Arthur Mendel, eds. et al., revised and enlarged by Christoph
Wolff, The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents
[cited as NBR] (London: W.W. Norton, 1998), no. 279. Christoph Wolffs biography of Bach,
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Oxford: University Press, 2001), deliberately
echoes Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Kthens epithet of Bach, BD 2, no. 128, NBR no. 96.
23 Robin A. Leaver, Music as Preaching: Bach, Passions, and Music in Worship (Oxford: Latimer
House, 1982) and his Johann Sebastian Bach as Preacher: His Passions and Music in Worship
(St Louis: Concordia, 1984); Jaroslav Pelican, Bach among the Theologians (Philadelphia:
Fortress, 1986), pp. 5758: He was not to be confined by the categories of Pietism any more
than he was by those of Rationalism and Confessional Orthodoxy. Leaver follows Pelicans
assessment, Bach and Pietism: Similarities today, Concordia Theological Quarterly 55
(1991), pp. 522.
8 introduction

perception was underpinned by sustained research by Martin Petzoldt and

other contributors to his 1985 Bach als Ausleger der Bibel (Bach as an Interpreter
of the Bible) who provided both a valuable overview of some of the exegetical
techniques employed in Bachs music, and offered new insights into the litur-
gical and devotional life of eighteenth-century Leipzig.24
During the 1980s and the early 1990s scholars in Germany and the United
States further pursued the paradigm of Bach as an exponent of theology, exam-
ining Bachs choral works in terms of exegetical and homiletic content, as well
as analysing structure and form of his works in order to reveal theological
meaning. Eric Chafes 1981 The St John Passion: theology and musical structure
and his 1991 Tonal Allegory in the Vocal Music of J.S. Bach re-examined the work
of first generation Bach-scholars such as Friedrich Smend within the paradigm
of the Working Group in order to document theological meaning in Bachs
work.25 The German theologian Elke Axmacher provided wide-ranging insights
into the cultural context of Bachs compositions in her comparative study
of contemporary Passion sermons and Passion libretti in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Germany, while the American Biblical scholar Paul Min-
ear reflected further on the rhetorical and dramatic devices used in Bachs St
Matthew Passion.26 From 1990 onwards, the Working Groups research included
regular summer academies held under the auspices of the International Bach
Academy Stuttgart which brought together both musicologists and theologians
from Germany and the United States to discover theological meaning in the
music of Bachs Passions and his B-Minor Mass.27

24 Martin Petzoldt, Bach als Ausleger der Bibel. Theologische und musikwissenschaftliche Stu-
dien zum Werk Johann Sebastian Bachs, herausgegeben im Auftrag des Kirchlichen Komi-
tees Johann Sebastian Bach 1985 von Martin Petzoldt (Gttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht,
1985).
25 Eric Chafe, Key Structure and Tonal Allegory in the Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach:
An Introduction, Current Musicology 21 (1981), pp. 3954, and idem, Tonal Allegory in the
Vocal Music of J.S. Bach (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
26 Elke Axmacher, Aus Liebe will mein Heyland sterben: Untersuchungen zum Wandel des Pas-
sionsverstndnisses im frhen 18. Jahrhundert, Beitrge zur theologischen Bachfor-
schung 2 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hnnsler, 1984). Paul S. Minear, Death Set to Music: Mas-
terworks by Bach, Brahms, Penderecki, Bernstein (Atlanta: John Knox, 1987).
27 Ulrich Prinz, ed., Johann Sebastian Bach: Johannes-Passion, BWV 245Vortrge des Mei-
sterkurses 1986 und der Sommerakademie J.S. Bach 1990, Schriftenreihe der internationalen
Bachakademie Stuttgart, vol. 5 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1993) is particularly relevant to the
present work: other volumes consider the St Matthew Passion, vol. 2 (Kassel: Brenreiter,
1990) and the B-Minor Mass, vol. 3 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1990).
introduction 9

3 Considering Anti-Judaism in Bachs Music

As part of the theological analysis of Bachs work, from 1980 to 1998 members
of the Working Group also concerned themselves with the important ques-
tion of possible Anti-Judaism in Bachs music. In 1980 one of the founders of
the Working Group, Renate Steiger, opened the field with her brief contribu-
tion entitled Bach und Israel (Bach and Israel), explaining that it was the
experience of German post-Holocaust guilt [that] focused the debate on
Anti-Judaism contained in examples of Christian art, most notably Bachs St
John Passion.28 Indeed, in a 1989 contribution to the debate, Dagmar Hoffmann-
Axthelm postulates the uncompromising view that Bachs Passions were out-
standing examples of a longstanding German anti-Semitism.29 Although they
do not engage with Hoffmann-Axthelms arguments per se, Renate Steiger and
her husband Lothar Steiger broadly dismiss the idea that Bachs music might
have been a vehicle to convey anti-Jewish sentiments.30 They are supported
in their views by much more recent research on Lutheran attitudes to Jews
in the pre-Enlightenment period, in particular by Johannes Wallmanns Das
Luthertum und die Juden in der Leibnitzzeit (Lutheranism and the Jews at the
time of Leibnitz).31 While Wallmann offers no comment on Bachs Passions,
instead centring on his Cantatas, he does share the Steigers belief that Bachs
sacred music is not intentionally anti-Jewish, affirming that there is no sign of

28 Renate Steiger, Bach und Israel, Musik und Kirche 50 (1980), pp. 1522, p. 15: Die Erfahrung
der eigenen Schuld schrfte den Blick [auf ] was sich in Zeugnissen christlicher Kunst
an Antijudaismen findet; Meinrad Walter, Die Bibel, Bach, die Judenund wir: Zum
Verstndnis der Johannes-Passion Bachs (BWV 245), in: Wrttembergische Bltter fr
Kirchenmusik, 60 (1993), pp. 210212.
29 Dagmar Hoffmann-Axthelm, Bach und die perfidia Iudaica: Zur Symmetrie der Juden-
Turbae in der Johannes-Passion, in: Basler Jahrbuch fr historische Musikpraxis, 13 (1989),
pp. 3154.
30 Renate Steiger (1980), p. 21; Lothar Steiger, Wir haben keinen Knig denn den Kaiser
Pilatus und die Juden in der Passionsgeschichte nach dem Johannesevangelium mit Bezug
auf Heinrich Schtz und Johann Sebastian Bach: Oder die Frage nach dem Antijudais-
mus, in: Musik und Kirche 64 (1994), pp. 264271; idem, Die Jden aber schrieen: Kreuzige
ihn! Theologische Anmerkungen zum Antijudaismus in der Johannespassion, in: Renate
Steiger, ed. et al., Die Quellen Johann Sebastian Bachs, Bachs Musik im Gottesdienst: Bericht
ber das Symposium 4.-8. Oktober 1995 in der Internationalen Bachakademie Stuttgart (Hei-
delberg: Manutius, 1998), pp. 303318.
31 Johannes Wallmann, Das Luthertum und die Juden in der Leibnitzzeit, in: idem, Pietismus
und Orthodoxie: Gesammelte Aufstze (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2010), pp. 318338.
10 introduction

Anti-Judaism in [Bachs] Cantatas.32 In his 1998 Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism and

Bachs St John Passion, the American musicologist Michael Marissen first intro-
duced what had been a predominantly German debate to an English-language
readership.33 He reiterated the question inherent in all contributions to the
debate on Anti-Judaism in Bachs music whether listeners can easily assume
that Bach harboured hostility to Jews and, accordingly, that his music probably
projects such hostility as his initial premise.34 Though Marissen takes issue
with some of the Steigers work, like Renate Steiger he concludes that Bach
was not intentionally anti-Jewish: fostering hostility to Jews is not the subject
or purpose of Bachs interpretation.35 That Bach adopted a specifically Jew-
ish foundation narrative for his own craftthat of the Levitical temple musi-
cians performing music to Gods glory in Gods presence in the Second Book
of Chroniclesis demonstrated in the second chapter of this book. Marissens
questions as to whether or not Bachs music buys into [the Fourth] Gospels
hostility to Jews and, more specifically, who John might have had in mind when
he speaks of the Jews in his Passion narrative, are considered in some detail
in the commentary section of the work, which will suggest that Bach makes a
clear distinction between the Jews as the religious hierarchy which is clearly
implicated in the death of Jesus, and the Jewish people as a whole, who are
not.36 The more complex attitude of pre-Enlightenment Lutherans to Jews and
their engagement (and even identification with) Jews is, however, beyond the
bounds of this book.

4 Bach and Theology Re-assessed

The reception of Bachs work within a distinctive theological framework such

as the one offered by the International Working Group for Theological Bach
Research has been critiqued by a number of Bach researchers. In 2006, Rebecca
Lloyd fundamentally challenged the Working Groups methodology in her her-
meneutical re-assessment of theological Bach research, Bach among the Con-
servatives.37 In her critique of the work of the Working Groups longtime co-

32 Wallmann (2010), p. 323: Antijudaismen finden sich in diesen Kantaten nicht.

33 Michael Marissen, Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bachs St John Passion (New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1998).
34 Marissen (1998), p. 3.
35 Marissen (1998), p. 3.
36 Marissen (1998), p. 21.
37 Rebecca Lloyd, Bach among the Conservatives: The Quest for Theological Truth (Unpub-
lished Doctoral Dissertation: Kings College London, 2006).
introduction 11

chair Lothar Steiger, Lloyd suggests that by writing systematic theology

Steiger seems to forget about Bach, who barely gets a mention.38 This is not
only a problem in Lothar Steigers work, Lloyd explains: for her the Working
Groups over-emphasis on identifying theological meaning in Bachs music has
led to a neglect of Bachs music as music.39 Her primary criticism is that the
Working Group promoted one indivisible theological truth, based on the Bible
and in the person of Martin Luther.40 Certainly, the theological interpretations
of Bach scholarship in the last quarter of the twentieth century have been
in broad agreement that Bach was steeped in a Lutheran devotional culture
which underpinned and informed his own devotional life. However, the vast
diversity of research produced does not confirm a single monolithic theological
narrative held by all theological Bach scholars, as Lloyd implies. Lloyd further
postulates that the Working Groups polemical aims even today involve using
Bachs music as a totem against modern secularism.41 While this view seriously
misreads the intention of theological engagement with Bachs music, it does
raise an important aspect of contemporary Bach scholarship: the erosion of a
shared cultural horizon. Lloyd is right in suggesting that a narrow modernist
conception of truththat given in text and tradition which must be assented
to intellectuallycramps [the] ability to understand religion and religious
experience historically and artistically.42
Twenty-first-century listeners no longer share the same devotional and so-
cial context as Bachs contemporaries. Nor do they share the most fundamental
premises taken for granted in late-early-modern and pre-Enlightenment soci-
ety: the existence of a God, and a stable God-given social order. The insight
that the hearers of today no longer share the primary values of Bachs con-
temporaries is by no means new: in his monumental Matthuspassion (St
Matthew Passion), the German cultural philosopher Hans Blumenberg intro-
duced the idea of a Horizontabschreibung (Erosion of the Horizon); the realisa-
tion that it is impossible to reach the same shared theological and cultural hori-
zon as those listeners who first heard the work in Bachs pre-Enlightenment
world.43 For Blumenberg, the difficulty of reading and interpreting the meaning

38 Lloyd (2006), p. 80.

39 Lloyd (2006), p. 80.
40 Lloyd (2006), p. 83, p. 191.
41 Lloyd (2006), p. 191.
42 Lloyd (2006), p. 191.
43 Hans Blumenberg, Matthuspassion, Bibliothek Suhrkamp 998 (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp,
1988). For Blumenbergs idea of Horizontabschreibung, see: Bruce Krajewski, The Musical
Horizon of Religion: Blumenbergs Matthuspassion, History of the Human Sciences 6.4
(1993), pp. 8195, pp. 8990.
12 introduction

of a by-gone era of faith stands at the heart of his investigation of Bachs faith
and music: he holds that it is as difficult to re-imagine the cultural horizon of
Bachs time as it is to re-image Bachs listener. As a result of this cultural disjoint,
much of the meaning of the devotional story of Bachs time may have been lost
to present-day hearers of the work. Rather, the essential meaning of the work
has not been substituted by anything else of comparable meaning, but remains
apainfullyempty and meaning-less space. The same principle holds true
for Blumenbergs broader critique of a Judaeo-Christian world-view: for him
the Jewish and Christian narrative is replaced neither [by] atheism nor radical
agnosticism, but the restless holding out in the empty space where God ought
to be.44

5 Purpose and Scope of This Study

While it is impossible to re-create the devotional context that Bach and his con-
temporaries knew and took for granted, it is possible to provide an introduction
to the religious world in which Bach and his contemporaries lived. This book,
therefore, seeks to introduce the reader to a set of resources owned by, and very
likely used by Bach and his contemporary collaborators, in shaping Johns Pas-
sion narrative for an eighteenth-century devotional context. It seeks to equip
scholars, students, and interested listeners of Bachs work with the necessary
tools to engage in the work of interpretation of this influential work, and so
to discover and recover for themselves meaning and message of Bachs St John
Passion. Those familiar with the story of Bachs schooling, musical training, and
the development history of his distinctive choral works may wish to pass over
the first part of this book and begin with the second part with its new study
translation and detailed movement-by-movement commentary of the St John
Passion straightaway.

As a German theologian and music historian working in an English-speaking

context, I enjoyed assembling a wealth of primary source materials: school ordi-
nances, church liturgies, hymn books, collections of sacred and secular poetry,
theological commentaries, reformation writings, sermons, Cantata librettos,
personal letters, or the dedications of Bachs works. Many of these are pub-
lished in German and might therefore not have been accessible to English-

44 Jens Zimmermann, Humanism and Religion: A Call for the Renewal of Western Culture
(Oxford: University Press, 2012), p. 270.
introduction 13

speaking readers. The significant increase in digitised primary source materials

has made it possible for researchers to draw on an ever-increasing number of
sources: many of the printed sources used in this book have been digitised by
German research libraries and archives as part of the German Research Foun-
dations (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) national bibliography project, a
project that since 1996 has sought to establish a retrospective German national
bibliography from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Many manuscript
sources, in particular autograph scores of Bachs works, also have recently been
made available in digital form as part of the University of Leipzig and Bach
Archive Leipzig Bach Digital project. Other sources have been digitised at my
request, or were consulted in situ in Leipzig, Berlin and Jerusalem. All primary
sources have been translated and are reproduced together with their German
originals in order to give the reader a fuller insight into the world of the late-
early-modern and pre-Enlightenment periods that shaped the society in which
Bach worked. In presenting these sources, I do not seek to reconstruct an
at best imaginedcultural horizon of the period of the pre-Enlightenment
for a generation for whom Bachs own understanding of the Passion and that
of his contemporaries may well have become foreign. Rather, I would like
to give readers the opportunity to make their own more informed conclu-
sions about Bach and his times and, through that process, come to a better
understanding of the possible intent and purpose of Bach and his St John Pas-
sion.

The book starts in 1693, when Bach was eight years old and entered the first
year of his education as a student of the Secunda (second year) of Eisenachs
Latin School. The opening chapter provides a careful review of the thoroughly
Lutheran education Bach and his fellow students received. It shows that the far-
reaching educational reforms initiated in the mid-seventeenth century were
the result of a desire in Lutheran principalities to regain a sense of social
and devotional stability after the Thirty Years War of religion that ravaged
Germany from 16181648. Towards the end of the Thirty Years War, Lutheran
princes made use of Luthers insights into teaching and learning for their edu-
cational programs: Martin Luther readily understood the opportunities offered
by music making, and a general music education, to communicate reforma-
tion values. In particular, he appreciated the value of music as an instrument
to incite people to do good, and to teach them, as well as to delight the heart.45

45 Martin Luther, D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe [cited as: WA], Joachim
14 introduction

The first chapter of this work provides insights into how Luthers educational
principles were adapted in the mid-seventeenth-century. It shows how Bachs
generation was taught music and Scripture, and how particular care was taken
to teach students how to examine Biblical texts and analyse sermons by hav-
ing to take short notes [on the sermon]/ and to commit the remainder to
memory.46 In this way, students were taught from an early age to understand
Luthers own homiletic model that Scriptural and theological meaning could
be expressed through words as much as through art and music.47
The second chapter considers Bachs life and career from his leaving school
in 1702. Drawing on a number of Bachs own writings, as well as on the litera-
ture to which he was exposed during his schooling and later in life, the chapter
provides an insight into Bachs self-understanding as a musician and cantor.
An analysis of Bachs marginal notes in his Calov Bible considers what Bach
may have meant when he noted that the account of the dedication of the first
Temple in the Second Book of Chronicles (2Chronicles 5.514) formed the
true foundation of all God-pleasing church music.48 Bachs self-identification
with a very Lutheran reading of the purpose of the clan of Levitical Temple
musicians at the dedication of the first Temple, that of amplifying Gods word
through their song in the same way the prophets did through their preach-
ing, is examined alongside his statement, recorded in the Calov Bible, that

Karl Friedrich Knaake, ed. et al. (Weimar: Hermann Bhlau, 18831985), Von den letzten
Worten Davids, 1543, WA 54: 33, 2122: Auch die menschen ntzlich zu reitzen und zu
leren.
46 Andreas Reyher, Methodus Oder Bericht/ Wie Nechst Gttlicher Verleyhung die Knaben und
Mgdlein auf den Dorffschafften/ und in den Stdten/ die ntere Classes der Schul-Jugend
im Frstenthum Gotha/ Krtz-und ntzlich unterrichtet werden knnen und sollen (Gotha:
Christoph Reyher, 1697), p. 50, 19: Mit der Feder kurtz fassen/ und das ubrige im Sinn zu
behalten.
47 Luther, Praefatio zu den Symphoniae Iucundae, 1538, WA 50: 372, 1620: So that [human
beings] may be able to know to praise God by combining songs and words: with clear,
resounding preaching and praising of Gods mercy and grace, whenever beautiful words
and delightful music are combined and heard together (Das er solt knnen vnd wissen,
Gott mit Gesengen vnd worten zugleich zu loben, Nemlich mit dem hellen, klingenden
predigen vnd rhmen von Gottes gte vnd gnade, darinnen schne wort vnd lieblicher
klang zugleich wrde gehret).
48 Abraham Calov, ed., I. N. J./ Die Heilige/ Bibel/ nach S. Herrn D. Martini Lutheri. Deutscher
Dolmetschung und Erklrung/ mit groem Flei/ und Kosten ausgearbeitet/ und verfas-
set/ von/ D. Abraham Calovio (Wittenberg: Christian Schrter, 16811682), 5 volumes [cited
as: CB], BB 1 af. CB 1.1: 20472049: Dieses Capitel ist das wahre Fundament aller gottge-
flliger Kirchen Music.
introduction 15

in sacred music God is always present in his grace.49 This review of Bachs
own formation and reflections suggests that he understood and adapted in
his own church music the Lutheran understanding, as received in the eigh-
teenth century, of the potential of music to move hearts and change minds,
and that he drew on the work of generations of Lutheran church musicians
in order to provide music to speak into the devotional context of his own
age.
The third chapter provides an overview of the development of the church
Cantata from the time of Bachs first church employment as organist of the New
Church in Arnstadt in 1703 to the time of the composition of the St John Passion
in 1724. It traces the different sources Bach adopted for the genre he perfected
in the Leipzig annual cycles of Cantatas. In particular, it highlights the way in
which Bach and his librettists understood the church Cantata to be a means to
communicate highly differentiated messages of various Biblical texts. It exam-
ines Bachs collaborations with librettists and clergy colleagues in Weimar and
Leipzig, especially examining the ways in which libretto and music reflected
and amplified set Scripture readings and sermons, in order to convey a distinc-
tive, unified homiletic message. This analysis shows how a common message
was communicated to the contemporary hearers of Bachs work in a variety
of ways: in the reading of the set Scriptural text and the ministers exposition,
in Bachs musique (Cantata), in singing Lutheran chorales, and in reading both
hymns and the libretto of Bachs works in printed hymn-books or specially com-
missioned Cantata booklets.
The concluding chapter of the first part of this work considers the genesis
of the Passion genre Bach adopted for the structure of his St John Passion. It
reflects on how Luther effectively utilised and promoted the performing arts
as a means to further his reformation, in particular demonstrating that the rich
culture of Lutheran Lehrstcke (teaching dramas) on Scriptural subjects led to a
tradition of communicating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through
the arts. At the same time it considers the two principal forms of presenting the
Passion through music in use at the time of Bach: the summa Passionis settings
of the Passion that drew on early-reformation Lehrstcke, and the responsorial
Passion settings that gave a distinctive Lutheran character to pre-reformation
Passion traditions; principally through the work of Johann Walter in the first

49 Johannes Olearius, Haupt Schlel der gantzen Heiligen Schrifft, 3 volumes in 5 parts
(Leipzig: Tarnoven, 16781680) [cited as: HS], 2: 531: Die Gottes Wort wiederholeten mit
Singen gleichwie sonst die Propheten mit Predigen. CB 1.1: 2088: Bey einer andchtigen
Musique ist allzeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden-Gegenwart.
16 introduction

decade of the reformation.50 The examination of the liturgical and homiletic

setting of Bachs St John Passion is followed by a review of the various textual
elements of the libretto of the work, and an analysis of the distinctive theo-
logical intention of Bachs unknown collaborator as librettist, noting especially
how the careful combination of Johns Passion narrative with free poetry and
traditional chorales is designed to present an invitation to Bachs listeners to
journey with Jesus to the cross and, in so doing, to become disciples who fol-
low Jesus invitation to take up their own cross in following him. The libretto
confirms that there is a possibility of metanoia, of re-orienting ones life, offered
to all who engage with the story presented, and that the work sets out a frame-
work through which contemporary listeners were enabled to reflect on their
own lives, take responsibility for their actions and seek forgiveness for their
own wrongs (and possibly also for the wrongs of their society). The chapter
confirms that the libretto Bach sets to music in his St John Passion remains
closely attuned to both the message of the Gospel narrative and the theologi-
cal reception of that narrative as expounded by Martin Luther and subsequent
commentators, such as Abraham Calov and Johannes Olearius.
The extended analysis of the composers socio-historical, cultural and devo-
tional context set out in the first half of this book confirms that Bach was a
theologically aware composer who used his music to give voice to express a dif-
ferentiated Biblically-based message. That message was not dictated by a need
to set certain doctrines to music. Nor was that message determined by the com-
poser in isolation. The message conveyed through Bachs Cantatas and Passions
was determined by his collaboration with his clergy and artistic colleagues;
a process in which preacher, librettist and composer shared in re-telling the
Scripture narrative for a specific devotional context. Bach and his collabora-
tors were interested in evoking a personal response to the Biblical message.
This insight qualifies the paradigm expressed by some of the members of the
International Working Group for Theological Bach Research that Bach used
music to give voice to specific Lutheran doctrines. I do not believe that Bach
set out to communicate any particular doctrine in his St John Passion, as for
instance suggested by Pelican, who suggests that in his St John Passion Bach
specifically sought to give voice to the Christus Victor doctrine of atonement,
for which Bach had to reach over Protestant Orthodoxy to Luther, and over the
Middle Ages to the Greek church fathers of the early Christian centuries.51 I do,

50 For Walter (14961570), see: Walter Blankenburg, Johann Walter: Leben und Werk (Tutzing:
Schneider, 1991).
51 Jaroslav Pelican, Christus Victor in the Saint John Passion, in: idem, Bach among the
Theologians (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), pp. 102129, p. 106.
introduction 17

however, believe that Bachs St John Passion communicates a distinctive Scrip-

tural message, which, in turn, lies at the heart and gave shape to many impor-
tant Lutheran doctrines.
Bach not only wrote music that encouraged a differentiated response in his
listeners, but he wrote music that conveyed meaning. This meaning can be
understood theologically because it was created for, read through, and received
in, a contemporary theological framework that was based on Lutheran doctrine
and embedded in the devotional culture of the eighteenth-century Lutheran
church. An analysis of Bachs background in the first two chapters of this book
confirms that Bach shared this eighteenth-century Lutheran cultural and theo-
logical framework, and applied it to his own religious music. While it is impos-
sible to confirm the perception of Bach as a theologian who set down spe-
cific doctrines through music, it is perfectly possible to confirm that as part
of his regular duties as a cantor, Bach sought to contribute to the provision of a
well-ordered church music to the glory of God that communicated a carefully
coordinated devotional message.52 Primary sources show that listeners were
able to follow the principal texts used in worship at St Thomas and St Niko-
lai, including the Passion performances, in hymn books, worship books and
libretto booklets. This was true both for regular Sunday worship, but also for
Bachs Passion performances for which libretto booklets were printed for use
by the listeners.53 Even strangers and outsiders, who may not have shared the
same devotional framework of the worshippers at St Nikolai and St Thomas,
were able to negotiate and understand worship at Leipzigs principal churches
by drawing on the ordered and clear education about the composition of divine
service in this place offered by volumes such as the 1710 Leipziger Kirchen-Staat,
a work published specifically for visitors to the Leipzig Book Fair who sought
to inform themselves about what a devoted church-goer here in Leipzig needs
to know.54 Reactions to the use of a quasi-operatic musical genre such as the

52 BD 1, no. 1: Eine regulirte kirchen music zu Gottes Ehren.

53 BD 2, no. 179, NBR, no. 115. While there were sufficient subscribers for Bachs libretti, for
some Bachs well-ordered music was secondary and the sermon held centre stage: several
timing their arrival at church to coincide with the end of the musique and the beginning of
the sermon, as Tanya Kevorkian notes, Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig,
16501750 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 33.
54 Leipziger Kirchen-Staat: das ist deutlicher Unterricht vom Gottes-Dienst in Leipzig (Leipzig:
Groschuff, 1710), p. )( 5r: Fremden und Auswrtigen; p. )( 5v: Ordentlichen und deut-
lichen Unterricht/ von der Beschaffenheit des hiesigen Gottes-Dienstes; p. )( 6r: Was ein
andchtiger Kirchengnger hier in Leipzig zu wissen nthig hat.
18 introduction

Cantata or concerted Passion to communicate a devotional message are also

well documented.55
It is much more difficult to measure how the message communicated
through the St John Passion was received by Bachs contemporary listeners. John
Butt is right in saying that it is impossible to gauge exactly what Bachs own lis-
teners might have heard in this music.56 However, it is possible to identify how
some of the contributing factors to the way that message was shaped and com-
municated. The second part of the volume, therefore, documents how Johns
story of the Passion was read and received during Luthers reformation and in
Bachs period. Drawing on the Biblical commentaries, collections of sermon
and hymn books contained in the Specification of the Estate Left by the Late Mr
Johann Sebastian Bach, it shows how Bachs St John Passion received and retold
the Johannine Passion narrative.57 The movement by movement close reading
of Bachs St John Passion not only reflects on the Johannine narrative, it also con-
siders in detail the poetry and devotional hymns assembled by the unknown
librettist.
Most importantly, the close reading provides an insight into the ways in
which Bach brought to life, and gave meaning to, the libretto of his first Leipzig
Passion through music. In doing so, the close reading particularly notes recur-
rent uses of musical tropes and devices and, by comparing Bachs composi-
tional techniques to those of his immediate predecessors and contemporaries,
shows how Bach made use of an established music language in order to com-
municate the distinctive message of his libretto.

55 NBR no. 324, Christian Gerber, Geschichte der Kirchen Ceremonien in Sachsen (Dresden:
Saueressig, 1732), p. 283.
56 John Butt, Bachs Dialogue with Modernity: Perspectives on the Passions (Cambridge: Uni-
versity Press, 2010), p. 17.
57 BD 2, no. 627, NBR no. 279.
 part i
Composer and Work

 chapter 1

Learning the Craft of a Church Musician

1 Bachs Schooling

At the age of eight, in 1693, Bach was enrolled in the second year of the Eisenach
Latin School.1 Following the death of their father Johann Ambrosius Bach
(16451695), two years later, his older brother Johann Jakob and he joined the
household of their oldest surviving brother Johann Christoph Bach (16711721),
then the organist, later also a school master, at Ohrdruf.2 The local Lutheran
Latin School that Bach attended next, the Ohrdruf Lyceum Illustre, provided
as rigorous a Lutheran academic environment as Eisenach.3 By July 1695, the
two Bach brothers had joined their new school: there, Sebastian completed the
fourth [Tertia], fifth [Secunda] and, aged 14, part of the final year [Prima] of
secondary school, a full four years below the average of that class.4 It was the
newly-appointed cantor at the Ohrdruf Lyceum, Elias Herda, himself a recent
alumnus of St Michaels School in Lneburg, who suggested that Sebastian
complete his studies at his own alma mater.5

1 BD 2, no. 2, NBR no. 6; Helmbold (1930), p. 54.

2 BD 2, no. 2, NBR no. 6c; Helmbold (1930), p. 55: Johann Jakob Bach entered the school the same
year as his younger brother Johann Sebastian and joined the same class as his brother, though
Sebastian was three years younger. Their older brother Johann Christoph Bach had been a
student at the Latin School from 16811685 and left after the fourth year of secondary school
to be educated at Erfurt by Johann Pachelbel the following year. He took up his appointment
as organist of St Michaels Ohrdruf in 1690. For Johann Christoph Bach, see: Hans-Joachim
Schulze, Johann Christoph Bach (16711721), Organist und Schul Collega in Ohrdruf: Johann
Sebastian Bachs erster Lehrer, Bach-Jahrbuch 71 (1985), pp. 5581, including reflections on
Christophs tutelage under Pachelbel, p. 70.
3 For Bachs enrolment at the Lyceum, see: BD 2, no. 4, NBR no. 8a; Alfred Oertel, ed., Erstverf-
fentlichung der Matrikel des Lyceums illustre Ordruviense: Urkunden aus Johann Sebastian
Bachs Ohrdrufer Schulzeit, 16951700. Im Auftrag des Bachausschusses der Stadt Ohrdruf, Bei-
trag der Stadt Ohrdruf zum Bachjahr 1950 (Erfurt: Ohlenroth, 1950).
4 BD 2, no. 4, NBR no. 8; Christoph Wolff, Bach: The Learned Musician (Oxford: University Press,
2001), p. 57, suggests that even though he had completed half the first year of the prima at the
Ohrdruf Lyceum, whose academic year began in the fall. Bach most likely started over again
in the prima at St Michaels [Lneburg in 1700], where the academic year began at Easter.
5 For Elias Herda (16741728), see: BD 1, no., 23n.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/9789004272361_003

22 chapter 1

In 1700 Bach joined the final year at St Michaels School Lneburg. While
the Principality of Lneburg followed a slightly different Lutheran curricu-
lum than that of Saxe-Gotha, many of the elements of Bachs education at
St Michaels remained the same as at Eisenach and Ohrdruf.6 In the schools
Bach attended, Lutheran doctrine was taught through a typical example of
orthodox seventeenth-century doctrinal teaching: by reciting the questions
from Leonhard Hutters Compendium Locorum Theologicorum (1610).7 Hutters
Latin Compendium used questions and answers to communicate the princi-
pal tenets of Lutheran doctrine, enabling the advancement of both language
acquisition and theology.8 It provided a structured approach to a specifically
Lutheran understanding of Scripture, doctrine, church and world order which,
the 1695 Ordinances of St Michaels School emphasise, centred in particular on
key Lutheran such as election, good works, penance, the ministry and the
church.9 In an educational system that laid such great store on the study of
Scripture by school students, it does not surprise that Hutters first question
and answer also centred on the nature of Scripture:

Quid est Scriptura sacra? What is Holy Scripture?

Est verbum Dei. It is the Word of God.10

The Ordinances of St Michaels School further show that in addition to reciting

the questions of Hutters Compendium, in the final three years of secondary

6 For Bachs attendance at St Michaels and his membership of the Mattins-Choir (Metten-
chor), see: NBR, no. 11.
7 Stadtarchiv Lneburg, Michaelisarchiv F99, No. 5, no pagination: Compendium Hutteri
recitantur quaestiones. For Hutters Compendium Locorum Theologicorum, see: Wolfgang
Trillhaas, ed. Compendium Locorum Theologicorum: Herausgegeben von Wolfgang Trill-
haas (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1961); see also: Reinhard Kirste, Theologische und spirituelle
Ermglichungsanstze fr Bachs Werk unter besonderer Bercksichtigung des Verstnd-
nisses von Wort und Geist bei Leonhard Hutter und Johann Arnd in: Martin Petztoldt, ed.
et al., Bach als Ausleger der Bibel: Theologische und musikwissenschaftliche Studien zum
Werk Johann Sebastian Bachs (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1985), pp. 7795,
especially pp. 7982.
8 Martin Petzoldt, Ut probus & doctus reddar: Zum Anteil der Theologie bei der Schu-
lausbildung Johann Sebastian Bachs in Eisenach, Ohrdruf und Lneburg, Bach-Jahrbuch
71 (1985), pp. 742, p. 37.
9 Stadtarchiv Lneburg, Michaelisarchiv F99, No. 5, unpaginated entry: De Electione, Bonis
Operibus, Poenitentia, Ministerio et Ecclesia.
10 Trillhaas (1961), p. 1.
learning the craft of a church musician 23

school there was great emphasis on the study of Scripture in their original
languages:11

In the fourth year of secondary school [Tertia] the Gospel in Greek is

read, and students are to recite declensions and conjugate verbs from
the Greek Grammar. In the fifth year [Secunda]: the fundamentals of
Greek, reading and studying the text of the New Testament. In the final
year [Prima] in Greek, the same method as before: students are to gain
greater familiarity with the Greek text.12

In order to join the final year, therefore, Bach would have had to have demon-
strated the fundamentals of Greek; that is the ability to read and translate the
text of the New Testament. Among final year students, the study of Hebrew was
encouraged: those students that chose to be taught diligently in the develop-
ment of Hebrew Grammar by the deputy rector, also studied the two opening
parashot of the Hebrew Bible, Bereshit (Genesis 1.16.8) and Noach (Genesis
6.911.32) in depth.13 It is clear that, by the time Bach completed his formal
studies at St Michaels School in 1702, the seventeen-year-old was fluent in
Latin, in which language he had been taught for more than nine years, had
a thorough grounding in Lutheran doctrine, solid mastery of New Testament
Greek, and probably a smattering of Hebrew as well.14 At the same time, he was
able to acquire a working knowledge of the modern lingua franca of courtly
life, French.15 If Bachs later extensive collection of books is any indicator of

11 Stadtarchiv Lneburg, Michaelisarchiv F99, No. 5, unpaginated entry: Compendium Hut-

teri recitantur questiones.
12 Stadtarchiv Lneburg, Michaelisarchiv F99, No. 5, unpaginated entry: In Tertia legitur
graecum Evangelium, et recitantur declinationes et verbum typi graeca grammatica In
secunda classe: Rudimenta Graeca, legendo explorandoq[ue] Novi Test[amenti]: textum
in prima classe in Graecis, eaddem methodo, qua antea, textum Gr.[aece] Novi
Test[amenti]. Discipulis familiare[m] reddere.
13 Stadtarchiv Lneburg, Michaelisarchiv F99, No. 5, unpaginated entry: His addit in Hebrai-
cis parscham [sic: parascham] Bereschith et Noae, cum Sedulo Gram:[maticae] Hebr:[ai-
cae] evolutione.
14 It was not uncommon for musicians to know Hebrew: Bachs colleague Johann Matthe-
son certainly had a good grounding in Hebrew, Johann Mattheson, Der/ Vollkommene/
Capellmeister/ Das ist/ Grndliche Anzeige/ aller derjenigen Sachen,/ die einer wissen, kn-
nen, und vollkommen inne habe mu,/ der einer Capelle/ mit Ehren und Nutzen verstehen
will (Hamburg: Christian Herold, 1739), p. 4, 4.
15 Bach wrote most of the addresses and many of the conclusions of his surviving letters,
as well as the dedication to his 1721 Brandenburg Concertos in French. It is highly likely
24 chapter 1

his enthusiasms, then the study of the Scriptures in their original languages
remained a life-long interest.16

2 Singer, Instrumentalist, Church Musician

Bachs musical education has been well-documented:17 born into a family of

composers, cantors, court- or civic-musicians, he belonged to a family, to whom
love and skill for music was seemingly granted by nature as a common gift to
all its members, his eulogy rightly emphasises.18 As town piper of Eisenach, his
father Ambrosius directed the civic music, which included leading the music
at the towns Georgenkirche on Sundays and Festivals, while his fathers cousin,
Christoph Bach, was the towns organist.19 From an early age, Bach would there-
fore have been introduced to observing the craft of a well-ordered church
music to the glory of God from members of own family, who also were the first
to introduce him to a disciplined study of the string and wind instruments that
a town piper was expected to master.20 The opportunity to perfect his skills as
a string player as well as to learn the craft of matching choral music with instru-
mental and organ works for Lutheran worship at Eisenachs Georgenkirche
from his father and cousin, was complemented by further opportunities to
learn about Lutheran music at school.21 Certainly, in Eisenach and Ohrdruf

that he learnt the language at the Ritterakademie attached to St Michaels, an academy

for young noblemen, many of whom employed the services of scholarship holders such
as Sebastian as famuli or menservants. He certainly acquired a knowledge of French
ensemble music there, BD 3, no. 666.
16 For the works contained in Bachs estate, see: Robin A. Leaver, Bachs theologische Biblio-
thek: Eine kritische Bibliographie [cited as BB] (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hnnsler, 1985).
17 Wolff (2001), pp. 4251.
18 BD 3, no. 666: Gehret zu einem Geschlechte, welchem Liebe und Geschicklichkeit zur
Musick, gleichsam als ein allgemeines Geschenck, fr alle seine Mitglieder, von der Natur
mitgetheilet zu seyn schienen.
19 Unto the completion of the Georgenkirches new organ in 1707, Ambrosius Bach provided
instrumental music at the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, Wolff (2001), p. 30.
20 BD 1, no. 1: Eine regulirte kirchen music zu Gottes Ehren, Wolff (2001), p. 28.
21 For Luthers use of music in education and to further the cause of the reformation, see:
Andreas Loewe, Why do Lutherans sing? Lutherans, Music and the Gospel in the first
century of the Reformation, Church History (82.1) 2013, pp. 6989; Johann Michael Reu,
Quellen zur Geschichte des kirchlichen Unterrichts in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands
zwischen 1530 und 1600: Quellen zur Geschichte des Katechismusunterrichts (Gtersloh:
Bertelsmann, 1935), Volume 3/1, p. 873: Textum Epistolae et Evangelii sequentis Dominicae
in templo canere debet.
learning the craft of a church musician 25

as well as at Lneburg, students began each school day by singing together a

Catechism hymn, ensuring that children like Sebastian learnt their Lutheran
chorales and music theory together with their doctrine.22
At the same time, students learnt the hymns of the Teutsch Gesangbchlein
(German hymnal); in Bachs case the 1673 New Eisenach Hymnal.23 In his Ded-
ication, Johann Gnther Rrer, Lutheran minister and editor of the Eisenach
Hymnal emphasises the benefits of communal singing which was fostered in
the towns churches and parochial schools (bey Kirchen und Schulen): If there
ever was a place/ where children and their parents/ old and young/ delight
in sweet songs in praise of God/ then it is this well-praised city of Eisenach.24
The combination of the sweetness of rhymes/ the well-pleasing nature of the
beautiful tunes/ the accompanying strings/ attract the heart greatly, Rrer
explained:

They give the heart new strength/ and let it dance in God/ even/ when
danger/ the cross/ despair/ misery and death knock/ Times, at which one
truly realises/ which songs are the glorious songs of a master.25

In their weekly hymn singing classes Bach and his fellows learnt one hymn
after the other/ from the hymnal/ which they/ have to work with/ once they

22 Andreas Reyher, Methodus Oder Bericht/ Wie Nechst Gttlicher Verleyhung die Knaben
und Mgdlein auf den Dorffschafften/ und in den Stdten/ die ntere Classes der Schul-
Jugend im Frstenthum Gotha/ Krtz-und ntzlich unterrichtet werden knnen und sollen
(Gotha: Christoph Reyher, 1697), p. 32, 2: In der ersten Frhe-Stunden wird allezeit ein
Catechismus-Gesang gesungen; Wilhelm Junghans, Johann Sebastian Bach als Schler der
Partikularschule zu St. Michaelis in Lneburg: Oder Lneburg eine Pflegesttte kirchlicher
Musik, Programm des Johanneums zu Lneburg (Lneburg: Stern, 1870), p. 22.
23 Neues vollstndiges Eisenachisches Gesangbuch: Worinnen/ in ziemlich bequeemer und
fglicher Ordnung/ vermittels fnffacher Abteilung/ so wol die alte/ als neue/ doch meh-
renteils bekante geistliche Kirchenlieder und Psalmen/ D. Martin Luthers (Eisenach: Johann
Gnther Rrer, 1673), see also: Robin A. Leaver, Luthers Liturgical Music: Principles and
Implications, Lutheran Quarterly Books (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), p. 113.
24 Neues vollstndiges Eisenachisches Gesangbuch, p. )( vr: Wo ie ein Ort zufinden/ da Kinder
u. Eltern/ Alte u. Junge/ sich an lieblichen Gottesliedern ergetzen/ ist es diese hochge-
priesene Stadt Eisenach.
25 Neues vollstndiges Eisenachisches Gesangbuch, p. )( ivv: Die Sigkeit der Reime/ der
Wolklang der schnen Gesangsweisen/ die mitstimmende Seitenspiele/ locken das Herz
gewaltig an/ geben demselben eine neue Kraft/ und machen es in Gott tanzend/ auch
so gar/ wenn Gefahr/ Kreuz/ Verzweifelung/ Noht und Tod anklopfet/ da man erst recht
gewahr wird/ was die herrliche Meistergesnge.
26 chapter 1

can read it/ beginning with the most well known and used.26 In doing so, they
followed Luthers own wishes closely: in his preface to the 1524 Wittenberg
Hymnal Luther had explained that the hymns had been published to be learnt
at school. Indeed, they had been set in four parts, for no other reason than that
I should like the young to be educated in music and other proper arts, as indeed
they should.27 Music was essential (necessario) to schools, Luther believed, not
only as a way of learning about Scripture and doctrine, but more so as a way of
promoting reforms in church and community.28
Because he was educated in a Lutheran school system, and because he had
an extraordinarily beautiful treble voice, Bach sang throughout his school
career.29 He retained his noted treble voice until his voice-break as a seventeen-
year-old, when for eight days he could but sing in octaves, and thereafter
lost his beautiful voice.30 A choral scholar at the Ohrdruf Lyceum Illustre who
joined his Lneburg school on a choral scholarship, it is more than likely that he
previously had also been also part of the Eisenach Latin schools chorus musi-
cus, a choral ensemble that rehearsed on four days each week, and provided
additional opportunities for choral singing and music tuition in addition to
those stipulated in the Gotha national curriculum.31
From the time of his fathers death Bach was reliant both on choral scholar-
ships and hospitia liberaliafees for tutoring the children of local patricians
and therefore literally sang for his school fees. His departure to Lneburg to

26 Reyher (1697), pp. 2829, 17: Aus denen Gesang-Bchlein/ welche sie/ so bald sie im
Lesen fortkommen knnen/ zu schaffen haben/ einen Gesang nach dem andern/ worzu
anfnglich die bekantesten/ und die am meisten gebrauchten/ zu nehmen.
27 Martin Luther, D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe [cited as: WA], Joachim
Karl Friedrich Knaake, ed. et al. (Weimar: Hermann Bhlau, 18831985), Vorrede des Wit-
tenberger Gesangbuches, 1524, WA 35: 474, 1820: Und sind dazu auch ynn vier stymme
bracht, nicht aus anderer ursach, denn das ich gerne wollte, die iugent, die doch sonst soll
und mus ynn der Musica und andern rechten knsten erzogen werden.
28 WA Tr 5: 557, 1920, no. 6248: Man mu musicam necessario in der schulen behalten.
29 BD 3, no. 666: Ungemein schne Sopranstimme.
30 BD 3, no. 666: Acht Tage lang er nicht anders als in Octaven singen und reden konnte.
Hierauf verlohr er seine schne Stimme.
31 Reyher (1697), pp. 2829, 17, Wolff (2001), p. 28: For the select chorus musicus, the cantor
assembled the students on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for an additional hour,
121, see also: Claus Oefner, Musical life of the Towns and Courts in Central Germany
around 1700, in: Christoph Wolff, ed., The World of the Bach Cantatas: Johann Sebastian
Bachs Early Sacred Cantatas (New York and London: W.W. Norton, 1997), pp. 3548,
pp. 3840.
learning the craft of a church musician 27

take up a choral scholarship as a descant in the fifteen-strong Mattins Choir

at St Michaels School was clearly motivated by the lack of continued oppor-
tunities for tutoring at Ohrdruf: the Ohrdruf school records state that in the
absence of hospitia [Sebastian] set out for Lneburg on March 15, 1700.32 By
3 April that year, his name is registered among the members of the Lneburg
Mattins Choir who received a regular stipend of 12 Groschen.33
When he made his way to Lneburg, Christoph Wolff notes, Bachs musical
preparation was exceptional, comprehensive, and in every way well rounded.34
At Lneburg, he acquired further practical skills that would stand him in excel-
lent stead as a church musician. His new school set a benchmark for musical
distinction in worship. St Michaels fostered a strong musical tradition unpar-
alleled by any of the other city churches: directed by Cantor August Braun the
Mattins Choir led worship on Saturdays, twice every Sunday, on the eve of Festi-
vals and at Festivals themselves, as well as at occasional services, the citys 1649
Worship Order for St Michaels set down.35 In order for the music to be varied, to
be refined and to inspire devotion, a large choir library was at the disposal of
the cantor, including mass settings by Praetorius, Schtzs Geistliche Concerte
und Exequien, Psalmen Davids and Passions, Hammerschmidts Dialogi and
Geistliche Andachten und Concerte, Crgers Laudes Dei Vespertinae, anthems
by Handl, Hassler and Lassus as well as Monteverdis Selva morale e spirituale.36
A similarly large library of organ works by German and Italian composers,
including works by Lassus, Frescobaldi, Scheidt, Kircher, Hammerschmidt, and
by the organist at St Nicolai and St Marys Lneburg Johann Jacob Loewe, him-
self a student of Schtz, was also available.37 The resultant carefully planned

32 NBR 8e, BD 2, no. 4; Junghans (1870), p. 4: The number of Mattins students varies between
18 and 13, including two probationers whose names are never recorded. The highest num-
ber of members was in the year 1695. At the beginning of 1700 there were 15 students [in
the Mattins Choir] (Die Zahl der Mettenschler variiert zwischen 18 und 13 einschlielich
der beiden Expectanten, welche stndig als namenlos angefhrt werden. Die hchste Zahl
erreicht das Jahr 1695. Der Anfang des Jahres 1700 erhlt 15).
33 Junghans (1870), pp. 45.
34 Wolff (2001), p. 42.
35 Worship Order for St Michaels 1649, cited in: Junghans (1870), pp. 1718.
36 Order for Mattins and Vespers at St Michaels 1656, 7, in: Junghans (1870), p. 18: zierlich
stehet und zur Andacht ermuntert. Junghans (1870), pp. 2633, provides a full list of the St
Michaels choir and organ libraries. The repertoire sung by the Eisenach chorus musicus
is, unsurprisingly, very similar, see: Oefner (1997), p. 40.
37 For Johann Jakob Loewe von Eisenach (16281703), see: John Hamilton Warrack, German
Opera: From the Beginnings to Wagner (Cambridge: University Press, 2004), p. 30.
28 chapter 1

combination of orchestral, organ and vocal music at St Michaels ensured

that worship was graceful and reasonable, and that there would be a clear
distinction between this and a farmers church, the Lneburg 1656 Order for
Mattins and Vespers at St Michaels documents.38
By the time his voice broke in 1702, Bach had been a choral scholar for more
than seven years.39 During that time he had become well-versed in the art
of Lutheran choral singing and the workings of Lutheran Kantoreien (church
choirs).40 He had gained first hand experience of the demands on church musi-
cians such as Cantor Braun to provide a varied musical program for the 65
ordinary Festivals and Sundays of the Lutheran calendar, and more than 30
extraordinary church occasions every year.41 He had been exposed to Schtzs
1623 Historia der Auferstehung, his 1660 Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi and his
Passions.42 He certainly had heard, and probably also performed, Hammer-
schmidts 16551656 Musicalische Gesprche ber die Evangelia.43Bachs partic-
ipation in performances of contemporary Italian and German compositions
would have taught him about Baroque aesthetics, such as the formulaic use
of certain Affekte, vocal registers or keys to indicate certain moods, as well

38 Order for Mattins and Vespers at St Michaels 1656, 7, in: Junghans (1870), p. 18: Ein
zierlicher und vernftiger Gottesdienst, damit ein Unterscheidt unter dieser und einer
Bauernkirche seyn mge.
39 Once his voice had settled, Bach joined the bass section of the Mattins choir, remaining a
member until his graduation from Lneburg in spring later that year, BD 3, no. 801; NBR,
no. 394.
40 For the development of Lutheran Kantoreien, see: Loewe (2013), pp. 8387.
41 A complete list of ordinary (ordinarie) and extraordinary (extraordinarie) occasions on
which the Mattins Choir was to provide a combination of Latin and German, polyphonic
and unison or solo vocal music, is appended to the Order for Mattins and Vespers at St
Michaels 1656, in: Junghans (1870), p. 18.
42 Junghans (1870), p. 27 documents that Schtzs Oratorios and Passions were purchased at
Lneburg before 1694. For Schtz Passions, see: Tamsin D. Jones, Passions in Perspective:
An Analytical Discussion of the three Passion Settings of Heinrich Schtz (15851672) against
their Historical and Stylistic Backgrounds (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation: Birming-
ham University, 2000).
43 A full cycle of musical reflections on the Sunday and Feast Day Gospels for solo voices
and obbligato accompaniment in various movements, such as recitatives, songs and
chorales that anticipate the later development of the German church Cantata, Johannes
Gnther Kraner and Steffen Voss, Hammerschmidt, Andreas, New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians (Oxford: University Press, 2005), 10: pp. 732735. Junghans (1870),
p. 27, lists Hammerschmidts Gesprche ber die Evangelia among the purchases between
16561666.
learning the craft of a church musician 29

as the use of certain rhetorical devices such as musica poetica in the word
setting of Schtz and his predecessors, or the use of certain dance forms, such
as the Sarabande, in Hammerschmidts church music.44 In his Lneburg years
Bach built on the secure footing of his early musical education as a singer and
instrumentalist in Eisenach and Ohrdruf. His membership of a group of singers
and instrumentalists charged with delivering an ambitious musical program to
amplify the Lutheran message at St Michaels undoubtedly laid the foundations
for his own later career as a church musician.

3 Singing preaching and praising of God

The establishment of an enduring choral tradition was one of the hallmarks

of the Lutheran Reformation. The deliberate promotion of music and music-
making became a central part of Luthers Reformation: for Lutherans preaching
and singing went hand in hand.45 This is why in Lutheran school choirs, stu-
dents not only learnt to sing contemporary compositions that intentionally
expounded the Scriptural and preached word, such as the oratorios of Schtz or
the early Cantatas of Hammerschmidt.46 They also received formal instruction
about exegesis and homiletics. Lutheran students were taught both to examine
the Biblical text and given pointers about how to listen to sermons attentively,
by learning to take short notes/ and to commit the remainder to memory.47
Certainly during his secondary schooling in Eisenach and Ohrdruf and very
likely also at Lneburg, Bach and his fellow students were taught how a sermon

44 For the Lutheran concept of musica poetica, see: Nicolaus Listenius, Rudimenta Musicae
Planae (Wittenberg: Georg Rhau, 1533) and Joachim Burmeister, Musica Poetica: Defini-
tionibus Et Divisionibus Breviter Delineata, quibus in singulis capitibus sunt hypomnemata
praeceptionum instar synoptiks addita, edita studio & opera, M. Joachimi Burmeisteri,
Lunaeburg. Scholae Rostoch., Collegae Claici (Rostock: Stephan Myliander, 1606), and the
excellent introduction of Benita Riveras translation of Burmeisters work, Musical Poetics
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. xiiilxii.
45 Loewe (2013), pp. 7172.
46 Richard D.P. Jones, The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, 2 vols. (Oxford:
University Press, 2006), 1: 16951717: Music to Delight the Spirit, p. 97: As a result of this
highly favourable attitude towards music on the part of the founder of the Lutheran
Church, the art flourished within it, leading to the great traditions of chorale, motet, and
sacred concerto that arose in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
47 Reyher (1697), p. 50, 19: Mit der Feder kurtz fassen/ und das ubrige im Sinn zu behalten,
see: pp. 4546, 710 for detailed instructions on how to analyse a sermon.
30 chapter 1

was structured, and even were given the opportunity to exegete some of the
Biblical texts read in worship.48 Martin Petzoldt is right in suggesting that the
education Bach and his contemporaries received would have provided them
with

a benchmark, which was entirely accessible to lay people, for any ques-
tions about content and background in discussing the sermon, the hymns
and the hymnal, and later also the texts of Cantatas.49

It is clear that Bachs education had equipped him well for a career as a prea-
cher in sound. Rather than choose to study at university to enter into one of
the professions or pursue a theological career, Bach instead chose to follow in
the footsteps of his musical family. This may well have been motivated by the
acute lack of financial support, and his need to earn a living. Whatever reason
Bach had for deciding against tertiary studies, immediately after the comple-
tion of his schooling at Lneburg he applied for the position as organist at
the Jakobikirche Sangerhausen, vacated by the death of Gottfried Christoph
Grffenhayn in July 1702.50 The Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels overruled the towns
invitation to Bach to take up the post, appointing instead his own candidate,
the court composer Johann Augustus Kobelius.51 Instead of a pursuing a career
as a church organist from the outset as intended, in March 1703 Bach took up
his first professional post as an instrumentalist in the court orchestra of Duke
Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.52 His tenure in the court orchestra was short: in
July the same year, Bach was invited to examine his first organ in Arnstadts New
Church. A month later, on 9 August 1703, he was appointed organist of Arnstadt,

48 Reyher (1697), pp. 4750, 1117, provides a model exegesis of the set texts for Estomihi
Sunday or Sunday before Lent; its Lutheran name is derived from the opening words
of the set Introit Psalm in its Vulgate translation, Esto mihi in Deum protectorem,
Ps. 31.1.
49 Petzoldt (1985), p. 19: Ein auch von Laien handhabbarer Mastab fr inhaltliche und
sachliche Fragen zur Predigt, zum Kirchenlied, zum Gesangbuch, spter auch zu Kanta-
tentexten.
50 Friedrich Schmidt, Geschichte der Stadt Sangerhausen: Im Auftrage des Magistrates (Sang-
erhausen: Selbstverlag des Magistrats der Stadt Sangerhausen, 1906), p. 726; Christoph
Wolff, Markus Zepf, The Organs of J.S. Bach: A Handbook (Champaign: University of Illi-
nois Press, 2012), p. 83.
51 In 1737, Bachs son Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, was appointed to the post his father
did not obtain 35 years earlier.
52 BD 2, no. 6, NBR no, 13.
learning the craft of a church musician 31

charged to be industrious and reliable in the office, vocation and practice of

art and science assigned.53

53 BD 2, no. 8, NBR no. 16, see also: BD 3, no. 666: In the year 1703 he came to Weimar,
where he became a court musician. The following year he was appointed to be the
organist of the New Church in Arnstadt (Im Jahre 1703 kam er nach Weymar und wurde
daselbst Hofmusikus. Das Jahr drauf erhielt er den Organistendienst an der neuen Kirche
in Arnstadt).
 chapter 2

It Pleased God That I Should

be CalledBachs Office and Craft

Not only the consistory of the Count of Schwarzenberg who confirmed Bachs
post of organist of Arnstadts New Church regarded his appointment in terms of
office and vocation.1 Like many of his contemporaries, Bach reflected on many
of his appointments in terms of a call from God. In rejecting an appointment
at Halles Liebfrauenkirche in early 1714, for instance, he declined the invitation
on the grounds of the Divine beckoning revealed by this vocation.2 Similarly,
he saw his 1723 appointment as Thomaskantor entirely in terms of vocation
(vociret) and divine providence ( fgete es Gott).3 He certainly later reflected
how the former

Capellmeister and Director of the Chamber Music at the Court of the

Serene Prince of Anhalt-Kthen had been called from there, Anno 1723,
to become Music Director and Cantor at the St Thomas School in Leipzig
in accordance with Gods Holy Will.4

Likewise, six years after his own call to the cantorate at St Thomas, he advised
his colleague Christoph Gottlob Wecker to discern Gods will with regard to a
potential appointment: I see that the good Lord seems to guide your footsteps
towards a position. In this I wish for you a Divine fiat.5 In his understanding
of his office, and his sense of calling, Bach reflected the orthodox Lutheran
doctrine that God called each person to their own office and station in life.6

1 NBR, no. 152, BD 1, no. 23: Vocieret.

2 BD 1, no. 2, NBR, no. 49.
3 BD 1, no. 23: So fgete es Gott, da zu hiesigem Directore Musices u. Cantore an der Thomas
Schule vocieret wurde, NBR, no. 152.
4 BD 1, no. 184, NBR, no. 303: Capellmeister u. Director derer Cammer Musiquen am Hochfrst-
lich Anhalt Kthischen Hofe wurde von dar An[no]. 1723, als Director Chori Musici u[nd].
Cantor an der Thomas Schule nacher Leipzig vociert nach Gottes H[eiligem]. Willen.
5 BD 1, no. 120, NBR, no. 130.
6 For a Lutheran theology of vocation by an outstanding exponent of Lutheran Orthodoxy
familiar to Bach, see: Abraham Calov, Systema Locorum Theologicorum, 12 vols. (Wittenberg:
Hartmann, 16551677), 10.1: De vocatione, eiusque cognatis; for Abraham Calov (16121686),

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/9789004272361_004

it pleased god that i should be calledbachs office and craft 33

The Wittenberg theologian Abraham Calov had made the systematisation

of the Lutheran doctrine of vocation his lifes work.7 Bach owned Calovs work:
an avid collector of books, in September 1742, he had purchased part of the
library of the eminent Wittenberg superintendent and theologian Abraham
Calov at a Leipzig auction.8 The books purchased included not only Calovs
works, but also the Altenburg edition of the German and magnificent writings
of the blessed Dr M. Luther, which Calov supposedly used to compile his great
German Bible, as Bach speculated at the time.9 The works he bought at auction
in 1742 were not the only Lutheran, or theological works, that Bach owned. The
1750 Specification of the Estate Left by the Late Mr Johann Sebastian Bach records
a large Lutheran library:10 nine volumes, conventionally bound in seven, of the
Altenburg edition of the works of Luther, a three-volume Bible commentary
by Johann Olearius, the five-volume School of Piety by Johann Gerhard, as well
as eight volumes of the Leipzig Hymn-Book.11 Of the numerous theological
works Bach owned, only his three-volume annotated Calov Bible survives, in
the library of Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri.12

see: Johannes Wallmann, Abraham Calov: theologischer Widerpart der Religionspolitik

des groen Kurfrsten, in: Stefan Oehmig, ed., 700 Jahre Wittenberg: Stadt, Universitt, Ref-
ormation (Weimar: Hermann Bhlau, 1995), pp. 303311; Ernst Feil, Religio: Die Geschichte
eines neuzeitlichen Grundbegriffs im 17. und frhen 18. Jahrhundert, 3 vols. (Gttingen: Van-
denhoeck und Ruprecht, 2001), 3, pp. 3344; for his hermeneutic method, see: Volker Jung,
Das Ganze der Heiligen Schrift. Hermeneutik und Schriftauslegung bei Abraham Calov, Cal-
wer theologische Monographien B/18 (Stuttgart: Calver Verlag, 1999).
7 See: Kenneth G. Appold, Abraham Calovs Doctrine of Vocatio in its Systematic Context,
Beitrge zur historischen Theologie 103 (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1998), pp. 73170.
8 BD 1, no. 123, NBR no. 228: Aus des groen Wittenbergischen General-Superintendentens
u[nd]. Theologi D. Abrah[ami]: Calovii Bibiliothec.
9 BD 1, no. 123, NBR no. 228: Tetsche und herrliche Schriften des seeligen D.M. Lutheri,
woraus er vermuthlig seine groe Tetsche Bibel colligiret.
10 Specificatio der Verlassenschaft des am 28. July 1750 verstorbenen Herrn Johann Sebastian
Bachs, BD 2, no. 627, Chapter XII: Theological Books, NBR no. 279, for his music manu-
scripts, see: NBR nos. 286301.
11 For the works contained in Bachs estate, see: BB, pp. 3738. For the Lutheran theological
works owned by Bach, see: Robin A. Leaver, Bach und die Lutherschriften seiner Biblio-
thek, in: Bach-Jahrbuch 61 (1975), pp. 124132; Bachs musical collection included works
by Buxtehude, Schtz, Telemann, Pachelbel and Italian composers such as Frescobaldi
and Albinoni, see: Stanley Godman, Bachs Bibliothek: Die noch vorhandenen Handex-
emplare, Musica 10 (1956), pp. 756761.
12 Abraham Calov, ed., I. N. J./ Die Heilige/ Bibel/ nach S. Herrn D. Martini Lutheri. Deutscher
Dolmetschung und Erklrung/ mit groem Flei/ und Kosten ausgearbeitet/ und
34 chapter 2

It cannot be said with absolute certainty that Bach read any of the theo-
logical works in his library beyond the surviving three volumes of the Calov
Bible with their marginalia in Bachs hand.13 Nevertheless, his appellation of
Luther as blessed and his praise of the reformers writings as magnificent,
in conjuction with his ownership of multiple editions of Luthers works, sug-
gests that he greatly admired and had read the works of the Saxon reformer.14
His self-understanding of his office of a church musician in terms of vocation
further suggests that Bach had at least some understanding of Calovs works.
Luther had extended the pre-Reformation understanding of vocation in terms
of setting apart for divine service to a general call to all people through their
individual Beruf, their secular or ecclesiastical occupation.15 In his 1523 inter-
pretation of 2Peter 1.10, Luther had made a clear distinction between calling
(berff ) and election (erwelung).16 It was not possible to be among the elect,

verfasset/ von/ D. Abraham Calovio (Wittenberg: Christian Schrter, 16811682), 5 vol-

umes [cited as: CB], BB 1 af. For the authenticity of the manuscript entries in Bachs
Calov Bible, see: Howard H. Cox, ed., The Calov Bible of J.S. Bach, Studies in Musicol-
ogy 92 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Research Press, 1985), especially pp. 67;
Leaver (1983), Thomas Rossin, The Calov Bible of Johann Sebastian Bach (Unpublished
Doctoral Dissertation: University of Minnesota, 1992), pp. 100103, and Christoph Traut-
mann, Calovii Schrifften. 3. Bnde aus Johann Sebastian Bachs Nachla und ihre Bedeu-
tung fr das Bild des lutherischen Kantors Bach, Musik und Kirche 39 (1969), pp. 145
160.
13 Rebecca Lloyd, Bach among the Conservatives: The Quest for Theological Truth (Unpub-
lished Doctoral Dissertation: Kings College London, 2006), p. 48, is justified in introducing
a note of caution that we cannot know the full composition of the library nor, crucially,
Bachs reading of and attitude to the books listed in the Specificatio.
14 BD 1, no. 123, NBR no. 228. Martin Petzoldt, Beobachtungen zur Spezifik der theologischen
Bibliothek Johann Sebastian Bachs, in: Winfried Hoffmann, Armin Schneiderheinze, eds.,
Bericht ber die wissenschaftliche Bach-Konferenz zum V. Internationalen Bachfest der DDR
in Verbindung mit dem 60. Bachfest der Neuen Bachgesellschaft, Leipzig, 25. bis 27. Mrz
1985 (Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag fr Musik, 1985), pp. 6575, documents well Bachs
familiarity with, and reliance on, Luthers own works and the works of key Lutheran
interpreters.
15 For a development history of the term Beruf and its associated doctrine, see: Karl Holl,
Die Geschichte des Wortes Beruf, in: idem, Gesammelte Aufstze zur Kirchengeschichte,
3 vols. (Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1928), 3, pp. 194195 and Robin A. Leaver, J.S. Bach and
Scripture: Glosses from the Calov Bible Commentary (St Louis: Concordia Publishing, 1985),
pp. 1416.
16 Luther, Die ander Epistel S. Petri und eine S. Judas geprediget und ausgelegt, 1523/24, WA 14:
22, 1112: Darumb, lieben bruder, thut deste mehr fleys, ewren berff und erwelung fest zu
machen.
it pleased god that i should be calledbachs office and craft 35

Luther suggested, without also exercising a calling. Election for Luther was a
passive process originating from God alone.17 People were justified when they
hear and believe in the Gospel, and seek baptism.18 Living out their calling,
on the other hand, was an active process that enabled Christians to make a
personal response to their election, and so to confirm and live out their sal-
vation.19 Calov developed Luthers understanding of call and election further,
placing an individuals calling or vocation at the centre of their spiritual jour-
ney. For Calov, the discernment of a specific calling marked the first moment
of contact between the Holy Spirit and an individual.20
Within this doctrine, Bach would have identified his calling in making music
in the service of God, as one of Gods Capellmeister, making use of the small tal-
ents that heaven has bestowed on me for music-making, as he explained in the
Dedication of his Brandenburg Concertos [BWV 10461051, 1721].21 These God-
given gifts he employed to create musical offerings in the service of God and
the church by writing and performing well ordered church music to the glory
of God.22 Although he had received a thorough theological education, and was
theologically remarkably well read, Bach remained, of course, a musician. He
therefore never reflected on a theological method, or set down any theological
writings beyond the insights contained in his choral works.
Petzoldt is right in suggesting that Bachs theology was liturgically deter-
mined.23 Kriste elaborates on what characterises such a theology determined
and expressed through liturgical music: Bachs music made use of the language
of lively faith, whose terminology leaves behind lofty [doctrinal] distinctions
and instead reaches out into the depths of religious experience.24 Bachs anno-
tated three volume Bible commentary supports this view and gives further
insights into his self-understanding as a musician who lived out Luthers pre-
cept that the combination of words, melody and harmony could foster the

17 WA 14: 22, 18: Alleyne bey Gott.

18 WA 14: 22, 1516: Das Euangelium horet und daran glewbet und getaufft wird.
19 WA 14: 22, 16: Confirmed within us, not only by God (Auch bey uns feste sey, nicht alleyne
bey Gott).
20 Appold (1998), 14.
21 BD 1, no. 150, NBR, no. 84: Petits talents que le Ciel ma donns pour la Musique; for an
analysis of Bachs dedications, see: Werner Felix, Titel und Widmungen Bachscher Werke
als musikpdagogische und musiksthetische Dokumente (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993).
22 BD 1, no. 1, NBR, no. 32: Regulirte kirchen music zu Gottes Ehren.
23 Petzoldt (1988), p. 76: Vom Gottesdienst her bestimmten Theologie.
24 Kirste (1985), p. 90: In der Sprache des bewegten Glaubens gesprochen dessen Termi-
nologie aus den hohen Distinktionen in die Tiefe geistlichen Erlebens hinabgeht.
36 chapter 2

understanding of the nature and works of God: while not in itself theology,
music certainly was next to theology.25

1 The Purpose of Church Music

Bachs understanding of church music was strongly shaped by the account of

the dedication of the Solomonic Temple in the Second Book of Chronicles
(2Chronicles 5.514). From an early age onwards, Bach literally would have had
the image of musicians offering their skills as a living sacrifice before him: every
time he opened his Eisenach Hymnal to sing in school or in church, Bach would
have had occasion to look at the hymnals elaborate frontispiece with its image
of the dedication of the Temple (See Figure 1, opposite).26
The lower part of Johann David Herlicius engraving showed the city of Eise-
nach, beneath the Wartburgboth the local Ernestine stronghold and the
place where Luther first translated the Bible into the vernaculara mighty
fortress in both a physical and spiritual sense for Eisenachs Lutherans.27 Above
a depiction of their city, protected both by the might of Gods Word that had
been translated at the Wartburg and the might of the Wartburg fortress itself,
was an image of the Temple of Solomon: the king, with his striking resemblance
to the reigning prince Ernst of Saxe-Gotha, is clad in an ermine-lined coat, and
kneels in prayer at the foot of the altar with its smoking burnt offering of an
oxen (2Chronicles 5.6). He is attended by priests and levites with cymbals,
harps, and lyres, [who] stood east of the altar with one hundred and twenty
priests who were trumpeters (2Chronicles 5.12), who added their own sacrifice
of praise to the kings burnt offering. In the light of the aftermath of the Thirty
Years War of Religion, the overall message of the frontispiece is unmistakable:
led by their earthly sovereign, ministers and musicians joined in offering praise
and thanksgiving to their heavenly sovereign. In return, both heavenly and
earthly ruler offered protection from all that assailed the believer: the heav-
enly sovereign providing a bulwark never failing, the earthly ruler a secure

25 WA Tr 6: 348, 2224, no. 7034: Ich gebe nach der Theologie der Musica den nhesten
Locum und hchste Ehre.
26 For Bachs hymnal, see Conrad Freyse, Sebastians Gesangbuch, Bach-Jahrbuch 45 (1958),
pp. 123126
27 For Johann David Herlicius, who also very probably painted the image of Bachs father, Jo-
hann Ambrosius Bach, see: Conrad Freyse, Das Portrt Ambrosius Bachs, Bach-Jahrbuch
46 (1959), pp. 149155.
it pleased god that i should be calledbachs office and craft 37

figure 1 Dedication of Solomons Temple: Frontispiece of the 1673

Eisenachisches Gesangbuch
38 chapter 2

homeland where Lutherans can learn and sing about their faith without fear of
religious division or persecution from Catholic rulers.
Later in life, Bachs theological understanding of the dedication of Gods
dwelling place on earth by ministers and musicians would have been further
developed by Lutheran commentators such as Abraham Calov and Johannes
Olearius.28 Bach not only would have sung Olearius popular hymns at school.29
Olearius also was the grandfather of the superintendent minister Johann Gott-
fried Olearius who had oversight of Bachs first church, the New Church at Arn-
stadt.30 Bach owned Olearius expository commentary on the Bible in addition
to Calovs commentated Bible and therefore may well have consulted Olearius
gloss on the dedication of the Temple in Second Chronicles alongside the entry
he annotated in his Calov Bible.31
In reflecting on the dedication of the Temple in 2 Chronicles 5.514, Olearius
made clear that the purpose of music in worship was to amplify the preached
word. He explained that the Temple musicians, singers and composers:

Repeated Gods word through their song in the same way the prophets
did through their preaching. They were also fine composers, who directed
where and when to raise the voice.32

28 For Johannes Olearius, see: Karl Dienst, Olearius, Johannes, Biographisch-Bibliographi-

sches Kirchenlexikon [cited as: BBKL] (Herzberg: Traugott Bautz, 1993), 6: col. 11911192.
29 Indeed, Johannes Olearius hymn Gelobet sei der Herr forms the basis for Bachs epony-
mous Cantata BWV 129.
30 For Johann Gottfried Olearius, see: Walter Troxler, Olearius, Johann Gottfried, BBKL, 6:
col. 11891190. BD 2, no. 16, NBR, no. 20 documents how the young Bach proved to be a
difficult appointment as organist, for instance overstaying his leave to see Buxtehude in
Lbeck in late 1705 by sixteen weeks without seeking permission for his longer stay from
Olearius, which is why, unsurprisingly, their relationship was strained.
31 Johannes Olearius, Haupt Schlel der gantzen Heiligen Schrifft, 3 volumes in 5 parts
(Leipzig: Tarnoven, 16781680) [cited as: HS]; see: BB 12 ae. The general assumption is
that Olearius Haupt Schlel came into his possession early in life. However, it is not
possible to determine with certainty whether Bach would have been able to consult the
copies contained in his personal collection and, in the case of the Calov Bible, annoted
by him, at the same time. Nevertheless, although the 3 volumes of the Calov Bible did
not come into his possesion until 1733, the views expressed in Calovs and Olearius
glosses were those commonly found in the writings of Lutheran commentators and
preachers.
32 HS 2: 531: Die Gottes Wort wiederholeten mit Singen gleichwie sonst die Propheten mit
Predigen. Sie waren auch gute Componisten, welche Anleitung gaben wie und wo man
die Stimme erheben sollte.
it pleased god that i should be calledbachs office and craft 39

Like Olearius Temple musicians, in his choral music Bach also provided a
musical framework to reflect on the Biblical and preached texts. This strongly
suggests that he not only shared Luthers view that God preached the Gospel
also through music and therefore was an ideal means of communicating the
words of Scripture.33 He also understood well how, adopting the Biblical model
of the Temple musicians repetition of Gods word through their song, church
music had the ability to amplify the preached word so that it might incite the
listeners to devotion.34 For Bach, the Biblical account of the dedication of the
Temple provided the foundation narrative of his own craft: he traced his chosen
call back to compose and conduct music to the praise of God back to the first
Temple musicians, who served God and instructed their neighbours through
their music-making.

2 Gnaden-Gegenwart: Gods Presence in Sacred Music

The Chroniclers account of the appointment, training and setting apart of

Temple musicians in 1Chronicles 25.6-end; the ordering of their divisions and
specification of their service in 1Chronicles 28.21; and the musical spectacle
of the dedication of the Temple in 2Chronicles 5.1114, clearly captured Bachs
imagination. They provided rich sources for marginalia in his Calov Bible
which, in turn, afford fascinating insights into Bachs self-understanding of his
craft and music. For Bach, the ordering of the sons of Asaph and of Heman, the
inspired Capellmeister of David as Calov called them,35 as Temple musicians
not only provided an example of the true foundation of all God-pleasing
church music but also an exemplar of musical clans and families working
under gifted composer-fathers.36 Here were singers and instrumentalists who
had been set apart for the service of God (1Chronicles 25.1), honing their skills

33 Luther, Tischreden [cited as: Tr], WA Tr 2: 11, 26: Deus praedicavit euangelium etiam per
musicam.
34 HS 2: 531: Gottes Wort wiederholeten mit Singen; BD 1, no. 92, NBR, no. 100: Die Zuhrer
zur Andacht aufmuntere.
35 In the preface to the Book of Psalms in the Calov Bible, Bach underlined the names of
Asaph and Heman in red ink; in his brief introduction to Psalms 50 and 73, CB 1.2: 441 and
545, Calov called them Capellmeister.
36 CB 1.1: 20472049; NBR, no. 165, b: Dieses Capitel ist das wahre Fundament aller gottge-
flliger Kirchen Music; Helene Werthemann, Bachs Fundament aller gottgeflliger Kir-
chenmusik , in: Frank Beyer and Christoph Trautmann, 51. Bachfest der Neuen Bachge-
sellschaft: Bachfest-Vortrge 1976 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1976), pp. 317, p. 3.
40 chapter 2

under the direction of their father for the music in the house of the Lord (25.6),
trained in singing to the Lord (25.7), and so together exercising their duties
diligently small and great, pupil and teacher alike (25.8). Mary Dalton Greer
rightly suggests that:

Bachs view of his musical calling and his membership in a large, musically
gifted family appear to have been shaped at the most fundamental level
by his reading of Old Testament passages pertaining to the families of
musicians who were called to serve in the Temple.37

Certainly, Bachs entry next to 2Chronicles 5.13 suggests that the composer not
only saw ordered worship, and music in worship, as a foundation narrative for
his craft, but that he regarded all sacred music as grace-filled.
In the margins of his Calov Bible, Bach recorded his insight that in sacred
music God is always present in his grace (Bey einer andchtigen Musique ist
allzeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden-Gegenwart).38 He had amplified the sub-headings
of the commentator, Abraham Calov, who prefaced the section 2 Chronicles
5.1114 with: How the Glory of the Lord was made present by delightful mu-
sic.39 Calov claims that music could make Gods glory manifest (erschienen).
Bachs marginal note is ambiguous, hyphenated at a line break, but seems
to suggest that God imparts grace through devotional music (Gnaden-Gegen-
wart). Neither reading suggests that God himself is there in the midst of the
music, but rather that the music, devotional or delightful, becomes a vehicle
by which the attentive (andchtig) listener is able to perceive Gods glory and
grace.
This therefore makes music akin to the proclamation of Gods word in the
reading of the Bible and in sermons, as a sign of the praesentia gratiae, the
presence of grace in the word of proclamation in orthodox Lutheranism.40 This
presence is distinct from the universal presence of Christ assured to those two
or three who are gathered in his name (Matthew 18.20), just as it is distinct
from the real presence in the sacrament of Holy Communion.41 Rather, for

37 Mary Dalton Greer, From the House of Aaron to the House of Johann Sebastian: Old
Testament Roots for the Bach Family Tree, in: Gregory Butler, George Stauffer, Mary Dalton
Greer, eds. et al., About Bach (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008), pp. 1534, p. 16.
38 CB 1.1: 2088; NBR, no. 165, d.
39 CB 1.1: 2088: Wie auff die schne Music die Herrlichkeit des HErrn erschienen sey.
40 Wallmann (1995), p. 143.
41 Wallmann (1995), p. 143: Clearly distinct from the praesentia universalis and the
it pleased god that i should be calledbachs office and craft 41

Lutheran orthodox theologians, the presence of God in proclamation signified

the assurance of grace for the present, and therefore the hope of continued
grace hereafter.42

3 Music for the Glory of God

Certainly, the account of the calling and ordering of the Capellmeister in the
Jerusalem Temple, appears to have resonated deeply with the Lutheran Capell-
meister. Greer explains that Bachs markings in the Calov Bible demonstrate
his deep affinity for the Levite musicians and his especially strong identifica-
tion with Asaph, King Davids Capellmeister.43 In his expository Bible, Calov
interpreted the setting apart of the sons of Asaph for musical service in the
Temple in 1Chronicles 25.18 entirely in terms of his Lutheran understanding
of vocation. Their calling, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, equipped them
for their service of making known Gods word by composing spiritual songs and
psalms and singing them in the Temple, as well as playing their instruments.44
God had called each one of them to their allotted place to promote his word,
an insight that reflected as much on the hierarchy of the Jerusalem Temple as
on Calovs own understanding of call and office. In a passage that held Bachs
attention, The Singers and Instrumentalists,45 Calov explained that the singers
were numbered and were ordained to their respective offices according to their
calling, so that they may exercise their office in a certain order.46
In his commentary on 1Chronicles 25.19, Calov identified three distinctive
expressions of that calling: firstly, the vocation of musical performers to a

praesentia sacramentalis (Von praesentia universalis und praesentia sacramentalis deut-

lich unterschieden).
42 Ulrich Meyer, Johann Sebastian Bachs theologische uerungen, Musik und Kirche 47:3
(1977), pp. 112118, p. 116; for a detailed consideration, see: Renate Steiger, Gnadengegen-
wart: Johann Sebastian Bach im Kontext lutherischer Orthodoxie und Frmmigkeit, Doctrina
et pietas. Zwischen Reformation und Aufklrung. Texte und Untersuchungen Abteilung II:
Varia, Band 2 (Stuttgart: Hnssler, 2002), p. 150, pp. 243246, especially note 24.
43 Greer (2008), p. 16, Bach underlining the word Capellmeister in red ink: CB 1.2: 222.
44 CB 1.1: 2047: Aus Eingebung des Geistes GOttes; GOttes Wort in geistliche Lieder und
Psalmen fassen, dieselbe im Tempel singen, und zugleich darein mit Instrumenten spie-
len.
45 CB 1.1: 20472052: Der Erste Theil. Die Snger und Instrumentalisten.
46 CB 1.1: 20472048: Sie wurden verordnet zum Werck nach ihrem Ampt, dasselbe in
gewisser Ordnung zu verrichten.
42 chapter 2

specific office within Temple worship (the way in which they were ordered
according to their office);47 secondly, the order of the performers themselves
within their musical divisions (the way in which they should be ordered them-
selves in hierarchical order);48 and thirdly the actual structure of their perfor-
mance (the way in which they sang accompanied by cymbals, psalteries and
harps according to their office and the order stipulated by the king).49
For Calov, the Chroniclers account of the Temple music confirmed that the
office and calling of a musician was the proclamation of Christ not only
in words but also through instrumental music and singing.50 This was best
exercised in the context of worship, as part of an ordered form of service where
everyone took up their God-given place: for God is a God of order.51 Bach also
seems to have regarded the Biblical text and its Lutheran gloss in terms of a
foundation narrative for church musicians, or at least a Biblical framework for
his own craft. Bach certainly annotated 1Chronicles 25.21 in Calovs Bible, and
noted that here was a wonderful proof that divine service in general, and in
particular music, was ordered by the Holy Spirit through David.52 It is highly
likely that Bach shared Calovs belief that divine service was a reflection of
the divine order, and that preachers, performers, and worshippers should take
their God-given place in accordance with their calling to offer God praise and
worship.
Calovs God-given order was not only restricted to the individual calling each
person held. His gloss on the structure of the Temple musicians performance in
1Chronicles 5.19 makes clear that the God-given order extended even to the
form and shape of worship and music, enabling composers, instrumentalists

47 CB 1.1: 2047: Verordnet zum Werck nach ihrem Ampt.

48 CB 1.1: 2048: Wie sie sich zusammen solten subordiniren und einer dem anderen unter-
geben werden.
49 CB 1.1: 2048: Mit Cymbeln, Psaltern und Harffen nach dem Ampt wie der Knig die
Ordnung gemacht hat.
50 CB 1.1: 2048: Christum zu erheben, welches nicht allein mit Worten, sondern auch mit
Musiciren und Gesngen geschach.
51 CB 1.1: 2047: Gott ist ein Gott der Ordnung.
52 NBR no. 165 c: Ein herrlicher Beweis, da neben anderen Anstalten des Gottesdienstes,
besonders auch die Musica von Gottes Geist durch David mit angeordnet worden; see:
Werthemann (1979), p. 3: Bach always used the word herrlich (noble) in the same
way as its Biblical counterpart, when he spoke of those things directly and absolutely
pertaining to him. (Da Bach das Wort herrlichganz seinem biblischen Ausgangsort
entsprechendimmer dann verwendete, wenn er von Dingen sprach, die ihn unbedingt
angingen).
it pleased god that i should be calledbachs office and craft 43

and singers to reflect a greater truth: the proclamation of Gods word through
spiritual songs and psalms.53 Many Baroque composers, most notably Bachs
contemporary Johann Mattheson, believed that in the visible world, music was
a sign of divine order.54 Bachs reading of Calovs commentated Bible suggests
that he shared the view that music was a means to reflect a greater order and a
greater truth. That greater truth, the aim and purpose of his compositions, Bach
summed up well in the autograph score of his Orgel-Bchlein [BWV 599644],55
dedicating the work to the Glory of God most high alone, and for the edification
and education of my neighbour.56 His motivation is best traced in his Cantatas
and Passions, where Bach carefully combined words and music in order to help
convey a distinctive homiletic message, to create, as Wolff explains:

A composition that listens to, understands, transforms, and projects the

biblical message; a composition that enhances, clarifies, and elevates the
biblical word.57

53 CB 1.1: 2047: GOttes Wort in geistliche Lieder und Psalmen fassen.

54 Walter Blankenburg, Der Harmoniebegriff in der lutherisch-barocken Musikanschauung,
Archiv fr Musikwissenschaft 16.12 (1959), pp. 4456, p. 48: Musik als einer in der sicht-
baren Welt wahrnehmbaren gttlichen Ordnung; see especially: Johann Mattheson, Das
neuerffnete Orchestre (Hamburg: Schiller, 1713), Supplement, p. 302. For its parallels with
the medieval musica speculativa, see: Andreas Loewe, Musica est optimum: Martin
Luthers Theory of Music, Music and Letters 94.4 (2013), pp. 573605.
55 Composed chiefly during his Weimar period (17081714), Bachs Little Organ Book contains
48 through-composed chorale preludes (ausgefhrte Chorle) for the churchs year. The
autograph score was completed during Bachs time as Kapellmeister in Kthen.
56 NBR, no. 69, BD 1, no. 148; Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinz Lhlein, ed., Orgelwerke Band
1: Orgelbchlein, Schbler-Chorle, Choralpartiten, Johann Sebastian Bach, Neue Ausgabe
smtlicher Werke, Serie IV: Orgelwerke, Band 1 (Kassel: Brenreiter 1983): Dem Hchsten
Gott allein zur Ehren, dem Nechsten, draus sich zu belehren.
57 Christoph Wolff, Bible and Hymnal in Johann Sebastian Bach, in: Carlos R. Messerli, ed. et
al., Thine the Amen: Essays on Lutheran Church Music in Honor of Carl Schalk (Minneapolis:
Kirk House Publishers, 2005), pp. 111122, p. 121.
 chapter 3

Proclaiming Scripture through Music

The Development of Bachs Cantatas

Bach was as uncompromising in his pursuing his music-making as could be

expected from someone who regarded his gifts, his craft and his office entirely
in terms of divine vocation. This unbending attitude is first documented during
his time as organist at Arnstadts New Church, his first church appointment. In
1706, the musician was twice cited before the Arnstadt consistory to be ques-
tioned and disciplined by superintendent minister Johann Gottfried Olearius
and members of the citys consistory.1 In February 1706, Bach was reproved that
hitherto no concerted music had been performed.2 Contrary to the churchs
expectation, for the first two years of his appointment Bach had neither pro-
vided sacred music to be performed by choir and orchestra, nor made use of
the pupils at Arnstadts Latin School to perform such music.3
The significant musical resources held in the choir library at Lneburg sug-
gest that Bach would have had at his disposal both conservative models for
concerted music, such as the combination of dictum motets by sixteenth-
and early-seventeenth-century composers or the more modern seventeenth-
century choral concertos of Heinrich Schtz and Michael Praetorius and their
contemporaries and students, as well as the reform Cantatas of Erdmann
Neumeister.4 The reason why there had been no concerted music at Arnstadt
was not due to a lack of musical resources, Bachs insisted, but rather were due

1 BD 2, nos. 1617, NBR, nos. 2021. Bach had previously been cited before the consistory in
August 1705 for publicly insulting one of his instrumental students, the bassoonist Geyers-
bach, an act that led to a fight between the two in Arnstadts town square, BD 2, nos. 1415,
NBR, nos. 19ad.
2 BD 2, no. 16: Da biher gar nichts musiciret worden, NBR, no. 20.
3 For the 1675 Order of Service for the County of Schwarzburg, the Agenda Schwartzburgica/ Das
ist/ Verzeichni der Ceremonien (Arnstadt: Heinrich Meurer, 1675), see: Martin Petzoldt, Bible,
Hymnbook and Worship Service, in: Wolff (1997), pp. 125141, pp. 129132. For Arnstadts
Latin School, established after the dissolution of the Monastery of the Discalced Francis-
cans, see: Samuel Kroschel, Die Arnstdter lateinische Schule zur Zeit der Reformation (Arn-
stadt: Emil Frotscher, 1885) and idem, Die Grfliche Erziehungsanstalt im Barferkloster zu
Arnstadt und Arnstdter Abiturienten des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Arnstadt: Emil Frotscher,
1890).
4 Jones (2006), p. 97, for the musical resources held at Lneburg, see: Junghans (1870), pp. 2633.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/9789004272361_005

proclaiming scripture through music 45

to the lack of a reliable conductor: if there were a decent conductor, he would

be willing to perform, the consistory minutes record.5 Since the Arnstadt con-
sistory made clear that they were not willing to employ a Capellmeister for
him, and relationships between the consistory and Bach did not improve, by
Easter 1707, Bach had sought and secured employment as organist at St Blasius
Church, Mhlhausen.6
The fact that Bach performed no concerted music in Arnstadt does not,
however, mean that he did not write concerted music there. Wolff argues that
two pre-Weimar Cantatas, Cantata BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (I
yearn for you, O Lord) and Cantata BWV 196 Der Herr denkt an us (The Lord
thinks of us) share sufficient stylistic similarities to make an Arnstadt origin
entirely plausible.7 That either Cantata was, in fact, written in Arnstadt cannot
be said with any certainty. However, when Bach auditioned for his second post
in Mhlhausen at Easter 1707, a trial piece was performed.8 If Wolff is right
in his suggestion that Bachs Cantata BWV 4 Christ lag in Todes Banden (Christ
lay in deaths bonds) was performed at Mhlhausen as part of trial playing at
Easter 1707, then the work would have been composed in Arnstadt, during the
winter of 17061707, making Arnstadt the city where Bach first made use of the
new Cantata genre.9

1 Musical and Textual Models for Bachs Early Cantatas

While the three possible Arnstadt Cantatas identified by Wolff share much
stylistic musical material, each one is based on a different textual model.10 As
such, the three reflect well the the evolution of the eighteenth-century church
Cantata as a whole. Until the development of the textual and musical rhythm
of recitative, arias and chorales made popular in his three annual cycles of
Leipzig Cantatas, Bach made use of a variety of textual models, each of which
contributed to the development of the genre of church Cantata.11

5 BD 2, no. 16, NBR, no. 20: Wrde man ihm einen rechtschaffenen Director schaffen, wolte
er schon spiehlen.
6 BD 2, no. 16, NBR, no. 20: Dann man ihm keinen Capellmeister halthen knne, BD 2, no. 35,
NBR, no. 25.
7 Wolff (1997), p. 9.
8 BD 2, no. 19, NBR, no. 22a.
9 Wolff (1997), p. 11.
10 Wolff (1997), p. 9.
11 For the Leipzig Jahrgnge (Annual Cycles) of Cantatas, see: Wolff (2001), pp. 270273
46 chapter 3

In 1700, the term Cantata was new and unkown to many, the librettist
Erdmann Neumeister made clear in his volume Geistliche Cantaten (Sacred
Cantatas).12 In the preface to his own collection of librettos he explains that
Cantata is an Italian word/ that the virtuosos of that nation invented.13
Neumeisters Italian virtuosos included early-seventeenth-century Venitian
composers such as Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Berti, Carlo Milanuzzi and
Bartolomeo Barbarino.14 Their shortened operas cantade et arie inspired Ger-
man poets and composers to adapt this quasi-operaic form for the nascent
church Cantata, Neumeister explains: If I had to express [its history] concisely/
then a Cantata looks no different/ than a small section of an opera, composed
of recitatives [stylo recitativo] and arias.15 Its purpose was to

(Table 8.7: First Jahrgang, 17231724), pp. 275278 (Table 8.8: Second Jahrgang, 17241725),
pp. 281283 (Table 8.10: Third Jahrgang, 17251727), although Bach did continue to draw
on older musical models for his 12 Leipzig Chorale Cantatas (Table 8.9), p. 280.
12 Erdmann Neumeister, Geistliche Cantaten, Uber [sic] alle Sonn- Fest- und Apostel-Tage/
Zu befrderung Gott geheiligter Hau- Und Kirchen-Andacht In ungezwungenen Teutschen
Versen (Halle in Magdeburg: Rengerischer Buchladen, 1705), p. )( 2r: Neu und unbekant.
For Neumeister, see: Ute Poetsch-Seban, Die Kirchenmusik von Georg Philipp Telemann
und Erdmann Neumeister. Zur Geschichte der protestantischen Kirchenkantate in der ersten
Hlfte des 18. Jahrhunderts (Beeskow: Ortus Musikverlag, 2006).
13 Neumeister (1705), p. )( 2r: Cantata, ist ein Italianisch Wort/ welches die Virtuosen dieser
Nation ersonnen.
14 For Alessandro Grandi (15861630), Monteverdis assistant at St Marks Venice, see: Denis
Arnold, Alessandro Grandi, A Disciple of Monteverdi, The Musical Quarterly 43.2 (1957),
pp. 171186. For Giovanni Berti (c. 15901638) and Bartolomeo Barbarino, Il Pesarino
(c. 1568c. 1617), see: Roark Miller, New Information on the Chronology of Venetian Mon-
ody: The Raccolte of Remigio Romano, Music and Letters 77.1 (1996), pp. 2233. For
Carlo Milanuzzi (c. 1590c. 1647), see: Claudio DallAlbero, ed., Carlo Milanuzzi da Santa
Natoglia: Sacred music (Milano: Rugginenti, 2008).
15 Neumeister (1705), p. )( 2v-)( 3r: Solls ichs krtzlich aussprechen/ so siehet eine Cantata
nicht anders aus/ als ein Stck aus einer Opera, von Stylo Recitativo und Arien zusammen
gesetzt. For the development of the Italian Cantade, see: Reinmar Emans, A Tale of Two
Cities: Cantata Publication in Bologna and Venice, c. 16501700, in: Michael Talbot, ed.
et al., Aspects of the Secular Cantata in Late Baroque Italy (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009),
pp. 79110, p. 80: Compositions in strophic variation form that we today would not
recognise as Cantatas, since they do not exhibit the expected alternation of recitative
and aria, which nevertheless laid the groundwork for the consolidation of the Cantatas
form; see also: Gary Tomlinson, ed. et al., Italian Secular Solo Song 160735 (New York and
London: Yale, 1986), p. ix.
proclaiming scripture through music 47

Cast its poetry in the same form as with a madrigal/ sonnet/ rondeau
etc. And since this art lends itself better to concerted music (Music)
than others, it needs to be called a Cantata or a song above all songs.16

Writing some forty years later, in his 1739 Complete Capellmeister the Ham-
burg composer and music theorist Johann Mattheson also reflected on the
evolutionary process of the Cantata. With the benefit of hindsight, Mattheson
describes the hybrid origins of the church Cantatas as follows:17

Within the principal classification of musical genres it does not occupy its
own, let alone a particularly noble or orderly musical category; rather
it is a creation gleaned from many dififferent styles. The characteristics
of the cantata [that is: recitatives and arias] that it contains belongs to
the madrigal style; the polyphonic choruses and fugues to the motet style;
the accompaniment and ritornellos to the instrumental style and, finally,
the chorales to the melismatic style. Faced with such procedures we have
hardly anything systematic to go by.18

Mattheson is right in suggesting that there were a number of different textual

and musical models that led to the contemporary cantata form that Bach
perfected in the first three Leipzig Jahrgnge. These include the dictum motet,
from which the polyphonic choruses of Bachs later Cantatas developed; the
chorale concerto, from which the Scriptural recitatives and arias of Bachs later
Cantatas are derived; and the Neumeister or reform model of libretto, which
provides a model for later free poetry arias. As part of his Leipzig Jahrgnge,
Bach only performed one of these early Cantatas [BWV 4]; he very likely came
to regard these early works as outmoded.19

16 Neumeister (1705), p. )( 2rv: Ihre Poesie in dergleichen Forme zugiessen/ als bey einem
Madrial [sic]/ Sonnet/ Rondeau &c. Und weil diese Art sich zu der Music vor andern
am schnsten bequemet/ mu sie daher eine Cantata heissen/ ein Gesang ber alle
Gesnge.
17 Mattheson (1739), p. 215, 2930.
18 Mattheson (1739), p. 215, 30: Sie macht in einer Haupt-Eintheilung der Schreib-Arten
keine eigene, geschweige besonders-vornehme und ordentliche Gattung sondern ein
aus vielerley Schreib-Arten zusammen gestoppeltes Wesen. Das Cantatenmige, so darin
vorkmmt, gehrt zum Madrigal-Styl; Die vielstimmigen Chre und Fugen zum Motteten-
Styl; die Begleitungen und Zwischen-Spiele zum Instrumenten-Styl; und endlich die Cho-
rle zum melismatischen. Bey solchen Verfahren werden wir wenig systematisches auf-
weisen knnen.
19 Jones (2006), p. 98.
48 chapter 3

By the time he took up his new post in Mhlhausen in 1707, Bach had
discovered what Neumeister suggested some eight years earlier: that a Cantata
is a most tidy and accomplished forms of musical poem/ both for the poet/
as well as for the composer.20 Bachs ready adoption of the new genre shows
that he found the reform Cantata to be highly versatile, just as Neumeister had
suggested in his seminal Sacred Cantatas:

For in an ode a poet has to constrain his ideas and bind them/ and/ so to
say/ let them be fixed on a frame. In a Cantata on the other hand, he is
not bound by anything/ but arranges the verses one after the other/ just
as they want to flow and fall.21

In Mhlhausen, Bach increasingly made use of the free poetry style of the
reform Cantata as a textual base. Cantata BWV 71 Gott ist mein Knig (God
is my King), written for the Mhlhausen council inaugurations in February
1708, makes use of a combination of Scriptural passages and free poetry for its
libretto, while the Actus Tragicus, Cantata BWV 106 Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste
Zeit (Gods time is the best of all), written at about the same time, adds the
concluding chorale so well known from Bachs later Cantatas.22 By the time
Bach resigned from his post mid-year 1708, he reflected that although he had
striven to provide and perform a well-regulated church music, to the glory of
God, despite his best efforts in acquiring [for myself] from far and wide, not
without cost, a good store of the choicest church compositions it has not
been possible to accomplish this without hindrance.23 What Bach did accom-
plish at Mhlhausen, though, was to harness the potential of the transitional
model of the Cantata, a combination of Scripture and free poetry, though as

20 Neumeister (1700), p. )( 4v: Da eine Cantata eine der nett- und geschicktesten Arth
Musicalischer Gedichte ist/ so wohl vor den Poeten/ als auch vor den Componisten.
21 Neumeister (1700), p. )( 4vp. )( 5r: Denn in einer Ode mu der Poet seine Einflle zwingen
und binden/ und/ so sprechen/ ber einerley Leisten spannen lassen. In einer Cantata
dargegen ist er an nichts gebunden/ sondern setzet die Verse nach einander hin/ wie sie
fliessen und fallen wollen.
22 Bachs Cantata BWV 71 Gott ist mein Knig (God is my King) was published as a congratu-
latory church motet (glckwnschende Kirchen Motetto) in Mhlhausen the same year,
Glckwnschende Kirchen Motetto/ als bey solennen Gottesdienste/ der gesegnete Raths-
Wechsel/ am 4. Februarii dieses M.D.C.C.VIII Jahres geschah/ schuldigst erstattet/ durch
Johann Sebastian Bachen/ Organ. Div. Blasii (Mhlhausen: Tobias David Brckner, 1708).
23 BD 1, no. 1, NBR, no. 32: Eine regulirte kirchen music zu Gottes Ehren; weit u[nd]. breit,
nicht sonder kosten, einen guthen apparat der auserleenensten kirchen Stcken mir
angeschaffet so hat sichs doch ohne wiedrigkeit nicht fgen wollen.
proclaiming scripture through music 49

yet without recitatives, which would stand him in excellent stead in his collab-
orations with his new librettist, the Chief Secretary of the Weimar consistory
Salomo Franck.24

2 The Modern Cantata

Between leaving Mhlhausen in 1708 and the time Bach was appointed Court
Concertmaster at the Court of Saxe-Weimar in 1714, he began to compose the
first Cantatas according to the Neumeister model; a remarkable transforma-
tion, as Jones rightly suggests.25 It is uncertain what motivated that transfor-
mation: the composer either absorbed the good store of the choicest church
compositions he had acquired in Mhlhausen, or was increasingly exposed to
Italian compositions at the Weimar court.26 In either case, by the time of perfor-
mance of his secular Cantata BWV 208 Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd
(The merry hunt alone is what pleases me) on 23 February 1714, Bach had added
Italianate operatic recitatives to his Cantatas, thus completing the highly ver-
satile musical pattern of recitative, aria or arioso and chorale that gave shape
to most of his later Cantatas and Passions.27

24 Salomo Franck, Evangelische/ Sonn- und Fest-/ Tages-Andachten/ Auf/ Hochfrstl. Gndig-
ste Verordnung/ Zur/ Frstl. Schsis. Weimarischen/ Hof-Capell-Music/ in geistlichen Arien/
erwecket/ Von/ Salomon Francken (Weimar and Jena: Johann Felix Bielken, 1717). Francks
librettos still lack Neumeisters operatic recitative. For other operatic elements in Bachs
Mhlhausen Cantatas, see: Wollny (1997), p. 29.
25 Jones (2006), p. 243. For Bachs appointment as Concertmaster, a newly created office with
official rank below that of Vice-Capellmeister [Johann Wilhelm] Drese (16771745) see:
BD 2, no. 66, NBR, no. 51. For Johann Wilhelm Drese and his father, Capellmeister Johann
Samuel Drese (c. 16441716), see: Erich Reimer, Die Technik des Vokaleinbaus in den Arien
der Weimarer Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs (171416), Archiv fr Musikwissenschaft
61.3 (2004), pp. 163189.
26 BD 1, no. 1, NBR, no. 32: Guthen apparat der auserleenensten kirchen Stcken. Bach
certainly made this musical library available to others, his keyboard student Philip David
Kruter, suggests, BD 2, no. 58, NBR, no. 312: The rest of the time [not used for studies
with Bach] I use by myself for practice and copying work, since he shares with me all the
music I ask for (Die brige Zeit wende ich vor mich allein zum Exerciren und decopiren
an, dann derselbe mir alle Musik Stck, die ich verlange, communiciert, habe auch die
Freyheit, alle seine Stcke durchzusehen.).
27 Jones (2006), p. 245. Today, the work known widely for its ninth movement, Schafe knnen
sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze), an allegorical reference to the sage rule of Duke
Christian. The work was most likely commissioned by Bachs employer, Duke Ernst of
50 chapter 3

From February 1713 onwards three distinctive textual and musical elements
made up Bachs Cantatas, putting in place a model that would serve for most
of his later Cantatas (and, since they were in effect extended Cantatas, his
Christmas, Easter and Ascension Oratorios as well as his Passions):28

Recitatives, either sung Scriptural texts based on the Luther translation of

the Bible or poetic texts based on Scripture.29
Arias or ariosos, virtuosic settings of contemporary poetry that comment on
the Biblical narrative, based on commissioned poems by librettists includ-
ing, in his Weimar period, Erdmann Neumeister (16711756) and Salomo
Franck (16591725) and, in his Leipzig period, the poet Picander, nom de
posie of Christian Friedrich Henrici (17001764).30
Choruses based on poetry or Scripture, or chorales, carefully selected indi-
vidual verses from popular hymns, that linked the other texts with the hear-
ers day-to-day spiritual practice.31

Using these musical building blocks, Bach succeeded in setting to music what
contemporary librettists of the new Cantata genre such as Erdmann Neumeis-
ter set out to do in their poetry:

Saxe-Weimar. For an extensive analysis of the work see, Jones (2006), pp. 245246. For
the Hofkapellen of the Saxon courts, see: Wolfgang Ruf, The Courts of Saxony-Weienfels,
Saxony-Merseburg, and Saxony-Zei, in: Samantha Owens, ed., Music at German Courts,
171560: Changing Artistic Priorities (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2011), pp. 223255, p. 226.
28 For evidence of Bachs performance of a Weimar Passion in the form of a printers bill
by Gotha printer Christoph Reyher for 20 bound booklets for the Passion to be per-
formed that year, see NBR, nos. 6465. Reyher, incidentally, not only published the
lostlibretto of Bachs first Passion, but also published Andreas Reyhers school curricula
for the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha which had ordered much of Bachs primary and secondary
schooling in Eisenach and Ohrdruf (see above, Chapter 1).
29 Luther, Deutsche Bibel 1545 [DB]: Prior to the purchase of his Calov Bible in 1736, Leaver
(1983), 50, Bach probably used an early eighteenth century edition of Luthers Bible such as
the popular Biblia Germanica (Nrnberg: Endter, 1702), or its subsequent reprints in 1706,
1708 and 1710. For Bachs recitatives, see: Drr (2005), pp. 1718.
30 For Bachs ariosos and arias, see: Drr (2005), pp. 1819.
31 For Bachs choruses, see: Drr (2005), pp. 1920. The hymns Bach used for his Catatas,
certainly during the Leipzig period, were sourced from a variety of Lutheran hymnals,
such as Gottfried Vopelius, Neues Leipziger Gesangbuch (Leipzig: Christoph Klinger, 1682),
which ran through two further word-only editions in 1693 and 1707, and the Geistreicher
Lieder-Schatz, oder Leipziger Gesang-Buch (Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Braun, 1715), with
subsequent editions in 1717, 1724 and 1732.
proclaiming scripture through music 51

I endeavoured to join the most noble parts of/ what had been expounded
in the sermon/ into words for my own personal devotion/ From which
text I either created odes, or poetic oratorios, and from both created the
present Cantatas.32

From the outset, then, the combination of a Cantatas libretto and music was
designed to be able to convey as distinct a message as a contemporary Lutheran
expository sermon: not merely pleasing rhetoric but a compelling rhetoric that
invited the listener to contemplation of and conversion to Gods word.33 In a
Cantata for Exaudi Sunday, Bachs Weimar librettist Salomo Franck expressed
this homiletic purpose in the form of an aria:

Preachers/ be the mouth of God!/

Proclaim/ as it behoves/
Gods Word/ that moves souls/
that pierces the heart of stone/
and heals souls that have been brought low/
when you share it as befits it/
Preachers/ be the mouth of God!34

Similarly, in the preface to his Musicalische Vorstellung einiger Biblischer Hi-

storien in 6. Sonaten (Musical Presentation of some Biblical Histories in Six
Sonatas), Bachs predecessor as Thomaskantor, Johann Kuhnau, reiterated the
same point.35 The purpose of his solo keyboard reflections on the Bible was to

32 Neumeister (1700), p. )( 6r: Versuchte ich das vornehmste dessen/ was in der Predigt
abgehandelt worden/ zu meiner Privat-Andacht in eine gebundene Rede zusetzen/
Woraus denn bald Oden, bald Poetische Oratiorien, und mit ihnen auch gegenwrtige
Cantaten, gerathen seynd.
33 Jonathan Strom, Pietism and Revival, in: Joris van Eijnatten, ed. et al., Preaching, Sermon
and Cultural Change in the Long Eighteenth Century, A New History of the Sermon 4 (Lei-
den: Brill, 2009), pp. 173218, p. 188, rightly notes that the purpose of eighteenth-century
Lutheran preaching was to emphasise conversion and the personal appropriation by [the]
audience.
34 Salomo Franck, Epistolisches/ Andachts-/ Opffer/ In Geistlichen Cantaten/ Uber/ Die Sonn-
und Fest-Tages/ Epistlen durch das gantze Jahr/ angezndet/ Von/ Salomon Francken (Wei-
mar and Jena: Johann Felix Bielcke, 1718), p. 67: Aria: Prediger/ seyd GOttes Mund!/ Traget
vor/ wie sichs gebhret/ GOttes Wort/ das Seelen rhret/ Das ein Felsen-Hertz verwundt/
Und zerknirschte Seelen heilet/ Wenn ihr es gebhrend theilet/ Prediger seyd Gottes
Mund!
35 Johann Kuhnau, Musicalische Vorstellung/ Einiger/ Biblischer Historien/ in 6. Sonaten/
52 chapter 3

convey as clear a message as the exegetical introduction he provided with each

of his six sonatas, that is to convey a distinctive theological meaning through
music:

Both the delight in true piety and holy writ/ as well as the delight in the
same science/ that/ according to Luthers opinion/ was worthy in rank
next to theology/ that is music/ [both of which] fall like bright sun beams
into everyones eye.36

As a matter of course, secular Baroque poetry induces the spectator to shift

his position continuously in order to see the work in constantly new aspects,
as if it were in a state of perpetual transformation, Umberto Eco explains.37
The same emphasis on forcing the audience to shift their standpoint held true
for Neumeisters, Francks or Picanders contributions to Bachs libretti. The
dynamic building of words characteristic of a secular poem that encouraged
the audience to shift position in order to behold the whole artifice was per-
fected by the even more deliberately planned architecture of a sacred cantata,
Neumeister made clear:

In this genre I much prefer to keep Biblical and theological sayings. For
I believe/ that with sacred poetry ornate verbosity rooted in human skill
and thinking hinders both Spirit and grace/ just as much as wordiness
might promote both in political verses.38

versuchet/ von Johann Kuhnauen (Leipzig: Immanuel Tietz, 1700) [reprint Denkmler
deutscher Tonkunst, 1. Folge (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1901)].
36 Kuhnau (1700), p. 119: Der Vergngung an der wahren Piett und heiligen Schrifft/ wie
nicht weniger an derjenigen Wissenschaft/ welcher/ nach Lutheri Meinung/ der Rang
gleich nach der Theologie gebhret/ nemlich an der Music/ wie helle Sonnen-Strahlen
iederman in die Augen fallen. For Luthers dictum, WA Tr 6: 348, 2224, no. 7034: I give
music the closest place and highest honour after theology (Ich gebe nach der Theologie
der Musica den nhesten Locum und hchste Ehre), see: Loewe (2013), p. 596.
37 Umberto Eco, The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (Bloomington,
Indiana University Press, 1979), p. 52.
38 Neumeister (1700), p. )( 6v: Bey dem Stylo habe ich am liebsten Biblische und Theologi-
sche Redens-Arthen behalten wollen. Denn mich dnckt/ da bey Geistlichen Gedichten
ein prchtiger Wrterschmuck von menschlicher Kunst und Weisheit den Geist und
die Anmuth so sehr verhindert/ als er vielleicht beydes in Politischen Versen befrdern
mchte.
 proclaiming scripture through music 53

table 1 Libretti published in Salomo Francks Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer,

Geist und Weltlicher Poesien Zweyter Teil and Evangelische Sonn- und
Festtages-Andachten39

Sacred cantatas Occasion

BWV 12 Alles nur nach Gottes Willen Epiphany III 1726

BWV 31 Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret Easter Day 1715
BWV 70 Wachet, betet, betet, wachet Trinity XXVI 1717
BWV 80 Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott Reformation Day, after 1727
BWV 80a Alles was von Gott geboren Oculi Sunday (Lent III) 1716 or 1715
BWV 132 Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn Advent IV 1715
BWV 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben Advent IV 1716
BWV 152 Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn Christmas I 1714
BWV 155 Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange Epiphany II 1716
BWV 161 Komm, du se Todesstunde Candlemas 1716
BWV 162 Ach, ich sehe, itzt da ich zur Hochzeit gehe Trinity XX 1715
BWV 163 Nur jedem das Seine Trinity XXIII 1715
BWV 165 O heiliges Geist- und Wasserbad Trinity Sunday 1715
BWV 168 Tue Rechnung, Donnerwort Trinity IX 1715
BWV 172 Erschallet, ihr Lieder Pentecost 1714
BWV 182 Himmelsknig, sei willkommen Palm Sunday 1715
BWV 186 rgre dich, o Seele, nicht Trinity VII 1717

Birthday cantata Occasion

BWV 208 Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd Birthday Prince of Weienfels 1716

The Cantatas libretto not only refined the architecture of Baroque poetry with
its capacity to invite the hearer to contemplate a poem as a potential mystery
to be solved, a role to fulfil, a stimulus to quicken his imagination.40 It also
had a very specific role in communicating a rightful application, Neumeister

39 Salomo Franck, Salomo Franckens,/ Frstl. Sch. gesamten Ober-Consistorial-/ Secretarii

in Weimar/ Geist- und Weltliche Poesien, 1 and 2 (Jena: Johann Felix Bielcke, 1711), Evangeli-
sche/ Sonn- und Fest-Tages-/ Andachten/ Auf/ Hochfrstl. Gndigste Verordnung/ Zur/
Frstl. Schsis. Weimarischen/ Hof-Capell-Music/ In Geistlichen Arien/ erwecket/ von/ Salo-
mon Francken (Weimar and Jena: Johann Felix Bielcke, 1717), 3.
40 Eco (1979), p. 52.
54 chapter 3

affirmed.41 In the case of the modern Cantata that application was the contem-
plation of Gods Word; with a clear expectation that hearers would shift their
original position and so be converted.
Even though Bachs time in Weimar saw the development of the Cantata,
his most poular vocal genre, and the first performance of a Bach Passion, it also
marked the absolute low-point in Bachs professional life.42 On 1 August 1717
he accepted a new contract at the Court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Kthen,
himself a lover of music and a competent viola da gamba player. The accep-
tance of this appointment, without first having sought permission from the
ruling prince of Saxe-Weimar, Duke Wilhelm Ernst, led to Bachs detention
under arrest for six weeks.43 According to the Weimar court records, the erst-
while concertmaster and organist Bach too stubbornly forced the issue of his
dismissal and finally on 2 December [1717] was freed from arrest with the notice
of his unfavourable discharge.44 Having been released into the service of the
Calvinist Duke of Anhalt-Kthen, on 29 December 1717 Bach took up his new
post as Capellmeister of the Ducal Capelle, where he was received with honour,
and received his lost income in arrears.45

3 From Kthen to Leipzig: from Capellmeister to Lutheran Cantor

Bachs time in Kthen yielded a rich crop of instrumental music, including

some of his most popular instrumental works: the Concertos for solo and
double violin BWV 10411043, his French Suites BWV 812817 as well as the
Well-tempered Clavier BWV 846893; all were composed here. Because Prince
Leopolds court was Calvinist, however, there was almost no opportunity to
write church music.46 Indeed, only four Cantata performances are recorded

41 Neumeister (1700), p. )( 7v: Applicatione justa.

42 Wolff (2001), p. 184.
43 Gnther Hoppe, Kthener politische, konomische und hfische Verhltnisse als Schaf-
fensbedingungen Bachs (Teil 1), Cthener Bach-Hefte 4 (1986), pp. 1362, especially p. 52,
noting that Leopolds father Prince Emanuel Leberecht also played the viola da gamba.
44 BD 2, no. 84, NBR, no. 68: Der quondam Concert-Meister und Hof-Organist Bach wegen
seiner Halsstarrigen Bezeugung und zu erzwingenden Dismission auf der Land Richter-
Stube arretieret und entlich den 2. Dezember darauf mit angezeigter Ungnade ihm die
Dismission durch den Hofsekretr angedeutet und zugleich des arrests befreiet worden.
45 BD 2, no. 86, NBR, no. 70a; for Bachs tenure in Kthen, see: Friedrich Smend, Bach in
Kthen (Berlin: Christlicher Zeitschriftenverlag, 1951).
46 In Kthen Luthers reforms were adopted in 1525, during the reign of Georg III of Anhalt-
proclaiming scripture through music 55

during Bachs time in Kthen. All of them had secular librettos and were written
either to celebrate the birthday of his patron on 10 December or to mark the
beginning of a new year.47
Bach remained in Kthen for six years. In 1730 Bach reflected on his rea-
sons for leaving his congenial working environment in a letter to his former
classmate at St Michaels Lneburg, Georg Erdmann, then the Imperial-Russian
Residence Agent in Danzig:

You know the course of my life from my youth up until the change in my
fortunes that took me to Kthen as Capellmeister. There I had a gracious
Prince, who both loved and knew music, and in his service I intended to
spend the rest of my life. It must happen, however, that his said Serene
Highness should marry a princess of Berenburg [sic: Anhalt-Bernburg],
and that then the impression should arise that the musical interests of
the said Prince had become somewhat lukewarm, especially as the new
Princess seemed to be unmusical.48

From about the time of Leopolds courtship of Princess Friderica Henrietta, and
certainly after their wedding on 11 December 1721, Bach sought to attract new

Dessau. In 1606 the Duchy of Anhalt adopted a reformed confession, thereby allying it
with Calvinist Palatinate, see: Andrew Thomas, A House Divided: Wittelsbach Confessional
Court Cultures in the Holy Roman Empire, c. 15501650, Brill Studies in Medieval and Refor-
mation Traditions 150 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), p. 132.
47 Of these, only two birthday Cantatas, and one New Years Cantata survive: Cantata BWV
66a Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glck (The Heavens thought of Anhalts
Fame and Fortune) was written for Prince Leopolds 1718 birthday, Cantata BWV 134a
Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht (The Time that creates Day and Years) for New Years
Day 1719, while Cantata BWV 173a Durchlauchtester Leopold (Most Serene Leopold) was
performed on the Dukes 1722 birthday, only four months before the composers departure
to Leipzig.
48 BD 1, no. 23, NBR, no. 152: Von Jugend auf sind Ihnen meine Fata bestens bewust, bi auf
die mutation, so mich als Capellmeister nach Cthen zohe. Daselbst hatte einen gndigen
und Music so wohl liebenden als kennenden Frsten; bey welchem auch vermeinete
meine Lebenszeit zu beschlieen. Es muste sich aber fgen, da erwehnter Sereniimus
sich mit einer Berenburgischen Princein vermhlete, da es denn das Ansehen gewinnen
wolte, als ob die musicalische Inclination bey besagtem Frsten in etwas laulicht werden
wolte, zumahl da die nee Frstin schiene eine amusa zu seyn. Not only the marriage of
the Prince of Kthen, also the rulers shift in interest from music to the military took its
toll on the musical life there.
56 chapter 3

patronshence probably also the dedication of the Brandenburg Concertos

BWV 10461051 to a neighbouring ruler, Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of
Brandenburg-Schwedt.49
When the Cantor of St Thomas Leipzig, Johann Kuhnau, died on 5 June 1722,
Bach was invited by the city council to apply for the post. At his audition at St
Thomas on 7 February 1723 he performed Cantata BWV 22 Jesus nahm zu sich
die Zwlfe (Jesus took with him the Twelve). Based on the set texts for Estomihi
Sunday he exegeted as a chorister at Ohrdruf or Lneburg, this Cantata was
one of the last vocal works he composed at Kthen.50 Bach was not the city
councils preferred candidate for the position of Thomaskantor. The Hamburg
Capellmeister Georg Philip Telemann was the councils front runner.51 When
the council offered him the post, Telemanns employer raised his pay by the
incredible sum of 400 Thaler, leading him to decline the appointment.52 The
councils second preference, Johann Christoph Graupner, was not released
from service at the Darmstadt court to return to his native Saxony.53 Bach was
the third runner up. Counsellor Dr Platz argued at the cantoral election on
22 April that it was to be hoped that the third [candidate] would be the right
one. He must accommodate himself to the instruction of the youth. Bach was

49 A collection of probably earlier compositions dedicated to the Margrave during Prince

Leopolds courtship with Princess Friderica Henrietta on 21 March 1721, Malcolm Boyd,
Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 16, suggests. Boyd
also provides a thorough genesis of the work, pp. 1117.
50 Bach would have studied Andreas Reyhers model exegesis of the Estomihi periocopes
contained in Reyher (1697), pp. 4750, 1117.
51 BD 2, no. 129, NBR 98: Dr Lange related, in joint assembly of all three Councils, that
it was known that for the position of Cantor at St Thomas Mr Telemann had been
thought of (D. Lange truge, in Versammlung aller drey Rthe, vor, es ware bekannt, da
man wegen der Cantor-Stelle zu S. Thomas seine Gedancken auf H. Telemann gerichtet
gehabt).
52 BD 2, no. 129, NBR 98: [Telemann] had promised to do everything, but had not kept
his promise (Er htte auch versprochen, alles zu thun, jedoch aber sein Versprechen
nicht gehalten). For the politics of Bachs appointment, see: Ulrich Siegele, Bach and the
domestic politics of Electoral Saxony, in: John Butt, ed. et al., The Cambridge Companion
to Bach (Cambridge: University Press, 1997), pp. 1734, pp. 2225.
53 BD 2, no. 129, NBR 98: Thereupon attention had been turned, though only privately,
to Mr Graupner, Capellmeister at Darmstadt who, however, had reported that he could
not obtain his dismissal (Man htte hernach auf Hn. Graupnern, Capellmeistern zu
Darmstadt, sein Absehen, jedoch privatim gerichtet gehabt, welcher aber berichtet, da
man ihn nicht laen wolte).
proclaiming scripture through music 57

figure 2 Exterior and Interior of St Thomas Church Leipzig:

Frontispiece of the 1710 Leipziger Kirchen-Staat
58 chapter 3

fitted for this and willing to do it.54 Platz proposed Bach and cast his vote for
him.55 The remaining counsellors followed his example and that day elected
Bach Thomaskantor. Recalled to Leipzig, he was confirmed in his new office
on 22 April 1723, and promptly cited before the citys consistory for a series of
theological examinations.
In two three-hour examinations on 8 May 1723, Bachs confessional sound-
ness was scrutinised by the Leipzig superintendent and pastor of St Thomas
Church Dr Solomon Deyling, who was assisted in his task by the Dean of
Leipzigs Theological Faculty, Dr Johann Schmidt.56 Martin Geck is very likely
right in suggesting that such an examination was normal Saxon practice in the
appointment of church cantors.57 Bachs sense of call and purpose for his craft,
combined with his thorough theological education at Eisenach, Ohrdruf and
Lneburg would have stood him in excellent stead for Deylings and Schmidts
examination, and it is clear that his Christian faith or Bible knowledge in
general were not in question. Rather, his six-hour colloquium was a test of
the applicants Lutheran credentials: together with the consistorys letter of
appointment, Bach was instructed to subscribe to the Lutheran Formula of Con-
cord to attest to his Lutheran orthodoxy.58 The consistorys insistence that the

54 BD 2, no. 129, NBR 98: Es wre zu wnschen, da man es mit dem dritten trffe. Zur
Information der Jugend me er sich accommodiren. Bach wre geschickt darzu, und wolte
es thun.
55 BD 2, no. 129, NBR 98: Gab ihm also sein Votum.
56 For Bachs musical examination, see BD 2, no. 142, NBR, no. 93b: Mr Sebastian Bach,
then Capellmeister at Cthen, passed his test for the post of the Cantorate; the Hamburg
Relationscourier, 2 February 1723, in: NBR, no. 95, reported: On Sunday last in the morning
the Honourable Capellmeister of Cthen, Mr. Bach, gave his test here at the Church of
St Thomas for the hitherto vacant cantorate, the music of the same having been amply
praised on that occasion by all knowledgeable persons. BD 2, no. 134, NBR, no. 101: Dn. Jo.
Sebastianus Bach ad quaestiones a me propositas ita respondit, ut eundem ad officium
Cantoratus in Schola Thomana admitti posse censeam. D. Jo. Schmidius, consentit Dr.
Salomon Deyling.
57 Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work (Boston: Harcourt, 2007), p. 132,
documents how in 1722 Conrad Kffner, a candidate for the position of cantor at St
Katharinen in Zwickau, failed to pass a similar consistorial examination.
58 BD 2, nos. 135136; BD 2, no. 63, NBR, no. 48: in a letter by the consistory of St Marys
Halle in December 1713, Bach was offered the post of organist on condition that he
above all cling faithfully all his life long to the unchanged Augsburg Confession, the
Formula of Concord, and other symbolic confessions of faith, keep diligently to the altar
of this Church and be obedient to the word of God (Zufrderst bey der ungenderten
proclaiming scripture through music 59

new cantor was to be instructed (eingewiesen) into his office, coupled with
an admonition to the Cantor to the faithful observance of his office issued by
the pastor of St Thomas, Christian Weise Senior, further suggests that the con-
sistory had deliberately probed Bachs Lutheran credentials. Bachs consistorial
instruction certainly was noted as an innovation (etwas neuerliches) by Leipzig
counsellors:59

Lord Mayor Lehmann at once pointed out that this instruction (Ein-
weisung) by the consistory, or one appointed by it for the pupose, had not
taken place before, and was an innovation.60

Bachs theological examination shows that the composer not only had theolog-
ical learning but that, in the context of his new appointment, this theological
education and understanding had been formally assessed and was found to
be Lutheran and orthodox.61 In Bachs new position that was a necessity. In
taking up the appointment as Thomaskantor, he undertook daily to instruct
students conscientiously at St Thomas Choir School: not only in vocal but
also in instrumental music as well as in the vivid knowledge of divine essence
and will and the knowledge and fear of God, while in his capacity as a church
musician he was to demonstrate to the entire congregation his confession of

Augspurgischen Confession, der Formula Concordiae und andern symbolischen Glaubens

Bekntnen bis an sein Ende bestndig verharre, nebst andchtigem Gehr Gttliches
Wortes sich zu dieser Kirchen Altar fleiig halte).
59 BD 2, no. 145, NBR no, 104: Eine Ermahnung zu treulicher Beobachtung des Amts und
Wunsch.
60 BD 2, no. 145, NBR no, 104: Herr Baumeister [the NBR translation Commissioner is mis-
leading, the title is analogus to the Roman aedile] Lehmann erinnerte sogleich, da
diese Einweisung vor dem Consistorio, oder dem es von demselben aufgetragen, vormals
nicht geschehen und etwas neuerliches sei. For the idiosyncratic use of Baumeister to
signify the leader of council, see: Gustav Wustmann, Der Leipziger Baumeister Hierony-
mus Lotter, Programm des Nikolaigymnasiums (Leipzig: Hunderstud und Pries, 1875),
p. 27.
61 Geck (2007), p. 132, explains that other cantors had been asked to reflect in detail on
Scripture, including technical questions on the length of individual Biblical books, or
locating Scripture passages in their context, such as Where the statement That is life
eternal [John 17.3] can be found, and what characteristics God the Father possesses as
the primary member [probably an ambiguity in the English translation: Geck means the
first person] of the Trinity.
60 chapter 3

faith and Christian character.62 The way in which Bach was able to give voice
to these inner attributes was through the choral music he composed and
performed in St Thomas and St Nikolai. He chose the modern Cantata as the
primary vehicle for communicating his understanding about God as expressed
in Scripture.

4 The Leipzig Cantata: Words and Music that Amplify Scripture

During his time as Thomaskantor Bach made up for the dearth of Cantatas
in his previous employment at Prince Leopolds court of Kthen.63 It was in
Leipzig that he came to perfect the conception and composition of the genre,
producing no fewer than 300 Cantatas, of which approximately two-thirds
survive in their entirety.64 He evidently shared Neumeisters belief that the
sacred Cantata, despite its origin in theatrical verses, was an ideal vehicle to
amplify the preached word.65 In the first five years of his tenure alone, Bach
produced a full annual cycle ( Jahrgang) of 59 Cantatas for performance on the
Sundays of the year, as well as on the Feasts of the Epiphany, Candlemas, the
Annunciation, Easter Monday and Tuesday, Ascension Day, Pentecost Monday
and Tuesday, the Feast of the Visitation (30 May), the Birth of St John the Baptist
(24 June), Michaelmas (29 September), Reformation Day (31 October), New
Years Day and the annual Inauguration of the Town Council (on the Monday
after St Bartholomews Day, 24 August).66 At any given moment, therefore, Bach
was working on one or more Cantatas.
The process of writing a new Cantata began with the compilation of his
libretto. Bach set out by selecting suitable extracts from the set sermon text and

62 BD 1, no. 92, NBR, no. 100: Nicht allein in der Vocal- sondern auch in der Instrumental-
Music fleiig unterweisen. Hans Joachim Schulze, ed., Die Thomasschule Leipzig zur Zeit
Johann Sebastian Bachs: Ordnungen und Gesetze, 1634, 1723, 1733 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1953),
p. 12; BD 2, no. 63, NBR, no. 48, Und dadurch sein Glaubens-Bekntn und Christenthum
der ganzen Gemeinde bezeuge.
63 Wolff (2001), p. 199: The Calvinist liturgy left little, if any room for concerted Church music,
so it required some special occasion for a Cantata to find its way into the service.
64 For a thorough overview of Bachs Cantatas, see: Wolff (2001), pp. 253288.
65 Neumeister (1700), p. )( 7v: Wenn sie gleich ihr Modell von Theatralischen Versen erborget.
66 Wolff (2001), pp. 270273, pp. 275278, pp. 281283, details the first three annual Cantata
cycles ( Jahrgnge), see also: idem, p. 286.
proclaiming scripture through music 61

poetic reflections on the text for his recitatives. These were matched with fur-
ther poetical reflections for his arias and ariosos, and individual verses (some-
times two, more often just one carefully chosen verse) from popular hymns.67
Bachs librettos were purposefully designed to complement the spoken word
of sermon text and sermon. In Leipzig, the composer worked closely with the
clergy of St Thomas and St Nikolai and his librettists in providing a musique
(music or, better, Cantata) that had the capacity to amplify the spoken procla-
mation of the reading of the sermon text and the preaching of the sermon.
Among his librettists were poets, including Picander, Gottsched and Ziegler,
and possibily also members of the local clergy, including Thomaspastor Chris-
tian Weise.68
Bachs principal librettist in Leipzig was the poet and civil servant Christian
Friedrich Henrici who, under his nom de posie Picander, provided libretti for
at least 31 of Bachs Cantatas, as well as the poetic passages of his St Matthew
Passion. By comparison, only ten libretti can with certainty be be attributed
to Ziegler, and only the libretto for the Trauerode Cantata BWV 198 to Gott-
sched.69 In the preface to the libretti for their 1728 cycle of Cantatas, Picander

67 Paul S. Minear, J.S. Bach and J.A. Ernesti: A Case Study in Theological and Exegetical
Conflict, in: John Deschner eds. et al., Our Common History as Christians: Essays in Honor
of Albert C. Outler, Oxford University Press, 1975, pp. 131155, p. 137, suggests that Bach
believed that the biblical text was designed to release within the reader an intense kind of
spiritual activity. The interpreter must therefore help the text produce in his own audience
an emotional action appropriate to the text at hand.
68 For Christian Friedrich Henrici (17001764), see: Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz, Henrici: Chris-
tian Friedrich (Pseudonym: Picander), in: BBKL 2, col. 723, for Johann Christoph Gott-
sched (17001766), see: Manfred Rudersdorf, ed., Johann Christoph Gottsched in seiner
Zeit. Neue Beitrge zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 2007) and
Gabriele Ball, Helga Brandes, Katherine R. Goodman, eds., Diskurse der Aufklrung, Luise
Adelgunde Victorie und Johann Christoph Gottsched, Reihe Wolfenbtteler Forschungen
(Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 2006), for Christiane Mariana von Ziegler (16951760), see:
Christian Geltinger, Ziegler, Christiane Mariane von, geb[orene] Romanus in BBKL 1584
1588 and Mark A. Peters, A Womans Voice in Baroque Music: Mariane von Ziegler and
J.S. Bach (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008). For the hypothesis that a large part of the librettos
in Bachs first Jahrgang of Cantatas was written by Weise Senior, see: Rudolf Wustmann,
Johann Sebastian Bachs Kantatentexte, Verffentlichungen der neuen Bach-Gesellschaft
14.1 (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1913), pp. xxiixxv. For a re-assessment of Wustmanns
theory, see: Drr (2005), pp. 2728.
69 Cantata BWV 198, La, Frstin, la noch einen Strahl (Let, Princess, let one further ray),
was written by Gottsched to mark the death of Christiane Eberhardine Queen of Saxony
and Poland in October 1727.
 62 chapter 3

reflected on his extensive collaboration with Bach with characteristic under-

statement:70

To the glory of God, actuated by the requests of many good friends, and
by much devotion on my own part, I resolved to compose the present
Cantatas. I undertook the design more readily, because I flatter myself that
the lack of poetic charm may be compensated for by the loveliness of the
music of our incomparable Capellmeister Bach, and that these songs may
be sung in the principal churches of our pious Leipzig.71

table 2 Libretti published in Zieglers Versuch in gebundener Schreib-Art (1728)72

Sacred cantatas Occasion Pages

BWV 68 Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt Whit Monday 1725 262264
BWV 74 Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Whit Sunday 1725 259261
Wort halten
BWV 87 Bisher habt ihr nichts gebetet in Rogation Sunday 1725 253
meinem Namen
BWV 103 Ihr werdet weinen und heulen Jubilate Sunday 1725 244245
BWV 108 Es ist gut, da ich hingehe Cantate Sunday 1725 249250
BWV 128 Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein Ascension Day 1725 255256
BWV 175 Er rufet seine Schafe mit Namen Whit Tuesday 1725 266270
BWV 176 Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding Trinity Sunday 1725 271272
BWV 183 Sie werden euch in den Bann tun Exaudi Sunday 1725 257258

70 Christian Friedrich Henrici, Cantaten auf die Sonn-/ und/ Fest-Tage/ durch das gantze Jahr,/
verfertiget/ durch/ Picandern (Leipzig: Immanuel Tietz, 1728), including Cantatas such as
BWV 19 Es erhub sich ein Streit written for Michaelmas 1726.
71 BD 2, no. 243: Gott zu Ehren, dem Verlangen guter Freunde zur Folge und vieler Andacht
zur Befrderung habe ich mich entschlossen, gegenwrtige Cantaten zu verfertigen. Ich
habe solches Vorhaben desto lieber unternommen, weil ich mich schmeicheln darf, da
vielleicht der Mangel der poetischen Anmuth durch die Lieblichkeit des unvergleich-
lichen Herrn Capell-Meisters, Bachs, drfte ersetzet, und diese Lieder in den Haupt-
Kirchen des andchtigen Leipzigs angestimmt werden.
72 Christiane Mariana von Ziegler, Versuch in gebundener Schreib-Art (Leipzig: Johann Frie-
drich Brauns Erben, 1728), Christianen Marianen/ von Ziegler,/ gebohrenen Romanus,/ Ver-
mischete/ Schriften/ in gebundener/ und/ ungebundener Rede (Gttingen: Im Verlag der
Kniglich priviligierten Universitets [sic]-Buchhandlung, 1739).
 proclaiming scripture through music 63

table 3 Libretti published in Picanders Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte73

Church cantatas and passions Occasion Pages

BWV 84 Ich bin vergngt in meinem Glcke Septuagesima Sunday 1730 3: 108110
BWV 120a Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille Augsburg Confession 1730 II 3: 7577
BWV 145 Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Easter Tuesday 1730 3: 125126
Ergtzen
BWV 148 Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Trinity XVII
Namens
BWV 149 Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg Michaelmas 1730 3: 175176
in den Htten
BWV 156 Ich steh mit einem Fu im Grabe Epiphany III 1730 3: 100102
BWV 159 Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Estomihi Sunday 1730 3: 111113
Jerusalem
BWV 171 Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch New Years Day 1730 3: 9295
dein Ruhm
BWV 174 Ich liebe den Hchsten von Whit Monday 1730 3: 139140
ganzem Gemte
BWV 188 Ich habe meine Zuversicht Trinity XXI 1730 3: 179181
BWV 190a Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied Augsburg Confession 1730 I 3: 7375
BWV 197a Ehre sei Gott in der Hhe Christmas 1729 5/1: 218219
BWV 247 Geh, Jesu, geh zu deiner Pein Passion Music 1731 3: 4967
BWV 244 Matthus Passion Passion Music 1727 5/1: 471480
BWV 244a Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt Passion Music 5/1: 471480
BWV Anh. 4 Wnschet Jerusalem Glck Augsburg Confession 1730 III 3: 7779
BWV Anh. 190 Ich bin ein Pilgrim auf dem Weg Easter Monday 1730 3: 123124

73 Christian Friedrich Henrici, Picanders/ Ernst-Schertzhaffte/ und/ Satyrische/ Gedichte, Pi-

canders/ Ernst-Schertzhaffte/ und/ Satyrische/ Gedichte,/ mit Kupfern, 1 (Leipzig: Theodor
Boethius, 1732), Picanders/ Ernst-Schertzhaffte/ und/ Satyrische/ Gedichte, 2 (Leipzig:
Johann Theodor Boethius, 1729), Picanders/ Ernst-Schertzhaffte/ und/ Satyrische/ Gedichte,
3 (Leipzig: Johann Theodor Boethius Daughter, 1732), Picanders/ Ernst-Schertzhaffte/ und/
Satyrische/ Gedichte, 4 (Leipzig: Friedrich Matthias Friese, 1737), Picanders/ bis anhero her-
ausgegebene/ Ernst-Schertzhaffte/ und Satyrische Gedichte, 5/1 (Leipzig: Johann Gottfried
Dyck, 1748), Picanders/ neu herausgegebene/ Ernst-Scherzhafte/ und Satyrische/ Gedichte,
5/2 (Leipzig: Johann Gottfried Dyck, 1751).
 64 chapter 3

table 3 Libretti published in Picanders Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte (cont.)

Birthday, name-day and mourning cantatas Occasion Pages

BWV 36a Steigt freudig in die Luft Birthday Charlotte of Anhalt 1: 1417
1726
BWV 157 Ich lasse dicht nicht, du segnest Death J.C. von Ponickau Sr. 5/1: 537538
mich denn 1726
BWV 193a Ihr Huser des Himmels, ihr Name-Day King Saxony 1727 5/1: 1215
scheinenden Lichter
BWV 205 Zerreiet, zersprenget, Name-Day A.F. Mller 1725 5/1: 172176
zertrmmert die Gruft
BWV 216 Vergngte Pleienstadt Wedding Hempel 1728 2: 379382
BWV 249a Entfliehet, verschwindet, Birthday Prince of Weienfels 5/1: 6062
entweichet ihr Sorgen 1725
BWV 249b Verjaget, zerstreuet, zerrttet ihr Birthday J.F. von Flemming 1: 4245
Sterne 1726
BWV Anh. 10 So kmpfet nun, ihr muntern Tne Birthday J.F. von Flemming 4: 4547
1731
BWV Anh. 11 Es lebe der Knig, der Vater im Name-Day King of Saxony 1727 5/1: 3538
Lande
BWV Anh. 12 Frohes Volk, vergngtes Sachsen Name-Day King of Saxony 1733 4: 1417

Council cantatas Occasion Pages

BWV Anh 3 Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Knig Council Election 1730 3: 6769
BWV Anh. 4a Wnschet Jerusalem Glck Council Sermon 5/1: 192193

Other secular cantatas Occasion Pages

BWV 201 Geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde Collegium Musicum opening 3: 501506
1729
BWV 211 Schweiget stille, plaudert nicht Coffeen Cantata 1734 3: 565567
BWV 212 Mer han en neue Oberkeet Cantate en burlesque 1742 5/2: 283287
proclaiming scripture through music 65

figure 3 Picanders Texts for the Passion-Music according to the

Evangelist Matthew set to music by Bach in the St Matthew
Passion, 1727, from the 1748 Ernst-Scherzhafte und Satyrische
Gedichte, p. 471
66 chapter 3

5 Composing, Rehearsing and Performing the Cantata

Once Bach and his collaborators had completed the librettos for each can-
tata and the selection of relevant hymns under the guidance of the Leipzig
consistory, the libretto was sent off to Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf for type-
setting and printing.74 Breitkopfs printed libretto booklet made it possible for
subscribers to follow the Cantata texts for each given month.75 These were
printed at the Cantors expense and then, with the help of students or his
own children, distributed to subscribers and other interested or more affluent
citizens.76 The opportunity to follow the libretti of Bachs Cantatas as well as
hear them performed would have added another layer of communicating the
Scripture message for some members of the congregation for whom the written
word of Scripture would have been expounded through Bible reading, sermon
and Bachs musique which, in itself, was presented both as an aural experience
and in written form.
Once the libretto had been printed, Bach set out composing and rehearsing
his Cantata, assisted by his wife Anna Magdalena and his children Friedemann
and Philipp as copyists.77 He rehearsed vocal parts with members of the St
Thomas School, divided, as he explained in August 1730 in a famous memoran-
dum on the deplorable state of music in Leipzigs churches, into four choirs for
the four churches in which they must partly perform concerted music, partly
sing motets, and partly sing chorales.78 The singers were joined by 1820 instru-
mentalists, Bach explained, among whom were four town pipers and three pro-

74 NBR, no. 111, BD 2, no. 149; NBR, no. 137, BD 2, no. 246, for example gives details of a conflict
of opinion with the diaconus substitutus at St Nikolai, Gottlieb Gaudlitz, about the singing
of hymns in September 1728, Gaudlitz seeking to introduce new, contemporary hymns.
75 NBR, no. 115116, BD 2, no. 179 gives an insight into the process in the run-up to the first
performance of the St John Passion which Bach had hoped to perform at St Thomas, but
the council intended to be performed at St Nikolai: Bach pointed out that the booklet was
printed already, indicating that the performance was at St Thomas Church. The council
decided to print announcements that the performance was to be held at St Nikolai instead.
Five such booklets, containing on average three Cantatas each, are reproduced in facsimile
in: Werner Neumann, ed., Smtliche von Johann Sebastian Bach vertonte Texte (Leipzig:
Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1974), pp. 422447.
76 Wolff (2001), p. 260, explains that the sales funded pay for additional musicians (particu-
larly instrumentalists) and other performance related expenses, see: BD 2, no. 416.
77 Wolff (2001), p. 283. For Bachs collaboration with the Breitkopf family, see: George B. Stauf-
fer, J.S. Bach, the Breitkopfs, and Eighteenth-Century Music Trade, Bach Perspectives 2 (Lin-
coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), pp. 1112.
78 NBR, no. 151, BD 1, no. 22.
proclaiming scripture through music 67

fessional violinists, the town pipers making up the brass and woodwind section
of the orchestra.79 Bach had problems in filling the ranks of the orchestra and
had to resort to supplementing instrumentalists from among his St Thomas
students, some of whom were extremely versatile and managed to double up
as violinists and continuo players as well as singers.80 He complained to the
Town Council:

The deficiency of indispensable players will show even more clearly, par-
ticularly since I must give up all those pupils who play one instrument
or another, and must get along without their help.81

Bach struggled not only with the tight production and rehearsal schedule,
but also with the evident lack of musical resources to help him sustain the
ambitious aim to provide a new Cantata for each Sunday of the Churchs Year.
Geck explains:

Pressure of time, performance material that was on occasion amazingly

defective, and consisting of written parts without any marking of bar
numberssuch circumstances were without doubt the order of the day.82

The fact that Bach sustained five Jahrgnge of Cantatas working under such
pressure and with limited forces is remarkable.83 The fact that in the same
period he also produced, revised and performed two large-scale Passions is
exceptional.

79 NBR, no. 151, BD 1, no. 22: 4 Stadt Pfeifer, 3 Kunst Geiger.

80 Including Georg Gottfried Wagner who, according to Bach, NBR, no. 112, BD 3, no. 56a,
has perfected himself in the practise of various instruments such as clavier, violin, etc.
and Carl Gotthelf Gerlach who was a competent counter-tenor, violinist and continuo
player, see: H.J. Schulze, Studenten als Bachs Helfer bei der Leipziger Kirchenmusik,
Bach-Jahrbuch 70 (1984), pp. 4552, p. 50.
81 NBR, no. 151, BD 1, no. 22.
82 Martin Geck, Bachs art of church music and his Leipzig performance forces: contra-
dictions in the system, Early Music 11 (2003), pp. 558571, see also: Arnold Schering,
Musikgeschichte Leipzigs, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Fr. Kistner und C.F.W. Siegel, 1926), 2, pp. 2533.
83 Robert Marshall, Bach the Progressive: Observations on His Later Works, Musical Quar-
terly 63.3 (1976), pp. 313357, p. 315n, suggests that Bach may well have become disen-
chanted with the lack of institutional support and that Picanders foreword to the 1728
Cantata Jahrgang [above, n. 71] may have been written as a deliberately public appeal to
urge the disaffected composer to relent in what may have been his widely known decision
to withdraw from active participation in the musical life of Leipzigs Churches.
 chapter 4

Bachs St John Passion

Bach employed the same compositional processes he used to write his Cantatas
for his St John and St Matthew Passions, though both were clearly written for
significantly augmented musical forces.1 A key difference between the libretti
for his Passions and those of his Cantatas is that the Passion libretti made use
of a single consecutive source of Scripture for their narrative, rather than a
selection of thematically related Bible texts or poetical paraphrases of Scrip-
ture as was the case with most of his Cantatas.2 However, the musical build-
ing blocksScriptural recitatives and choruses, poetical arias and ariosos and
choraleswere the same elements that make up his Cantatas, though on a
grander scale. The use of the same underlying structural principles as those
employed in writing a Cantata suggest that Bachs St John Passion was devel-
oped from a combination of the Lutheran responsorial Passion tradition and
Bachs own Cantatas, rather than the popular contemporary Passion Oratorio.
The Passion Oratorio, popularised on the cusp of the eighteenth century
in Lutheran Germany by dramatists such as Barthold Heinrich Brockes and
his contemporaries, derived directly from the late-sixteenth-century Lutheran
dramatisation of Scripture. Gospel harmonies such as the influential History of
the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the four Gospels (1526)
by the reformer of Northern Germany and Denmark Johannes Bugenhagen,
furnished the genre with its Latin name: Summa Passionis, gleaned from all
four Passions.3 From the 1530s onwards, the proclamation of Scripture through

1 NBR, no. 115, BD 2, no. 179, documents how in an exchange with the Town Council Bach argued
for a performance of his St John Passion at St Thomas rather than St Nikolai on the grounds
that there was no room available, requesting that additional room be provided in the choir
loft, so that he could place the persons needed for the music.
2 The consecutive Scriptural source, rather than a summa Passionis poetical paraphrase, ap-
pears to have been a requirement by the Leipzig consistory who, together with the Town
Council, had final control of the libretto, see: NBR, no. 208, BD 2, no. 439, documenting the
Councils direction that the performance of a Bach Passion on Good Friday 1739 was to be
omitted until regular permission for the same is received. On that occasion, Bach declined
performing his own work, and instead performed a Telemann Passion, Andreas Glckler,
Johann Sebastian Bachs Auffhrungen zeitgenssischer Passionsmusiken, Bach-Jahrbuch 66
(1977), pp. 75119, p. 118, suggests.
3 Johannes Bugenhagen, Die Historia des leydens vnd der Aufferstehung vnsers Herrn Jhesu

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/9789004272361_006

bachs st john passion 69

the arts had been developed and intentionally fostered in Lutheran principali-
ties, in particular in electoral Saxony and Brunswick.4 Biblically-based dramas,
including some Passion and Resurrection plays, often made use of Biblically-
paraphrased free verse drama coupled with audience interaction to further
reformation doctrine. Key to the new genre was the presentation of the newly-
translated Scriptures in a variety of vernacular forms of communication
declamation, drama and hymnwhich, in combination, ensured the success-
ful promotion of Lutheran doctrine and teaching beyond the heartlands of
Luthers reformation.5 One of the first, and most prolific dramatists of Luthers
Reformation, Joachim Greff, explained this principle in the prologue of his
Tragedy of the Book of Judith in German Rhyme (1536):

[Gods word] is written/ read/ and sung for us/ Its painted on our neigh-
bours doors/ its heard in sermons everywhere/ And often is performed
for us/ That we delight therein may gain.6

The step from a Passion and Resurrection play such as Greffs Sacred New Play
for Easter (1542) or the Lutheran Passion plays of the Meistersinger Guilds in
Free Imperial Cities in the 1550s and 1560s to BrockesDer fr die Snden der Welt
Gemarterte und Sterbende Jesus (Jesus, Suffering and Dying for the Sins of the
World) was a comparatively small one.7 Like Brockes Passion some 150 years

Christi aus den vier Evangelien, durch Johannem Bugenhagen Pomer vleyssig zusammen bracht
(Wittenberg: Hans Wei, 1526). For Bugenhagens Passion Harmony, and its later poetic adap-
tations, see: Andreas Loewe, Proclaiming the Passion: Popular Drama and the Passion Tra-
dition in Luthers Germany, Reformation and Renaissance Review 12.2/3 (2010), pp. 235282,
pp. 255256.
4 For the development of a specifically Lutheran genre of Biblical drama, see: Loewe (2010),
pp. 235282.
5 For the success of Lutheran drama in spreading Lutheran doctrine to areas where reformation
writings were banned, see: Loewe (2010), pp. 263264.
6 Joachim Greff, Tragoedia des Buchs Iudith jnn Deudsche Reim verfasset durch Joachim Greff von
Zwickaw ntzlich zu lesen (Wittenberg: Georg Rhaw, 1536), Prologus, p. A 7r: Man schreibts/
man lists/ man singt vns fur/ Man sihts gemalt an jdermans thr/ Es wird gepredigt vberall/
Man spilts vns auch fur zum offtermal/ Das wir solten lust darzu/ Gewinnen. For the inten-
tional involvement of Greffs audience through brief homiletic reflections, explanations or
questions, see: Loewe (2010), pp. 256259.
7 Joachim Greff, Ein Geistliches schnes newes spil auff das heilige Osterfest gestellet (Magde-
burg: Michael Lotter, 1542). For examples of the Lutheran Meistersinger Passions, see: Hans
Sachs, Die ganz Passio, in idem, Sehr herrliche schne und warhaffte Gedicht geistlich unnd
weltlich allerley Art (Nrnberg: Christoff Heuler, 1558) and Sebastian Wild, Die Passion und
70 chapter 4

later, the Lutheran summa Passions of the sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries also drew on a combination of Gospel harmony or Biblically-based
poetry combined with congregational chorales, to communicate the message
of the cross.8

1 The Development of the Lutheran Responsorial Passion

Unlike the Lutheran summa Passion, which had its roots in reformation Lehr-
stcke (educational plays), such as the Meistersinger Passion plays and Greffs
Biblical dramas, the development of a Lutheran responsorial Passion music
had its roots in the pre-reformation liturgical traditions associated with Holy
Week.9 From at least the tenth century onwards, each of the four Passions were
recited in Latin to chant on the first three days of Holy Week and Good Fri-
day in the order of their publication in the New Testament, beginning with St
Matthews account on Palm Sunday, and ending with St Johns on Good Fri-
day.10 By the end of the fifteenth century, the first polyphonic turba choruses in
fauxbourdon were introduced to illustrate crowd scenes.11 It was this genre that
Luther and his followers adapted for their vernacular Holy Week services.12

Aufferstehung Christi, in idem, Schner Comedien und Tragedien zwlff: Au heiliger Gtt-
licher schrift und auch au etlichen Historien gezogen (Augsburg: Matthus Franck, 1566).
8 Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Der fr die Snden der Welt Gemarterte und Sterbende Jesus, in:
idem, Verteutschter Bethlehemitischer Kinder-Mord des Ritters Marino. Nebst etlichen von
des Herrn bersetzers Eigenen Gedichten (Cln & Hamburg: Schiller, 1715), pp. 299320.
Jones (2000), p. 34, lists the most notable examples in this genre as: Balthasar Resinarius
(St John Passion, Latin, 1543), Joachim a Burck (St John Passion, shortened, German, 1568),
Johann Steuerlein (St John Passion, German, 1576), Ludwig Daser (Latin, 1578), Leonhard
Lechner (St John Passion, German, 1594), Johannes Herold (St Matthew Passion, German,
1594), Bartolomaus Gesius (St Matthew Passion, 1613), and Christoph Demantius (St John
Passion, German, 1631).
9 For the medieval and late-medieval responsorial Passion, see: Basil Smallman, The Back-
ground of Passion Music: J.S. Bach and his predecessors (London: SCM Press, 1957), pp. 21
33, and his enlarged edition (New York: Dover, 1970), Appendix I, p. 123.
10 Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly, The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production,
Reception, and Performance in Western Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press,
2011), p. 13.
11 Friedrich Blume, Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenmusik (Kassel, Brenreiter, 1965),
pp. 115116.
12 For Luthers adaptation of traditional pre-reformation responsorial Passions and materi-
als, see: Leaver (2007), p. 192.
bachs st john passion 71

The first composer of a Lutheran Passion with plainchant recitatives and

fauxbourdon choruses was the Torgau Cantor and later Capellmeister at the
Electoral Saxon Court in Dresden, Johann Walter.13 Walter collaborated exten-
sively with Luther to provide vernacular music for Luthers liturgical reforms:
in 1524 he edited Luthers first hymnal, two years later he worked with the
reformer on the German Mass.14 By the 1540s, he had adapted the traditional
Passion tones for a vernacular St Matthew and St John Passion.15 Both Walter
Passions remained standard repertoire for Lutheran Passion-tide observances.
Indeed, a number of composers, such as the Ansbach composer Jakob Meiland
(15421577),16 or Thomaspastor Nikolaus Selnecker (15321592) reworked Wal-
ters simple fauxbourdon Passions, ensuring their popularity.17 For more than
150 years Walters Passion settings were reprinted in Lutheran hymnals, such as
the New Leipzig Hymnal (1682), a work still in use in Leipzig churches during
Bachs tenure as Thomaskantor.18 In the 1700s in St Thomas Leipzig, Walters

13 For Walter (14961570), see: Walter Blankenburg, Johann Walter: Leben und Werk (Tutzing:
Schneider, 1991).
14 For Luthers Wittenbergisches Gesangbuch, 1524, WA 35: 315219, see: Loewe (2013), pp. 56,
for his Deutsche Messe und Ordnung Gottesdiensts, 1526, WA 35: 374, see: Leaver (2001),
pp. 292297.
15 A contemporary copy of two choruses, Ja nicht auf das Fest and Jesum from Nazareth from
both Passions is lodged in the Ludwig Maximilians University Library in Mnchen, MS 8
326, no. 31, pp. 22v25. A late-sixteenth century copy of Walters St Matthew Passion sur-
vives in manuscript in the Staatliche Bibliothek Ansbach, MS VI.g.27 (1583) and has been
analysed by Gnther Schmidt in: Die Handschrift Ansbach VI g 27 der Matthus-Passion
von Johann Walter, Jahrbuch fr Liturgik und Hymnologie 1 (1955), p. 101. For an analysis
of Walters Passion tones, see: Jones (2000), pp. 2627.
16 For the musical life at the court of Brandenburg-Ansbach, see: Gnther Schmidt, Die Musik
am Hofe der Markgrafen von Brandenburg-Ansbach (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1956) and Rashid
Pegah, The Court of Brandenburg-Culmbach-Bayreuth, in: Owens (2011), pp. 389412.
Jakob Meilands Johannes-Passion was first performed in 1568, his St Matthew and St Mark
Passions at the beginning of the 1570s, all three were composed during his tenure as
Capellmeister at the electoral Court of Ansbach.
17 The Passion setting in Nikolaus Selneckers Christliche Psalmen, Lieder und Kirchengesnge
(Leipzig: Beyer, 1587) closely echoes Walters. For Selnecker, author of the History of the
Augsburg Confession (1584) and one of the editors of the Formula of Concord (1580), see:
Werner Kln, Der vierte Mann. Auf den Spuren von Nikolaus Selneckers (15301592),
Beitrag zu Entstehung und Verbreitung der Konkordienformel, Lutherische Theologie und
Kirche 17 (1993), pp. 145174, and Wolfdietrich von Kloeden, Selnecker, Nikolaus, BBKL 9:
cols. 13761379.
18 Gottfried Vopelius, ed., Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch/ Von den schnsten und besten Liedern
verfasset/ In welchem Nicht allein des sel. Herrn D. Lutheri und andere mit Gottes Wort/
72 chapter 4

St Matthew Passion was still performed by the clergy and choral scholars of St
Thomas on the evening of Palm Sunday in front of the High Altar, using the
setting provided in the New Leipzig Hymnal and Leipziger Kirchen-Staat.19
Not only the tradition of singing the Passion to certain set pre-Reformation
Passion tones was shared by Catholic Latin Passion performances and Lutheran
German Passions.20 The musicians who, in the second half of the sixteenth
century, provided new musical settings for vernacular Lutheran Passions, also
came both from Lutheran and Catholic backgrounds:

Even in the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century Protestant and
Catholic Passion settings can hardly be distinguished from one another
nor should they be viewed in isolation. In the liturgical Passions of both
denominations common elementstoday one might call them ecume-
nicalhave been decisive.21

One of Walters successors as Capellmeister of the Dresden Court, Antonio

Scandello, is a good example of this ecumenical provenance: following his con-
version to Lutheranism in 1562, he began almost exclusively to set vernacular

und unvernderter Augsburgischer Confession berein stimmende und gebruchliche

Gesnge/ Lateinische Hymni und Psalmen/ Mit 4. 5. bis 6. Stimmen/ deren Melodeyen Theils
aus Johann Herman Scheins Cantional, und andern guten Autoribus zusammen getagen/
theils aber selbsten componiret / Mit Flei verfertiget und herausgegeben von Gottfried
Vopelio (Leipzig: Christoph Klinger, 1682).
19 Johann Christoph Rost, Nachricht/ Wie es/ in der Kirchen zu St Thom allhier/ mit dem
Gottesdienst/ Jhrlichen sowohl and Hohen Festen/ als anderen Tagen/ pfleget gehalten zu
werden/ aufgezeichnet von Johann Christoph Rosten/ Custode ad D. Thomae/ anno 1716,
Archiv Stadtgeschichtliches Museum der Stadt Leipzig, cited in: BD 2, no. 180, NBR,
no. 114: The priest and the students sang the entire Passion according to St Matthew
(Der Priester mit den Schlern [die] gantze Passion aus dem Evangelisten Mattho
abgesungen). Leipziger Kirchen-Staat: das ist deutlicher Unterricht vom Gottes-Dienst in
Leipzig (Leipzig: Groschuff, 1710), p. 74: Vor dem hohen Altar am Palm-Sonntage.
20 For the various pre-Reformation liturgical tones, see: Theodor Gllner, Die mehrstimmigen
liturgischen Lesungen, Mnchner Verffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte 15 (Tutzing:
Schneider, 1969).
21 Kurt von Fischer, Die Passionshistorien von Heinrich Schtz, in: Walter Blankenburg ed.,
Heinrich Schtz in seiner Zeit. Wege der Forschung 614 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1985), p. 140: Noch im 16. und frhen 17. Jahrhundert die Passionsverto-
nungen evangelischer und katholischer Herkunft kaum voneinander getrennt betrachtet
und verstanden werden. In den liturgischen Passionen beider Konfessionen ist immer
wieder das Gemeinsameman mchte heute sagen: das kumenischevon entschei-
dender Bedeutung gewesen.
bachs st john passion 73

texts to music.22 His St John Passion, the Passio/ das Leiden/ unsers Herren Jesu
Christi/ wie das der heilige Evangelist Johannes/ beschreibet, was first performed
in the early 1560s.23 His setting clearly echoes earlier Italian models in provid-
ing both for an evangelists part, set to the Passion tone, as well as a polyphonic
parts for crowd or turba scenes and for the individual characters in Johannine
Passion; most notably Jesus himself, and each of the other key individuals of St
Johns Passion account.24
The turn of the seventeenth century saw the steady development of the
Lutheran responsorial Passion in Saxony, Brunswick, Brandenburg and its de-
pendent principality of Ansbach.25 Among the most notable examples before
and after the turn of the seventeenth century are Bartholomus Gesius five-
part St John Passion, first performed in 1588 in Muskau, his six-part St Matthew
Passion first performed in 1613 in Frankfurt an der Oder, alongside Melchior
Vulpius six-part St Matthew Passion, first performed in Weimar in 1613.26 In
1642, the Hamburg Cantor Thomas Selle had contributed the first instrumental
Passion, setting St Matthews account of the Passion to music; a year later, he re-
published an orchestrated version of his St John Passion, con intermediis, with
three reflective madrigalic intermedi or Choraleinlagen based on the Hebrew
Scriptures (Isaiah 53.5, Psalm 22.121) and the Passion Chorale O Lamm Gottes,

22 For Scandello (c. 15171580), see: Robert Eitner, Scandello, Antonio in: Allgemeine Deut-
sche Biographie (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1890) [cited as: ADB], 30: 475476, and
Dane Owen Heuchemer, Italian Musicians in Dresden in the Second Half of the Sixteenth
Century, with an Emphasis on the Lives and Works of Antonio Scandello and Giovanni Bat-
tista Pinello di Ghirardi (University of Cincinnati: Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation,
1997).
23 A Manuscript copy of Scandellos St John Passion remains in the Schsische Landesbiblio-
thek Dresden, MS Mus. Gri. 11, a modern edition has been compliled by Klaus Beckmann,
Antonio Scandello: Johannespassion 1561 (Stuttgart: Carus, 1998).
24 The parts of Jesus, Peter, Servus, Ancilla I and II and Pilate each are set for multiple voices,
as pioneered in the 1540s in the responsorial Passions of Gasparo Alberti (c. 14851560).
For Gasparos Holy Week compositions, see: D. Crawford: Gaspar de Albertis and Holy
Week Liturgies in Renaissance Bergamo, Third International Musicological Society Study
Session on Cantus Planus, Tihny, Hungary, 1924 September 1988 (Budapest: Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, Institute for Musicology, 1989), pp. 415429.
25 Just Martin, Deutschland um 1600, Schtz-Jahrbuch 26 (2004), pp. 89107, p. 98.
26 Bartholomus Gesius, Historia vom Leiden und Sterben unsers Herren und Heilandes Jesus
Christi wie sie uns der Evangelist Johannes im 18. und 19. Cap. Beschrieben mit 2.3.4. und
5. Stimmen (Wittenberg: Matthes Welack, 1588), Melchior Vulpius, Karl Ziebler, ed. Mat-
thus-Passion von 1613 fr Soliloquenten und Chor zu vier und sechs Stimmen (Kassel: Bren-
reiter, 1948).
74 chapter 4

unschuldig (O Innocent Lamb of God), to end each of the three parts of his
Passion.27 Selles responsorial St John Passion with intermedi is undoubtedly
of great significance in the development of Bachs own Passions: the fact that
copies of Selles works were housed in the choir library of St Michaels Lneburg
at the time of Bachs tenure as a choral scholar suggests that he may well have
sung Selles Passions.28 Also purchased by the cantor of St Michaels Lneburg,
Friedrich Emanuel Praetorius (16231695), were the vocal works of Heinrich
Schtz.29 By the 1660s, Heinrich Schtz had fully established the instrumental
responsorial Passion, without intermedi, setting to music the Passion Gospels
of Matthew, Luke and John.30 From 1655 until 1694, six years before Bach took
up his choral scholarship in Lneburg, cantor Praetorius purchased 26 volumes
of Schtzs work, again suggesting that Bach would have been exposed to per-
formances of Schtzs Passions from his school days.31 By the time he came to
compose his St John Passion, Bach drew on a combination of established tex-
tual and music modelsthe Lutheran responsorial Passion with intermedi, his
own church Cantatas and his no longer extant Weimar Passionto create his
own reflection in music on the journey to the cross.32

2 The Liturgical and Homiletic Context of Bachs St John Passion

The performance of Bachs St John Passion on 7 April 1724 in St Nikolai was

not, in fact, the first performance of a concerted Good Friday Passion in one
of Leipzigs principal churches.33 The records of St Thomas sexton, Johann
Christoph Rost, show that both in the final year of Johann Kuhnaus cantorate,
in 1721 and 1722, and during the vacancy in post in 1723, a concerted Pas-

27 Thomas Selle, Rudolf Gerber, ed., Passion nach dem Evangelisten Johannes: mit Intermedien
fr Solostimmen, Chor und Instrumente (Wolfenbttel: Mseler Verlag, 1934). For Selle
(15991663) and his St Matthew and St John Passions, see: J. Birke, Die Passionsmusiken
von Thomas Selle (15991663) (Heidelberg University: Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation,
1957).
28 Junghans (1870), p. 27.
29 Junghans (1870), p. 27.
30 For a detailed analysis of Schtzs Passions, see: Jones (2000), pp. 96289.
31 Junghans (1870), p. 27: List of musical works which F.E. Praetorius purchased (165594)
(Designatio ibrorum Musicalium, quae F.E. Prateorius comparavit [16551694]).
32 Christoph Wolff, Bach: Essays on his Life and Music (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1991), p. 137.
33 BD 2, no. 180, NBR, no. 114.
bachs st john passion 75

sion was performed at St Thomas Church.34 While Rosts diary does not give
details of the composer of these Passions, Petzoldts and Drrs suggestion that
the first concerted Passion to be performed at the Good Friday Vespers in
St Thomas was Johann Kuhnaus St Mark Passion makes good sense.35 The
unknown concerted Passion performed at St Thomas fell into two parts, each
framed by congregational hymns, with a sermon in the middle of the perfor-
mance:

The hymn Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund (When Jesus stood at the cross)
was sung from the choir gallery. Then the concerted Passion began imme-
diately, half of which was performed before the sermon. This half was
completed with the hymn verse, O Lamm Gottes unschuldig (O innocent
Lamb of God) during which the priest made his way to the pulpit. After
he reached the pulpit, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend (Turn to us,
Lord Jesus Christ) was sung. After the sermon, the other half of the music
began. When it was finished [Jakob Handls] motet Ecce quomodo moritur
iustus (Behold how the rightous dies) was sung. Then the Passion verse
[Thanks be to the LORD/ who has redeemed us/ from hell by his suffering]
was intoned, a collect prayed, and the hymn Nun danket alle Gott (Now
thank we all our God) sung.36

This performance of a concerted Passion at St Thomas in the last year of

Kuhnaus cantorate clearly emulated the successful performances of concerted

34 BD 2, no. 180, NBR, no. 114: Musicierte Passion.

35 BD 2, no. 180, NBR, no. 114: Am Charfreytag in der Vesper die Passion zum 1st mahl
Musicirt. Martin Petzoldt, Bachs Passion als Musik im Gottesdienst, in: Ulrich Prinz, ed.,
Johannes-Passion, BWV 245, Schriftenreihe der internationalen Bachakademie Stuttgart
5 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1993), pp. 4461, p. 46 and Alfred Drr, Der Passionsbericht des
Johannes in Bachs DeutungAus der Sicht des Musikwissenschaftlers, in: Prinz (1993),
pp. 166185, p. 166.
36 BD 2, no. 180, NBR, no. 114: Wurd auf dem Chor das Lied gesung[en]. da Jesus an dem
Creutze stund p. dann ging gleich die musicirt Passion an, und ward vor der Predigt halb
gesungen, die Helfte schlo sich mit dem ver, o Lamb gottes unschuldig, damit ging der
Prister auf die Cantzel. auf d[er]. Cantzel ward a[uch]. H[err]. Jesu Christ dich zu uns
wend gesungen. Nach der Predigt dann ging die andre Helffte der Music an, als solche
aus, ward die Motete Ecce quomodo moritur justus p. gesungen, als dann der passions vers
intoniret und Collect gesprochen. als dann Nun dancket alle Gott gesungen. The Passion
verse, Danck sey dem HERREN/ der uns erlset hat/ durch sein Leiden von der Hllen as
well as the text of Handls motet with a German translation are reproduced in Leipziger
Kirchen-Staat, p. 93.
76 chapter 4

Passions in Leipzigs New Church since 1717. From 1723 onwards both the Pas-
sion sermons and the associated performance costs at St Thomas and St Niko-
lai were funded by a legacy made by the widow of the goldleaf-merchant and
jeweller Koppy (Frau Koppin).37 Financially underwritten in this way, from 1724
onwards, the performance of an annual concerted Passion alternated between
St Thomas and St Nikolai.38 In the church in which there was no perfor-
mance of a concerted Passion that year a traditional Passion service, as was
the custom before [1721], that is with a performance of Walters Passion, took
place.39
The development of the Leipzig concerted Passion shows that, from the
outset, the Passion music was to be complemented by a sermon. Indeed, Mrs
Koppys legacy to perpetuate a Passion sermon and preformance merely for-
malised the financial basis for this arrangement: as with the performance of a
Sunday Cantata, in the performance of the Good Friday both sermon and per-
formance went hand in hand to create an overall devotional experience with
a clear homiletic message. In the absence of any surviving printed Passion ser-
mons or sermon manuscripts, it is difficult to reconstruct this homiletic content
with complete certainty. However, the records at St Nikolai do suggest that from
at least 1694, and certainly from 1723, the sermon at Vespers on Good Friday
centred on the burial of Christ.40 The fact that at Leipzig performances of the
concerted Passion, the sermon was preached not at the end of the Passion but
in the middle of the performance strongly suggests that the sermon was not,

37 Petzoldt (1993), p. 45: Die Witwe des Goldschlgers und Juweliers Koppy stiftete ein Legat.
Rosts account, BD 2, no. 180, NBR, no. 114, is ambiguous as to whether Mrs Koppys legacy
was intended in particular for the establishment of a Passion Vespers at St Nikolai or for the
underwriting of the Passion Vespers in general: In 1723 the Vespers were held for the first
time at St Nikolai. The sermon was given by Superintendent Dr Deyling, beqeathed by Mrs
Koppy (Anno 1723 ward zum ersten Mahl die Vesper zu St. Nicolai gehalten, die Predigt
hielt H. Superintendent H.D. Deyling, welche Fr. Koppin gestiftet). Certainly, in 1724 the
city council determined that the concerted Vespers in future be alternated between both
principal Leipzig churches, see: BD 2, no. 179.
38 BD 2, no. 179, NBR, nos. 115116.
39 BD 2, no. 180: Wie vor diesem gebruchlich. In combination with his reference to the
previous custom, Rosts suggestion that only hymns were sung (wurden nur Lieder gesun-
gen) could well refer to Walters Passion setting reproduced in the Neu Leipziger Gesang-
buch.
40 Nikolai-Archiv, Leipzig, Manuale des Gottesdienstes, 172150, MS I E 811. This is echoed
by the liturgy reproduced in Leipziger Kirchen-Staat, p. 93, which has the text of Handls
motet under the heading Bey dem Begrbnis Christi (At the burial of Christ).
bachs st john passion 77

in the first place, intended to comment on the narrative itself but rather was
meant to provide a more general reflection on the Passion.41 Petzoldt explains
that such a detachment from an exclusively historical level of presentation and
understanding purposefully fostered the appropriation [of the narrative] by
the listener.42 He rightly suggests that the same homiletical principle lies at the
heart of the proclamatory concept of Bachs concerted Passions.43
When he came to write his first Leipzig Passion for performance on Good Fri-
day 1724, Bach drew on the structural model developed at the principal Leipzig
Churches in the final year of Kuhnaus cantorate.44 Kuhnaus model for the
Leipzig Passion was itself developed from both the accustomed (gebruch-
lich) tradition of performing Walters responsorial Passion at St Thomas and
St Nikolai,45 and in response to the successful performances of a summa Pas-
sion at the New Church from 1717.46 However, in keeping with the far greater
commitment to the conservation of the tried and tested at the two principal
Churches, Kuhnau did not set to music a summa Passion, such as Brockes
popular Der fr die Snden der Welt Gemarterte und Sterbende Jesus (Jesus,
Suffering and Dying for the Sins of the World), as was the case at the New
Church.47
Kuhnaus successor, Johann Sebastian Bach, followed suit: for his St John
Passion, Bach developed the mid-seventeenth-century responsorial Passion

41 Indeed, the position of the sermon varied according to each of the Passions performed:
in Bachs St John Passion it is preached after Jesus trial before the religious authorities,
in the St Matthew Passion after the arrest in the garden, as it is in Kuhnaus St Mark
Passion.
42 Petzoldt (1993), p. 48: Die Ablsung von einer ausschlielich historischen verstandenen
Ebene der Darstellung zum Zweck der Aneignung durch den Hrer.
43 Petzoldt (1993), p. 48.
44 BD 2, no. 180, NBR, no. 114.
45 For Kuhnaus Passion, see: Arnold Schering, Musikgeschichte Leipzigs, 2: Von 1650 bis 1723
(Leipzig: Teubner, 1926), pp. 2325.
46 Andreas Glckner, Die Musikpflege an der Leipziger Neukirche von 1699 bis 1761, Beitrge zur
Bachforschung 9 (Leipzig: Nationale Forschungs- und Gedenksttten Johann Sebastian
Bach, 1990), p. 79, suggests that Telemanns setting of Brockes libretto was performed
under the direction of Johann Gottfried Vogler, director of music at the New Church from
17161720.
47 Petzoldt (1993), p. 52: Die beiden Hauptkirchen die Verpflichtung zur Pflege des tradi-
tionell erprobten in weiter strkerem Mae. Wolff (2001), p. 292, suggests that the require-
ment of adhering to the Biblical Passion text, rather than a poetical paraphrase such as
Brockes, may have been a requirement of the citys consistory.
78 chapter 4

with its chanted and polyphonic setting of a single source Gospel narrative
and choral intermedi. The resulting Passion libretto makes excellent use of the
structural flexibility offered by his Church Cantatas, conveying Johns Passion
narrative through the medium of recitatives and choruses, reflective arias and
ariosos, and chorales. Even though the structure of his St John Passion is very
different from the fashionable contemporary summa Passion, Bachs libretto
does acknowledge the popularity of the genre: six of his arias are adapted from
Brockes summa Passion.48

3 The Libretto of Bachs St John Passion

In his two-volume biography of Bach, Philipp Spitta argued that the St John
Passion may well have been written in Kthen. The fact that the libretto was
cobbled together from a variety of sources suggested to Spitta that, in the
absence of a designated librettist, Bach himself compiled the text of the St John
Passion, something for which he was uniquely placed, Spitta felt.49 He further
claimed that the work was written in early 1723, during Bachs application
process for the cantorate at St Thomas Church, in the certain anticipation that
his Leipzig appointment would be forthcoming:

We have every reason to believe that Bach wrote the St John Passion in
Kthen once he had determined to apply for the post of Thomaskantor,
believing that he would be appointed. His application was made towards
the end of 1722. He would have calculated that he would be in post in
Leipzig by Good Friday 1723, and wanted to be prepared for that even-
tuality. The composition, therefore, would have taken during the first few
months of 1723.50

48 For Brockes libretto, see: Elke Axmacher, Aus Liebe will mein Heyland sterben: Unter-
suchungen zum Wandel des Passionsverstndnisses im frhen 18. Jahrhundert, Beitrge zur
theologischen Bachforschung 2 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hnssler, 1984), pp. 116142.
49 Spitta (1880), p. 349: War er nur wie einer befhigt.
50 Spitta (1880), p. 348: Bach schrieb, wie wir allen Grund haben anzunehmen, die Johannes-
Passion noch in Cthen und zwar als er beschlossen hatte sich um das Thomascantorat
zu bewerben, und voraussetzte, er werde die Stelle erhalten. Seine Bewerbung erfolgte
am Ausgange des Jahres 1722. Er berechnete wohl, da er zum Charfreitag 1723 schon zu
Leipzig im Amte sein werde, und wollte fr diesen Fall gerstet sein. Die Composition
wrde demnach grtenteils in die ersten Monate des Jahres 1723 fallen.
bachs st john passion 79

Spittas theory hangs on the fact that both the second version of Bachs St
John Passion and his audition Cantata BWV 23 Du wahrer Gott und Davids
Sohn (True God and Son of David) conclude with the German setting of the
Agnus Dei, Christe du Lamm Gottes (Christ, you Lamb of God) as well as an
erroneousdating of watermarks in the instrumental parts of the 1725 version
of the Passion to the same period as the paper Bach used for the fair copy of his
Leipzig audition Cantata.51 The assertion that the work was composed together
with the audition Cantata in Kthen is at best tenuous. As has been shown
above, the appointment process to the post of Thomaskantor by no means
favoured Bach as the front-runner.
Spittas initial theory that the St John Passion was composed in the final
months of Bachs tenure at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt is implau-
sible on two counts: the fact that Bach could not presume to be selected as
Thomaskantor and the fact that the watermarks of the two surviving scores are
not, in fact, the same. His secondary theory, that Bach was in fact the libret-
tist of his first surviving Passion, is equally unlikely. Spittas theory rests on the
assumption that Bach had to complete the work in haste, together with his
audition Cantata: if the composer wanted to complete the work, speed was
of the essence and so, due to the absence of a suitable poet in Kthen, he had
to help himself regarding the text.52 The fact, however, that there was no need
for haste to complete the work for a premiere on Good Friday 1723 removes the
need for Bach to compile his own libretto in the absence of suitable librettists
in Kthen. Drr explains:

Since there is no evidence of a single Cantata, Oratorio or Passion-libretto

that can be shown to have been written by Bach the authorship of an
external librettist for the St John Passion needs to be assumed until such
time as there is concrete evidence to the contrary.53

51 Spitta (1880), pp. 813814. For a rejection of Spittas attribution of watermarks, see: Wisso
Wei, Katalog der Wasserzeichen in Bachs Originalhandschriften von Wisso Wei unter
musikwissenschaftlicher Mitarbeit von Yoshitake Kobayashi, Johann Sebastian Bach Neue
Ausgabe Smtlicher Werke, IX, 1/1 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1989), pp. 120129, Drr (1993),
pp. 167168.
52 Spitta (1880), pp. 348349: Wollte der Componist rechtzeitig fertig sein, so war Eile nthig,
und da ein geeigneter Dichter in Cthen nicht existirte, so mute er sich bezglich des
Textes selbst zu helfen suchen.
53 Drr (1993), p. 169: [Da] kein einziger Kantaten-, Oratorien- oder Passionstext bekannt
ist, der nachweislich von Bach gedichtet wurde [muss] man vorderhand auch fr die
80 chapter 4

For Drr, the theological coherence of the libretto points to a theologian as

author.54 There is no doubt that Bach would have had the necessary theological
expertise to compile his own libretto. However, even the realisation that the
libretto for the St John Passion was probably not written by the composer but
by an unknown librettist, does not denigrate Bachs theological insights. On the
contrary, his musical word-setting shows that he displayed great sensitivity in
expressing significant theological concepts through music.

3.1 Textual Elements of the St John Passion: Biblical Text

Much of the libretto of Bachs St John Passion was determined by the traditional
Passion recitation of John 18.119.42. In three of the four versions of the St
John Passion (I, II and IV), Johns account of the suffering and death of Jesus
is augmented by two Matthean verses: Matthew 26.75 tells of Peters reaction
to the roosters call, and Matthew 27.5152 of the dramatic earthquake at the
time of Jesus death.55 Since Johns Gospel does not relate either episode, the
libretto draws on Matthews account of the Passion, in line with Bugenhagens
Passion Harmony.56
Wolff explains that Bach deliberately set the Biblical texts in context and
probably broadly independently from the madrigalic pieces and the chorales,
which were added later on as substantial, but secondary, elements.57 In this
way, the evangelists recitatives, recitatival solo parts and choruses maintain
their own structural and dramatic unity, which can be traced particularly well
in the large-scale turbae choruses, or crowd scenes, in particular during Jesus
trial before the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. This structure, first identified in

Johannes-Passion solange die Autorschaft eines fremden Dichters unterstellen bis der
Gegenbeweis erbracht ist.
54 Drr (1993), p. 169: Auf einen Theologen als Textautor.
55 The third version of Bachs St John Passion (1732) leaves out the Matthean insertions. Wolff
(2001), p. 294, suspects that, having composed his St Matthew Passion [Bach] now
dropped the only two passages that were drawn from the Gospel of St Matthew. The
final version of libretto (1749, IV) restores the insertions from Matthews account of the
Passion.
56 Bugenhagen (1526), p. E ir (Matthew 26.75) and p. G iir-v (Matthew 27.5152). For much of
the Passion harmony, Bugenhagen follows Johns narrative supplementing his text from
Matthews account.
57 Christoph Wolff, Die musikalischen Formen der Johannes-Passion in: Prinz (1993), pp.
128141, p. 133: Bach [komponierte] den Bibeltext im Zusammenhang und wohl weitge-
hend unabhngig von den madrigalischen Stcken und Chorlen, die dann als zwar
wesentliche, doch sekundre Glieder eingefgt wurden.
bachs st john passion 81

1926 in a groundbreaking hypothesis by Friedrich Smend, enables the com-

poser to maintain a sense of dramatic unity throughout the entire work, in
particular during the second part of the Passion.58 The overall motivation for
creating a such a clear sense of structural unity in the Biblical sections of his
St John Passion may well have been the composers hope to create a work that
honours the sovereignty of the Gospel narrative.59 In this way, Bachs St John
Passion is

set apart from its later companion, the St Matthew Passion, in particular
in that it remains more of a Passion historia than a Passion oratorio
and therefore more remains closely commited to the original liturgical
function of the Passion as a means of homiletic proclamation.60

Johns narrative is complemented by reflective madrigalic elements and cho-

rales from a variety of textual sources, which are shaped into the following
overall form by Bachs unknown collaborator (see Table 4 below). The final
version of the libretto (1749, IV) introduces small textual changes to the 1724
libretto, each of which are discussed in the commentary section, but retains
the overall shape. A third version of the libretto (1732, III) excises the Matthean
additions but retains the opening and closing chorales of the 1725 version and
its variant and additional arias.

58 Friedrich Smend, Die Johannes-Passion von Bach. Auf ihren Bau untersucht, Bach-Jahr-
buch 1926, pp. 105128, see the diagram in the commentary section at movement 22. Drr
(2001), pp. 95107, provides a thorough review of the reception, development and impli-
cations of such a structural plan.
59 Wolff (1993), p. 137: Bach seeks to achieve musical unity by safeguarding the relative
sovereignty of the Gospel narrative (Bach strebt musikalische Vereinheitlichung an durch
Bewahrung der relativen Eigenstndigkeit des Evangelienberichts).
60 Wolff (1993), p. 141: Die sich von ihrem spteren Schwesterwerk Matthus-Passion vor
allem dadurch unterscheidet, da sie weniger Oratorium als Historia sein will und damit
enger der ursprnglich liturgischen Funktion der Passion verpflichtet bleibt.
 82 chapter 4

table 4 Libretto of Bachs St John Passion as first performed in 1724 (I)

Madrigalic movements Johannine text Chorales

First Part (Parte Prima)

1 Herr, unser Herrscher 2 St John 18.18 3 O groe Lieb
4 St John 18.911 5 Dein Will gescheh
6 St John 18.1215
7 Von den Stricken (Brockes) 8 St John 18.15a
9 Ich folge dir (unknown librettist) 10 St John 18.15b23 11 Wer hat dich so
geschlagen?
12 St John 18.2427
St Matthew 26.75
13 Ach, mein Sinn (Weise) 14 Petrus, der nicht denkt
zurck

Sermon on the Burial of Christ

Second Part (Parte Secunda)
15 Christus, der uns selig
macht
16 St John 18.2836 17 Ach groer Knig
18 St John 18.3719.1
19 Betrachte (Brockes)
20 Erwge (Brockes) 21 St John 19.212a 22 Durch dein Gefngnis
(Postel)
23 St John 19.12b17
24 Eilt (Brockes) 25 St John 19.1822 26 In meines Herzens Grunde
27 St John 19.2327a 28 Er nahm alles wohl in acht
29 St John 19.27b30a
30 Es ist vollbracht (Postel) 31 St John 19.30b
32 Mein teurer Heiland (Brockes) 32 Jesu, der du warest tot
33 St Matthew 27.5152
34 Mein Herz (Brockes)
35 Zerfliee (unknown librettist) 36 St John 19.3137 37 O hilf Christe, Gottes Sohn
38 St John 19.3842
39 Ruht wohl (unknown librettist) 40 Ach Herr, la dein lieb
Engelein
 bachs st john passion 83

table 5 Libretto of Bachs St John Passion as performed in 1725 (II)

Madrigalic movements Johannine text Chorales

First Part (Parte Prima)

1 O Mensch, bewein dein
Snde
2 St John 18.18 3 O groe Lieb
4 St John 18.911 5 Dein Will gescheh
6 St John 18.1215
7 Von den Stricken (Brockes) 8 St John 18.15a
9 Ich folge dir (unknown librettist) 10 St John 18.15b23
11 Wer hat dich so
geschlagen?
11+ Himmel, reie
12 St John 18.2427
St Matthew 26.75
13II Zerschmettert mich (unknown) 14 Petrus, der nicht denkt
zurck

Sermon on the Burial of Christ

Second Part (Parte Secunda)
15 Christus, der uns selig
macht
16 St John 18.2836 17 Ach groer Knig
18 St John 18.3719.1
19II Ach windet euch nicht (Postel?)
20 Erwge (Brockes) 21 St John 19.212a 22 Durch dein Gefngnis
(Postel)
23 St John 19.12b17
24 Eilt (Brockes) 25 St John 19.1822 26 In meines Herzens Grunde
27 St John 19.2327a 28 Er nahm alles wohl in acht
29 St John 19.27b30a
30 Es ist vollbracht (Postel) 31 St John 19.30b
32 Mein teurer Heiland (Brockes) 32 Jesu, der du warest tot
33 St Matthew 27.5152
34 Mein Herz (Brockes)
35 Zerfliee (unknown librettist) 36 St John 19.3137 37 O hilf Christe, Gottes Sohn
38 St John 19.3842
39 Ruht wohl (unknown librettist) 40II Christe, du Lamm Gottes
84 chapter 4

3.2 Madrigalic Texts

The fact that, in comparison with other Passions, there are very fewa total
of only tenmadrigalic reflections, once more underlines the works genesis
as a successor of the mid-seventeenth-century responsorial Passion with inter-
medi, rather than more contemporary summa Passionis settings. That there
is a great degree of compositional unity in the free poetry sections is fur-
ther evidence for Wolffs suggestion that the madrigalic movements may well
have been set to music separately from the Biblical text, that is as a through-
composed score independent of the chorales and contemplative arias, yet
mindful of them.61 The madrigalic movements of the St John Passion not only
provide opportunities for personal reflection on the Biblical Passion story or
underline its character as a liturgical work but formed an integral part of
Bachs carefully designed harmonic scheme. In particular in the second part
of the Passion, from movement 16 to 27, chorales and arias provide a strong,
unifying and well-focused musical architecture by establishing a system of
musical correlations expressed through increasingly sharp or flat key signa-
tures.62
The intensity of sharp keys in the overall Passion culminates in the middle of
the work with the setting of John 19.15b as a dramatic choral fugue in movement
23d Weg, weg mit dem, kreuzige (Away, away with him, crucify). Its four sharps
mark the maximum [number of sharps] in Bachs vocal music and therefore
represents one of the boldest Affekte in Bachs range (Affekten-Palette).63 Wolff
explains that in this rigorously planned system the interjected chorales and
arias function as pillars of harmonic stability [that] also enhance the intensity
of expression reflected in the rapid sequence of flat and sharp keys.64 At the
same time, the free poetry maintains a deliberate distance from the narrative,
as Butt suggests: The free, meditative elements, particularly the arias, tend to

61 Wolff (1993), p. 133, p. 137. Wolff (2001), p. 292.

62 Wolff (2001), p. 292. Hans Joachim Moser, Zum Bau von Bachs Johannespassion, Bach-
Jahrbuch 29 (1932), pp. 155157, was one of the first to systematise this key sheme. Drr
(2000), pp. 98101, provides an extensive assessment of the reception of Bachs key-scheme
from Moser onwards, including a rejection of Chafes reading of the scheme as an alle-
gorical reference to the cross in: Eric Chafe, Key Structure and Tonal Allegory in the
Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach: An Introduction, Current Musicology 21 (1981), pp. 39
54.
63 Wolff (1993), p. 135: Das Maximum in Bachs Vokalmusik. As Wright observes in the
Foreword to this work, A sharp is of course two crosses superimposed (p. xvii), and
therefore points to the telos of this journey.
64 Wolff (2001), p. 292.
bachs st john passion 85

centrifugally scatter to the outer reaches of the piece, so as not to disturb the
relentless events and arguments of the narrative.65
For the madrigalic reflections of the St John Passion, Bachs unknown libret-
tist drew on three principal sources: seven movements derive from Hamburg
librettist Barthold Heinrich Brockes 1712 Der fr die Snden der Welt Gemarterte
und Sterbende Jesus (Jesus, Suffering and Dying for the Sins of the World), one
movement from Zittau schoolmaster Christian Weises 1675 Der grnen Jugend
nothwendige Gedancken (Necessary Thoughts of a Simple Youth), and two
movements from Passion poems by Hamburg lawyer turned librettist Christian
Heinrich Postel.66 Both Brockes Passion and Postels poems were the source of
a number of popular contemporary summa Passionis libretti that, in the first
three decades of the eighteenth century, were set to music by numerous other
composers.67 However, even the movements that can with certainty be traced
to other contemporary librettists such as Brockes, were significantly reworked
by the librettist (see Table 6 below).68
The madrigalic texts that form the basis for arias and ariosos in Bachs St
John Passion provide an opportunity for introspective self-examination of the
listener; a soliloquy or interior dialogue that frequently is articulated between
a soloist and the chorus and that seeks to provide answers to the believers
questions and encouragement in the light of their fears. At the same time,
arias and ariosos also articulate the believers intention to enter into the way
of discipleship by taking up their cross and following Jesus, as well as highlight
the challenges that result from this commitment (see Table 7 below).

65 John Butt, Bachs Dialogue with Modernity: Perspectives on the Passions (Cambridge: Uni-
versity Press, 2010), p. 40.
66 Brockes (1715), pp. 299320. Christian Weise, Der grnen Jugend Nothwendige Gedancken
denen berfligen Gedancken entgegen gesetzt und zu gebhrender Nachfolge so wol in
gebundenen als ungebundenen Reden allen curisen Gemthern recommendiert, von Chris-
tian Weisen (Leipzig: Fritsche, 1675). See the discussion in the Commentary Section, below.
Although they share the same name, the Thomaspastor Christian Weise Senior and the
Zittau schoolmaster are unrelated.
67 Brockes libretto was set to music, in turn, by Richard Keiser (1712), George Frederick Han-
del (1716), Georg Philipp Telemann (1716), Johann Mattheson (1718), Gottfried Heinrich
Stlzel (1725), Johann Friedrich Fasch (1723) and others. Christian Postels poems form part
of Johann Matthesons Das Lied des Lammes (1723) and a St John Passion by the Dresden
and Hamburg composer Christian Ritter (1645/51725). Glckler (1977), pp. 114119, doc-
uments that Bach owned copies of Keisers, Telemanns and Handels settings of Brockes
libretto and performed their works in Leipzig.
68 Wherever possible, the commentary section will comment on textual differences between
Bachs libretto and original textual sources.
86 chapter 4

table 6 Known and Unknown sources of Free Poetry in Bachs St John Passion

Known sources

Barthold Heinrich Brockes

7 Von den Stricken meiner Snden (From the cords of my sins)
19 Betrachte, meine Seel, mit ngstlichem Vergngen (Consider, my soul, with anxious
delectation)
20 Erwge, wie sein blutgefrbter Rcken (Contemplate, how his blood-coloured back)
24 Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen (Hurry, you troubled souls)
32 Mein teurer Heiland, la dich fragen (My dear Saviour, let me ask you)
34 Mein Herz, indem die ganze Welt (My heart, in whom the whole world)
35 Zerfliee, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zhren (Melt, my heart, in floods of brine)

Christian Weise
13 Ach, mein Sinn (Oh, my reason)

Christian Heinrich Postel

22 Durch dein Gefngnis (Through your prison)
30 Es ist vollbracht! (It is accomplished!)

Unknown Sources

1 Herr, unser Herrscher (Lord, our Lord)

9 Ich folge dir gleichfalls (I follow you equally)
39 Ruht wohl (Rest well)

3.3 Chorales
The final layer of reflection in the libretto of Bachs St John Passion is provided by
a selection of Passion-tide Chorales that complement the narrative and madri-
galic movements of the St John Passion. Ten chorale movements punctuate
the libretto providing, as in a Cantata, opportunities for further reflection by
the congregation on the events related in music. Axmacher explains the the-
ological intention behind this carefully crafted relationship between Biblical
narrative and reflective chorales:

The reflective purpose of the oratorical Passion corresponds to the ref-

ormation doctrine of the Word of God: the Passion of Jesus is entirely
contemperanous, and even determines the contemporary human lives in
bachs st john passion 87

table 7 Consolation and Commitment in Arias and Ariosos of Bachs St John Passion

7 Von den Stricken meiner Snden (From the cords of my sin)

Alto Aria:
In order to unbind me, my salvation will be bound
Mich zu entbinden, wird mein Heil gebunden

9 Ich folge dir gleichfalls (I follow you equally)

Soprano Aria:
And will not let you go
Und lasse dich nicht
Do not cease yourself to draw me, prod me, request me
Hre nicht auf, selbst an mir zu ziehen, zu schieben, zu bitten

19 Betrachte, meine Seel, mit ngstlichem Vergngen (Consider, my soul, with anxious
delectation)
Bass Arioso:
Consider your highest good in Jesus pains
Betrachte dein hchstes Gut in Jesu Schmerzen

20 Erwge, wie sein blutgefrbter Rcken (Contemplate, how his blood-coloured back)
Tenor Aria:
Contemplate a sign of Gods mercy
Erwge Gottes Gnadenzeichen

30 Es ist vollbracht! (It is accomplished!)

Alto Aria:
O consolation for the injured souls
O Trost vor die gekrnkten Seelen

34 Mein Herz, indem die ganze Welt (My heart, in whom the whole world)
Alto Arioso:
What will you do in your place?
Was willst du deines Ortes tun?

35 Zerfliee, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zhren (Melt, my heart, in floods of brine)
Soprano Aria:
Melt, my heart, in floods of brine your Jesus is dead!
Zerfliee, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zhren dein Jesus ist tot!
88 chapter 4

table 8 Interior Questions and Answers in the Chorus Arias of Bachs St John Passion

24 Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen (Hurry, you troubled souls)

Bass Aria with Chorus:
Flywhere to?to the hill of the cross: your welfare blossoms there
Fliehtwohin?zum Kreuzeshgel: eure Wohlfahrt blhet da

32 Mein teurer Heiland, la dich fragen (My dear Saviour, let me ask you)
Bass Aria with Chorus:
Have I been set free from dying? Indeed you bow your head and speak, tacitly:
yes
Bin ich vom Sterben frei gemacht? Doch neigest du das Haupt und sagst
stillschweigend: ja.

such a way that all their thoughts and actions have to be understood in
terms of participation in the Passion. The contemplative hearers of the
Passion immediately understands Jesus question to the servant who, at
his interrogation, strikes him on the cheek, Why do you strike me then? as
addressed to themselves, and confesses: I, I and my sins have provoked
the distress that strikes you.69

Five of the chorales are given added significance through their position in the
overall structure of the work. They mark the end of each of the five acts of the
Passion drama (see Table 8).
The Latin titles used to divide the five stages or acts (Actus) of St Johns
Passion narrative in the table above are derived from an old (alten) Latin
hexametre cited by Johann Gerhard in his 1611 Erklhrung der Histo-/ rien des
Leidens vnnd Sterbens vnsers/ HErrn Christi Jesu nach den vier/ Evangelisten
(Explanation of the Stories of the Suffering and Death of our LORD Christ Jesus
according to the Four Evangelists) (see Table 9 below):70

69 Axmacher (1984), p. 154: Dem reformatorischen Wortverstndnis [korrespondiert] die

betrachtende Haltung der oratorischen Passion. Die Passion Jesu ist ganz gegenwrtig,
sie bestimmt sogar die Gegenwart des Menschen in solchem Mae, da all sein Denken
und Tun als Teilnahme an ihr verstanden werden mu. Jesu Frage an den Knecht, der ihm
beim Verhr einen Backenstreich gibt, Was schlgest Du mich, versteht der die Passion
bedenkende Mensch als unmittelbar an sich gerichtet, und er mu bekennen: Ich, ich und
meine Snden Die haben dir erreget/ Das Elend, das dich schlget.
70 Johann Gerhard, Erklhrung der Histo-/ rien des Leidens vnnd Sterbens vnsers/ HErrn
bachs st john passion 89

table 9 Actus Chorales in Bachs St John Passion

I Arrest in the GardenHortus:

5 Dein Will gescheh (Your will be done)

II Trial before the High PriestsPontifices:

14 Petrus, der nicht denkt zurck (Peter, who does not think back)

III Trial before PilatePilatus:

26 In meines Herzens Grunde (In the depths of my heart)

IV Crucifixion and death on the CrossCrux:

37 O hilf Christe, Gottes Sohn (Oh help, Christ, Gods Son)

V Burial and TombSepulchrum:

40 Ach Herr, la dein lieb Engelein (Oh Lord, let your lovely little angels)

When one divides the entire story into five different acts or chapters/
since Christ was first in the Garden or at the Mount of Olives/ Thereafter/
in the Palace of the High Priests/ thirdly/ the story took place in Pilates
Court/ then, fourthly/ the story of the Crucifixion/ and fifthly/ follows
the burial/ These five acts are incoporated in this little old verse: Hortus,
Pontifices, Pilatus, cruxque, sepulchrum (Garden, Chief Priests, Pilate,
and cross, tomb).71

Petzoldt suggests that the five Actus chorales were chosen not only to pro-
vide a clear structural division of the Passion into five acts, but also in order
to introduce an opportunity for praise and thanksgiving of the Redeemer,
again in order to underline or support the character of worship of the St John

Christi Jesu nach den vier/ Evangelisten (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1611), p. b ijr. Gerhard
probably refers to classical Aristotelian drama, rather than specifically Latin literature,
which was also centred on five acts.
71 Gerhard (1611), p. b ijr: Wenn man die gantze Historien abtheilet in fnff unterschiedliche
Actus oder Heubthandlungen/ Als war Christo erstlich im Garten am Oelberge/ Vors
ander/ im Pallast der Hohenpriester/ vnd vors dritte/ im Richthaus Pilati wiederfahren/
darauff vors vierdte/ die Histori von der Creutzigung/ vnd vors fnffte/ die Begrbnis
folget/ wie denn solche fnff Actus in diesem alten Verslein begreiffen: Hortus, Pontifices,
Pilatus, cruxque, sepulchrum.
90 chapter 4

table 10 Petitions from Stockmanns Passion Chorale in Bachs St John Passion

Rhre mein GewissenMove my Conscience:

14 Petrus, der nicht denkt zurck (Peter, who does not think back)
Actus chorale concluding Act II, the Trial before the High Priests section of the
Passion

Mensch, mache RichtigkeitHuman, act with Righteousness:

28 Er nahm alles wohl in acht (He took care of everything)

Gib mir nur was du verdientGive me only what you have deserved:
32 Jesu, der du warest tot (Jesus, you who were dead)

Dir Dankopfer schenkenPresent a Thank-offering to you:

37 O hilf Christe, Gottes Sohn (Oh help, Christ, Gods Son)
Actus chorale concluding Act IV, the Crucifixion section of the Passion

Passion.72 Petzoldt terms this a character of thankfulness which, while inher-

ent in all five chorales, is made explicit in particular in the final of the five
Actus chorales in which believers pray: Dafr, wiewohl arm und schwach/ Dir
Dankopfer schenken! (For that, although poor and weak/ [We] present a thank-
offering to you).73
Where the five Actus chorales concluding each act of the Passion introduce
a recurrent sense of thankfulness as the story of the suffering and death of
Jesus progresses, the recurrent use of Paul Stockmanns Jesu Leiden, Tod und
Pein (Jesus suffering, death and pain), introduces a continued sense of prayer-
fulness. Each of the four verses of Stockmanns chorale used in Bachs St John
Passion introduce a specific petition: first believers ask for contrition, then they
are enjoined to act with righteousness, then they pray for a share in Christs
merits, and finally they ask to become living sacrifices. The fact that two of
the three occurrences of Stockmanns Passion chorale are also placed at the
conclusion of each separate act of the Passion drama, further underlines their
significance (see Table 10).
The use of the five Actus chorales and Stockmanns Passion chorale in Bachs
St John Passion communicate a distinctive message. Johns Passion narrative

72 Petzoldt (1993), pp. 53: Die gottesdienstliche Funktion der Johannes-Passion zu unterstre-
ichen oder zu erhalten.
73 Petzoldt (1993), p. 53: Das Moment der Dankbarkeit.
bachs st john passion 91

demands a reaction in the lives of believers that, even when confronted with
the death of the redeemer, offers grounds for thanksgiving the Actus chorales
assure. The use of Stockmanns petitions, in turn, signals how this thanksgiv-
ing can be lived out through metanoia: that is, an act of repentance that invites
believers to change their lives in response to the death of Jesus. This radical
change is accomplished in four stages: through contrition, by seeking reconcili-
tion with God, by trust in Gods promise that all who believe merit redemption
and, motivated by this belief and resulting from this metanoia, by leading lives
that seek to be living sacrifices to God.

4 The Purpose and Message of Bachs St John Passion

The separate three layers of reflectionGospel story, free poetry and chorales
that make up the libretto of Bachs St John Passion trace the journey of
discipleship: Johns Passion narrative retells the historical journey of Jesus
to the cross, while the librettos free poetry articulates existential questions
about the challenges of contemporary discipleship. The chorales chosen by the
unknown librettist, in turn, give voice to the believers sense of thanksgiving,
both for the redemptive action of Jesus Christ, and the possibility of metanoia,
of re-orientating the believers lives God-ward. Together, these three elements
provide a contemporary framework for the historical events of the suffering
and death of Jesus that sought to encourage contemporary listeners in Bachs
Leipzig to take ownership of their own shortcomings by recognising their own
sinfulness in the actions of the protagonists of the Passion. The sufferings and
spite inflicted on Jesus by historical religious and civic authorities, served as
examplars of modern-day individual and, possibly, instutional shortcomings.
They certainly encourage Bachs listeners to seek and receive forgiveness for
present wrongs.
In this way, Jesus journey also becomes a journey of faith for Bachs lis-
tening believer. The theological concept of Bachs unknown librettist closely
follows Luthers own reflections on Johns Passion narrative set down in the
1528 Wochenpredigten ber Johannes 1620 (Weekly Sermons on John 1620):
by following Jesus on the way to the cross, contemporary believers are invited
to reconsider the events of Calvary not as a tragic past event, but as a jour-
ney to be emulated.74 The libretto of Bachs St John Passion invites hearers to

74 As numerous Lutheran preachers, including Martin Moller, SOLILOQVIA De Passione Iesu

Christi. Wie ein jeder Christen Mensch/ das allerheyligste Leyden vnd Sterben vnsers HERRN
92 chapter 4

enter on the way of metanoia in two ways. Firstly, believers are asked to reframe
the historical events of the Way of the Cross by regarding their own present-
day shortcomings as the source of Jesus suffering.75 Secondly, believers are
invited to reframe their own experience of suffering and hardship in the light
of Jesus suffering; internalise it as an expression of entering into the way of the
cross themselves.76 Those that are able to reframe their own experience in this
way and change their behaviour accordingly, have accomplished metanoia, the
libretto makes clear: they have turned from being listeners to believers who find
in the cross the place of their redemption. There, at the foot of the cross, they
are enabled to recognise the crucified Jesus as mein Heiland (my Saviour) and
an instrument of torture and cruel death as mein Gnadenthron (my throne of
mercy).
Much of this theological concept is, of course, inherent in St Johns Gospel
narrative. For the fourth evangelist the Passion completes the glorification of
the incarnate Christ. This is expressed most forcefully in chapter 17 of the
Gospel, only moments before Jesus leaves the place of the Last Supper for
Gethsemane and the story of the Passion commences. In an extended prayer
Jesus reflects how he had shared in the very glory of God (Herrlichkeit) in the
Fathers presence before all world existed (John 17.5). At the end of the prayer,
Jesus asks God that his followers would behold him glorified (verherrlicht, John

Jesu Christ/ in seinem Hertzen bey sich selbst betrachten sol (Grlitz: Rhambaw, 1587),
pp. 5v6r, make clear: I will consider/ your sacred Cross and suffering I will carry it in
my heart/ for I wish daily/ and without ceasing to contemplate it (Da wil ich betrachten/
dein heyliges Creutze vnd Leyden Ich wils in meinem Hertzen tragen/ Denn ich wil
teglich/ vnd ohne vnterla daran gedencken).
75 Luther, Wochenpredigten ber Johannes 1620, 1528/29, WA 28: 391, 2932: Thus Christ is
crucified and hangs on the cross as the worst offender, criminal, insurgent and murderer
who has ever come to earth. And Christ, the innocent lamb, has to carry and pay for
someone elses guilt. For this is about us, it is our sin that are cast on him. We are
such offenders, criminals, insurgents and murderer (So wird nun Christus gecreutziget
und henget am Creutze als der ergeste Dieb, Schalck, Auffrhrer und Mrder der je auff
Erden komen ist. Und mus das unschuldige Lemlein Christus frembde Schuld tragen und
bezalen. Denn es gilt uns, Es sind unsere Snde, die ligen jm auff dem halse. Wir sind
solche Snder, Diebe, Schelke, Auffrhrer und Mrder).
76 WA 28: 384, 2730: Each one of us will need to carry their own cross. I have my gibbet. I
carry my own cross. Another has their own gibbet and cross. In the same way Christ carries
his own cross, and that cross no one can carry other than Jesus himself (Ein jeglicher wird
das seine [Kreuz] tragen mssen, Ich habe meinen Galgen, Ich trage mein Creutz, Ein
ander hat seinen Galgen und Creutz. Also treget auch Christus sein Creutz, und dasselb
kan niemand tragen denn Christus alleine).
bachs st john passion 93

17.24). The fulfilment of Jesus prayer is immediate: what ensues is the narrative
of his arrest. Unlike human rulers, therefore, who would seek their glory in
kingly splendour (Matthew 4.8), this ruler (Herrscher) inverts human values by
being enthroned on a cross, embracing willingly the greatest self-abasement
(die grte Niedrigkeit) imaginable, not out of weakness but rather to reveal
Gods power.
The second aspect of the librettos theological concept, the call on believers
to turn around their own lives and to live lives that are obedient to the will of
God, also closely follows a principal theme in St Johns Gospel. There, the under-
standing that the glory of God is most closely revealed in Christs obedience to
will of his Father, recurs frequently. On numerous occasions, Jesus claims that
others sought glory for the purpose of self-aggrandisement (John 5.41, 8.50), but
that he only ever sought the glory that came from the God who sent him and
on whose behalf he acted (John 5.44). John is certain that, as the Son of God,
Jesus fully shares in the eternal glory of the Creator (John 1.14) and that, fol-
lowing his ministry on earth, he will return to that glory (John 17.5). While this
divine glory shines through in the signs he performs (for example in John 2.11),
on earth Christ is glorified first of all by fulfilling the Fathers will (John 8.54),
the glory of Jesus is thus dependent upon both his essential relationship with
God, and his obedience.77 Likewise, for Jesus followers, obedience to the will
of God is essential, the libretto of Bachs St John Passion echoes the Johannine
Gospel narrative: Gib uns Geduld in Leidenszeit/ gehorsam sein in Lieb und Leid
(Give us patience in the time of suffering/ to be obedient in love and suffer-
ing).
The libretto of Bachs St John Passion articulates well Johns perception of
glory as Jesus fulfilment of the Fathers will; a glorification that is most com-
pletely expressed in Jesus suffering and death. Jesus himself says that he will
be glorified in his betrayal (John 13.31) and his death on the cross (John 12.23
25). Consequently, when Jesus is lifted up he is not exalted to the glory of
the heavenly kingdom, but rather is subjected to an ignominious death (John
3.14 and 12.32f). It is precisely by fulfilling the will of the Father (John 8.28),
who chose to give up his only Son (John 3.16), that the unique relationship
between God and Christ is shown: by dying so that the world may be saved,
Jesus is revealed to all as Gods only-begotten Son and, in turn, reveals God as
a loving Father (John 1.14 and 3.1617): It is a death that achieves glorification,
and the crucified Jesus is proclaimed as king in the principal languages of the

77 Charles Kingsley Barrett, The Gospel according to Saint John (London: SPCK, 1978), p. 166.
94 chapter 4

world (John 19.1920).78 This glorification continued in the ascension of Jesus

to the Father (John 20.17), which, for John, includes the resurrection. Again,
the libretto of Bachs St John Passion includes the post-resurrection dimension
inherent in Johns Gospel narrative: in movement 32, Mein teurer Heiland (My
dear Saviour), death, resurrection and the consequent possibility that believ-
ers may das Himmelreich ererben (the kingdom of heaven inherit), are skilfully
intertwined.
The libretto of Bachs St John Passion not only gives voice to the evangelists
theological concepts but to Luthers reformation reception of the Gospel: the
self-abasement of God through Christ stands at the heart of Luthers Theology
of the Cross. Luther further developed the Johannine concept of Gods glory as
uniquely revealed in Christs suffering and death, by professing that the only
way human beings can come to know God is through the cross. For Luther,
God can never fully be discerned by human investigation of the physical world,
not even by examining Scripture or divine laws. God is known in the humility
and shame of the Cross, and revealed in the suffering face of Jesus Christ (John
14.9).79 Echoing this insight, in movement 26 of Bachs St John Passion, the same
suffering face is upheld as an image zu Trost in meiner Not (for consolation in
my adversity) for each believer.
Johns paradox that Jesus was glorified in his utter debasement formed
the core of Luthers theology: Gods divinity remains hidden in the crucifix-
ion of Jesus. Just as God does not show his face in the divine revelations
of the first covenant (for example when revealing himself to Moses in Exo-
dus 33.23), so Luther believed God essentially to be a hidden God (Deus
absconditus), who can only ever be comprehend by our faith in Jesus Christ.80

78 Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel according to John: Introduction, Translation and Notes,
Anchor Bible, 2 vols (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1971), 2: XIIIXXI, p. 541.
79 Luther, Disputatio Heidelbergae habita, 1518, WA 1: 362, 1114: Thus it is never enough
nor does it profit anyone who regards God in glory and majesty and does not recognise
him in the humility and ignominy of the cross. In this way I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise etc. [1 Corinthians 1.19]. As Isaiah says: Truly you are a hidden God [Isaiah
45.15]. (Ita ut nulli iam satis sit ac prosit, qui cognoscit Deum in gloria et maiestate, nisi
cognoscat eundem in humilitate et ignominia crucis. Sic perdit sapientiam sapientum &c
sicut Isaias dicit: Vere absconditus tu es Deus). Alister E. McGrath, Luthers Theology of the
Cross (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993), especially pp. 148175, still provides one of the most
insightful introductions on Luthers Theology of the Cross in English.
80 WA 1: 357, 4: We live in the absence of God, that is, only by faith in his mercy (Vivimus
in absconditio Dei, id est, in nuda fiducia misericordiae eius). In a 1517 Sermon on St
Matthiass Day, Luther summed up this paradox, Sermo Die Sancti Matthiae Anno 1517,
WA 1: 138, 1315: Man hides his own things in order to conceal them, God hides his own
bachs st john passion 95

Alister McGrath attempts to explain the complexity at the heart of this doc-
trine:

This revelation must be regarded as indirect and concealed. This is one of

the most difficult aspects of the theologia crucis (Theology of the Cross)
to grasp: how can one speak of a concealed revelation? The friends
of the cross know that beneath the humility and shame of the cross lie
concealed the power and the glory of Godbut to others, this insight is
denied.81

Where human logic can grasp only with difficulty how divine power can be
displayed in weakness, only faith can perceive that God deliberately chooses
to be made known in the Passion and cross. For Martin Luther, therefore,
true theology and knowledge of God are found in Christ crucified.82 In Bachs
libretto, this paradox is particularly well expressed in the imposing opening
movement, juxtaposing the glorification of the Saviour auch in der grten
Niedrigkeit (even in the deepest lowliness).
By the time the libretto of Bachs St John Passion was compiled, Luthers core
belief that God in Christ emptied himself in order to be known by the believer,
first in the Incarnation and fully in his suffering and death, has become the
central theme of numerous later Lutheran reflections on the Passion. Johann
Jakob Rambach, a direct contemporary of Bach and a leading Piestist theolo-
gian, offers a reflection which, like the opening chorus of the St John Passion,
takes the form of a prayer to the kenotoic, self-emptying, Christ:

O faithful and living Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ,

praised be your fervent love beyond all human reason,
which caused you to descend from your throne of glory
where you had been adored by all the angels,
and worshipped by all the Cherubim and Seraphin
in order to exchange
greatest glory for deepest lowliness,
utmost bliss for greatest sorrow and
highest pleasure for utmost pain.83

things in order to reveal them (Homo abscondit sua ut neget: Deus abscondit sua ut
revelet).
81 McGrath (1993), pp. 149150.
82 WA 1: 362, 1819: Ergo in Christo crucifixo est vera Theologia et cognitio Dei.
83 Johann Jakob Rambach, Betrachtungen ber die Sieben letzten Worte des gecreutzigten Jesu
96 chapter 4

The libretto of Bachs St John Passion powerfully relates through music the
Lutheran reception of the Johannine Passion narrative, as well as Johns under-
standing of the cross as the place of true glory, and suffering and humiliation as
true glorification. Johns expectation that the reading and hearing of his Gospel
story might bring about metanoia and conversion, so that you may come to
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing
you may have life in his name (John 20.31), is clearly shared by the libretto of
Bachs Passion, and is expressed effectively through his music. Luther had fore-
seen that sermo et vox, word and voice together, could provide a profoundly
moving means of proclamation the Gospel message.84 The libretto of Bachs St
John Passion and the composers detailed musical word-setting accomplished
Luthers vision, combining Lutheran homiletic skills and contemporary musi-
cal techniques, which themselves are associated with the sorts of rhetorical
device employed in sermons and therefore directly connected to theological
purposes, in order to amplify the preached Gospel message.85 The ensuing
commentary provides a detailed analysis of the libretto and music of Bachs St
John Passion in order to offer further insights into how Bachs music can serve
as a fundamental vehicle to communicate Johns Passion story with the view to
effect a personal response in the listener.

(Halle: Waisenhaus, 1732), p. 98: Nun du treuer und lebendiger Heyland/ Herr Jesu Christe/
gelobet sey deine brnstige und allen Begriff bersteigende Liebe/ die dich bewogen
hat/ von dem Thron deiner Herrlichkeit/ da du von allen Engeln verehret/ und von allen
Cerubinen und Seraphinen angebettet wurdest/ und die hchste Ehre mit der tieffsten
Schmach/ die hchste Freude mit der grsten Traurigkeit/ die hchste Vergngung mit
den ussersten Schmertzen/ zu verwechseln.
84 Luther, Praefatio zu den Symphoniae Iucundae, 1538, WA 50: 732, 1.
85 Butt (2010), p. 40.
 part ii
Commentary

 chapter 5

Introduction to the Commentary

Bachs autograph score and Arthur Mendels 1973 Neue Bachausgabe Passio
Secundum Johannem (BWV 245) form the textual and musical basis for this
commentary; it is highly recommended that readers make use of the full score
rather than the piano reduction when consulting this commentary.1 The auto-
graph score and the editors Kritischer Bericht on the work have been consulted
in conjunction with the score.2 The Kritischer Bericht provides a wealth of
further background information on the development and transmission of the
work. While reference is made to a number of the variants of the 1725 version
(II) reproduced in the appendix to Mendels edition, on the whole the com-
mentary is based on the more familiar 1724 version (I).

1 Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes-Passion BWV 245, ed. by Arthur Mendel, Neue Bach-
Ausgabe Serie II: Messen, Passionen, oratorische Werke, 5 vols (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1973), IV
[cited as NBA 245].
2 Herr unser Herrscher etc./ G m./ Passions-Oratorium nach dem Evangelisten Johannes/ fr 4
Singst: mit Instrum./ von/ Johann Sebastian Bach./ Zum Theil eigenhndige Partitur, Staats-
bibliothek Preuischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Mus. MS Bach P 28; idem, Johannes-Passion
BWV 245, ed. by Arthur Mendel, Neue Bach-Ausgabe Serie II: Messen, Passionen, oratorische
Werke, 5 vols (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1974), IV: Kritischer Bericht von Arthur Mendel [cited as Kri-
tischer Bericht].

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 chapter 6

Study Translation
Katherine Firth*

The libretto has been translated specially for this commentary by Dr Katherine
Firth. Firths translation aims to be as close to the word choice, grammar,
sequence and structure of the original libretto as possible, within the bounds
of comprehensible English. The translated recitatives are loosely based on
the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, but extensively revised both to
maintain consistency of translation across the free verse and the Biblical texts,
and to achieve a closer translation of Luthers German (for instance in John
18.1b, where the NRSVs Kidron valley has been changed to Kidron stream to
reflect Luthers Bach Kidron). It retains the German transliteration of Greek
or Jewish names (for instance Hannas instead of Annas, Barrabas rather
than Barabbas, and Arimathia rather than Arimathea) except for central
characters such as Caiaphas and Pilate. This should enable readers with little
or no command of German to recognise words emphasised by the German
poetry, such as rhyme words, ends of lines and repetitions. Wherever possible,
the translation is line by line, to facilitate comparison between the libretto and
the translation. Wherever Bachs movements cut across Bible verse divisions,
these have been subdivided.
Bachs unknown librettist and compositor probably adapted a 1707 edition
of Martin Luthers translation of the Bible to serve as the Scriptural basis for the
work.1 Significant differences between Luthers translation and the Johannine
Greek (such as John 19.3, where Luther inserts lieber, beloved/dear, to the
soldiers mocking greeting, Hail, King of the Jews) have been highlighted in

* Dr Katherine Firth is is Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College, the University of Mel-
bourne and teaches at the University of Melbourne. She has published widely on twentieth-
century poetry. Her commissioned libretti have been performed in the United Kingdom and
Australia, including by the choirs of Trinity College, Cambridge; Westminster Abbey, London;
Trinity College, Melbourne; and the Oriana Chorale, Canberra.
1 Martin Luther, tr., BIBLIA, Das ist: Die gantze Heilige Schrifft Altes und Neuen Testaments
verteutscht durch D. Martin Luthern (Leipzig: N. Haas, 1707), see especially the discussion in
Mendel (1974), pp. 157160, p. 160: the closest match is that of the 1707 edition (am nchsten
steht er noch bei der Bibel von 1707).

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study translation 101

the commentary. The libretto varies from Luthers original in a number of

places (such as the omission auff Ostern, at the Passover, in John 18.39a). These
variations might suggest that the librettist, or Bach himself, used multiple
editions of the text, or that made simple slips of the pen in copying the text, or
that in minor instances Bach presumably adapted the text of his source of his
own accord.2
The librettist seems to have been responding to, and consciously echoing,
the Biblical texts in the free poetry of the arias and choruses, and in the selec-
tion and alterations of the chorales. Thus, where words are repeated, or are cog-
nate variations, they are translated by the same English root word (for instance,
Blicke and blickten are rendered a look and looked throughout the libretto).
Where the librettist makes a distinction, that distinction is retained in the
translation (for instance, Stricken and gebunden is rendered cords and bound,
rather than bonds and bound). The translation therefore demonstrates that,
although Bach composed the madrigalic texts seperately to the Biblical recita-
tive, the librettist wrote or composited the text as a whole, because the librettist
clusters words together through repeating words and cognates in both the free
verse and the Biblical narrative. This clustering is used both in small sections
across a few movements, and across the libretto as a whole; both for minor
grammatical forms such as interjections like zwar (indeed) or O, and high level
concepts such as Trost (consolation), thus building up layers and connections
in meaning across the texts.
This kind of translation therefore allows the reader to make those connec-
tions and distinctions across the libretto. For example, after the Crucifixion in
the final nine movements of the Passion, the libretto uses two different words
for body. Leichnam (corpse) is used once of the bodies of the all those crucified
(John 19.31) and three times of Jesus body, specifically in his burial (John 19.38
39). This underlines the emphasis in the free poetry that frames this moment,
that Dein Jesus ist tot! (Your Jesus is dead!) (movements 32, Mein teurer Heiland,
la dich fragen; 34, Mein Herz, in dem die ganze Welt; 35, Zerfliee, mein Herze, in
Fluten der Zhren). Although there is an interposed response in Mein teurer Hei-
land, that Jesu Lebest nun ohne Ende (Jesus you live now without end), this
reference to Jesus ressurection is not repeated. On the other hand, in the inter-
polated verses from Matthews Gospel, the Leiber der Heiligen (bodies of the

2 Kritischer Bericht, p. 160: Wahrscheinlich nderte Bach auch den Text seiner Vorlage in
Kleinigkeiten eigenmchtig; ibid. Presumably most of the presumed variants, if not all of
them, are mere slips of the pen (Wahrscheinlich sind die meisten unter den mutmalichen
Vernderungen, wenn nicht gar alle, bloe Flchtigkeitsfehler).
102 firth

saints) arise (Matthew 27.52). Leib (body) is used for these bodies and for
the body of the faithful believer asleep in its casket awaiting the last day (in
movement 40, Ach Herr, la dein lieb Engelein). Thus we can see that Leib is used
of bodies that experience, or expect to experience, resurrection, but Leichnam
is used for bodies that are expected to stay dead. This helps us to understand
what Bach and his collaborators wanted to leave the audience at Good Friday
at the end of the Passion performance.
On the other hand, Stck (strip, piece) is used only twice in the libretto,
seperated by a dozen movements. Once in movement 20, Erwge, wie sein
blutgefrbter Rcken, where each allen Stcken (every strip or stripe) of Jesus
flogged back dem Himmel gleiche geht (goes equally, or straight, to Heaven);
and once in the interpolation from Matthew 27.51 in movement 33, where the
curtain in the Temple at the moment of Crucifixion is zerri in zwei Stck (torn
in two strips, or pieces). The curtain divides the Temple from the Holy of Holies
where God dwells. Thus the repeated word creates a linguistic and theological
parallel, where the destruction of Christs body enables the believer to access
the home of God.
In order to respect such patterning, the translation differentiates between
seemingly small differences in words. For example, sagen (say or tell), sprechen
(speak or declare) and reden (address), along with antworten (answer) and
fragen (ask), are often translated interchangeably. However, by differentiating
them, it becomes evident that things are said or told in conversation, spoken
more as a declaration, and addressed to a defined audience. This underlines
the way in which much of the dialogue in the Passion is actually just alternat-
ing speeches before the crowd, particularly in the interchanges between Jesus
and Pilate. In other places, particularly with reden, the distinctions seem to be
less significant. However, by maintaining the distinctions in the translation,
scholars who do not speak German are able to make that judgement for them-
selves.
Firths translation endeavours to leave the language open to the multiple
interpretations inherent in the German poetry, by preferring neutral transla-
tions. The librettos original poetry is designed to be open and rich with poten-
tial meanings which allows context, performance and musical setting to pro-
vide interpretation. The imperative blicke in chorale movement 14, Peter, der
nicht denkt zurck, is translated as look ( Jesu, blicke mich auch anJesus, also
look at me). To translate blicke as gaze, glance or stare (as other translations
have done) is to impose a singular meaning on a moment in the Passion that
can have any one of those (or more) meanings depending on the interpreta-
tion or performance. Even when conceptual additions are strongly implied by
allusion to Biblical or liturgical texts, the translation avoids incorporating these
study translation 103

into the choice of words; this is left to the commentary. For instance, although
the word Marterstrae clearly refers to the Via Dolorosa, or way of suffering, it
is rendered road of torture because the German libretto differentiates between
torture (Marter) and suffering (Leiden) later in the strophe, and elsewhere in
the libretto.
Some of the seemingly awkward translations in fact mark discontinuities in
the Biblical narrative, or strikingly awkward moments in the German texts. An
example is the frequent use of aber (but) to mark transitions in the exchanges
between Jesus, Pilate and the Jews, which are often translated in ways that cre-
ate continuity and logical progression, such as then and since. However, the
German text uses aber (but) as a tag at, or near, the beginning of a sentence to
show that what is reported next is not a natural progression, but sometimes
an antagonistic response, sometimes a break (for example when the narra-
tive cuts to another group of people, or to another location), or another dis-
junction. For example, after Pilate has stated What I have written, that I have
written (John 19.22), and the chorus has reflected on the cross of Christ deep
in their heart (movement 26, In meines Herzens Grunde), the next scene is a
shocking transition, the division of Christs clothes by the mercenary (Roman
foot) soldiers (John 19.23). This transition is therefore marked by aber. Else-
where, the use of da (there) marks that the place of the action has moved
or is significant; and denn (then) that the time of the speech or act is signifi-
cant.3
The translation is extensively annotated to provide more detailed notes
about possible multiple meanings in German and further explanation not
contained in the commentary section. The translation focuses on the poetic
language and meaning of the original text, rather than trying to render the
English in a poetic or performative manner. For this reason, we believe this to
be the most literal, scholarly and systematic version of the full libretto available
in English to date.

3 The prepositions da and denn have a large semantic field beyond their use at the beginning of
sentences. When not being used as a place tag, denn, for example, is translated since where
it signifies logical progression; and in other places it suggests if or than.
 104 firth

1. PRIMA PARTE
EXORDIUM
1. Chorus
Chorus (Flute I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

Herr, unser Herrscher,4 Lord, our Lord,

dessen Ruhm5 in allen Landen herrlich6 ist!
Zeig uns durch deine Passion,
da du, der wahre Gottessohn,
zu aller Zeit,
auch in der grten Niedrigkeit,7
verherrlicht8 worden bist.
whose fame in all lands is noble!
Show us through your Passion,
that you, the true Son of God,
for all time,
even in the deepest lowliness,
have been made noble.

I. HORTUSJESUS IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE9

2a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), Continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,1b Jesus ging mit seinen Jngern John 18.1b Jesus went out with his disciples
ber den Bach10 Kidron, da war ein Garte[n], across the Kidron stream, there was a garden,
darein ging Jesus und seine Jnger. into which went Jesus and his disciples.

4 Herr, Herrscher: Herrlich is the adjective, noble, verherrlicht, is the verb to be ennobled,
unlike in English, where lord can be title, position, adjective or verb. The poetry in the St
John Passion plays on patterns, variations and repetitions of the same words. See also the
use of Herr in movements 1, 5, 13, 26, 32 and 40.
5 Ruhm: fame or praise. The German Ruhm has only positive connotations, and can also
mean glorification. It is thus closer to the Greek kleos than the Latin, and double edged,
fama, which can mean equally famous and infamous.
6 Herrlich is cognate with Herrscher and Herr. It suggests nobility, exaltedness, honour,
glory.
7 Niedrigkeit with Herrlichkeit is one of the major pairings of the Passion lyrics: high and
low, nobility and humility. It is based on the theological idea of kenosis, the self-emptying
as the highest God stoops to the deepest lowliness. Niedrigkeit can suggest being brought
low or humiliated.
8 Verherrlicht is cognate with Herrscher, Herr, and herrlich.
9 For the Latin hexameter, hortus, pontifices, Pilatus cruxque, sepulchrum (garden, priests,
Pilate and cross, sepulchre), providing the structure of translation and commentary, see:
Johann Gerhardt, Erklhrung der Histo-/ rien des Leidens vnnd Sterbens vnsers/ HErrn
Christi Jesu nach den vier/ Evangelisten (Jena: Tobias Steinmann, 1611), p. b ijr.
10 Bach means stream and is the composers own name.
 study translation 105

18,2 Judas aber, der ihn verriet, wute den Ort 18.2 Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the
auch, denn Jesus versammelte sich oft daselbst place, since Jesus often met there with his
mit seinen Jngern. disciples.

18,3 Da nun Judas zu sich hatte genommen 18.3 Then, when Judas had brought the troops
die Schar11 und der Hohenpriester12 und Phariser and the servants of the chief priests
Diener, kommt er dahin mit Fackeln, Lampen and the Pharisees, he came there with
und mit Waffen. lanterns, torches and with weapons.

18,4 Als nun Jesus wute alles, was ihm begegnen 18.4 At that time, Jesus, knowing everything
sollte, ging er hinaus und sprach zu ihnen: that should happen to him, went out and said to
them:

Jesus Jesus
Wen suchet ihr? Whom do you seek?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,5 Sie antworteten ihm: 18.5 They answered him:

2b. Coro
Chorus (Flute I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

Johannes 18,5a Jesum von Nazareth. John 18.5a Jesus of Nazareth.

2c. Recitativo
Evangelisttenor, Jesusbass, continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,5b Jesus spricht zu ihnen: John 18.5b Jesus said to them:

Jesus Jesus
Ich bins. I am he.

Evangelist Evangelist
Judas aber, der ihn verriet, But Judas, who betrayed him,
stund auch bei ihnen. was also standing with them.

11 Schar: troops, used both of an informal group of armed men, a group of police and formal
cohort of soldiers under an Oberhauptmann (captain). It is contrasted only with the
Roman soldiers, Kriegesknechte.
12 Hohenpriester: chief priests, high priests. The translation distinguishes between the
Hohenpriester (chief priests) and the Hohepriester (high priest).
 106 firth

18,6 Als nun Jesus zu ihnen sprach: 18.6 When Jesus said to them:
Ich bins, wichen13 sie zurcke I am he, they moved back
und fielen zu Boden. and fell to the ground.

18,7 Da fragete er sie abermal: 18.7 There he asked them again:

Jesus Jesus
Wen suchet ihr? Whom do you seek?

Evangelist Evangelist
Sie aber sprachen: But they spoke:

2d. Coro e Recitativo

Chorus and Recitative (Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo), Evangelisttenor,
Jesusbass

Johannes 18,7b Jesum von Nazareth. John 18.7b Jesus of Nazareth.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,8 Jesus antwortete: 18.8 Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Ich habs euch gesagt, da ichs sei, I have told you, that I am he,
suchet ihr denn mich, so lasset diese gehen! If you are seeking me, then let these go!

3. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

O groe Lieb, o Lieb ohn alle Mae,14 O greater love, O love beyond all measure,
die dich gebracht auf diese Marterstrae!15 that brought you to this road of torture!

13 Wichen: moved, gave way, yielded.

14 This chorale contains many of the key words used in the free poetry of the Passion. In
particular, it sets up the Lieb and Leid (love and suffering) dichotomy. Here, Lieb and Leid
are mirrored: the two words are very similar in spelling and speaking, l, a long diphthong
and a plosive consonant. Yet, they have opposite meanings (which are paradoxically
brought together in the cross of Christ). This choral also introduces the Marter and Freude
(torture and happiness) dichotomy.
15 Marter: intentionally inflicted suffering. Strae: road, path. Marterstrae refers at once
to the actual Via Dolorosa through Jerusalem, and the metaphorical pathway or Strae
through the Passion narrative.
 study translation 107

Ich lebte mit der Welt in Lust16 und Freuden, I lived with the world in happiness and joy,
und du mut leiden.17 and you must suffer.

4. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,9 Auf da das Wort erfllet wrde, John 18.9 So that the words would be fulfilled
welches er sagte: that he had spoken:
Ich habe der keine verloren, I have lost none of those
die du mir gegeben hast. whom you gave me.

18,10 Da hatte Simon Petrus ein Schwert
und zog es aus
und schlug nach des Hohenpriesters Knecht
und hieb him sein recht Ohr ab;
und der Knecht hie Malchus.
18.10 There Simon Peter had a sword,
and drew it out,
and struck at the high priests slave,
and took off his right ear.
And the slave was called Malchus.

18,11 Da sprach Jesus zu Petro: 18.11 There Jesus spoke to Peter:

Jesus Jesus
Stecke dein Schwert in die Scheide! Put your sword in its scabbard.
Soll ich den Kelch nicht trinken, Shall I not drink the cup
den mir mein Vater gegeben hat? that the Father has given me?

5. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos;
Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Dein Will gescheh, Herr18 Gott, zugleich19 Your will be done, Lord God, equally
auf Erden wie im Himmelreich, on earth as in the kingdom of heaven.
Gib uns Geduld in Leidenszeit, Give us patience in the time of suffering,
gehorsam sein in Lieb und Leid;20 to be obedient in love and suffering;

16 Lust: both happiness and that which I desire to do, suggesting individual human desires
and happiness, rather than the deeper joy of serving God.
17 Leiden: Leiden and Marter have similar meanings, but the lyricist uses different words.
Compare their uses in movements 3, 5, 20 (1749 version IV), 28, 34 and 37. The verb tense
changes here from the past (brought, lived) to the imperative present (must suffer).
18 For Herr: Lord, see movement 1.
19 Zugleich: equally, more exactly just as in heaven.
20 See movement 3.
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wehr und steur21 allem Fleisch und Blut, defend and guide all flesh and blood,
das wider deinen Willen tut!22 that acts against your will!

II. PONTIFICESJESUS BEFORE THE CHIEF PRIESTS

6. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,12 Die Schar aber und der John 18.12 But the troops, their captain,
Oberhauptmann und die Diener der Jden and the servants of the Jews
nahmen Jesum und bunden ihn took Jesus and bound him

18,13 und fhreten ihn aufs erste zu Hannas, 18.13 and led him first to Hannas,
der war Kaiphas Schwher, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,
welcher des Jahres Hoherpriester war. who was the high priest that year.

18,14 Es war aber Kaiphas, der den Jden riet, 18.14 But it was Caiaphas who had advised
es wre gut, da ein Mensch wrde the Jews that it were better that one
umbracht23 fr das Volk. person would be broken for the people.

7. Aria
Alto (Oboe I/II, Continuo)

Von den Stricken24 meiner Snden From the cords of my sins,

mich zu entbinden,25 in order to unbind me,
wird mein Heil26 gebunden.27 my salvation will be bound.
Mich von allen Lasterbeulen From all the boils of vice,
vllig zu heilen28 in order to fully heal me,
lt29 er sich verwunden. he lets himself be wounded.

21 Steur: guide, more exactly steer or helm a ship.

22 Tut: acts, has the sense to work, perform, or to have dealings with.
23 Umbracht: to break down, to plough up a field. Here it reflects both the execution of Jesus
on the cross and the breaking of the bread in the Eucharist.
24 Stricken: cords or ropes.
25 Entbinden: unbind. More often released, delivered, but cognate with gebunden.
26 Mein Heil: my salvation indirectly refers to Christ as Saviour. Heil means both salvation
and health or healing.
27 Mich zu entbinden/ wird mein Heil gebunden: in order to unbind me/ my salvation will be
bound, may be confusing in this order but means, in order to release me from sin/ my
salvation will be tied up.
28 Heilen: heal, cognate with Heil.
29 Lt: let means both to allow oneself but and to let go or to set free. Lt is a homonym
 study translation 109

8. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,15a Simon Petrus aber folgete Jesu John 18.15a But Simon Peter followed after
nach und ein andrer Jnger. Jesus and another disciple.

9. Aria
Sporano (Flute I/II, Continuo)

Ich folge dir gleichfalls30 mit freudigen31 Schritten I follow you equally with joyful steps
und lasse32 dich nicht and will not let you go
mein Leben, mein Licht. my life, my light.
Befrdre33 den Lauf Take me on the way
und hre nicht auf and do not cease
selbst34 an mir zu ziehen, zu schieben, zu bitten.35 yourself to draw me, prod me, request me.

10. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Ancilla (soprano), Petrus (bass), Jesus (bass),
Servus (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,15b Derselbige Jnger war John 18.15b That same disciple was
dem Hohenpriester bekannt known to the high priest
und ging mit Jesu hinein and went with Jesus into
in des Hohenpriesters Palast. the palace of the high priest.

18,16 Petrus aber stund drauen fr der Tr. 18.16 But Peter was standing outside
in front of the door.
Da ging der andere Jnger, There the other disciple,
der dem Hohenpriester bekannt war, who was known to the high priest,

with Laster, vice, iniquity. The mirroring here brings together human sin and sickness
with Christs gracious willingness to take that sin on himself in order to bring healing.
30 Gleichfalls: equally or likewise, similar to zugleich in chorale movement 5. See also
movements 30, 32.
31 Freude: joy, see also movements 3, 9, 20 (1749 version IV), 40.
32 Lasse: to let go, to set free, see note 31 above.
33 Befrdre: transport, convey, carry.
34 Selbst: you yourself, O Christ, draw me, prod me, request me.
35 Bitten: to plead, to request, to entreat.
 110 firth

hinaus und redete mit der Trhterin36 went out and addressed the gatekeeper
und fhrete Petrum hinein. and led Peter in.

18,17 Da sprach die Magd, die Trhterin, zu Petro: 18.17 There the maid, the gatekeeper, said to
Peter:

Ancilla Maid
Bist du nicht dieses Menschen37 Are you not one of this persons
Jnger einer? disciples?

Evangelist Evangelist
Er sprach: He said:

Petrus Peter
Ich bins nicht. I am not.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,18 Es stunden aber die Knechte und Diener 18.18 But the slaves and servants standing
und hatten ein Kohlfeur gemacht (denn es war kalt) there had made a charcoal fire (since it was
und wrmeten sich. cold) and were warming themselves.
Petrus aber stund bei ihnen But Peter stood with them,
und wrmete sich. and was warming himself.

18,19 Aber der Hohepriester fragete 18.19 But the high priest asked
Jesum um seine Jnger und um seine Lehre. Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.

18,20 Jesus antwortete ihm: 18.20 Jesus answered him:

Jesus
Ich habe frei, ffentlich geredet fr der Welt.
Ich habe allezeit gelehret
in der Schule und in dem Tempel,
da alle Juden zusammenkommen,
und habe nichts im Verborgnen38 geredt.39
Jesus
I have freely, openly addressed the world;
I have always taught
in the synagogue and in the temple,
where all the Jews come together,
and have spoken nothing in secret.

18,21 Was fragest du mich darum? 18.21 Why do you ask me therefore?
Frage die darum, die gehret haben, Ask therefore those who heard

36 In German, it is clear that the gatekeeper is female.

37 Menschen: person, human, mankind, man.
38 Verborgnen: hiddenness, secret, concealment.
39 Lit.: made no address in concealment.
 study translation 111

was ich zu ihnen geredet40 habe! what I addressed to them!

Siehe, dieselbigen wissen, was ich gesaget habe. Behold, they know what I said.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,22 Als er aber solches redete, 18.22 But when he had made such an address,
gab der Diener einer, die dabeistunden, one of the servants who was standing nearby
Jesu einen Backenstreich und sprach: struck Jesus face, and spoke:

Servus Servant
Solltest du dem Hohenpriester also antworten? Is that how you should answer the high priest?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,23 Jesus aber antwortete: 18.23 But Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Hab ich bel geredt.41 If I have addressed [him] wickedly,
so beweise es, da es bse sei, then prove it, that it is evil.
hab ich aber recht geredt, but if I have addressed [him] rightly,
was schlgest du mich? why do you strike me?

11. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos;
Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Wer hat dich so42 geschlagen.43 Who had struck you so,
mein Heil,44 und dich mit Plagen my salvation and with troubles
so bel zugericht?45 so battered you?
Du bist ja nicht ein Snder You are indeed not a sinner

40 Reden: Talked, addressed, conversed. In the libretto, it seems to function more like
sprachen (speak, make a speech) than like sagen (said, talked).
41 In the libretto, reden usually suggests an address to a present or implied audience, who is
identified (unlike sprachen which can be more generally used).
42 So: in this manner.
43 This stanza repeats words from the previous verse in the recitative: schlgest and geschla-
gen (to strike), bel (wicked).
44 Heil: salvation, healing. As in movement 7, Heil is used to contrast both with penal
imagery (binding, corporal punishment) where it suggests release; and with pain or
sickness imagery (boils, wounds) where it suggests healing.
45 bel zugericht: battered, ravaged, badly hit. bel suggests wicked or evil, see the
previous movement (John 18.23).
 112 firth

wie46 wir und unsre Kinder like us and our children,

von Missetaten weit du nicht. you do not know about transgressions.

Ich, ich und meine Snden, I, I and my sins

die sich wie Krnlein finden
des Sandes an dem Meer,
die haben dir erreget47
das Elend,48 das dich schlget,
und das betrbte49 Marterheer.50
that are like little grains, that are to be found
by the sea, of sand,
they have provoked
the distress that strikes you
and the host of afflicting tortures.

12a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,24 Und Hannas sandte ihn John 18.24 And Hannas sent him
gebunden51 zu dem Hohenpriester Kaiphas. bound to the high priest Caiaphas.

18,25 Simon Petrus stund drauen 18.25 Simon Peter was standing outside
und wrmete sich, and warming himself,
da sprachen sie zu ihm: there they spoke to him:

12b. Coro
Chorus (Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

18,25 Bist du nicht seiner Jnger einer? 18.25 Are you not also one of his disciples?

12c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Petrus (bass), Servus (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
18,25b Er leugnete aber und sprach: 18.25b But he denied it and said:

Petrus Peter
18,26 Ich bins nicht. 18.26 I am not.

46 Wie: introducing a simile. The meaning is, we and our children are sinners, and you are
not.
47 Erreget: aroused, agitated, provoked, incurred.
48 Elend: also wretchedness, squalor, affliction, destitution.
49 Betrbt: also saddened, downcast.
50 Marter: intentionally inflicted suffering, see note 17 above. Heer: army or host.
51 See movement 7.
 study translation 113

Evangelist Evangelist
Spricht des Hohenpriesters Knecht einer, One of the slaves of the high priest,
ein Gefreundeter des, a friend of the man
dem Petrus das Ohr abgehauen hatte: whose ear Peter had cut off, said:

Servus Servant
Sahe ich dich nicht im Garten bei ihm? Did I not see you in the garden with him?

Evangelist
18,27 Da verleugnete Petrus abermal,
und alsobald krhete der Hahn.
Matthus 26,75 Da gedachte Petrus
an die Worte Jesu
und ging hinaus und weinete bitterlich.
Evangelist
18.27 There Peter denied it again,
and at that moment the cock crowed.
Matthew 26.75 There Peter remembered
the words of Jesus
and he went out and wept bitterly.

13. Aria
Tenor (Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

Ach,52 mein Sinn,53 Oh, my reason,

wo willt du endlich54 hin, where do you intend to go ultimately,
wo soll ich mich erquicken? where shall I now revive myself?

Bleib ich hier, Do I stay here,

oder wnsch ich mir or do I wish upon myself
Berg und Hgel auf den Rcken? mountain and hill on my back?

Bei der Welt is gar kein Rat, In the world there is no guidance at all,
und im Herzen and in my heart
stehn die Schmerzen55 stay the pains
meiner Missetat, of my transgression,
weil der Knecht den Herrn verleugnet hat.56 because the slave has denied his lord.

52 Ach: oh!, but also alas, ah! See also movements 13, 17, 20 (1749 IV) and 40.
53 Sinn: will, reason, mind.
54 Endlich: ultimately, eventually, at the last.
55 Schmerzen: pains felt as a result of sinfulness, rather than the Leid, suffering that tortures
Christ.
56 Verleugnet: disowned knowledge of rather than refused or refuted.
 114 firth

14. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Petrus, der nicht denkt zurck,57 Peter, who does not think back,
seinen Gott verneinet,58 disowns his God,
der doch auf ein ernsten Blick he, however, at a serious look
bitterlichen weinet. bitterly weeps.
Jesu, blicke mich auch an, Jesus, also look at me,
wenn ich nicht will ben; when I do not want to atone;
wenn ich Bses hab getan, when I have done evil
rhre mein Gewissen! move my conscience!

2. PARTE SECUNDA: NACH DER PREDIGT

III. PILATUSJESUS BEFORE PILATE
15. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Christus, der uns selig macht, Christ, who makes us blessed,

kein Bs hat begangen, no evil has committed,
der ward fr uns in der Nacht, he was, for us, at night,
als ein Dieb gefangen, as a thief, trapped,
gefhrt fr59 gottlose Leut, led before godless people,
und flschlich verklaget, and falsely accused,
verlacht, verhhnt und verspeit, laughed at, ridiculed, spat at,
wie denn60 die Schrift saget. as it says in Scripture.

16a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,28a Da fhreten sie Jesum von John 18.28a There they led Jesus from
Kaiphas vor das Richthaus. Caiaphas before the courthouse.

18,28b Und es war frhe. 18.28b And it was early.

57 Denkt zurck: remember. Peter speaks forgetfully or unreflectively.

58 Verneinet: disowns, refutes, as opposed to verleugnet, denied, in arias 13.
59 Gehrt fr: led before, brought before Pilate.
60 Denn: since it says so in the Scriptures.
 study translation 115

18,28c Und sie gingen nicht in das Richthaus, 18.28c And they did not go into the courthouse
auf da sie nicht unrein wrden, so that they would not become unclean,
sondern Ostern essen mchten. rather they wanted to eat the Passover.

18,29 Da ging Pilatus zu ihnen heraus 18.29 There Pilate went out to them and spoke:
und sprach:

Pilatus Pilatus
Was bringet ihr fr Klage61 wider diesen Menschen? What accusation do you bring against this person?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,30a Sie antworteten und sprachen zu ihm: 18.30a They answered, and spoke to him:

16b. Coro
ChorusFlutes I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Johannes 18,30b Wre dieser nicht ein beltter,62 John 18.30b Were this not an evildoer,
30c wir htten dir ihn nicht berantwortet. 30c we would not have handed him over to you.

16c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,31a Da sprach Pilatus zu ihnen: John 18.31a Then Pilate spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
So nehmet ihr ihn hin und richtet ihn Then take him yourselves and judge him
nach eurem Gesetze! according to your Laws!

Evangelist Evangelist
18,31b Da sprachen zu ihm: 18.31b Then they spoke to him:

16d. Coro
ChorusFlauto traverso I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Johannes 18,31c Wir drfen niemand tten. John 18.31c We may not kill anyone.

61 See verklaget [movement 15].

62 beltter: evildoer, cognate with bel, wickedness.
 116 firth

16e. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,32 Auf das erfllet wrde John 18.32 So that Jesus words would be
das Wort Jesu, welches er sagte, da er fulfilled, which he spoke, when he
deutete, welches Todes er sterben wrde. indicated what death he would die.

18,33a Da ging Pilatus wieder hinein in das Richthaus 18.33a Then Pilate went again into the
und rief Jesu und sprach zu ihm: courthouse and called Jesus, and spoke to him:

Pilatus Pilate
18,33b Bist du der Jden Knig? 18.33b Are you the King of the Jews?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,34 Jesus antwortete: 18.34 Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Redest63 du das von dir selbst, Do you speak this for yourself,
oder habens dir andere von mir gesagt.64 or did others tell you about me?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,35 Pilatus antwortete: 18.35 Pilate answered:

Pilatus Pilate
Bin ich ein Jde? Dein Volk65 Am I a Jew? Your people
und die Hohenpriester haben dich mir and the chief priests have handed you
berantwortet; was hast du getan? over to me; what have you done?

Evangelist Evangelist
18.36 Jesus antwortete: 18.36 Jesus answered:

Jesus
Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt;
wre mein Reich von dieser Welt,
meine Diener wrden darob kmpfen,
da ich den Jden nicht berantwortet wrde;
aber nun ist mein Reich nicht von dannen.
Jesus
My kingdom is not from this world;
if my kingdom were from this world,
my servants would therefore be fighting
so that I would not be handed over to the Jews;
but now my kingdom is not from here.

63 Redest: more closely, Do you make this address from your own authority or knowledge?
64 Gesagt: said. Sagen suggests in conversation or discussion.
65 Volk: people in the sense of nation, tribe; distinct from Menschen, people in the sense
of humans.
 study translation 117

17. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos;
Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Ach groer Knig, gro zu allen Zeiten, Oh great King, great for all time,
Wie kann ich gnugsam diese Treu66 ausbreiten?67 How can I sufficiently broadcast this faithfulness?
Keins Menschen Herze mag indes ausdenken, No persons heart is able to imagine, however,
Was dir zu schenken.68 What to give to you.

Ich kanns mit meinen Sinnen nicht erreichen, I cannot grasp it with my senses
Womit doch dein Erbarmen zu vergleichen.69 With what yet to compare your mercies.
Wie kann ich dir denn deine Liebestaten70 How can I then, your loving deeds
Im Werk erstatten? By works, repay you?

18a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,37a Da sprach Pilatus zu ihm: John 18.37a There Pilate spoke to him:

Pilatus Pilate
So bist du dennoch ein Knig? So you are nevertheless a king?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,37b Jesus antwortete: 18.37b Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Du sagsts, ich bin ein Knig. Ich bin dazu geboren You say it, I am a king. For this I was born
und in die Welt kommen, da ich and came into the world, that I
die Wahrheit zeugen soll. should testify to the truth.
Wer aus der Wahrheit ist, Whoever who belongs to the truth,
der hret meine Stimme. listens to my voice.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,38a Spricht Pilatus zu ihm: 18.38a Spoke Pilate to him:

66 Treu: loyalty, faithfulness, troth.

67 Ausbreiten: to publish abroad, to broadcast.
68 Schenken: to give as a gift, to present.
69 Vergleichen: to compare, cognate with gleich (equal).
70 Liebestaten: loving deeds in contrast to Missetaten, transgressions or misdeeds [move-
ment 12]. No charitable acts can ever repay Christs sacrifice.
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Pilatus Pilate
Was ist Wahrheit?71 What is truth?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,38b Und da er das gesaget, ging er wieder 18.38b And after he had said this, he went
hinaus zu den Jden und spricht zu ihnen: out again to the Jews and spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Ich finde keine Schuld an ihm. I find no guilt in him.

18,39 Ihr habt aber eine Gewohnheit, 18.39 But you have a custom
da ich euch einen losgebe; that I let someone go for you;
wollt ihr nun, da ich euch do you therefore want me now to let go for you
der Jden Knig losgebe? the King of the Jews?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,40a Da schrieen72 sie wieder allesamt 18.40a There again they all shouted together
und sprachen: and spoke:

18b. Chorus
Chorus (Oboe II with Sopranos, Violin II with Altos, Viola with Tenors; Flutes I/II, Oboe I,
Violin I, Organ and Continuo)

Johannes 18,40b Nicht diesen, sondern Barrabam! John 18.40b Not this one, rather Barabbas!

18c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,40c Barrabas aber war ein Mrder. John 18.40c But Barrabas was a murderer.

19,1 Da nahm Pilatus Jesum 19.1 Then Pilate took Jesus

und geielte ihn. and flogged him.

71 Compare movement 1.
72 Schrieen und sprachen: this form is found three times in the recitative, always as the
Jews response to Pilate; once schrieen is used alone. Shouted, cried out, clamoured.
 study translation 119

19. Arioso
Tenor Arioso (Viola damore I/II, Lute continuo)

Betrachte, meine Seel, Consider, my soul,

mit ngstlichem Vergngen, with anxious delectation,
Mit bittrer Lust With bitter happiness
und halb beklemmtem Herzen and half anguished heart
Dein hchstes Gut73 Your highest good
in Jesu Schmerzen, in Jesus pains,
Wie dir auf Dornen, As you on the thorns,
so ihn stechen, that prick him,
Die Himmelsschlsselblumen74 blhn! The heaven-key-flowers blossom!
Du kannst viel se Frucht You can much sweet fruit
von seiner Wermut brechen from his wormwood break
Drum sieh ohn Unterla auf ihn! Therefore behold him without ceasing!

20. Aria
Tenor Aria (Viola damore I/II, Organ and Viola da gamba)

Erwge, wie sein blutgefrbter75 Rcken
In allen Stcken76
Dem Himmel gleiche77 geht,
Daran, nachdem die Wasserwogen78
Von unsrer Sndflut sich verzogen,
Der allerschnste Regenbogen79
Als Gottes Gnadenzeichen80 steht!
Contemplate, how his blood-coloured back
in each strip
goes equally to heaven,
On it, after the water-waves
Of our sin-flood have receded,
The most beautiful rainbow of all
Stands as a sign of Gods mercy!

73 Gut: benefit.
74 Himmelsschlsselblumen: primula veris, cowslips, Key of Heaven.
75 Blutgefrbt: idiomatically, blood-stained.
76 Stcken: slices, pieces, chunks. Compare movement 33, where the rent curtain of the
temple is also in zwei Stck (in two pieces); rather than Jesus clothes which are divided
into vier Teilen (four portions or parts) and his robe which is nicht zerteilt (not appor-
tioned) [movement 27, John 19.2324].
77 Gleiche in the free poetry generally suggests equally. Here is it is more like in parallel
lines.
78 Wogen: breakers, surge, pointing to Sndflut, sin-flood, in the next line.
79 The coloured stripes of the rainbow are like the red-coloured strips of Jesus whipped back.
80 Zeichen: sign, token.
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21a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,2 Und die Kriegsknechte81 flochten John 19.2 And the mercenaries wove
eine Krone von Dornen und satzten sie a crown of thorns and sat it
auf sein Haupt und legten ihm on his head and laid on him
ein Purpurkleid an a purple robe
19,3a und sprachen: 19.3a and spoke:

21b. Coro
Chorus (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Organ, Continuo)

Johannes 19,3b Sei gegret, lieber Jdenknig! John 19.3b Hail, beloved King of the Jews!

21c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,3c Und gaben ihm Backenstreiche. John 19.3c And gave him slaps in the face.

19,4 Da ging Pilatus wieder heraus 19.4 There Pilate again went out
und sprach zu ihnen: and spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Sehet, ich fhre ihn heraus zu euch, Behold, I am leading him out to you
da ihr erkennet, da ich so you can recognise that I
keine Schuld an ihm finde. find no guilt in him.

Evangelist Evangelist
19,5a Also ging Jesus heraus 19.5a Thus Jesus came out
und trug eine Dornenkrone und Purpurkleid. and wore a crown of thorns and purple robe.
Und er sprach zu ihnen: And he [Pilate] spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
19,5b Sehet, welch ein Mensch! 19.5b Behold, what a person!

81 Kriegesknecht: another term for the Landsknecht, fifteenth-century infantry mercenaries,

servants of the country. The librettist differentiates between the Roman paid soldiers and
the Jewish Schar or troops. The word is also used in the Brockes Passion. Related to Knecht,
slave, servant, bondsman.
 study translation 121

Evangelist Evangelist
19,6a Da ihn die Hohenpriester 19.6a There the chief priests
und die Diener sahen, schrieen sie and the servants saw him, they shouted
und sprachen: and spoke:

21d. Coro
Chorus (Oboe I with Sopranos; Oboe II with Altos; Flutes I/II with Tenors; Violin I/II,
Viola, Organ, Continuo)

Johannes 19,6b Kreuzige, kreuzige! John 19.6b Crucify, crucify!

21e. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,6c Pilatus sprach zu ihnen: John 19.6c Pilate spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Nehmet ihr ihn hin und kreuziget ihn; You take him yourselves and crucify him;
denn ich finde keine Schuld an ihm! since I find no guilt in him!

Evangelist Evangelist
19,7a Die Jden antworteten ihm: 19.7a The Jews answered him:

21f. Coro
Chorus (Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II and Violin II with Altos;
Flutes I/II in octave and Viola with Tenors, Organ Continuo)

Johannes 19,7b Wir haben ein Gesetz, John 19.7b We have a law,
und nach dem Gesetz soll er sterben; and according to that law he shall die;
denn er hat sich selbst zu Gottes Sohn gemacht. since he has made himself the son of God.

21g. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,8 Da Pilatus das Wort hrete, John 19.8 There Pilate heard the word,
frchtet er sich noch mehr he was yet more afraid,

19,9 und ging wieder hinein 19.9 and went into the courthouse again,
in das Richthaus und spricht zu Jesu: and spoke to Jesus:
 122 firth

Pilatus Pilate
Von wannen bist du? Where are you from?

Evangelist Evangelist
Aber Jesus gab ihm keine Antwort. But Jesus gave him no answer.

19,10 Da sprach Pilatus zu ihm: 19.10 Therefore Pilate spoke to him:

Pilatus Pilate
Redest du nicht mit mir? Do you refuse to address me?
Weiest du nicht, da ich Macht habe, Do you not know that I have power
dich zu kreuzigen, und Macht habe, to crucify you, and have power
dich loszugeben? to let you go?

Evangelist Evangelist
19,11 Jesus antwortete: 19.11 Jesus answered:

Jesus
Du httest keine Macht ber mich,
wenn sie dir nicht wre von oben herab gegeben;
darum, der mich dir berantwortet hat,
der hats grre Snde.
Jesus
You would have no power over me
if it had not been given you from above;
therefore the one who handed me over to you
he has the greater sin.

Evangelist Evangelist
19,12a Von dem an trachtete Pilatus, 19.12a From then on Pilate sought
wie er ihn losliee. how to let him go.

22. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola with
Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Durch dein Gefngnis, Gottes Sohn,
Mu uns die Freiheit kommen;
Dein Kerker ist der Gnadenthron,
Die Freistatt82 aller Frommen;
Denn gingst du nicht die Knechtschaft83 ein,
Mt unsre Knechtschaft ewig sein.
Through your prison, Son of God,
Freedom must come to us.
Your dungeon is the throne of mercy,
The refuge of all the pious;
If you had not gone into slavery
Our slavery must have been forever.

82 Freistatt: lit. sanctuary, place of asylum.

83 Knechtschaft: servitude, slavery, serfdom.
 study translation 123

23a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,12b Die Jden aber schrieen John 19.12b But the Jews shouted
und sprachen: and spoke:

23b. Coro
ChorusOboe and Violin I with Sopranos, Oboe dAmore and Violin II with Altos,
Flutes I/II in octave and Viola with Tenors, organ, continuo

Johannes 19,12c Lssest du diesen los, John 19.12c If you let this one go,
so bist du des Kaisers Freund nicht; then you are not the Emperors friend;
denn wer sich zum Knige machet, since everyone who makes himself a king,
der ist wider den Kaiser. he is against the Emperor.

23c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,13 Da Pilatus das Wort hrete,
fhrete er Jesum heraus
und satzte sich auf den Richtstuhl,
an der Sttte, die da heiet: Hochpflaster,
auf Ebrisch aber: Gabbatha.
Evangelist
John 19.13 There Pilate heard the word,
he led Jesus outside
and sat on the judgement seat,
at the site that is called: High Pavement,
but in Hebrew: Gabbatha.

19,14 Es war aber der Rsttag in Ostern But it was the Day of Preparation
um die sechste Stunde, und er spricht for the Passover, about the sixth hour,
zu den Jden: and he spoke to the Jews:

Pilatus Pilate
Sehet, das ist euer Knig! Behold, that is your King!

Evangelist Evangelist
19,15a Sie schrieen aber: But they shouted:

23d. Coro
Chorus (Oboes I with Sopranos, Oboe damore with Altos, Flutes I/II in octave with
Tenors), Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Johannes 19,15b Weg, weg mit dem, John 19.15b Away, away with him,
kreuzige ihn! crucify him!
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23e. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,15c Spricht Pilatus zu ihnen: John 19.15c Pilate spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Soll ich euren Knig kreuzigen? Shall I crucify your king?

Evangelist Evangelist
Die Hohenpriester antworteten. The chief priests answered.

23f. Coro
Chorus, Flutes I/II, Oboe with Violin I, Oboe damore with Violin II, Viola, Organ,
Continuo

Johannes 19,15d Wir haben keinen Knig John 19.15d We have no king
denn den Kaiser. but the Emperor.

23g. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,16a Da berantwortete er ihn, John 19.16 There he handed him over,
da er gekreuziget wrde. that he would be crucified.

19,16b Sie nahmen aber Jesum und fhreten ihn hin. 19.16b But they took Jesus and led him away.

19,17 Und er trug sein Kreuz und ging hinaus zur 19.17 And he carried his cross and went out to
Sttte, die da heiet Schdelsttt, welche heiet auf the site that is called The Site of the Scull,
Ebrisch: Golgatha. which is called in Hebrew: Golgotha.

24. Aria
Bass and Chorus (Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo)

Eilt,84 ihr angefochtnen Seelen, Hurry, you troubled souls,

Geht aus euren Marterhhlen, Come out of your torture chambers,

84 Eilt: hasten, rush.

 study translation 125

EiltWohin?nach Golgatha! HurryWhere to?to Golgotha!

Nehmet an des Glaubens Flgel, Take on the wings of faith,
FliehtWohin?zum Kreuzeshgel, FlyWhere to?to the hill of the cross,
Eure Wohlfahrt blht allda!85 Your welfare blossoms there.

25a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Johannes 19,18 Allda86 kreuzigten sie ihn, John 19.18 There they crucified him,
und mit ihm zween andere zu beiden Seiten, and with him two others on either side,
Jesum aber mitten inne. but Jesus amidst them.

19,19 Pilatus aber schrieb eine berschrift und 19.19 But Pilate wrote an inscription and
satzte sie auf das Kreuz, und war geschrieben: set it on the cross, and it was written:
Jesus von Nazareth, der Jden Knig. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

19,20 Diese berschrift lasen viele Jden, 19.20 Many of the Jews read this inscription,
denn die Sttte war nahe bei der Stadt, da Jesus since the site where Jesus was crucified was
gekreuziget ist. Und es war geschrieben auf near the city. And it was written in the Hebrew,
ebrische, griechische und lateinische Sprache. Greek and Latin languages.87

19,21a Da sprachen die Hohenpriester der Jden 19.21a There the chief priests of the Jews
zu Pilato. spoke to Pilate.

25b. Coro
Chorus (Flutes I/II, Oboes I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ and continuo)

Johannes 19,21b Schreibe nicht: John 19.21b: Do not write:

der Jden Knig, the King of the Jews,
sondern da er gesaget habe: but rather that he said:
Ich bin der Jden Knig. I am the King of the Jews.

85 The rhymes in this lyric tie together complementary ideas: troubled souls and torture
chambers; but also contrasting ideas which are brought together in the paradox of the
crucifixion: Golgotha and welfare there; wings of faith and hill of the cross.
86 Note that the Aria ends with allda, and the recitative begins with the same word, empha-
sizing the place. Allda is more emphatic, at the same place, than simply da. The place is
therefore emphasised.
87 Sprache: language, speech; cognate with sprachen, speak.
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25c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,22 Pilatus antwortet: John 19.22 Pilate answered:

Pilatus Pilatus
Was ich geschrieben habe, das habe ich geschrieben. What I have written, that I have written.

26. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola with
Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

In meines Herzens Grunde88 In the depths of my heart,

Dein Nam und Kreuz allein Your name and cross alone
Funkelt89 all Zeit und Stunde, Sparkles for all time and at all hours,
Drauf90 kann ich frhlich sein. Because of it I can be cheerful.91
Erschein mir in dem Bilde Appear to me in the picture
Zu Trost92 in meiner Not, For consolation in my adversity
Wie du, Herr Christ, so milde93 As you, Lord Christ, so charitable
Dich hast geblut zu Tod! You have bled to death.

IV. CRUXJESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

27a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Johannes 19,23 Die Kriegsknechte aber,
da sie Jesum gekreuziget hatten,
nahmen seine Kleider und machten vier Teile,
einem jeglichen Kriegesknechte sein Teil,
dazu auch den Rock.
Der Rock aber war ungenhet, von oben an
gewrket durch und durch.
John 19.23 But the mercenaries
there had crucified Jesus,
they took his clothes and made four portions,
one portion for each mercenary.
They also took his tunic.
But the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top.

88 Im Grunde can also suggest fundamentally, on the grounds of or, indeed, from the
bottom of my heart.
89 Funkelt: sparkles, glitters, like a diamond with a myriad of lights.
90 Drauf : lit. thereupon.
91 Frhlich: happy, merry, cheerful. Contrast Lust (happiness) and Freude (joy) (movement
3, O groe Lieb).
92 Trost: comfort, also consolation, as in movement 30.
93 Milde: clement, charitable, meek.
 study translation 127

19,24a Da sprachen sie untereinander: 19.24a Then they spoke among themselves:

27b. Coro
Chorus (Flutes I/II, Oboe I, Oboe damore, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ and Continuo)

Johannes 19,24b Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen, John 19.24b Let us not apportion it,
sondern losen, wes er sein soll. but rather cast lots, to see whose it shall be.

27c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,24c Auf da erfllet wrde John 19.24c So that the Scripture would be
die Schrift, die da saget: fulfilled, which says:
Sie haben meine Kleider unter sich geteilet They have apportioned my clothes
und haben ber meinen Rock among themselves and for my tunic
das Los geworfen. they cast the lot.

19,25a Solches taten die Kriegesknechte. 19.25a Such is what the mercenaries did.

19,25b Es stund aber bei dem Kreuze Jesu 19.25b But by the cross of Jesus stood
seine Mutter und seiner Mutter Schwester, his mother, and his mothers sister,
Maria, Kleophas Weib, Mary, the wife of Cleophas,
und Maria Magdalena. and Mary Magdalene.

19,26 Da nun Jesus seine Mutter sahe und 19.26 Now Jesus saw his mother there, and the
den Jnger dabei stehen, den er lieb hatte, disciple standing by, whom he loved.
spricht94 er zu seiner Mutter: he speaks to his mother:

Jesus Jesus
Weib,95 siehe, das ist dein Sohn! Woman, behold, that is your son!

Evangelist Evangelist
19,27a Darnach spricht er zu dem Jnger: 19.27a After that he spoke to the disciple:

Jesus Jesus
Siehe, das ist deine Mutter! Behold, that is your mother!

94 Spricht: a move into the present tense.

95 Weib: woman or wife, possibly a form of address, like maam.
 128 firth

28. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola with
Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Er nahm alles wohl in acht He took care of everything,

In der letzten Stunde, In the last hour,
Seine Mutter noch bedacht, He yet thought of his mother,
Setzt ihr ein Vormunde. And set for her a guardian.
O Mensch, mache Richtigkeit, O person, act with righteousness,
Gott und Menschen liebe, Love God and people.
Stirb darauf ohn alles Leid, After that may you die without any pain
Und dich nicht betrbe!96 And do not grieve!

29. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,27b Und von Stund an nahm sie John 19.27b And from that hour on
der Jnger zu sich. the disciple took her to himself.

19,28a Darnach, als Jesus wute, da schon alles 19.28 After this, when Jesus knew that all had
vollbracht war already been accomplished,

19,28b da die Schrift erfllet wrde, spricht er: 19.28b that the Scriptures would be fulfilled,
he spoke:

Jesus Jesus
Mich drstet! I thirst!

Evangelist
19,29 Da stund ein Gefe voll Essigs.
Sie flleten aber einen Schwamm mit Essig
und legten ihn um einen Isopen,
und hielten es ihm dar zum Munde.
Evangelist
19.29 A container full of vingear was standing
there.
But they filled a sponge with vinegar
and laid it on a branch of hyssop,
and held it up to him to his mouth.

19,30a Da nun Jesus den Essig genommen hatte 19.30a When Jesus had taken the vinegar there,
sprach er: he said:

Jesus Jesus
Es ist vollbracht! It is accomplished!

96 Betrbe: to grow sad; one should neither grieve for oneself nor for ones lot.
 study translation 129

30. Aria
Alto Aria (Violin I/II, Viola, Viola da gamba, Organ, Continuo)

Es ist vollbracht! It is accomplished!

O Trost vor die gekrnkten Seelen! O consolation for the injured souls!
Die Trauernacht The night of mourning
Lt97 nun die letzte Stunde zhlen. May now count its last hour.
Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht The hero of Judah triumphs with power
Und schliet98 den Kampf.99 And concludes the conflict.
Es ist vollbracht! It is accomplished!

31. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Johannes 19,30b Und neiget das Haupt John 19.30b And bowed the head
und verschied. and expired.

32. Aria e Coro

Bass Aria and Chorale (Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola with
Tenors)

Mein teurer100 Heiland, la dich fragen, My dear Saviour, let me ask you
Jesu, der du warest tot, Jesu, you who were dead,
Da du nunmehr ans Kreuz geschlagen101 There you are now stricken on the Cross
Und selbst gesagt: Es ist vollbracht, And you said yourself: it is accomplished!
Lebest nun ohn Ende, Live now without end.
Bin ich vom Sterben frei gemacht? Have I been set free from death?
In der letzten Todesnot In the last adversity of death
Nirgend mich hinwende I turn towards nowhere
Kann ich durch deine Pein und Sterben Can I through your agony and death
Das Himmelreich ererben? The kingdom of heaven inherit?
Ist aller Welt Erlsung da? Is all the worlds redemption there?
Als zu dir, der mich vershnt, As to you, who reconciles me.
O du lieber Herre! O you beloved Lord!
Du kannst vor Schmerzen zwar nichts sagen; In fact you cannot speak for the pains

97 Lt: allows, lets, permits. See also movements 7 and 32.

98 Schliet: concludes, locks, shuts down.
99 Kampf : conflict, battle, strife, contest.
100 Teurer: dear, darling but also expensive, valuable. The Saviour is therefore beloved, but
the salvation has been bought at a great cost.
101 Geschlagen: struck, also nailed to. See also movement 11.
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Gib mir nur, was du verdient,102 Give me only what you deserved,
Doch neigest du das Haupt Indeed you bow your head
Und sprichst103 stillschweigend:104 ja. And speak tacitly: yes.
Mehr ich nicht begehre! More I do not desire!

33. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist
Matthus 27,51 Und siehe da, der Vorhang
im Tempel zerri in zwei Stck105
von oben an bis unten aus.
Und die Erde erbebete, und die Felsen zerrissen,
Matthew 27.51 And behold there, the curtain
in the temple was torn in two strips,
from top to bottom.
And the earth quaked, and the rocks were torn,

27,52 und die Grber tten sich auf, 27.52 and the tombs opened up,
und stunden auf viel Leiber106 der Heiligen.107 and many of the bodies of the saints arose.

34. Arioso
Tenor AriosoFlutes I/II, Oboe da caccia I/II, Violins I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Mein Herz,108 in dem die ganze Welt
Bei Jesu Leiden gleichfalls leidet,
Die Sonne sich in Trauer kleidet,
Der Vorhang reit, der Fels zerfllt,
Die Erde bebt, die Grber spalten,
Weil sie den Schpfer sehn erkalten,
Was willst du109 deines Ortes tun?110
My heart, in whom the whole world
With Jesus suffering equally suffers,
The sun dresses herself in mourning,
The curtain rips, the rocks crumble,
The earth quakes, the graves split,
Because they see the Creator grow cold,
What will you do in your place?

102 Verdient: lit. what you have earned, what you have merited, that is, give me what you
deserve only, and nothing of what sinners deserve.
103 Here the sense of spricht, declare, rather than simply speaks is predominant.
104 Includes still, silent. Christ speaks though he keeps silent; silently, without protest, by
implication.
105 Stck: compare movement 20.
106 Leiber: bodies, used of resurrected (or to be resurrected) bodies here and in movement
40.
107 Heiligen: saints, holy ones. Cognate with Heil (healing), Heiland (Saviour) and heiligen
(holy).
108 Mein Herz: my heart here is personified, requiring whom rather than which.
109 Addressing you, that is my heart of the ariosos first line.
110 Ortes: The only other time Ort (place, location) rather than Sttte (site, place), is used in
the libretto is in movement 2a [John 18.2]. Thus the libretto moves towards its conclusion
by restating language from the beginning.
 study translation 131

35. Aria
Soprano AriaFlutes I/II, Oboe da caccia I/II, Organ, Continuo

Zerfliee,111 mein Herze, in Fluten der Zhren Melt, my heart, in floods of brine
Dem Hchsten zu Ehren! The Highest to honour!
Erzhle der Welt und dem Himmel die Not:112 Tell the world and heaven the misery:
Dein Jesus ist tot! Your Jesus is dead!

36. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,31 Die Jden aber, dieweil es
der Rsttag war, da nicht die Leichname
am Kreuze blieben den Sabbath ber
(denn desselbigen Sabbaths Tag
war sehr gro),113 baten sie Pilatum, da ihre
Beine gebrochen und sie abgenommen wrden.
Evangelist
John 19.31 But the Jews, because it was
the Day of Preparation, that the corpses
would not stay on the crosses over the Sabbath
(since that particular Sabbath Day was very
important) they petitioned Pilate, that their legs
would be broken and they would be taken
down.

19,32 Da kamen die Kriegsknechte und brachen 19.32 There the mercenaries came and broke
dem ersten die Beine und dem andern, the legs of the first and of the other
der mit ihm gekreuziget war. who had been crucified with him.

19,33 Als sie aber zu Jesu kamen, da sie sahen, 19.33 But when they came to Jesus, there they
da er schon gestorben war, brachen sie ihm saw that he had already died, they did not
die Beine nicht; break his legs;

19,34 sondern der Kriegsknechte einer erffnete 19.34 rather, one of the mercenaries opened
seine Seite mit einem Speer, und alsobald his side with a spear, and at once
ging Blut und Wasser heraus. blood and water came out.

19,35 Und der das gesehen hat, der hat es bezeuget, 19.35 And he who saw that, he has testified to
und sein Zeugnis ist wahr, und derselbige wei, it, and his testimony is true, and the same one
da er die Wahrheit saget, auf da ihr glubet. knows that he tells the truth, so that you also
may believe in that.

111 Zerfliee: melt mirrors zerfallen in the previous movement, as stony hearts crumble.
112 Not: see also movements 20 (1749 IV), 32, 35 and 39.
113 Gro: greata day of great solemnity, a high festival.
 132 firth

19,36 Denn solches ist geschehen, auf da 19.36 Then such things occurred so that
die Schrift erfllet wrde: Ihr sollet ihm kein the Scripture would be fulfilled: They shall not
Bein zerbrechen. break any of his bones.

19,37 Und abermal spricht eine andere Schrift: 19.37 And but again another Scripture says:
Sie werden sehen, in welchen sie gestochen haben. They will behold, whom they have stabbed.

37. Chorale
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola with
Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn, O help, Christ, Gods Son,

Durch dein bitter Leiden, Through your bitter suffering,
Da wir dir stets untertan That we may, always obedient to you,
All Untugend meiden, All wrongs avoid;
Deinen Tod und sein Ursach Your death and its cause
Fruchtbarlich114 bedenken, Think upon fruitfully;
Dafr, wiewohl arm und schwach, for that, although poor and weak,
Dir Dankopfer schenken! Present a thank-offering to you!

V. SEPULCHRUMJESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB

38. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,38 Darnach bat Pilatum
Joseph von Arimathia, der ein Jnger Jesu war
(doch heimlich aus Furcht vor den Jden)
da er mchte abnehmen den Leichnam Jesu.
Und Pilatus erlaubete es. Derowegen kam er
und nahm den Leichnam115 Jesu herab.
John 19.38 After that,
Joseph of Arimathia, who was a disciple
of Jesus (yet secretly for fear of the Jews),
petitioned Pilate that he wanted to take down
the corpse of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it.
Therefore he came and took down the
corpse of Jesus.

18,39 Es kam aber auch Nikodemus, der vormals 18.39 But Nicodemus also came, who had
bei der Nacht zu Jesu kommen war, und brachte previously come to Jesus by night, and brought
Myrrhen und Aloen untereinander, bei mixed myrrh and aloes, about
hundert Pfunden. a hundred pounds.

114 Frucht: see also movement 19.

115 Leichnam (corpse). Contrast Leib (body), in movement 33 and 40. The use of the word
Leichnam throughout section V Sepulchrum, underlines the disciples belief that Jesus was
irrevocably deadthere is no reference in the Passion libretto to Jesus resurrection at
Easter.
 study translation 133

18,40 Da nahmen sie den Leichnam Jesu und bunden 18.40 Then they took the corpse of Jesus and
ihn in Leinen Tcher mit Spezereien, wie die Jden wrapped it in linen cloths with spices,
pflegen zu begraben. as the Jews take care for the burying.

18,41 Es war aber an der Sttte, da er gekreuziget 18.41 But there was at the place,
ward, ein Garten, und im Garten ein neu Grab, there where he was crucified, a garden, and
in welches niemand je geleget war. in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had
ever been laid.

18,42 Daselbst hin legten sie Jesum, um des Rsttags 18.42 In that place they laid Jesus,
willen der Jden, dieweil das Grab nahe war. on account of the Jewish Day of Preparation, and
because the tomb was nearby.

39. Coro
Chorus (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II, Violins I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo)

Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen116 Gebeine,
Die ich nun weiter117 nicht beweine,
Ruht wohl und bringt auch mich zur Ruh!
Das Grab, so euch bestimmet ist
Und ferner keine Not umschliet,
Macht mir den Himmel auf
und schliet die Hlle zu.
Rest well, you holy bones,
I will now not weep for you any longer,
Rest well, and bring me also to rest.
The grave, so is destined for you
And no futher misery surrounds,
Makes Heaven open
And Hell shut to me.

40. Chorale
Chorale (Flute I, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Flute II, Oboe II and Violin II
with Altos; Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Ach Herr, la dein lieb Engelein
Am letzten End die Seele mein
In Abrahams Scho tragen,
Den Leib118 in seim Schlafkmmerlei
Gar sanft ohn einge Qual und Pein
Ruhn bis am jngsten Tage!119
O Lord, let your lovely little angels
at the last end, this soul of mine
carry into Abrahams bosom.
The body in its little sleeping chamber
gently without any torment or agony at all
Rest until the last day!

116 Heiligen: compare the bodies of the Heiligen in movement 33.

117 Weiter: no longer (in time). Not the same as ferner, further (in sequence).
118 Leib, the body with the potential for resurrection, is placed near lieb (lovely). This reverses
the mirroring of Lieb (love) and Leid (suffering) in movement 3, O groe Lieb, o Lieb ohn
alle Mae. The great love and the great sufferring are complete, and now there is rest,
loveliness and life.
119 Am jngsten Tage: lit. on the youngest day, on Judgment Day.
 134 firth

Alsdenn vom Tod erwecke mich,
Da meine Augen sehen dich
In aller Freud, o Gottes Sohn,
Mein Heiland und Genadenthron!
Herr Jesu Christ, erhre mich,120
Ich will dich preisen ewiglich!
Thereupon from death awaken me,
that my eyes see you
in all joy, O Son of God,
My Saviour and throne of mercy
Lord Jesus Christ, answer my [prayer],
I want to praise you forever!

120 Erhre mich: hear me, answer me, used specifically for prayers.
 chapter 7

Commentaries and Sermon

Collections Consulted in Preparation

The 1750 Specification of the Estate Left by the Late Mr Johann Sebastian Bach
itemises the theological works Bach owned at the time of his death.1 An avid
collector of books, Bach owned:2

15 volumes of the Altenburg edition of the works of Luther, a five-volume

Bible commentary by Johann Olearius, the five-volume School of Piety by
Johann Gerhard, as well as eight volumes of the Leipzig Hymn-Book and
three volumes by Calov in addition to Calovs three-volume commentated
Great German Bible.3

While it is attractive to think of these works as a reference library or Hand-

bibliothek consulted by the composer, it cannot be said with certainty which
works Bach might have consulted, or how he might have received these texts.
Examination of the libretto and music of the St John Passion, however, strongly
suggests that Bach and his collaborating librettist or librettists made regular use
of three works in his collection for the preparation of the libretto and setting
of this work.4 Among them are Abraham Calovs three-volume commentary,
Johannes Olearius five-volume commentary, and Luthers Weekly Sermons on
St Johns Gospel.5

1 For the music manuscripts of Bachs estate, see: NBR, nos. 286301.
2 BD 1. 199, reproduces a manuscript account of Bachs attendance at the book auction at
which he purchased his Calov Bible, see: Hans Besch, Eine Auktions-Quittung J.S. Bachs,
Festschrift fr Friedrich Smend: Zum 70. Geburtstag dargebracht von Freunden und Schlern
(Berlin: Merseburger, 1963), pp. 7479, p. 75.
3 Andreas Loewe, Gods Capellmeister: The Proclamation of Scripture in the Music of J.S.
Bach, Pacifica 24 (2011), pp. 141171, p. 147.
4 For the works contained in Bachs estate, see: Robin A. Leaver, Bachs theologische Biblio-
thek: Eine kritische Bibliographie [cited as BB] (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hnnsler, 1985). For the
Lutheran theological works owned by Bach, see idem, Bach und die Lutherschriften seiner
Bibliothek, in: Bach-Jahrbuch 61 (1975), pp. 124132.
5 Abraham Calov, ed., I. N. J. Das Neue Testament/ verdeutschet durch D. Martin Luthern/
frgestellet/ durch/ D. Abraham Calovium (Wittenberg: Christian Schrter, 1682) [cited as
CB 3], BB 4651.

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136 chapter 7

1 Abraham Calovs Great German Bible (1682)

The composers own copy of Calovs Great German Bible survives today in
Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri.6 Bach carefully annotated the work, in
particular recording comments on music and music-making in the margins.7
The explanation and exposition of the Evangelist St John from the third and
final volume of Calovs commentated Bible, covering the entire Greek Scrip-
tures, has been extensively consulted in preparation for this commentary.8
Calovs Bible significantly influenced the libretto, leading Bach and his col-
laborator to make adjustments to Luthers Biblical text in the St John Passion.
This is shown particularly well in movement 38: in his reflection on the Johns
Gospel account of Jesus burial (John 19.38), Calov includes the Greek particle
oun (therefore), omitted in Luthers text, for which he provides a distinctive
translation, derowegen.9 Calov explains: in the Greek text follows: therefore
(derowegen) he came/ and took down the body of Jesus. Which word is omitted
in the current German translation of the Bible.10 The fact that Bachs libretto
amends the text to adhere to Calovs gloss strongly suggests that Calovs work
was consulted in the preparation of the text and the musical setting of the
Johannine Passion narrative.

2 Johannes Olearius Haupt Schlel (1681)

Another key Lutheran commentary on Johns Passion bequeathed by Bach in

his estate, and consulted extensively in preparation for this commentary, is
the final volume of Johannes Olearius five volume Haupt Schlel der Gantzen
Heiligen Schrift, a detailed systematic commentary on the Hebrew and Greek

6 Leaver (1975), p. 128, and idem, The Calov Bible from Bachs Library, in: Bach: The Journal
of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, 7/IV (1976), pp. 1622.
7 For Bachs ownership of the work, and the authenticity of his hand, see: Howard H. Cox,
ed., The Calov Bible of J.S. Bach, Studies in Musicology 92 (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1985), pp. 67 and Christoph Trautmann, Calovii Schrifften. 3 Bnde
aus Johann Sebastian Bachs Nachla und ihre Bedeutung fr das Bild des lutherischen
Kantors Bach, Musik und Kirche 39 (1969), pp. 145160; for Bachs marginalia, see: Loewe
(2011), pp. 149154.
8 CB 3: 665976: Der Evangelist S. Johannes Erklret und ausgeleget.
9 CB 3: 954.
10 CB 3: 954: Hierauf folget im Griechischen Text: Derowegen kam er/ und nahm den Leib
JEsu herab. Welches Wort in ietziger deutschen Bibel ausgelassen sind.
commentaries and sermon collections consulted in preparation 137

figure 4 Frontispiece of Bachs copy of Calovs annotated New Testament from the Great
German Bible
138 chapter 7

Scriptures.11 The fifth volume, Das gantze/ Neue Testament (The entire New
Testament) is a valuable resource: based entirely on the Greek original, cross-
referenced with parallel Biblical texts, Olearius not only provides many literal
translations from the Greek and etymologies of notable Greek words, but a
wealth of further information on Jewish and early Christian sources for his
detailed commentary, or necessary exposition (nothwendige Erklrung) on
Johns Passion narrative.12 In addition, at the end of each section, Olearius
provides first an uplifting enumeration of the principal uses (Die erbauliche
Anfhrung de Haupt-Nutzes) of the Biblical text which he then matches with
relevant selections from the work of the Church Fathers, notable reminder of
the Teachers of the Primitive Church (Die denckwrdige Erinnerung der alten
Kirchen-Lehrer) as well as Luthers works, Luthers spiritual encouragement
(Die geistreiche Ermunterung Lutheri). Again, it is highly likely that Bach made
use of this commentary in the preparation of the text: Bachs musical rendition
in movement 16a of frhe (early) in John 18.28b as a rooster call for instance
suggests that he was fully aware of Johns Greek text: the Greek proi (early
frhe), given by Olearius in his Haupt Schlel, literally meant the hour after
cockcrow and therefore lent itself well to such musical wordplay.13

3 Sermon Collections: Martin Luther (15281529)

It is highly likely that Bach and his collaborators also drew on a number of
sermon collections contained in his estate in the preparation of this work.
Among them most notably he would have had access to Martin Luthers Weekly
Sermons on St John, a series of detailed sermons on chapters 1620 of St Johns
Gospel.14 Leaver explains that the fact that Bach owned both the Altenburg and
Jena editions of Luthers works means that after 1742 Bachs library contained
all key works of Luther in at least two, sometimes three and four, editions.15

11 Johannes Olearius, Haupt Schlel der Gantzen Heiligen Schrift Fnfter und letzter Teil/
Darinnen das gantze/ Neue/ Testament (Leipzig: Chr. Tarnoven, 1681) [cited as HS 5],
BB 8185.
12 HS 5: 774792.
13 HS 5: 245, referring to the Roman division of hours horas, and 779.
14 Luther, Wochenpredigten ber Johannes 1620 (15281529), WA 28: 31502.
15 BB 5253, see also: Leaver (1975), p. 129: Dies bedeutet, da Bachs Bibliothek ab 1742
alle wesentlichen Lutherschriften in doppelter und zum Teil dreifacher, ja vierfacher
Ausfertigung enthielt, therefore implying that prior to 1742, he owned at least one or two
such editions.
commentaries and sermon collections consulted in preparation 139

figure 5 Mors: Olearius commentary on Johns account of the death of Jesus

140 chapter 7

Bach not only owned multiple editions of the work, but Luthers sermons also
form the mainstay of Calovs commentary in his annotated Bible.
 chapter 8

Commentary

1. PRIMA PARTE
EXORDIUMPROLOGUE

Historic tradition arranged the Passion story, beginning with the Last Supper
and ending with Jesus burial, in five distinctive scenes or acts: an Exordium
(Prologue) introduces the Passion; Hortus (Garden) recalls Jesus betrayal and
arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane; Pontifices (Priests) the trial before the
Sanhedrin; Pilatus (Pilate) the interrogation before the Roman procurator, and
Crux his agony and death on the cross. Sepulchrum (Sepulchre) closes the
Passion drama. They provide the chapter headings for this commentary.1

1. Chorus
Chorus (Flute I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

Herr, unser Herrscher, Lord, our Lord,

dessen Ruhm in allen Landen herrlich ist!
Zeig uns durch deine Passion,
da du, der wahre Gottessohn,
zu aller Zeit,
auch in der grten Niedrigkeit,
verherrlicht worden bist.
whose fame in all lands is noble!
Show us through your Passion
that you, the true Son of God,
for all time,
even in the deepest lowliness,
have been made noble.

The 1725 version of Bachs St John Passion opened with a setting of the first verse
of Sebald Heydens 1525 Lenten Chorale O Mensch bewein dein Snde gro (O
man, bewail your sin so great), a setting Bach also used to conclude the first
part of the St Matthew Passion. The 1749 version, on the other hand, commences
with the magisterial chorus Herr, unser Herrscher (Lord, our Lord). The first two
lines of the chorale derive from the refrain to Psalm 8, which extols Gods king-
ship over all nations: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all
the earth! (Psalm 8.1, 9), and frames a hymn in praise of Gods good creation
and the women and men who are its crown (verses 28), which was, in fact,
set as a chorale by a seventeenth-century predecessor of Bach, Thomaskantor

1 For the origin of the Latin headings for each scene of the Passion, hortus, pontifices, Pilatus
cruxque, sepulchrum (garden, priests, Pilate and cross, sepulchre), see: pp. 8889.

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142 chapter 8

Johann Schein, and as a motet by Heinrich Schtz [SWV 449].2 The remain-
der of the chorus has been supplied by an unidentified author, who links the
Psalms hymn of praise with the main theme of the Passion as told in the writ-
ings of St John: the glorification of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in his suffering
and death.
Echoing St Johns understanding that Christs true glory lay in his being lifted
up on a cross (John 3.14), the unidentified author of the chorus prays that Christ
would now be revealed in the hidden glory of his Passion: zeig uns durch deine
Passion da du verherrlicht worden bist (show us through your Passion
that you have been made noble). The chorus artfully juxtaposes Christs
divinity and his humanity by a play on the word herrlich (noble): the root Herr
(Lord) serves as an honorific title for both men and God. As the creative Word
of the Father through whom all things came into being, Christ is truly in allen
Landen herrlich (noble, in all lands). Yet he has been verherrlicht (made noble)
zu aller Zeit (eternally) and uniquely in the Incarnation, when he humbled
himself to be born as man (Philippians 2.511).
Alfred Drr provides a comprehensive musical analysis of the opening cho-
rus and readers are in particular referred to his excellent structural analysis of
the movement.3 The following provides a theological reading of the wealth of
musical techniques employed by the composer in his careful construction of
the first movement.

[bars 118:] Instrumental Introduction. The movement is set in G minor, char-

acterised by one of Bachs contemporaries as probably the most beautiful key
since it expressed both moderate lament and tempered joy.4 The opening
introduces a restless sequence of cadences in the strings, driven along by a qua-
ver motif in the continuo part which continues throughout the section [bars
132]. Throughout the opening bars, recurring dissonances in the woodwind
introduce a cross-motif, the musical device Bach adopts to visualise a cross-

2 Johann Hermann Schein (15861630) was Cantor of St Thomas Leipzig from 16161630. His
chorale, Herr, unser Herrscher (Lord, our Lord) provides a metrical setting of Psalm 8.
3 Alfred Drr, Johann Sebastian Bachs St John Passion: Genesis, Transmission and Meaning
(Oxford: University Press, 2000), pp. 7578; the structural analysis can be found on p. 77.
4 Johann Mattheson, Das Neu-erffnete Orchestre (Hamburg: by the author, 1713), p. 237: G
moll ist fast der allerschnste Tohn, weil er so wol zu migen Klagen und temperirter
Frhlichkeit bequem ist. For Mattheson (16811764), see: Wolfgang Hirschmann, Bernhard
Jahn, eds., Johann Mattheson als Vermittler und Initiator: Wissenstransfer und die Etablierung
neuer Diskurse in der ersten Hlfte des 18. Jahrhunderts (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2010) and
idem, Johann Mattheson: Texte aus dem Nachlass (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2011).
commentary 143

shape in the printed score that can frequently be perceived by the listener (see
the discussion on movement 8, below). Without the need for words Bach suc-
ceeds, at the very outset of his Passion, to make present the subject of this work:
the revelation of Gods glory in Christs crucifixion.

[bars 1958:] Primary Section. For his libretto the unknown author of the
chorus adapted Luthers translation of Psalm 8.1, wie herrlich ist dein Name in
allen Landen (whose fame in all lands is noble), using a reading derived most
probably from Johannes Olearius Bible commentary, a copy of which survived
in Bachs estate. Olearius couples Gods holy name with his Ruhm (glory, praise),
herrlich ist dein Name und Ruhm (how glorious is your name and praise).5 In
doing so, he parallels Psalm 48.10, Gott, so wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm
bis an der Welt Ende (Your name, O God, like your glory, reaches to the ends
of the earth), a verse Bach set to music in an eponymous New Year Cantata
[BWV 171].6
The chorus opens with a threefold repetition of the word Herr (Lord), each
punctuated by a crotchets rest in the vocal parts [bars 1920a]: possibly a play
on the Trinitarian understanding of God as three persons and three Lords.
The vocal parts then begin to take up the energetic semiquaver movement
of strings, introducing the words unser Herrscher (our Lord) [bars 20d23a],
before this choral material is reiterated in the approach to the dominant tonici-
sation at bar 31. In the reiteration of the opening choral material [bars 23d27c],
the choirs threefold invocation Herr is shifted to the fourth and second
weakerbeats and thereby creates the effect of a syncopated echo.7 A coda
on dessen Ruhm in allen Landen herrlich ist (whose fame in all lands is noble)
[bars 27b31a] completes the dominant tonicisation.
One of the earliest commentators on the Passion, Philipp Spitta, explains
how the vocal parts evoke in listeners a forceful image of divine power and
greatness.8 On the other hand, the instrumental parts suggest human suffer-
ing by their relentless dark, swelling semiquaver movement [and] unin-
terrupted long plaintive woodwind lines, alluding to the seventeenth-century

5 HS 3: 56.
6 Johann Sebastian Bach, Gott, so wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm bis an der Welt Ende
[BWV 171], first performed on New Years Day 1729.
7 Eric T. Chafe, Bachs St John Passion: Theology and Musical Structure, in: Don O. Franklin,
ed., New Bach Studies (Cambridge: University Press, 1989), pp. 75122, p. 78.
8 Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, 2 vols (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 18731880), 2,
p. 365: Ein gewaltiges Bild gttlicher Macht und Gre.
144 chapter 8

understanding that human life is tossed by giant waves.9 Bachs compositional

intention, Spitta suggests, is clear, he intended to combine, in one image, the
majesty and power of the Son of God as well as his deep humiliation, and
reiterates: The vocal parts speak of the divine glory, while the instruments
call to mind human suffering.10 Spittas analysis, especially his insight that
the opening chorus is not intended to instil a feeling of sorrow and contri-
tion in the listener, as in the St Matthew Passion, but rather seeks to highlight
the contrast between the eternal power of the Son of God and his temporal
humiliation, has served as an interpretative model for many later commenta-
tors.11
In bar 33, the continuo takes over the strings semiquaver pattern accompa-
nied by the descending scales in the woodwind which had reminded Spitta of
the storms of life. A descending octave in the bass part introduces a canonic
imitation of the opening text, Herr, unser Herrscher (Lord, our Lord) extend-
ing through all vocal parts, over a rhythmic staccato pattern in the strings [bars
3336], providing a vibrant musical interpretation of the glory of Gods rule.
The continuo returns to its quaver pattern, while basses and sopranos continue
to weave the words Herr, unser Herrscher in canonic variation and the middle
voices recall the opening section of the chorus by their Trinitarian call on the
God of glory [bars 37c40a]. A threefold set of block-chords on the weak beat
provide a bridge [bars 4041a] to an exact replication of the musical material
contained in bars 20b23 [bars 41b44a].
The sopranos bring in a descending canonic imitation of the opening verse
ending in a coda [bars 46d49a]. Cascading canonic entries on dessen Ruhm in

9 Ibid: Dster rauschende unablssige Sechzehntelbewegung [und] ohne Unterbre-

chung sich fortspinnende lange Klagetne der Blasinstrumente; Meereswogen welche
den Menschen zu berfluthen und hinabzuziehen drohen. Bach certainly made good
musical use of this image in previous works, for example in the 1714 Cantata Ich hatte viel
Bekmmernis [BWV 21], and his 1724 Cantata Jesus schlft, was soll ich hoffen? [BWV 81],
a work that is based on the Gospel account of Jesus stilling of a storm on Lake Galilee in
Matthew 8.2327 par.
10 Ibid: Er wollte die Majestt und Gewalt des Gottessohnes und zugleich seine tiefe Ernie-
drigung in ein Bild zusammenfassen; Der gttlichen Herrlichkeit sollen die Singstim-
men, dem menschlichen Leid die Instrumente Ausdruck verleihen. Spitta points to similar
instrumental textures in the two choral movements of Bachs Cantata Herr, gehe nicht ins
Gericht [BWV 105] in support of his view.
11 Spitta (1880), p. 366: Den Gegensatz zwischen der ewigen Macht des Gottessohnes und
seiner zeitlichen Erniedrigung. See also: Elke Axmacher, Aus Liebe will mein Heyland ster-
ben: Untersuchungen zum Wandel des Passionsverstndnisses im frhen 18. Jahrhundert,
Beitrge zur theologischen Bachforschung 2 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hnnsler, 1984), p. 163.
commentary 145

allen Landen (whose fame in all lands is noble) are introduced by the altos,
mirroring the chordal sequence approaching the first choral entry in bars
1019a [bars 4958a].12 Here Bach provides a structural link between the two
parts of the movement, setting both dessen Ruhm in allen Landen (whose fame
in all lands) and verherrlicht worden bist (have been made noble) in imitative
fashion. A coda on herrlich ist (is noble) [bars 55b58a] gives voice to Christs
universal glory, and brings to an end the primary section.

[bars 58b95]: Secondary Section. The shorter middle section of the move-
ment is embedded between the initial and da capo (or repeated) statements
of the primary section. Its placement is not only formal Baroque ternary-form
convention, but another deliberate reminder of the theological message that
the Son of God was glorified selbst in der grten Niedrigkeit (even in the deep-
est lowliness): Christs earthly debasement stands between his descent from
the Fathers eternal glory and his return there.13
As with the mirroring phrase in the primary section [bars 3337a], once
again the basses present the altered theme with its canonic variations through-
out all vocal parts, Zeig uns durch deine Passion (show us through your Pas-
sion) [bars 58b62]. Again, the theme sets out with a descending octave fol-
lowed by an ascending scale motif. The petition that God would revealshow
(zeig)his glorification by the Passion contrasts with the opening chorus of
the St Matthew Passion, where listeners are invited to look instead on Christs
innocent suffering, seht ihn (look upon him) and recognise in it their own sin-
fulness, seht auf unsre Schuld (look upon our guilt).14 The zeig uns-theme is
developed when the tenors introduce the second half of the couplet, da du,
der wahre Gottessohn (that you, the true Son of God) [bars 62b66a] by way
of moving back towards the tonic G minor. The rising tonic arpeggio applied
to Zu aller Zeit (for all times) in all parts points towards the heavenly eter-
nity.

12 See Werner Neumann, J.S. Bachs Chorfuge: Ein Beitrag zur Kompositionstechnik Bachs
(Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1953), p. 11.
13 See for instance the schematic representation in Peter Kreyssig, Die Passion Jesu aus der
Sicht des Evangelisten Johannes, in: Ulrich Prinz, ed., Johann Sebastian Bach: Johannes-
Passion, BWV 245Vortrge des Meisterkurses 1986 und der Sommerakademie J.S. Bach
1990, Schriftenreihe der internationalen Bachakademie Stuttgart, vol. 5 (Kassel: Brenrei-
ter, 1993), pp. 88100, p. 93; Axmacher (1984), p. 163; Drr (2000), p. 35, etc.
14 Johann Sebastian Bach, Matthus-Passion BWV 244, ed. by Alfred Drr, Neue Bach-Aus-
gabe Serie II: Messen, Passionen, oratorische Werke, 5 vols (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1974), V,
movement 1, bars 27b28, and 5758, cf. Spitta (1880), p. 366.
146 chapter 8

The composer translates the words of his libretto into a melodic descent
and hushed cadence on auch in der grten Niedrigkeit (even in the deepest
lowliness) [bars 66a69a], tracing musically the descent from divine glory to
suffering and death. This theology is derived from the early Christian creedal
hymn in Philippians 2.58:

Though Christ was in the form of God,

he did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death
even death on a cross.

Yet St John, Luther and Bach strongly believe that God is shown to be glorified
precisely in this humiliation. Again Bach finds musical ways of expressing
this belief: the strings once again take up the semiquaver movement from the
woodwind [bar 68 onwards] and provide a rhythmic and dynamic transition for
the choirs forte entry on verherrlicht worden bist (have been made noble) [bars
69d78]. Echoing the Herrscher-theme in bars 20d23a, Bachs spirited musical
construction lends further credence to the movements overall intention to
serve as a musical reflection on Johns theology of glorification through the
cross.
The earlier invocation Zeig uns durch deine Passion, da du der wahre Gottes-
sohn (through your Passion show us that you, the true Son of God) [cf. bars
58b65a] is replicated [bars 78c82] and the earlier hushed cadance in bars
66a69a is broadened further across bars 83b86a. The triumphant exuber-
ance of the final imitative section on verherrlicht worden bist (have been made
noble) leaves little doubt that the God who is glorified in the life of his Son,
will also be glorified in his death (John 12.27, 3233). The secondary section
comes to its conclusion in the dominant (D major).15 A da capo of the instru-
mental introduction [bars 118] and primary section [bars 1957a] complete
the movement.

15 Characterised by Mattheson (1713), p. 242 as martial (kriegerisch).

 commentary 147

I. HORTUSJESUS IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

2a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), Continuo

Johannes 18,1b Jesus ging mit seinen Jngern John 18.1b Jesus went out with his disciples
ber den Bach Kidron, da war ein Garte[n], across the Kidron stream, there was a garden,
darein ging Jesus und seine Jnger. into which went Jesus and his disciples.

18,2 Judas aber, der ihn verriet, wute den Ort 18.2 Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the
auch, denn Jesus versammelte sich oft daselbst place, because Jesus often met there with his
mit seinen Jngern. disciples.

18,3 Da nun Judas zu sich hatte genommen 18.3 Then, when Judas had brought the troops
die Schar und der Hohenpriester und Phariser together with the servants of the chief priests
Diener, kommt er dahin mit Fackeln, Lampen and the Pharisees, he came there with
und mit Waffen. lanterns, torches and with weapons.

18,4 Als nun Jesus wute alles, was ihm begegnen 18.4 At that time, Jesus, knowing all that
sollte, ging er hinaus und sprach zu ihnen: should happen to him, went out and said to
them:

Jesus Jesus
Wen suchet ihr? Whom do you seek?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,5 Sie antworteten ihm: 18.5 They answered him:

John 18.1b [bars 14]: Having prayed to the Father glorify your Son, so that
the Son may glorify you (John 17.1b2), repeated in the opening chorus of the
Passion (Zeig uns durch deine Passion, da du in der grten Niedrigkeit ver-
herrlicht worden bist), Jesus left the place of the Last Supper and crossed the
Kidron stream, going to an orchard where he often met with his disciples
(John 18.2). Unlike the synoptic Gospels, which identify the place as the Garden
Gethsemane, in Johns account the place of betrayal is not named.16 Luthers
translation Bach Kidron [bar 2] is a literal rendition of the Greek word cheimar-
ros, a winter-flowing stream like a wadi, as Olearius points out: it has been
given its name because of the confluence in winter, when the waters from the

16 The synoptic Gospels comprise the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke. They derive their
name from the way in which the three texts can be arranged in a synopsis, that is, similar
textual material arranged in parallel.
148 chapter 8

melting snow flow into the depth like a stream.17 For Luther the Kidron was
more than a winter-flowing stream; it was Jesus Rubicon:

The evangelist makes clear that Christ went across the very stream of
darkness; I think he went across a black stream. He recalls this dark stream
to indicate the case of the imprisonment and death of Christ.18

For the composer, the Kidron stream provided a succinct pointer to himself
in the very first verse of the narrative: the downward musical line on ber den
Bach (across the stream) [bar 2] may well have enabled the composer to take
an active part in the events and to lead Jesus and his disciples across into the
story of the Passion.
Where, in the St Matthew Passion, Bach routinely adds strings to accompany
the words of Jesusas it were to create a musical nimbusin the St John
Passion, the Gospel narrative is brought alive by the musical contrasts in the
melodic lines and underlying harmonies. This is clearly audible in the opening
bars of this section: commencing in high register (on a minor triad over a
continuo tonic) the evangelists vocal line suggests Jesus descent into the
Kidron valley [bars 12]. A sudden change of harmony (to a second inversion
diminished seventh chord, based on the natural seventh of F minor, which will
be tonicised in bar 6c) and drop in register introduce Judas, the disciple who
betrayed him [bar 5].

John 18.23 [bars 513]: At the Last Supper Judas had already been identified
as Jesus betrayer. In Johns telling of the story, Judas had been an unexceptional
disciple. However, his betrayal of Jesus to the religious authorities is an absolute
although necessary evil. According to the evangelist this sudden change in
Judas character was possible only because the devil had already put it into
the heart of Judas to betray him (John 13.2). Immediately after sharing the
bread of the Last Supper Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, Do quickly
what you are going to do. (John 13.27). Straightaway Judas went out into

17 HS 5: 774: Hat den Nahmen vom Zusammenfliessen im Winter, da von dem zerschmol-
zenen Schnee das Wasser in der Tieffe zusammen fliesset als ein Bach.
18 Martin Luther, Wochenpredigten ber Johannes 1620 (15281529), WA 28: 205, 2536; CB 3:
912: So wil nun der Evangelist sagen/ CHristus sey ber den rechten finstern Bach gangen/
ich meine ja er sey ber den schwartzen Bach gangen. Er gedenckt dieses finstern Bachs/
als der sich am besten in dieser Sache der Gefngni und Todes Christi reime; HS 5: 774
helpfully supplies the Hebrew etymology for schwartz (qadar, black) explaining the
provenance of the black stream in Luthers sermon.
commentary 149

the nightMatthews outer darkness (Matthew 25.30)to arrange for Jesus

arrest. As Judas was leaving the room of the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples,
now the Son of Man has been glorified (John 13.31). Jesus glorification lies not
in his signs of power but in his betrayal, arrest, suffering and death, a concept
central to Johns narrative, and echoed closely in Martin Luthers Theology of
the Cross.
Having made contact with the religious authorities and the temple police,
Judas returned with a sizable detachment of soldiers and policemen. Olea-
rius explains that the Greek word speira indicates a cohortsome 600 men.
However, Luthers translation Schar (troop) may suggest a smaller number [bar
10].19 Luther uses Kriegsknechte (mercenaries, a term used of professional foot
soldiers) to refer to the Roman soldiers. Schar is used in conjunction with the
Chief Priests and Pharisees, and thus suggests armed temple officials. The Ger-
man definite article die implies that the cohort needs no further introduction
[bar 9]. Throughout Johns Gospel, the chief priests are characterised as the
official religious leadership and are attributed quasi-political powers. The chief
priests and Pharisees, who had opposed Jesus teaching throughout, had previ-
ously sent a group of armed temple officials. Both had earlier on commissioned
their officers to arrest Jesus, but the officers had been too stunned by his words
to carry out the arrest (John 7.32 and 7.45). Luthers der Hohenpriester und
Phariser Diener (servants of the High Priest and the Pharisees) [bars 1011]
suggests a less formal body of men; servants and footmen rather than trained
officers.
This group of religious leaders and their officials arrived to arrest Jesus. The
punctuated melody line in bars 1213 (mit Fackeln, Lampen und mit Waffen
with torches, lanterns and with weapons) hammers home the point that they
are over-equipped to arrest an unarmed suspect under a full moon, as Olearius
points out:

The works of darkness are not aided by light, in particular at the time
of the [Passover] full moon, when there was no need at all for any such
concern [about visibility], as if the Lord would hide under the olive trees,
fig or palm trees.20

John 18.4 [bars 1317]: John emphasises that this arrest did not come as a
surprise, but that Jesus was fully prepared for what lay ahead, knowing all

19 HS 5: 775: Speiran, cohortem.

20 HS 5: 775: Die Werck der Finsterni hilft kein Liecht/ sonderlich umb die Zeit des Voll-
monden/ so war auch gar kein Bey-Sorge ntig/ als mchte sich der HERR unter den
Oel-Bumen/ Feigen/ oder Palm-Bumen verbergen wollen.
 150 chapter 8

that should happen to him, in fact, he had himself previously proclaimed

what would happen to him.21 This is supported by an ascending melody line
(outlining B flat major, bars 13d14c) and a major mood (B flat major/E flat
major) in bars 1315 (Als nun Jesus wute alles, was ihm begegnen sollteThen
Jesus, knowing all that should happen to him). A second ascending melody
line in bar 15 (ging er hinaushe went out) takes the listener along with Jesus
straight into the midst of his captors. Jesus gave himself up of his own free
will, and knowingly took on what lay ahead of him. At a previous encounter
in the forecourts of the temple Jesus had confronted his captors with the same
authority, and sent them back empty-handed (John 7.4547).22 Here again
Jesus takes initiative: his opening wordsWen suchet ihr? (Whom do you
seek?)introduce the first crowd-scene (or turba) of the Passion [bars 1617].

2b. Coro (compare with 2d, 16d, 18b and 23f)

Chorus (Flute I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

Johannes 18,5a Jesum von Nazareth. John 18.5a Jesus of Nazareth.

John 18.5a [bars 1820]: Apart from the inscription above the cross, which
speaks of Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, this chorus (and the related
chorus 2d) are the only occurrences of the words von Nazareth (of Nazareth) in
the Passion. At the very beginning of the Gospel story, the disciple Nathanael
had voiced his doubt whether anything good can come out of Nazareth (John
1.46), and so here the term may also be used mockingly, not just describing
Jesus provenance, a link made explicit by Olearius.23 This certainly is the case
in Pilates inscription. Luthers Jesum uses the Latin accusative historically
applied in German to classical names ending in -us, and therefore answers
Jesus question Wen suchet ihr? (Whom do you seek?, John 18.4b).
This crowd-scene (turba) serves as a model for four other musically simi-
lar movements [2d, 16d, 18b and 23f]. They provide a musical and thematic
link between Jesus first encounter with his captors and later confrontations
that, ultimately, lead to the chief priests choice of a criminal to be liberated
instead of Jesus (John 18.40). The instrumental frame for these crowd-scenes
remains on the whole unchanged: the theme, set out in four bars, is interjected
between recitatives; with upper instrumental parts in semiquaver figuration

21 HS 5: 775: Er hatte es ja selbst zuvor verkndiget.

22 An authority ascribed by Olearius, citing Athanasius, in HS 5: 775776, to miraculous
grace (Wunderliche Gte).
23 HS 5: 776: Da nichts guts herkmt (from whence comes no good thing).
commentary 151

figure 6 Autograph Score, p. 11: Different Cross-motifs (13, 24 and 14, 23) on Jesum von
Nazareth

over a figured bass-line. In this movement, the flutes and first violin provide the
semiquaver figuration, while the continuo points out the harmony; an exam-
ple of melodic and harmonic Fortspinnung (spinning-forth, or amplification of
the motif). The underlying harmonic sequence comprises part of a descend-
ing circle of fifths, showing Bachs musical and mathematical craftsmanship.
This four-bar sequence forms a ritornello (recurring passage) which reoccurs
later in the scene, providing a musical connection to movement 2d when the
crowd again clamours for Jesus of Nazareth. This outer structure of flute, vio-
lin and continuo forms the framework for the inner voices, which move more
freely in a quaver pattern, and are echoed by the chorus. In this movement,
the chorus follows the oboes, second violin and viola in a cackle of strings and
woodwind.24 This produces a tumultuous babble of voices, all shouting over
each other, while the woodwind mocks Jesus.

24 See also Drr (2000), pp. 6566, p. 62. For earlier uses of such a motif, in particular in Hein-
rich Schtzs St John Passion, see: Tamsin D. Jones, Passions in Perspective: An Analytical
Discussion of the three Passion Settings of Heinrich Schtz (15851672) against their Histori-
cal and Stylistic Backgrounds (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation: Birmingham University,
2000), p. 212 and p. 234.
 152 chapter 8

In addition, Bach embeds the endpoint of the Passion journey in the bass-
line, making use of an extraordinary musical device: a melodic line in the
form of an x-shaped cross on the syllables Je-sum von Na-za-[reth] (Jesus of
Nazareth) [bars 19 and 20]. The composer uses this cross-motif again and
again, increasingly so as the moment of the crucifixion approaches, which is
itself marked by multiple crosses in the score [movement 25a, bars 13, see Fig-
ure 6].

2c. Recitativo
Evangelisttenor, Jesusbass, continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,5b Jesus spricht zu ihnen: John 18.5b Jesus replied:

Jesus Jesus
Ich bins. I am he.

Evangelist Evangelist
Judas aber, der ihn verriet, But Judas, who betrayed him,
stund auch bei ihnen. was also standing with them.

18,6 Als nun Jesus zu ihnen sprach: 18.6 When Jesus said to them:
Ich bins, wichen sie zurcke I am he, they moved back
und fielen zu Boden. and fell to the ground.

18,7 Da fragete er sie abermal: 18.7 There he asked them again:

Jesus Jesus
Wen suchet ihr? Whom do you seek?

Evangelist Evangelist
Sie aber sprachen: But they spoke:

John 18.5b [bars 2223]: Judas does not betray Jesus by a kiss in contrast with
the synoptic Passion stories (Matthew 26.48 and synoptic parallels in Marks
and Lukes Gospels).25 Jesus remains standing among his disciples and, again
in contrast with parallel accounts such as Matthew 26.50, no-one lays hands
on him. Instead, Jesus gives himself up willingly by identifying himself to his
opponents. Jesus did so by the words ich bins (I am he). They refer back to the

25 HS 5: 774: The Judas-kiss to betray Jesus is mentioned in Matthew 26.48 (von dem
verrtherischen Judas-Ku ist Nachricht Mat. 26/48).
commentary 153

scene of the Last Supper, where Jesus predicted Judas betrayal: The one who
ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I tell you this now, before it occurs,
so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he (John 13.18f).26 The
phrase echoes earlier sayings where Jesus says I am the good shepherd (John
10.11), the resurrection and life (John 11.25), the way, truth and life (John 14.6),
and the true vine (John 15.1) introduced by the same words.
Olearius explains that Jesus proclamation ich bins (I am he) was a universal
word of power that referred to the Hebrew divine Name I am who I am
(Exodus 3.14): The eternal, all-powerful Jehovah (Psalm 27.1, 1 John 16.33), the
conqueror, the more powerful (Luke 11) the invincible fulminator, the Lord:
el Shaddai (Genesis 28.35).27 As Jesus is about to be handed over, we encounter
one of the many moments of the Johannine glorification in debasement that
make up Johns Passion narrative. A spark of Jesus divinity breaks through the
darkness of the scene and reveals him to be the Son of God, Almighty.28 Johns
theological understanding is made clear not only by Olearius but a number
of other Lutheran interpreters on whose work Bach also drew regularly; the
seventeenth-century theologian Johann Arndt, for instance, commented as
follows on the passage in his Geistreiche Schrifften und Wercke:

Christs words I am he teach us in a wonderful way about his majesty,

which he discarded in his debasement yet shines through at certain
moments. Does not the same apply to his deathwhich is about to take
placewhile he sits enthroned at the right hand of God and has power
over all things?29

John 18.6 [bars 2528]: When Jesus identified himself, his captors wichen
zurcke und fielen zu Boden (moved back and fell to the ground) [bars 27b28b].

26 Alluding to Psalm 41.89: They think that a deadly thing has fastened on me, that I will
not rise again from where I lie. Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my
bread, has lifted the heel against me.
27 HS 5: 776: Ein allgewaltiges Macht-Wort; Der ewige allmchtige Jehovah. Psalm 27.1/ 1.
Johan. 16/33, der Uberwinder/ der Strckere Luc. 11 der unberwindliche Fulminator.
Schaddai. 1. B. Mos. 28.c. 35/3).
28 WA 28: 235, 25: Allmechtig.
29 Johann Arndt, Geistreiche Schrifften und Wercke (Leipzig and Grlitz: J. Rambach, 1734),
p. 508: In Christi Wort ich bins haben wir eine herrliche Lehr von der Majestt Christi,
derer er sich zwar im Stande seiner Niedrigkeit geeussert, aber gleichwohl zu Zeiten herfr
leuchten lassen. Ist dergleichen bey seinem Sterben, was nun geschehen, da er sitzt zur
Rechten Gottes, und ber alles Gewalt hat.
154 chapter 8

The evangelists melodic line here clearly traces their movement. Even at the
time of his impending arrest Jesus remained fully in charge of the situation.
He did not attempt to flee, nor did he endeavour to negotiate his release. As
at his previous encounter with the temple authorities in the forecourt of the
temple (John 7.4547), his word is still sufficient to throw his opponents to the
ground.
The reaction of the soldiers and tenple authorities recalls other visions of
divine: the prophet Daniel fell face to the ground when hearing the word of
God addressed to him (Daniel 10.9), just as Saul fell to the ground on the
Damascus Road in his encounter with the risen Christ (Acts 9.4), as Olearius
explains.30 Heinrich Mller, a seventeenth-century Lutheran commentator,
expounds the passage as follows:

The Saviours majesty has slain them like a flash of lightning. While he
has emptied himself of his divine glory in this state of debasement, from
time to time he did send forthwhen his office required ita ray of his
glory.31

Arndt concludes, here Christ reveals himself to be Almighty God and Lord.32

John 18.7 [bars 2830]: Jesus questions his would-be-captors once more. Ques-
tion and answer are similar to bars 16d18a and serve to emphasise the sover-
eignty of Jesus over his opponents by repetition. Although the Evangelists
melody for Wen suchet ihr? (Whom do you seek?) is unchanged [bar 16d17b],
Bachs harmony now leads to the sub-dominant (C) minor, rather than the tonic
(G) minor as before; just as the key-change is unexpected so Jesus mastery of
the situation is also completely unexpected by human standards.

30 HS 5: 776.
31 Heinrich Mller, Vom Leyden Christineun Predigten, in: idem, Geistreiche Paions-Schule
(Frankfurt/Main: Gensch, 1720), p. 261: Die Majestt des Heylandes hat sie niedergeschla-
gen wie ein Blitz. Denn ob er zwar im Stande der Erniedrigung sich seiner Gttlichen
Herrlichkeit geuert, hat er doch zuweilen wanns sein Ammt erforderte, einen Strahl
derselben lassen hervor blicken; HS 5: 776 adds in like vein: They were suddenly slain by
this almighty word of power/ as if by struck to the ground by thunder. That was a glance of
the Divine Majesty and Glory (Sie wurden durch dieses allmchtige krftige Wort pltz-
lich/ als vom Donner/ darnieder geschlagen/ da sie zur Erden fielen. Das war ein Blick
der Gttlichen Majestt und Herrlichkeit).
32 Arndt (1734), p. 619: [Allhie] erzeiget sich Christus als ein allmchtiger Gott und Herr.
 commentary 155

figure 7 Autograph Score, p. 12: Cross-motifs (14, 23) on Jesum von Nazareth

2d. Coro e Recitativo (compare with 2b, 16d, 18b and 23f)
Chorus and Recitative (Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo), Evangelisttenor,
Jesusbass

Johannes 18,7b Jesum von Nazareth. John 18.7b Jesus of Nazareth.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,8 Jesus antwortete: 18.8 Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Ich habs euch gesagt, da ichs sei, I have told you, that I am he,
suchet ihr denn mich, so lasset diese gehen! So if you are seeking me, let these go!

John 18.7b8 [bars 3036]: The chorus mirrors 2b, both frame the self-
revelation of Jesus as the divine Son in 2c, and help to accentuate the theo-
phany. The first violin is not joined by the flutes in the semiquaver motive,
which lessens the suggestion of mockery now that his opponents have been
struck by his power and authority. Where in the previous chorus there are fewer
occurences of the shape of a cross in music in calling for Jesus to identify him-
self [movement 2b, bars 1920], in this movement all four voices share variants
 156 chapter 8

on the cross-motif on Jesum von Na-[zareth] (Jesus of Nazareth) [bars 3234:

Figure 7]. Even at the moment of capture, the purpose of the Passion story
gives shape to the musical material, pointing clearly to the inevitability of Jesus
crucifixion.
In the exchange that follows, Jesus allows himself to be captured to save the
lives of his disciples. It is noteworthy that Jesus is not deserted by his disciples
as in Marks Passion story (Mark 14.50). Rather, Jesus saves their lives and
commands them to leave him at a time when he is about to fulfil his promise
to them, I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10.15).33

3. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

O groe Lieb, o Lieb ohn alle Mae, O greater love, O love beyond all measure,
die dich gebracht auf diese Marterstrae! that brought you to this road of torture!
Ich lebte mit der Welt in Lust und Freuden, I lived with the world in happiness and joy,
und du mut leiden. and you must suffer.

Verse 7 of Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen [bars 111]: The Passion
hymn Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen (Oh dearest Jesus, what law
have you broken) is based on Isaiahs Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 53) and
a metrical version of Psalm 23 in the Geneva Psalter (1543).34 In the light of
his own experience of the Thirty Years War of religion that ravaged Germany
from 16181648, the Kben pastor Johann Heermann adapted both texts for
his hymn, in which he recalls the sufferings borne by Christ in order to make
atonement for human sin, a theme first set in Isaiahs Servant Songs, surely
he has borne our griefs (Isaiah 53.4). Set to a melody from Johann Crgers
Neues vollkmmliches Gesangbuch Augsburgischer Confession, the hymn was
first published in his 1630 hymnal Herz- und Hausmusik.
Bach may well have used the hymn to echo the traditional introit chorale at
the Good Friday Vespers in St Thomas Church Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund
(As Jesus stood at the Cross). The Leipzig verger Christoph Rost recorded in

33 HS 5: 777: Therefore let these sheep go (Darumb lasset diese Schaafe gehen).
34 Compiled by Guillaume Franc (c. 15051570), the reformed cantor of Saint-Pierre, Geneva,
the Geneva Psalter served as the basis for a number of Protestant hymnals far beyond
the French-speaking Reformed tradition. For the introduction of his Psalter, see: Daniel
Trocm-Latter, The Psalms as a mark of Protestantism: The Introduction of liturgical
Psalm-Singing in Geneva, Plainsong and Medieval Music 20 (2011), pp. 145163.
 commentary 157

1721: The hymn As Jesus stood at the Cross was intoned from the choir gallery,
introducing immediately the accompanied Passion which was half-way sung
before the sermon.35 Rather than begin the Passion with a chorale reflecting on
the overall theme of the Passion, Bach chose this verse from Heermanns hymn
at a later part in the Passion in order to reflect specifically on Christs promise to
his disciples that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10.11)
emphasised in movement 2d. No wrong-doing of his own, only the boundless
love for those entrusted to him, has led Jesus to diese Marterstrae (this road of
torture) [bars 56]. His sufferings are the price paid for the believers life of Lust
und Freuden (happiness and joy) [bars 89], a thoroughly Johannine theme:
throughout his ministry Jesus encounters the hatred of the world because of
his ceaseless reminder that its works are evil (John 7.7). For the evangelist, the
only way for humans to gain eternal life is to turn from their life in this world
(John 12.25) and instead to imitate the boundless love of Christ (see for instance
John 15.12f).
These theological statements are clearly underscored by the musical accom-
paniment. A solitary semiquaver movement in the alto line, doubled by the
second oboe and violin in bar 9, as well as the unexpected major harmony with
a cadence in the relative major (B flat) highlight Freuden (joy), whilst Du (you)
is stressed by a sudden diminished seventh in bar 10, and a leap of a dimin-
ished fifth (or tritone) in the bass line in bar 10, underscores mut leiden (must
suffer).36

4. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,9 Auf da das Wort erfllet wrde, John 18.9 So that the words would be fulfilled
welches er sagte: that he had spoken:

35 See Johann Christoph Rost, Nachricht, Wie es, in der Kirchen zu St Thom allhier, mit
dem Gottesdienst, Jhrlichen sowohl an Hohen Feste, als anderen Tagen, pfleget gehalten
zu werden, aufgezeichnet von Johann Christoph Rosten, Custode ad D. Thomae, anno
1716, in: BD 2, pp. 140141: Wurd auf dem Chor, das Lied gesungen Da Jesus an dem
Cretze stund etc, dann ging gleich die Musicirte Passion an, und ward vor der Predigt
halb gesungen.
36 In early modern and Baroque musical allegory the tritone, or diabolus in musica (devil in
music), denoted evil or intense conflict, see: Hans Jochaim Moser, Diabolus in Musica,
Musikerziehung 6.3 (1953), pp. 131147, and Reinhold Hammerstein, Diabolus in Musica:
Studien zur Ikonographie der Musik im Mittelalter, Neue Heidelberger Studien zur Musik-
wissenschaft 6 (Bern: Francke, 1974), p. 7.
 158 chapter 8

Ich habe der keine verloren, I have lost none of those

die du mir gegeben hast. whom you gave me.

18,10 Da hatte Simon Petrus ein Schwert
und zog es aus
und schlug nach des Hohenpriesters Knecht
und hieb him sein recht Ohr ab;
und der Knecht hie Malchus.
18.10 There Simon Peter had a sword,
and drew it out,
and struck at the high priests slave,
and took off his right ear.
And the slave was called Malchus.

18,11 Da sprach Jesus zu Petro: 18.11 There Jesus spoke to Peter:

Jesus Jesus
Stecke dein Schwert in die Scheide! Put your sword in its scabbard.
Soll ich den Kelch nicht trinken, Shall I not drink the cup
den mir mein Vater gegeben hat? that the Father has given me?

John 18.9 [bars 14]: In John 17.12, Jesus had prayed while I was with [my
disciples], I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded
them, and not one of them was lost, except the one who was destined to be lost.
Here the evangelist reminds the listener that Jesus had foreseen his Passion
and knew that his arrest would purchase not only the temporary freedom of
his friends, but ultimately their salvation.37 Judas, who is referred to as the
one who was destined to be lost in John 17.12, is no longer mentionedby his
betrayal he has already crossed over into the outer darkness. Unlike Matthew,
John does not refer to Judas suicide (Matthew 27.35) but instead speaks of his
eternal condemnation.

John 18.1011a [bars 512]: Simon Peter seeks to defend Jesus by a last, futile,
gesture. He had promised to lay down his life for Jesus (John 13.37) and now
confronted one of the slaves of the high priest, Malchus, cutting off his right
ear in the process. Peters action in the face of a large crowd of armed officers
is clearly preposterous. The underlying secondary dominant chord on Schwert
(sword) provides an element of surprise [bar 7], while the evangelists ascend-
ing melody line zog es aus und schlug (and drew it out and struck) illustrates the
drawing [bars 67] and the descending line the mutilationhieb ihm sein recht
Ohr ab (and took off his right ear) [bar 8]. The Lucan story tells of the healing
of the slaves ear by Jesus (Luke 22.51), but John omits this sign of compas-
sion towards an adversary by a last miraculous cure. Instead, Jesus commands
Peter to lay down his sword (Stecke dein Schwert in die Scheide) knowing that

37 HS 5: 777, also referring to John 17.12.

 commentary 159

no action on behalf of any of his friends can now hold back his Passion [bars
1112]. Olearius suggests that this gesture was akin to his saying: Do you seek
to prevent my salvific, freely accepted suffering by your miserable powerless-
ness?38

John 18.11b [bars 1215]: Jesus final rebuttal of Peter Soll ich den Kelch nicht
trinken, den mir mein Vater gegeben hat? (Am I not to drink the cup that
the Father has given me?) [bars 1214] is repeated in bars 1415. Jesus ques-
tion expects an affirmative answer, Olearius commentary explains.39 This is
realised musically by a rising chromatic scale on the syllables ge-ben hat [bar
15], mirroring the rising voice. John does not recount Jesus anguish in Geth-
semane and his anxious prayer, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me
(Matthew 26.39). Where in Matthews Gospel Jesus actively seeks the sup-
port of his friends and chides Peter, could you not stay awake with me one
hour? (Matthew 26.40), here he accepts the cupthe symbol of his Passion
willingly and rejects Peters help as human interference in Gods plan of salva-
tion.40

5. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos;
Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Dein Will gescheh, Herr Gott, zugleich
auf Erden wie im Himmelreich,
Gib uns Geduld in Leidenszeit,
gehorsam sein in Lieb und Leid;
wehr und steur allem Fleisch und Blut,
das wider deinen Willen tut!
Your will be done, Lord God, equally
on earth as in the kingdom of heaven.
Give us patience in the time of suffering,
to be obedient in love and suffering;
defend and guide all flesh and blood,
that acts against your will!

Verse 4 of Vater unser im Himmelreich [bars 112]: Martin Luthers 1539 met-
rical version of the Lords Prayer, Vater unser im Himmelreich (Our Father, who
from heaven above) serves as a response to John 18.11b, Soll ich den Kelch nicht
trinken, den mir mein Vater gegeben hat? (Am I not to drink the cup that the
Father has given me?). Referring once again back to Jesus agony in Geth-
semane, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done

38 HS 5: 777: Woltestu mein heylbringendes freywilliges Leiden mit deiner elenden Ohn-
macht verwehren?
39 HS 5: 777: It is a confirmatory question (Qvaestio confirmat).
40 HS 5: 777: The cup of the cross (Den Creutz-Kelch).
 160 chapter 8

(Matthew 26.42), an interchange that does not feature in Johns Gospel, this
verse illustrates Jesus free submission to the will of God. Throughout the Pas-
sion, Jesus is shown to be a model that believers should imitate. His costly
acceptance of his Fathers will is to inspire believersrepresented by the
choirto go and do likewise (Luke 10.37), and themselves to join the prayer
that Jesus taught them, Dein Will gescheh, Herr Gott, zugleich auf Erden wie im
Himmelreich (Your will be done, Lord God, on earth as it is in the kingdom of
heaven) [bars 14].
Framed by Gods will, Wille, in its various German declensions [bars 2 and
12], the entire chorale points to the believers full assent to Gods purposes.
Jesus had told his friends that to follow God obediently would result in personal
suffering (Matthew 16.2426 and synoptic parallels). The believers prayer, Gib
uns Geduld in Leidenszeit,/ gehorsam sein in Lieb und Leid (Give us patience in
the time of suffering/ to be obedient in love and suffering) [bars 48], echoes
the paradox that bad things happen to good people contained in Jesus charge
to his followers to deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me
(Luke 9.23). The final petition of the chorale, wehr und steur allem Fleisch und
Blut,/ das wider deinen Willen tut (defend and guide all flesh and blood,/ that
acts against your will) [bars 812], provides a reference to Jesus exhortation of
his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemanenot in Johns Gospelpray that
you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh
is weak (Matthew 26.41).
In this paraphrase of the Lords Prayer, Luther made it clear that submission
of the believers feeble flesh and blood to Gods purposes is possible only
with the help of Gods grace. God alone is able to shield the believer from sin.
The inevitable harmonic resolution and implied rhythmic retardation on das
wider deinen Willen tut (that acts against your will) [bars 1012] supports this
theological insight, by emphasising the inevitability of the authority of the will
of God over human endeavour.

II. PONTIFICESJESUS BEFORE THE CHIEF PRIESTS

6. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Johannes 18,12 Die Schar aber und der John 18.12 But the troop, their captain,
Oberhauptmann und die Diener der Jden and the servants of the Jews
nahmen Jesum und bunden ihn took Jesus and bound him

18,13 und fhreten ihn aufs erste zu Hannas, 18.13 and led him first to Hannas,
der war Kaiphas Schwher, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,
welcher des Jahres Hoherpriester war. who was the high priest that year.
 commentary 161

18,14 Es war aber Kaiphas, der den Jden riet, 18.14 But it was Caiaphas who had advised
es wre gut, da ein Mensch wrde the Jews that it were better that one person
umbracht fr das Volk. would be broken for the people.

John 18.12 [bars 14]: Jesus was bound and taken by his captorsa coalition of
Roman soldiers and Jewish temple officials (compare with John 18.23, move-
ment 2a above)led by a Roman officer. Luthers translation Oberhauptmann
is a direct translation of Johns chiliarchos, a specific military term meaning lit-
erally captain of a thousand (tribunus militum), the leader of a Roman cohort.41
The binding of Jesus is interpreted theologically and musically in the alto aria
that follows [see the discussion below, movement 7].

John 18.13 [bars 46]: The bound Jesus is then led to Hannas, himself a former
high-priest, father of five high priests, and the influential father-in-law of the
current high priest Caiaphas. John gives no reason why Jesus should first be
led to the high priests father-in-law before being brought to Caiaphas himself
(for the suggestion that this may have followed due rabbinical process, see the
commentary on John 18.24, movement 12a below), particularly since Hannas
had been removed from office by the Romans some fifteen years earlier.42 The
fact that Hannas, as a past high priest, is also addressed as high priest only
adds to the confusion (see John 18.22, movement 10 below).43 John suggests that
high priests were appointed annually (John 11.49, 18.13). In fact, the office was
initially meant to be held for life. However, in the first three decades of the first
century ce the Romans had taken upon themselves the appointment process
of high priests, so that the reality very much reflected Johns impression, Luther
explains, citing Josephus.44

41 HS 5: 775: In John 19.12 [sic: Olearius means 18.12] their commanding officer is called
Chiliarchos, officer over about a thousand men (Die sich auch wol an tausend erstreckt/
daher Johan. 19/12 ihr Haupt Chiliarchus genannt wird).
42 Hannas was removed from his high priestly office by the Roman procurator, Flavius Jose-
phus, Jewish Antiquities, with an English Translation by Louis H. Feldman, Loeb Classical
Library 411 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969) [cited as Ant.], 18: 2635,
who calls him Ananus, reports. For Bachs ownership of Josephus works, see: BB 8587.
43 Luther, WA 27: 270, 2233, reflects on this confusion at length.
44 Luther, Wochenpredigten ber Johannes 1620, 1528/29, WA 28: 258, 2124: Josephus writes
[Ant. 18: 35] that the two [high priests] Alexander and Simon shared their office, and cast
lots about who would rule after the other, just as there are three mayors in any city, who
rule one year after the other (Josephus schreibet, das die zweenen Alexander und Simon
das Hohepriesteramt unter sich haben geteilet und darumb geloset, das einer umb den
andern Hohepriester gewesen ist, wie in einer Stad drey Brgermeister seien und regiren
 162 chapter 8

John 18.14 [bars 611]: Caiaphas is identified as the high priest who den Jden
riet, es wre gut, da ein Mensch wrde umbracht fr das Volk (advised the Jews
that it were better that one person would be broken for the people) [bars
811].45 John refers here to an earlier interchange between Caiaphas, the other
chief priests and the Pharisees, which highlights their dilemma vis--vis Jesus
(John 11.4650). In response to their question, What are we to do? This man
is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe
in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our
nation (John 11.4748), Caiaphas counselled them, You do not understand that
it is better for one man to die for the people than to have the whole nation
destroyed (John 11.50). Here, Johns irony reaches its peak, Barrett suggests:
Jesus was put to death; and politically the people perished.46 He died for the
people ( fr das Volk) [bars 1011], died instead of the people:47 those who
followed Jesus did not perish but instead gained eternal life (John 3.16). A leap
of a sixth on Mensch (one person) in the evangelists vocal line and a retardation
on umbracht (broken) [bar 10] highlight musically the concept of one mans
death for the welfare of all people.

7. Aria
Alto (Oboe I/II, Continuo)

Von den Stricken meiner Snden From the cords of my sins,

mich zu entbinden, in order to unbind me,
wird mein Heil gebunden. my salvation will be bound.
Mich von allen Lasterbeulen From all the boils of vice,
vllig zu heilen in order to fully heal me,
lt er sich verwunden. he lets himself be wounded.

Opening Chorus of Brockes Passion [bars 1115]: Barthold Heinrich Brockes

Der fr die Snden der Welt Gemarterte und Sterbende Jesus (Jesus, Suffering
and Dying for the Sins of the World) served as a textual basis for most of the
free poetry in the Passion.48 Written by the Hamburg City Councillor Brockes

ein jar umb das ander). Josephus report of the eventual removal of Caiaphas from office
in Ant. 18: 95 further confirms Johns impression.
45 For Johns use of the Jews, see the discussion in movement 16c, below.
46 Barrett (1978), p. 522.
47 HS 5: 710: An dessen stelle.
48 Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Verteutschter Bethlehemitischer Kinder-Mord des Ritters Ma-
rino. Nebst etlichen von des Herrn bersetzers Eigenen Gedichten (Cln & Hamburg:
Schiller, 1715), pp. 299320.
commentary 163

in 1712 and reworked a year later, the libretto was set to music respectively
by Handel and Telemann, as well as two Hamburg composers, Keiser and
Mattheson, among others.49 The libretto, a collection of poems that re-tells
the story of Jesus arrest, suffering and death, was praised by Brockes con-
temporaries as an ideal basis for a Passion oratorio.50 Based on the orthodox
Lutheran understanding that the believers sins are like the cords that bind
Jesus, in his opening poem Brockes elaborated:51 Meine Laster sind die Stricke,
seine Ketten meine Tcke,/ meine Snden binden ihn (My vices are the ropes, his
chains my malice,/ he is bound by my sin).52 In a sermon on Christs Passion
the seventeenth-century Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard elaborates this
point further:

It is Christ alone whom we ought to thank that we have been saved from
those dangerous bonds of devil, death and hell. He let himself be bound
willingly on our behalf so that we could be spared the bounds of sin.53

By allowing himself to be bound by the ropes of sin, Jesus has overcome human
sin and gave sinners the opportunity to enter into a right relationship with God.
For Brockes this message stood at the beginning of his Passion; Bach used the
same poem to comment on the willingness of Jesus to be umbracht fr das Volk
(broken for the people).54 This relationship created by Jesus free acceptance of
mortality spans beyond death: just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and
exhorted his friends, unbind him, and let him go! (John 11.44), here he unbinds
(entbindet) sinners from sin and death by taking on their bonds himself.
This theological insight is reflected clearly in the music. The basso ostinato
continuo and oboes artfully weave the bonds by which Jesus is bound. The

49 For other settings of Brockes text, see above, chapter 4,3.2. Madrigalic Texts.
50 See also Axmacher (1984), pp. 116120. Bach certainly knew the Mattheson setting of
Brockes Passion and may have owned Handels setting, Daniel R. Melamed: Johann
Sebastian Bach and Barthold Heinrich Brockes, in: idem, ed., J.S. Bach and the Oratorio
Tradition, Bach Perspectives 8 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2011), pp. 1342,
pp. 1516.
51 See for instance HS 5: 777.
52 Brockes (1715), p. 308.
53 Johann Gerhard, Erklrung der Historien des Leidens und Sterbens unseres Herrn Christi
Jesu (Jena: Georg Sengenwald, 1652), p. 85: Da wir von diesen gefhrlichen Banden des
Teuffels Todtes und der Hellen knnen erlset werden das haben wir allein Christo zu
dancken welcher sich umb unseret willen so willig hat lassen binden da wir mchten
von den Sndenbanden errettet werden.
54 HS 5: 777: Sets us free from the bonds of sin (Macht uns frey von Snden-Banden).
 164 chapter 8

initial ritornello [bars 18] provides much of the thematic material that makes
up the remainder of the aria. The oboes follow the continuo in canon to which
meaning is added retrospectively by the alto soloists textanother subtle
reflection on the theology underpinning the aria:

At the start of the first vocal section the ritornello acquires additional text-
related significance, for the antithesis of canon and parallel voice-leading
obviously corresponds to the concepts of binden and entbinden (bind
and unbind).55

The alto voice here takes the part of the human soul and reflects on the
sufferings of Christ as a result of human shortcomings, paralleling Brockes Chor
glubiger Seelen (Chorus of faithful souls). The Jena theologian Johann Michael
Dilherr, an earlier contemporary of Bach and Brockes, emphasises: In order for
us sinners to be carried through, the one who is holy, innocent, unblemished,
and without any sin, lets himself be bound.56 The binding of Jesus not only
frees sinners but unites them with Jesus in a common bond.57

8. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,15a Simon Petrus aber folgete Jesu John 18.15a But Simon Peter followed after
nach und ein andrer Jnger. Jesus and another disciple.

John 18.15 [bars 13]: This brief verse introduces a key theological concept; that
of the cost of discipleship or Nachfolge, a theological term that can be derived
from the wording of this verse: Peter followed Jesus to the residence of Hannas
( folgete nach), joined by another disciple. Tradition identifies the nameless
disciple with the Galilean fisherman John, the son of Zebedee, although the
close relationship with Hannas attributed to the disciple in the following verse
(John 18.16, movement 10 below) might make this less probable.

55 Drr (2000), p. 81; for a full discussion of the aria see pp. 7983.
56 Johann Michael Dilherr, Bu- und Passions-Betrachtungen (Nrnberg: Endter, 1650), p. 278:
Damit nun wir Snder erlediget wrden lst sich derjenige binden, der da ist heilig,
unschuldig, unbefleckt und von der Snde abgesondert.
57 HS 5: 777: Jesus, your bonds of love/ are comfort to me in my state of adversity (JEsu deine
Liebes-Bande/ Sind mein Trost im Unglcks-Stande).
 commentary 165

figure 8 Autograph Score, p. 17: Cross-motif (14, 23) on Jesu nach und

In an earlier interchange, Jesus had told Peter, You cannot follow me now;
but you will follow afterward (John 13.36), a veiled pointer towards Peters own
subsequent martyrdom. Although Peter clearly did not comprehend the full
implications, he promised to follow Jesus and to lay down his life for him there
and then (John 13.37). Brockes reflected on his decision to follow his master in
a poetic soliloquy:58

Nehmt mich mit Take me with you

verzagte Schaaren you desperate band
Hier ist Petrus ohne Schwerdt this is Peter without sword:
Last Let all
was Jesu wiederfhrt that will befall Jesus
Mir auch wiederfahren. Also befall me.
Nehmt Mich mit. Take me with you.

Discipleship, Jesus had told his followers, is costly and in itself a way of the
cross. This is expressed by Bach through another cross-motif [see the discussion
on movements 2b and 2d, above]. Here the composer traces the cross on the
syllables Je-su nach und (followed Jesus) [bar 2bc, see Figure 8].

9. Aria
Soprano (Flute I/II, Continuo)

Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten I follow you equally with joyful steps
und lasse dich nicht and will not let you go
mein Leben, mein Licht. my life, my light.
Befrdre den Lauf Take us on the way
und hre nicht auf and do not cease
selbst an mir zu ziehen, zu schieben, zu bitten. yourself to draw me, prod me, request me.

58 Brockes (1715), p. 304.

 166 chapter 8

[bars 1164]: An original poem written specifically to reflect on Peters decision

to follow Jesus regardless of personal cost serves a similar purpose as the solilo-
quy introduced in Brockes Passion [see above, movement 8]: it is a prayer of the
human soul in two parts. The first part [bars 140 and 116156] reflects on Peters
readiness to enter into the way of the cross. The believer is to emulate him.59
Jesus is identified as mein Leben, mein Licht (my life, my light) and therefore
the life and light of the faithful [bars 3032 passim]. A reference to Jesus earlier
declarations, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9.5)
and I am the resurrection and the life (John 11.25), both disclose key-attributes
of Jesus divinity.60 A later version of the Passion (Version IV, 1749) stresses this
theological point further, by providing an alternative text altogether:61

Ich folge dir gleichfalls, I follow you equally,

mein Heiland, mit Freuden, my Saviour, with joy,
und lasse dich nicht and will not let you go
mein Heiland, mein Licht. my Saviour, my light.
Mein sehnlicher Lauf My longing way
hrt nicht eher auf will no sooner cease
bis da du mich lehrest until you have taught me
geduldig zu leiden. to suffer in patience.

In this aria, Jesus is not identified as the Son of God by reference to his divine
attributes but clearly shown to be the Heiland (Saviour) of the faithful. Follow-
ing the example of Peter, believers are also invited to follow Christ mit freudigen
Schritten (with joyful steps), and not to let go of him even in times of difficulty.
The variant reading elaborates further how Jesus suffering serves as an exem-
plar of patient endurance. Life will remain a sehnlicher Lauf (longing journey),
and therefore incomplete, until by his own suffering and death Christ himself
teaches the believer geduldig zu leiden (to suffer in patience).

59 Rudolf Wustmann, Zu Bachs Texten der Johannes- und Matthus-Passion, Monatsschrift

fr Gottesdienst und kirchliche Kunst 15 (1910), pp. 126131, p. 127, clarified: The text of this
aria does not really belong to Peter, but to the Christian soul that currently takes part in
the Service of the Passion and identifiesfor a timewith Peter and the other disciple,
revealing thereby the desire to follow Christ most faithfully and seeking his assistance to
do so (Der Text der Arie gehrt ja nicht dem Petrus, sondern der gegenwrtig am Passions-
gottesdienst teilnehmenden Christenseele, die sich nur vorbergehend mit Petrus und
dem anderen Jnger vergleicht und dann ihren Wunsch nach treuester Anhnglichkeit
an Christus und nach seiner Nachhilfe dabei zu erkennen gibt).
60 Ich bins (I am he) echoes the divine name (John 18.5b) [see above, movement 2c].
61 NBA, p. 259.
commentary 167

[bars 48112]: The second part of the believers prayer is based on the under-
standing that since even Peter was not able to honour his commitment to follow
Jesus unconditionally (see John 18.16, movement 10 below), contemporary dis-
ciples would find it even more difficult to do so. Made on behalf of all believers,
the prayer addresses Jesus directly, asking him for grace to help: befrdre den
Lauf (take me on the way). The prayer next asks Jesus, hre nicht auf/ selbst an
mir zu ziehen, zu schieben, zu bitten (do not cease/ yourself to draw me, prod me,
request me); a reference to his earlier saying, no one can come to me unless
drawn by the Father (John 6.44). This process is emphasised musically by a
staggered and staggering melodic minor then chromatic ascending scale on an
mir zu ziehen, zu schieben (to draw me, prod me) [bars 6164].
At the heart of this musical journey of faith is a fugal (or mimetic) composi-
tion linking the soprano linein Baroque musical allegory a symbol of human
life and the prayers of each believerwith the flutes and the continuo.62 Just as
the central theme [bars 13] is imitated in itself by the flutes, and later in canon
by the Soprano and continuo, so believers are called to imitate Christ. Bachs
melody line and harmonies dwell on the joyous nature of that journey, allow-
ing one of the earliest commentators in the St John Passion, Philipp Spitta, to
censure this aria of joy and faith [because] it emphasises a peripheral element
[of the Passion] to the detriment of the whole work.63 Throughout the Passion
Bachs purpose, however, is precisely the constant emphasis on the believers
own participation in the narrative, bringing to life the events of Good Friday
in the lives of contemporary listeners. As Butt explains, the listener is invited
to make connections and inferences and those listeners who hear the work
within the Lutheran framework of a Passion-tide performance will not fail to
draw the correct spiritual and theological meanings from the workno one
can doubt their supreme significance for those who are attuned to music.64
Axmacher goes as far as suggesting that the Word itself remains a series of dead
letters that can only be brought to life and filled with Spirit by human imagina-
tive power.65 Butt, in turn, suggests that while Bachs music did, indeed, bring
to life the Christian narrative of Good Friday, it also has the potential to create

62 Johann Saubert, DYODEKAS emblematum sacrorum: Der Dritte Theil (Nrnberg: Balthasar
Caymoxen, 1625), 3r (Figure 11), Suavissima Musica Christo: Aller Christen nothwendige
Musik: DISCANTUM, preces referunt et vita (The descant refers to prayers and life).
63 Spitta (1880), p. 353: Diese glaubensfreudige Arie, [weil in ihr] ein beilufiges Moment
[der Passion] zum Schaden des Total-Eindrucks hervorgehoben ist.
64 Butt (2010), p. 32.
65 Axmacher (1984), p. 154: Das Wort ist toter Buchstabe, der erst durch die imaginative Kraft
des Menschen zu neuem Leben erweckt und mit Geist erfllt werden kann.
 168 chapter 8

meaning for listeners that do not share, or ever will expect to share, Bachs own
cultural context, that Bach was creating something that had the potential to
adhere to many more contexts and cultural expectations than much previous
music.66

10. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Ancilla (soprano), Petrus (bass), Jesus (bass), Servus
(tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,15b Derselbige Jnger war John 18.15b That same disciple was
dem Hohenpriester bekannt known to the high priest
und ging mit Jesu hinein and went with Jesus into
in des Hohenpriesters Palast. the palace of the high priest.

18,16 Petrus aber stund drauen fr der Tr.
Da ging der andere Jnger,
der dem Hohenpriester bekannt war,
hinaus und redete mit der Trhterin
und fhrete Petrum hinein.
18.16 But Peter was standing outside.
in front of the door.
There the other disciple,
who was known to the high priest,
went out, spoke to the gatekeeper
and led Peter in.

18,17 Da sprach die Magd, die Trhterin, zu Petro: 18.17 There the maid, the gatekeeper, said to
Peter:

Ancilla Maid
Bist du nicht dieses Menschen Are you not one of this persons
Jnger einer? disciples?

Evangelist Evangelist
Er sprach: He said:

Petrus Peter
Ich bins nicht. I am not.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,18 Es stunden aber die Knechte und Diener 18.18 But the slaves and servants standing there
und hatten ein Kohlfeur gemacht (denn es war kalt) had made a charcoal fire (since it was cold)
und wrmeten sich. and were warming themselves.
Petrus aber stund bei ihnen But Peter stood with them,
und wrmete sich. and was warming himself.

66 Butt (2010), p. 32.

 commentary 169

18,19 Aber der Hohepriester fragete 18.19 But the high priest asked
Jesum um seine Jnger und um seine Lehre. Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.

18,20 Jesus antwortete ihm: 18.20 Jesus answered him:

Jesus
Ich habe frei, ffentlich geredet fr der Welt.
Ich habe allezeit gelehret
in der Schule und in dem Tempel,
da alle Juden zusammenkommen,
und habe nichts im Verborgnen geredt.
Jesus
I have freely, openly addressed the world;
I have always taught
in the synagogue and in the temple,
where all the Jews come together,
and have spoken nothing in secret.

18,21 Was fragest du mich darum? 18.21 What do you ask me therefore?
Frage die darum, die gehret haben, Ask therefore those who heard
was ich zu ihnen geredet habe! what I addressed to them!
Siehe, dieselbigen wissen, was ich gesaget habe. Behold, they know what I said.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,22 Als er aber solches redete, 18.22 But when he had made such an address,
gab der Diener einer, die dabeistunden, one of the servants who was standing nearby
Jesu einen Backenstreich und sprach: struck Jesuss face, and spoke:

Servus Servant
Solltest du dem Hohenpriester also antworten? Is that how you should answer the high priest?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,23 Jesus aber antwortete: 18.23 But Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Hab ich bel geredt, If I have addressed [him] wickely,
so beweise es, da es bse sei, then prove it, that it is evil.
hab ich aber recht geredt, but if I have addressed [him] rightly
was schlgest du mich? why do you strike me?

John 18.15b16 [bars 110]: Peters companion was known to the high priest
and therefore able to enter the high priests residence after Jesus, leaving Peter
outside the gate. Peters exclusion from entry is musically underlined by an
ascending fifth on drauen (outside) [bar 5] and a descending diminished
seventh on hinaus (went out) [bar 8], suggestive of the fact that Peter, like
Judas, is already on the verge of the outer darkness of faith (Matthew 22.13).
Because of his friendship with the high priest, the nameless disciple was able
to negotiate Peters admission to the residence with the woman guarding the
high priests gate (John 18.16).
170 chapter 8

John 18.17 [bars 1014]: As he enters, Peter is recognised and immediately chal-
lenged by the guard. Luthers die Trhterin (the female gatekeeper) reflects
Johns Greek thyrr closely [bars 1112].67 Her question bist du nicht dieses Men-
schen Jnger einer? (are you not one of this persons disciples?) is rhetorical and
expects an affirmative answer, a point made by Olearius.68 Although the Ger-
man dieses Menschen (this persons) sets a slightly derogatory tone, it is above
all inquisitive and not necessarily hostile [bar 13]. Peters denial is as resound-
ing as Jesus earlier affirmation of his true identity and the underlying cadence
intentionally echoes John 18.5 (see above, movement 2c, ich bins).
The ornament on nicht (not) [bar 14] is unusual in the Passion. Similar orna-
mentations all point to the person of Jesus: in the preceding movement, a
similar ornament emphasises the description of Jesus as mein Licht (my Light)
[movement 9, bar 156]. In the aria Betrachte, meine Seel (Contemplate, my soul)
the ornamentation is placed on ihn (him), as the soul is counselled drum seh
ohn Unterla auf ihn (therefore contemplate him without ceasing) [movement
19, bar 15]. In Pilates assessment of the Man of Sorrows, sehet welch ein Men-
sch (behold, what a person), an ornament on Mensch (man) underlines Jesus
broken humanity [movement 21c, bar 26]; at the point of his condemnation, it
points to the cross [movement 23g, bar 80]. Similar ornamentations also mark
out Jesus last word vollbracht (accomplished) in the recitative describing his
death [movement 29, bar 14] and in the ensuing eponymous aria [movement
30]. These parallel ornamentations suggest that it is in the rejection of Jesus
divinity (ich bins) in the denial of his friend (ich bins nicht), that Christs work
is accomplished: in utter darkness, betrayal and loneliness Christ is manifested
as the Son of God and Light of the World. Bach reiterates the Johannine para-
dox at the heart of this Passion by the musical brokenness on the negative,
nicht.69

John 18.18 [bars 1521]: A charcoal fire had been made by the slaves and the ser-
vants of the temple authorities, and Peter joined them. There is no more men-
tion of the other disciple. Luthers translation Diener (servants) does not reflect
the official nature suggested by Johns hupretai (police); in Johns Gospel this

67 HS 5: 778: Thr-Hterin: thyroro.

68 HS 5: 778: Are you not: it is only too certain (Bist du nicht. Es ist ja allzu gewi).
69 And not, as suggested by Michael Marissen, Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bachs St John
Passion, with an annotated literal translation of the Libretto (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1998), p. 17, that the ornamented music could convey that [Peters] discipleship
has not actually been called into question.
commentary 171

body certainly seems to have had powers of interrogation and arrest.70 Es war
kalt (it was cold) is emphasised by parenthetical quaver rests; wrmeten sich
(were warming themselves) by an elaborate and temperate ornamentation
[bars 1819], which is repeated at the moment of Peters denial [movement 12 a,
bar 4]. Olearius provides the only possible explanation why Peter would have
joined Jesus captors: roundabout Passover the days in Jerusalem were very hot,
but at night time it was bitterly cold.71 Although Olearius provides the Greek
word anthrakia (charcoal fire), he fails to mention that it features only twice in
the New Testament, here and in Jesus final resurrection appearance at the Sea
of Galilee in John 21.9, where Jesus cooks fish on an anthrakia to make breakfast
for his disciples. Both Peters denial before the Passion and Jesus forgiveness
and re-commissioning of Peter, feed my sheep and follow me after the resur-
rection (John 21.1719), are linked by the charcoal fire. John need not comment
any further on Peters reaction at the moment the rooster crows, forcing the
librettist to borrow a verse from Matthews account of the Passion instead [see
movement 12c, bars 3138].

John 18.19 [bars 2224]: The religious trial of Jesus does not, as in the synoptic
Gospels, take place in public in the presence of the entire Sanhedrin (compare
with Matthew 26.5768 and synoptic parallels). Rather, it takes place in private,
in the residence of the high priest. No evidence is collected, nor are witnesses
cited against Jesus. Caiaphas, der Hohepriester (the high priest), merely initiates
a brief interrogation [bar 22]. The high priests questions neither concentrate
on Jesus claims to be the Messiah nor on the accusation of blasphemy (com-
pare with John 19.7, movement 21f below). Instead they concern his disciples
and his doctrine, to ascertain whether there might be any incitement to insur-
gency hidden in his teaching so that he might be condemned to death as a
false prophet as well as an insurgent, Olearius suggests.72 Earlier on in Johns
Gospel, the servants of the temple had provided Caiaphas with information on
Jesus teaching (John 7.32 and 7.4648). His interrogation of Jesus is an exam-
ple of what the secret disciple Nicodemus meant when he said in an earlier
interchange in the Gospel, our Law does not judge people without first giving
them a hearing, does it? (John 7.51).

70 HS 5: 669.
71 HS 5: 778: Da zu Jerusalem umb Ostern am Tage eine grosse Hitze/ aber de Nachts eine
empfindliche Klte sey von dem grossen Thau.
72 HS 5: 778: Ob etwan [sic] ein Aufruhr drunter verborgen damit Er als ein falscher
Prophet de Todes wrdig zu erklren 5. Mos 13/5 [Deut. 13.5] und zugleich als ein
Aufrhrer.
172 chapter 8

John 18.20 [bars 2531]: Jesus defence is centred on the fact that none of his
teaching was im Verborgnen (in secret) [bar 30], although John does in fact
report numerous occasions where Jesus acts in secret (for example John 7.4
and 7.10). Bach emphasises the fact that the teaching for which Jesus stands
on trial were common knowledge by inserting a quaver rest between frei (free)
and ffentlich (publicly) [bar 25] which amplifies musically the textual comma.
While Jesus had indeed spoken publicly fr der Welt (to the world) [bar 26],
symbolised in Johns Gospel by the temple wo alle Juden zusammenkommen
(where all the Jews come together), he also had taught his disciples in pri-
vate. Jesus words, ich habe allezeit gelehret in der Schule und in dem Tempel
(I have always taught in synagogue and in the temple) [bars 2729] point to
his teaching in the temple portico at two principal Jewish feasts, Succoth and
Hanukkah (John 7.1024 and 10.2239). Again, Bach inserts rests between in
der Schule (in the synagogue) and und in dem Tempel (and in the Temple) [bar
27] to add further emphasis to the contention that Jesus teaching was pub-
lic revelation. Teaching at Succoth in the Temple, Jesus had told the people:
Do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgement (John 10.24); a
saying which could just as easily be attributed to the present examination by
their religious leaders who, John suggests, base their examination entirely on
appearance.

John 18.21 [bars 3236]: Jesus exclamations, was fragest du mich darum? (why
do you ask me therefore?) and, frage die darum, die gehret haben (ask there-
fore those who heard), are not simply rebuttals of the high priests questions.
They suggest that the interrogation in itself is flawed: Jewish law stipulated that
no-one could be compelled to pronounce themselves guilty by their own wit-
ness.73 Rather, as is suggested by Matthews story of the trial (Matthew 26.5762
and synoptic parallels), witnesses had to be called to provide their testimony
in order to thoroughly convict someone of any wrong-doing.74 The call to ini-
tiate legal proceedings by summoning witnesses, frage die, darum, die gehret
haben (ask therefore those who heard) is interpreted as impudence by one of
the high priests servants.

John 18.22 [bars 3742]: Jesus is struck by a nameless servant for answering
back the high priest. In fact, Jesus probably had refused to incriminate himself:

73 Maimonides, on Sanhedrin 6.2: Our true Torah does not inflict the penalty of death upon
a sinner either by his own confession, or be the declaration of a prophet that the accused
had done the deed.
74 HS 5: 779: Mu zuvor de Unrechts grndlich berwiesen sein.
 commentary 173

a constant characteristic of his trial. The continuo line in bars 3839 leads up to
the striking of Jesus. The evangelists melodic line in bars 3940 is punctuated
by rests to emphasise Backenstreich (strike to the face); the strike is interpreted
theologically in the ensuing chorale [see the discussion of movement 11, below].
John might well have had in mind the striking in one of the Suffering Servant
songs in Second Isaiah: there, Gods faithful servant points out, I did not hide
my face from insult and spitting (Isaiah 50.6).

John 18.23 [bars 4246]: Jesus summons to his interrogator to establish his
guilt, beweise es, da es bse sei (prove it, that it is evil) is met by blows rather
than a reasoned accusation. The rhetorical question was schlgest du mich?
(why do you strike me?), emphasised musically in bar 46, receives no answer
other than physical abuse. A number of eighteenth-century Lutheran theologi-
cal works contained in Bachs collection comment at length on the incident:
Heinrich Mller condemns how the servant struck the Master, the creature
struck the creator with the hand that he himself created, striking the coun-
tenance that is the joy and pleasure of all the angels and the elect.75 Johann
Jakob Rambach, in keeping with Pietist tradition, sees his own sinfulness in the
events of the first Good Friday: it is not reasonable simply to scold and blame
this slave, that we accuse, curse him and speak evil of him. Rather, we need
to recall that our sins also contributed to this [act].76

11. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos;
Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Wer hat dich so geschlagen, Who struck you so,

mein Heil, und dich mit Plagen my salvation and with troubles
so bel zugericht? so battered you?
Du bist ja nicht ein Snder You are indeed not a sinner
wie wir und unsre Kinder like us, and our children,
von Missetaten weit du nicht. you do not know about transgressions.

75 Mller (1700), p. 286: Schrecklich ists, da hie der Knecht den Herrn, die Creatur den
Schpffer, mit der Hand, die der Schpffer selbst gemacht, schlget in das Angesicht, das
aller Engel und Auerwhlten Lust und Freude ist.
76 Johann Jakob Rambach, Betrachtungen ber das gantze Leiden Christi (Halle: Waisenhaus,
1732), p. 295: Es ist aber nun keineswegs damit ausgerichtet, da wir auf diesen Knecht
schelten und losziehen, da wir ihn anklagen, verfluchen und vermaledeyen sondern
wir mssen bedencken, da unsere Snden auch das ihrige dazu beygetragen haben.
 174 chapter 8

Ich, ich und meine Snden, I, I and my sins,

die sich wie Krnlein finden
des Sandes an dem Meer,
die haben dir erreget
das Elend, das dich schlget,
und das betrbte Marterheer.
that like the little grains, that are to be found
by the sea, of sand,
they have provoked
the distress that strikes you
and the host of afflicting tortures.

Verses 3 and 4 of O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben [bars 113 and repeats]: it was
in the last year of the Thirty Years War of religion that had destroyed much
of central Germany that the Brandenburg pastor Paul Gerhardt (16071676)
wrote his hymn O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben (Oh World, behold your Life).77 In
his hymn he closely associated the bruised lives of his own people with the
sufferings of Jesus. The sinless Jesus (du bist ja nicht ein Snder) willingly took
on the weight of human shortcomings and injustice and, in another verse, is
seen to shoulder the burdens of a whole people: du nimmst auf deinen Rcken,/
die Lasten, die mich drcken (you take upon your back/ the burdens that oppress
me).78
Meine Snden, die sich wie Krnlein finden/ des Sandes an dem Meer (my
sins that like the little grains that are to be found/ by the sea, of sand) alludes
to Manassehs contrite acknowledgement that the sins I have committed are
more in number than the sand of the sea (Prayer of Manasseh 1.9).79 Gerhardt
emphasises that the sins of Gods people today are just as numerous, still
causing Jesus das Elend, das dich schlget,/ und das betrbte Marterheer (the

77 Elke Axmacher, Praxis Evangeliorum: Theologie und Frmmigkeit bei Martin Moller (1547
1606), Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 43 (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck
und Rupprecht, 1989), p. 181, shows well how Gerhardts hymn is in part dependent on
the influential meditations on the Passion of Christ by Martin Moller (15471606), Cantor
and Pastor in Lwenberg and Grlitz [see also the discussion of movement 40, below].
78 Paul Gerhardt, O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben, verse 1: The noble king of glory,/ willingly
lets himself be weighed down,/ with scourges, scorn and great mockery (Der groe Frst
der Ehren,/ lt willig sich beschweren/ mit Schlgen, Hohn, und groem Spott), and
verse 6: You take upon your own back/ the burdens, that oppress me/ far heavier than
a stone (Du nimmst auf deinen Rcken/ die Lasten, die mich drcken/ viel schwerer als
ein Stein).
79 Heinrich Mller, Vermehrter und durchgehends verbesserter Himmlischer Liebes-Ku/
Oder: Gttliche Liebes-Flamme/ Das ist: Aufmunterung zur Liebe GOttes: Durch Vorstellung
dessen unendlichen Liebe gegen uns (Nrnberg: W.M. Endter, 1732), p. 466: Kannst du
auch den Sand am Meer zehlen? So erfreue dich nun, da du einen solchen GOtt hast,
der dir alle deine Snde vergiebt. Gleich wie im rothen Meer alle Egyptier ersoffen/ da
nicht einer davon kam: Also mssen im Blute Christi alle Snden ersauffen und keine
berbleiben.
 commentary 175

distress that strikes you,/ and the host of afflicting tortures). Yet it is by this
very affliction that individuals are saved, Johann Michael Dilherr explains in a
Nrnberg Good Friday sermon: We have been wounded by the injuries of the
tempter, Satan, and were condemned by sin: but we are also healed by wounds,
that is by the wounds of the Son of God.80
Just as in the opening chorus of the St Matthew Passion, which invites listen-
ers to contemplate the suffering of Christ and, by doing so, reflect on their own
sins, so here the listeners are also called into personal dialogue with the stricken
Christ. The twentieth-century German theologian Martin Dibelius reflects:

The importance of Christs suffering is approached subjectively: I, I and all

my sins, and not for instance by way of the corporate faith of the Church
as for example in Christoph Fischers hymn We give you thanks, Lord Jesus
Christ, that you for us have bled and died.81

12a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,24 Und Hannas sandte ihn John 18.24 And Hannas sent him
gebunden zu dem Hohenpriester Kaiphas. bound to the high priest Caiaphas.

18,25 Simon Petrus stund drauen 18.25 Simon Peter was standing
und wrmete sich, and warming himself.
da sprachen sie zu ihm: Then they spoke to him:

John 18.24 [bars 13]: As noted above (movement 6, John 18.13 and 15), John
confusingly addressed both Hannas and Caiaphas as the high priest. It makes
little sense that Jesus should be sent to Caiaphas if he had already been interro-
gated by the high priest (John 18.2022). However, since Rabbinic law

80 Johann Michael Dilherr, Heilige Karwochen (Nrnberg: Endter, 1653), p. 230: Verwun-
det waren wir, und zwar durch Beschdigung de verfhrerischen Satans, und der ver-
damlichen Snde: werden aber auch widerum geheilt durch Wunden: und zwar durch
die Wunden de Sohns Gottes.
81 Martin Dibelius, Individualismus und Gemeindebewutsein in J.S. Bachs Passionen, in:
Gnther Bornkamm, ed., Martin Dibelius: Botschaft und Geschichte, Gesammelte Aufstze,
2 vols (Tbingen: J.C.B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck), I: Zur Evangelienforschung, pp. 359380,
pp. 362363: Die Bedeutung seines [Christi] Leidens wird vom Subjekt her erfat: Ich,
ich und meine Snden, und nicht etwa vom Kirchenglauben aus, wie zum Beispiel in
Christoph Fischers Lied Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, da du fr uns gestorben bist.
 176 chapter 8

stipulated the need for a second examination (bediqah), Jesus may well have
first undergone a preliminary interrogation (haqirah) by Hannas, followed by
a second hearing in front of Caiaphas.82 Jesus was bound once more and sent
zu dem Hohenpriester Kaiphas (to the high priest Caiaphas). Neither the Ger-
man zu dem (to the) nor, incidentally, the original Greek pros, necessarily imply
movement to another place, such as another law-court, but simply mean that
Jesus is now brought to meet the high priest. Barrett suggests that Jesus was
taken to be presented at a meeting of the chief priests of the Sanhedrin con-
vened by Caiaphas.83

John 18.24 [bars 45]: While Jesus is being taken to Caiaphas, Peter was still
standing at the charcoal-fire that Jesus captors had made (see John 18.18).
Unlike Lukes account of the Passion story, which tells how Peter glanced at
Jesus at the moment of his denial (Luke 22.61), here his final denial takes place
in the absence of Jesus. Nonetheless, as Brown explains, by making Peters
denials simultaneous with Jesus defence John has constructed a dramatic
contrast wherein Jesus stands up to his questioners and denies nothing, while
Peter cowers before his questioners and denies everything.84
Bach reminds us of the context of Peters recognition by echoing the elab-
oration on wrmete sich (was warming himself) [bar 4] in movement 10, bars
1819, above. Spitta explains: When the servants were warming themselves
at the fire, Bach furnishes the phrase with a tonal figure signifying pleasure;
one could not deduce Bachs intention were the same tonal figure not repeated
as Peter is also warming himself.85

12b. Coro
Chorus (Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

Johannes 18.25 Bist du nicht seiner John 18.25 Are you not also one of his
Jnger einer? disciples?

82 Chaya T. Halberstam, Law and Truth in Biblical and Rabbinal Literature (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2010), pp. 8591 outlines the process of rabbinical criminal
procedure.
83 Barrett (1978), p. 529.
84 Brown (1971), p. 842.
85 Spitta (1880), p. 360: Wenn die Knechte sich am Feuer wrmten, setzt Bach auf dieses
Wort eine Tonfigur, welche die Empfindung des Behagens versinnlichen soll; man
wrde eine Absicht vielleicht nicht vermuthen, kehrte nicht diesselbe Tonfigur bei der
Stelle, wo sich Petrus wrmt, wieder.
 commentary 177

John 18.25 [bars 622]: In this evocative turba-scene, Bach paints an image of
an inquisitive crowd, whispering among themselves as much as to Peter, Bist du
nicht seiner Jnger einer? (Are you not also one of his disciples?) Their words
recall the rhetorical question of the doorkeeper in John 18.17 (movement 10).
Nicht (not) expects an answer in the affirmative. The initial bass line [bars 67]
is imitated by the other voices breaking in, in stretto (presented in one voice
and then taken up by the other voices), which helps to create a highly-charged
atmosphere giving the impression of constant interrogation [bars 720]. The
frequent use of staccato in the soprano line gives the movement a further
impression of urgency. This short section concludes with a resounding final
questioning, introduced by basses and tenors, Bist du nicht (are you not) [bar
21] and completed by all four voices at once, seiner Jnger einer? (one of
his disciples?) [bar 22], conjuring up the image of a courtyard full of Jesus
opponents grouped around Peter, pressing him to furnish them with an answer.

12c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Petrus (bass), Servus (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,25b Er leugnete aber und sprach: John 18.25b But he denied it and said:

Petrus Peter
18,26 Ich bins nicht. 18.26 I am not.

Evangelist Evangelist
Spricht des Hohenpriesters Knecht einer, One of the slaves of the high priest,
ein Gefreundeter des, a friend of the man
dem Petrus das Ohr abgehauen hatte: whose ear Peter had cut off, said:

Servus Servant
Sahe ich dich nicht im Garten bei ihm? Did I not see you in the garden with him?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,27 Da verleugnete Petrus abermal, 18.27 There Peter denied it again,
und alsobald krhete der Hahn. and at that moment the cock crowed.

Matthus 26,75 Da gedachte Petrus Matthew 26.75 There Peter remembered

an die Worte Jesu the words of Jesus
und ging hinaus und weinete bitterlich. and he went out and wept bitterly.

John 18.25b27 [bars 2330]: Peters second denial in the courtyard of the high
priest, ich bins nicht (I am not) [bar 24], replicates exactly the musical material
 178 chapter 8

presented in movement 10 [bars 1415], but transposed a tone higher. The

words with which Peter disowns Jesus, once again are a direct negation of
Jesus ich bins (I am he) in movement 2c [bars 23, 2627], and therefore sug-
gestive of a rejection of his divine Sonship (see the relevant discussions in
movement 10, above). The disciple is again recognised, this time by a friend
of the man he injured at the scene of the arrest (John 18.1011a; movement
4, bars 79). Recalling the scene, Bach emphasises Ohr (ear) by a major sixth
in the evangelists line [bar 27]. It is noteworthy that the evangelist does not
include Peters answer to the servants question sahe ich dich nicht im Garten
bei ihm? (did I not see you in the garden with him?) as direct speech. At
the moment of his final denial, Peter (as a performer or actor in the drama)
is silent, the Evangelist tells the story for him instead, and immediately the
rooster crows. The signal with which Jesus predicted Peters disowning in John
13.38 is brought about by a flourish in the continuo line [bar 30] that bears
little resemblance to a roosters crow, especially when compared to the evan-
gelists line on und es war frhe (and it was the hour of the roosters call; in
movement 16a, bar 3, below) which does reproduce the distinctive call of a
rooster.

Matthew 26.75 [bars 3138]: John does not recall Peters reaction but instead
shifts the scene to the Roman governors headquarters (John 18.28). Linked
by the charcoal fire in John 18.18 (see the discussion above, movement 10)
and John 21.9, he redeems Peters threefold denial by the apostles threefold
confession of love for the risen Jesus (John 21.1518).
In order to provide a logical link to the ensuing aria and, equally importantly,
the chorale Petrus, der nicht denkt zurck (Peter, who does not think back;
movement 14), the libretto draws on parts of Matthew 26.75. Leaving the scene
of the religious trial, Peter, like the disciples who denied Jesus by fleeing from
the scene of his arrest, goes out into the darkness of the night ging hinaus (went
out) [bars 3233], und weinete bitterlich (and wept bitterly). Peters tears are a
sign of genuine remorse, and the evangelists line recalls his bursts of tears with
dramatic realism [bars 3438].

13. Aria
Tenor (Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo)

Ach, mein Sinn, Oh, my reason,

wo willt du endlich hin, where do you intend to go ultimately,
wo soll ich mich erquicken? where shall I now revive myself?
 commentary 179

Bleib ich hier, Do I stay here,

oder wnsch ich mir or do I wish upon myself
Berg und Hgel auf den Rcken? mountain and hill on my back?

Bei der Welt is gar kein Rat, In the world there is no guidance at all,
und im Herzen and in my heart
stehn die Schmerzen stay the pains
meiner Missetat, of my transgression,
weil der Knecht den Herrn verleugnet hat. because the servant has denied his Lord.

Verse 1 of Der weinende Petrus [bars 191]: Bach uses a poem by Zittau school-
master Christian Weise (16421708), Der weinende Petrus (The Weeping
Peter).86 The libretto draws on the first of five stanzas of Weises expressive
reflection of Peters emotions, replacing his 1725 Zerschmettert mich, ihr Felsen
und ihr Hgel (Break me asunder, rocks and hills; movement 13 ii). The poet
wrote that his madrigalic ode had been commissioned to fit the moving intrada
by Mr Sebastian Knpfer [16321676], my exceptional and much revered friend,
one of Bachs immediate predecessors as Thomaskantor.87
Just as Knpfers composition would have served as an Intrada, an opening
dance tune for a series of courtly dances, Bachs aria is also based on a dance
rhythm, the sarabande, and still retains the ornamented feel of this stately
dance.88 Each of the three sections cover a part of Weises opening verse,

86 Christian Weise, Der grnen Jugend Nothwendige Gedancken denen berfligen Gedan-
cken entgegen gesetzt und zu gebhrender Nachfolge so wol in gebundenen als ungebunde-
nen Reden allen curisen Gemthern recommendiert, von Christian Weisen (Leipzig:
Fritsche, 1675).
87 Weise (1675), p. 350: Auff die bewegliche Intrade Herrn Sebastian Knpfers, meines son-
derbaren und hochgehalten Freundes. Drrs claim, in: idem (2000), p. 43, that Knpfers
intrada has been impossible to locate, needs to be somewhat qualified. In his work Weise
reproduces the opening section as follows:

figure 9 Johannes-Passion BWV 245, ed. by Arthur Mendel, Neue Bach-Ausgabe Serie II:
Messen, Passionen, oratorische Werke, 5 vols (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1974), IV: Kritischer
Bericht von Arthur Mendel, p. 165.

88 Meredith Little, Natalie Jenne, Dances and the Music of J.S. Bach (Bloomington: University
of Indiana Press, 2001), p. 102: Bach wrote more sarabandes than any other dance types.
Philipp Spitta, Die Arie Ach mein Sinn aus J.S. Bachs Johannes-Passion, in: Vierteljahres-
schrift fr Musikwissenschaft, 4 (1888), pp. 471478, p. 474f. explained: Throughout the
180 chapter 8

separated above. The opening instrumental ritornello [bars 116] is repeated

in numerous variations throughout the aria [bars 1731, bars 3251, bars 5262,
bars 6373, bars 74 onwards, etc]. It introduces the first section [bars 1747a],
and Peters realisationexpressed by the tenor soloistthat his tortured rea-
son (Sinn) can turn nowhere for succour, wo willt du endlich hin, wo soll ich
mich erquicken (where do you intend to go ultimately,/ where shall I now revive
myself?).
The fifth stanza of Weises poem Der weinende Petrus (The Weeping Peter)
has Peter pray that Jesus would come to take his place (tritt an meinen Ort); an
act of substitution.89 Rather than make use of Weises fifth stanza to make this
point explicit, Bach provides a musical allusion to a subsequent movement:
the exposed leap of a sixth on wohin (where) [bar 41] provides a direct musical
link with the aria Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen (Hurry, you troubled souls)
[movement 24, especially bar 173]. There the Chor glubiger Seelen (Chorus of
faithful souls) shares Peters acute lack of direction, and is told to turn nach
Golgotha (to Golgotha). Reconciliation for individual sin could only be found
at the place of crucifixion, the ultimate goal of the human journey of faith: eure
Wohlfahrt blhet da (your welfare blossoms there).90
The second part of the poem [bars 4761] further expresses Peters uncer-
tainty: Bleib ich hier, oder wnsch ich mir Berg und Hgel auf den Rcken? (Do I
stay here, or do I wish upon myself / mountain and hill on my back?), with an
octave leap bringing to mind the mountains ascent [bar 50]. The poet is here
alluding to Jesus rebuke of the women of Jerusalem on his way to Golgotha
in Lukes Gospel, Then they will say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the
hills, Cover us. (Luke 23.30). In a collection of sermons, Johann Heermann,
the author of Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen (Oh dearest Jesus, what
law have you broken; see movement 3, above) provides an allegorical reflection,

seventeenth century, providing vocal settings for dance rhythms was very popular in Ger-
many. Just how skilfully Weise was able to accomplish such tasks, has also been shown
in other instances, for example in his Curise Gedancken von Deutschen Versen (Tnze fr
Gesang einzurichten, war durch das ganze 17. Jahrhundert in Deutschland beliebt. Wie
gewandt Weise solche Aufgaben zu lsen wute, hat er auch in anderen Fllen bewiesen.
Man sehe Curise Gedancken von Deutschen Versen).
89 Weise (1675), p. 350 ff.
90 Another, albeit less probable, musical connection may be found in the opening chorus of
the St Matthew Passion, seht wohin, auf unsre Schuld (look, where, on our sins) [for instance
movement 1, bar 68]. Rather than point to the place of reconciliation for sin, the chorus
issues an invitation to the listener to reflect on the occasions when they, through their
own shortcomings, have renounced Jesus.
 commentary 181

which he links with Judas betrayal: Ah, how will I ever, and for all eternity, be
able to bear this responsibility? Oh mountains, fall on me. Oh hills, cover me.91
The final part [bars 6191] emphasises how the world, which throughout
Johns Gospel narrative has been shown to have failed to understand or accept
Christ (John 3.19 or 16.33), certainly cannot offer any guidance now (bei der Welt
ist gar kein Rat). Bachs libretto here differs from Weises original, Auen find
ich keinen Rath (Outside or beyond I find no guidance). While the variation
between the two lines may well be due to a copy error, as suggested by Spitta,
it is just as likely a deliberate reflection on the part the librettist, contrasting
Johns world, the cosmos, with the believers inner life in Christ, which alone
can bring peace.92 Although the use of the tenor voice for Peterand not, as in
the recitative sections, the bassdoes suggest that the sentiments expressed in
this aria might apply as much to the individual listener as to the apostle, Peters
very personal share in this Missetat (transgression) is recalled by an elongated
meiner (my) [bar 70]. The rhythmic pattern on verleugnet (renounced) might
remind listeners of the evangelists account of the apostles tears in the previous
movement [bars 3438].

14. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos;
Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Petrus, der nicht denkt zurck, Peter, who does not think back,
seinen Gott verneinet, disowns his God,
der doch auf ein ernsten Blick he, however, at a serious look,
bitterlichen weinet. bitterly weeps.
Jesu, blicke mich auch an, Jesus, also look at me,
wenn ich nicht will ben; when I do not want to atone;
wenn ich Bses hab getan, when I have done evil
rhre mein Gewissen! move my conscience!

91 Johann Heermann, Sepulchrum Christi, die schmertzliche und trawrige Marter-Woche,

unsers hochverdienten Heylandes Jesu Christi In 11 lehr- und trostreichen Predigten erklret
durch Johannem Hermannum (Braunschweig: Zillinger, 1653), sermon IV, p. 114: Ach wie wil
ichs immer und ewig verantworten? O ihr Berge fallet ber mich/ O ihr Hgel bedecked
mich.
92 Spitta (1888), p. 475: Fast ausnahmslos sind diese Abweichungen Verschlechterungen, und
wir haben keinen Grund zu dem Verdachte, da Bach seine Vorlage behilfs musikalischer
Benutzung muthwilling entstellt haben sollte. Mendel (1974), p. 165 and Drr (2000), p. 43
document the variants as well; Spitta (1888), p. 476: dem allein Friede bringenden Leben
in Christo.
182 chapter 8

Verse 10 of Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod [bars 116]: Paul Stockmanns (16031636)
Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod (Jesus Suffering, Pain and Death) was an integral
part of Lutheran Good Friday Vespers, during which the congregation would
sing rhymed Passion paraphrases.93 Among the most popular were Sebald
Heydens O Mensch bewein dein Snde gro (O man, bewail your grievous Sin),
and Stockmanns 1633 hymn. In the course of this Passion, Bach also provides
settings for verses 20 Er nahm alles wohl in acht (He took care of everything,
movement 28) and 34 Jesu, der du warest tot (Jesus, you who were dead,
movement 32) of the hymn. All serve as congregational reflections on the
Gospel narrative and encouragement to the hearers to change their lives in the
light of the Passion story.94
Petrus, der nicht denkt zurck (Peter, who does not think back) [bars 12]
can mean either that Peter denied Jesus unwittingly, without thinking, or
that he did not recall, think back to, the words of Jesus in John 13.38: Very
truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.
Der doch auf ein ernsten Blick (however, at a serious look) [bars 56] refers to
Lukes account of the Passion, in which Jesus turned and looked at Peter at the
moment of denial (Luke 22.61). The ornamentation on bitterlichen weinet (he
weeps bitterly) [bars 78] recalls the bouts of tears in the evangelists part in
movement 12, above [bars 3338].
In this chorale, Peter serves as an exemplar for the congregation, inviting
listeners to reflect on their own sinfulness. While the first part of the verse
speaks of Peters sin, the second half of the couplet takes the form of a prayer.
The faithful pray that Jesus would look on them, wenn ich nicht will ben (when
I do not want to atone) [bars 1112]. Elsewhere the believer is called to look on
Jesus (for example in movement 19, Drum sieh ohn Unterla auf ihn, So behold
him without ceasing) and recognise the suffering Christ as the ground for his
salvation. But here Jesus is invited to behold the believer in his sinful state.
The Rostock superintendent Heinrich Mller (16311675) called this Christs
Gnaden-Blick (gaze of grace), and elaborated in a Passion sermon:

93 Paul Stockmann, Der Christen Leib-Stcke/ Oder Historia von dem Leiden Christi/ Also
auffgesetzet und abgefasset/ da ein iedes Gesetz einen Theil von der Historien und desselben
Theils Nutzen zugleich in sich begreifft (Leipzig: Henning Kler, 1641), p. A iiijr; Christoph
Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Oxford: University Press, 2001),
p. 290.
94 Bach made frequent use of this hymn outside the context of the Passions, using the
penultimate verse of the hymn in his Cantata Himmelskning, sei wilkommen [BWV 182/7]
and his Cantata Sehet, wir gehn hinauf nach Jerusalem [BWV 159].
commentary 183

The Lord did not want to leave Peter in such torment, instead he turned
and looked down from the great hall, perhaps looking through a window
or an open door in the high priests palace. He gave Peter a friendly glance,
and looked at him. The Saviours gaze was like the sun warming Peters
cold heart. This gaze was to kindle the extinguished lamp of faith. By his
gaze, Christ might have spoken directly to Peters heart, saying: Ah, Peter,
what have you done? But fear not, the door of grace is still open to you.
I, who bear the sins of all humanity, carry your sin, too. Look at me, my
son, and give me your heart.95

Just as Jesus looks with compassion on Peter, he also gazes on the believer,
Mller says. He encourages his Good Friday congregation: Fear not: There is
the Lord, gazing at me in grace. He said: Peter, I prayed for you that you might
not lose your faith. He bears my sin, too, just as he bears the sins of all.96 It
is Christs gaze of grace that stirs the heart of the believer to contrition, wenn
ich Bses hab getan,/ rhre mein Gewissen (when I have done evil,/ move my
conscience) [bars 1314].97
A sermon on the burial of Christ would have followed this chorale.98 This
would have given the preacher an opportunity, like Mller, to draw out the
parallels between the lives of his congregation and the Passion of Christ: by
their presence at the performance of the Passion in the context of Good Friday
devotions, the congregation would have become witnesses to the events of the
Cross; not only in the pages of the Gospel story, or the music of the Passion, but
in their own lives.

95 Mller (1720), p. 307: Der Herr wollte Petrum in solchem Elend nicht stecken lassen,
darum wandte er sich um blickte vom hohen Saal herabwerts, etwa durch ein Fenster
oder durch eine offene Thr im Pallast des Hohenpriesters, gab Petro ein freundliches
Auge und sahe ihn an. Der Blick des Heylandes war gleichsam die Sonne, die das kalte
Hertz in Petro erwrmete. Dieser Blick muste das erloschene Glaubens-Tchtlein wieder
auffblasen. In diesem Blicke hat Christus Petro vielleicht so ins Hertz geredet: Ach! Petre,
was hast du gethan? Aber sey unverzagt, noch steht dir die Gnaden-Thr offen. Ich, der
aller Menschen Snden bsse, bsse auf deine Snde Schaue mich an, mein Sohn, und
gib mir dein Hertz.
96 Mller (1720), p. 307: Doch unverzagt: Da steht der Herr, der mir so einen Gnaden-Blick
gibt. Der hat gesagt, Petre, ich habe auch fr dich gebeten, da dein Glaube nicht auffhre.
Der trgt meine Snde auch, gleichwie er aller Menschen Snden trgt.
97 HS 5: 243.
98 Nikolai-Archiv, Leipzig, Manuale des Gottesdienstes, 172150, MS I E 811. See chapter 4,2.
The Liturgical and Homiletic Context of Bachs St John Passion.
 184 chapter 8

2. PARTE SECUNDA: NACH DER PREDIGT

III. PILATUSJESUS BEFORE PILATE
15. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Christus, der uns selig macht, Christ, who makes us blessed,

kein Bs hat begangen, no evil has committed,
der ward fr uns in der Nacht, he was, for us, at night,
als ein Dieb gefangen, as a thief, trapped,
gefhrt fr gottlose Leut, led before godless people,
und flschlich verklaget, and falsely accused,
verlacht, verhhnt und verspeit, laughed at, ridiculed, spat at,
wie denn die Schrift saget. as it says in Scripture.

Verse 1 of Christus, der uns selig macht [bars 117]: The first verse of Michael
Weisses Chorale Christus, der uns selig macht opens the second part of the Pas-
sion. A Fransciscan Friar in Breslau, Weisse converted to Protestantism in 1518,
a year after the publication of Luthers Ninety-Five Theses, and became a pastor
of the Brethren congregation in Landskron where he ministered until his death
in 1534.99 His hymns are among the first-generation vernacular hymns written
in response to Luthers appeal to German poets and hymn writers to provide
liturgical texts in German.100 Following Luthers guidance that setting Ger-
man words to Latin plainchant melodies neither sounded nice nor sounded
right, Weisse frequently set his translations of traditional Latin and Czech late-
medieval hymns and responsories to contemporary folk tunes.101
His Christus, der uns selig macht is a scanning translation of the late-
medieval Latin Patris Sapientia. Written for the Hours of the Holy Cross, the
Latin hymn immediately preceded the versicle Adoramus te Christe, et benedi-
camus tibi (We adore you O Christ, and we bless you).102 Sung a verse at a time,

99 For Weisse (14871534), see: Klaus Appel, Weisse, Michael, BBKL 13: cols. 690691.
100 Luther, Formulae Missae et Communionis pro Ecclesiae Vuittembergensis, 1523, WA 12: 218,
3132: Si qui sunt poetae germanici, extimulentur et nobis poemata pietatis endant (If
there are any German poets, let them come forward and write for us spiritual poems).
101 Luther, Wider die himmlischen Propheten 1525, WA 18: 123, 22: Es laut nicht ertig noch
rechtschaffen; see also: Formula Missae et Communionis, 1523, WA 12: 218, 1720: Possent
vero ista cantica ut vel simul post latinas cantiones, vel per vices dierum nunc latine,
nunc vernacular cantarentur.
102 Horae de Sancta Cruce, in: Horae ad Usum Romanum, Copenhagen: Det Kongelike Bib-
liothek, MS GKS 1607 4o, f. 14r.
 commentary 185

at each choir office (monastic sung Services of the Word) the hymn provided
a chronological journey through the events of Good Friday, from the arrest in
the Garden at Mattins-tide to the entombment at Compline. The first verse,
used here, would have been sung at the first choir office of the day, Mattins,
before sunrise: hence the reference in der Nacht (at night).103 Weisses render-
ing of the Latin text is clearly Protestant, introducing a deliberate reference
to die Schrift (Scripture) in the final part of the verse. The Scripture referred
to is Jesus second prediction of his suffering in Lukes Gospel, in which he
told his disciples that the Son of Man will be handed over to the Gentiles;
and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged
him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again (Luke 18.32
33).
Sung immediately after the Passion sermon, Weisses chorale is used here
to provide a musical link back to the beginning of the Passion story as well
as to set the scene for the ensuing trial before Caiaphas. The first half of the
hymn [bars 18] takes the hearers back to the Garden of Gethsemane and
Jesus arrest fr uns in der Nacht/ als ein Dieb gefangen (for us, at night/ as a
thief, trapped). The second part [bars 917] sets the scene for Jesus trial, at
which he will be flschlich verklaget/ verlacht, verhhnt und verspeit (falsely
accused/ laughed at, ridiculed, spat at). Bachs musical setting leaves little
doubt as to what he thinks of the nature of Jesus trial: a false chord progression
on und flschlich (falsely) [bar 11], produced by continuo chromatic step-wise
motion, traces an almost devious path to the G major tonicisation on verklaget
(accused) [bar 12]. In the same way, the accusers derisive laughter and mockery
in bar 13 also would have sounded false to German ears: Bachs setting means
that the emphases on verlacht, verhhnt (laughed at, ridiculed) naturally fall
on the first syllable, ver-, rather than the second as they would in spoken
German.

16a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,28a Da fhreten sie Jesum von John 18.28a There they led Jesus from
Kaiphas vor das Richthaus. Caiaphas before the courthouse.

103 The original Latin, f. 14r, makes the link with the monastic Mattins hour explicit: The
Fathers wisdom, divine truth/ Man and God was captured at the Mattins hour (Patris
sapientia veritas divina/ Deus homo captus est hora matutina).
 186 chapter 8

18,28b Und es war frhe. 18.28b And it was early.

18,28c Und sie gingen nicht in das Richthaus, 18.28c And they did not go into the courthouse
auf da sie nicht unrein wrden, so that they would not become unclean,
sondern Ostern essen mchten. rather they wanted to eat the Passover.

18,29 Da ging Pilatus zu ihnen heraus 18.29 There Pilate went out to them and spoke:
und sprach:

Pilatus Pilatus
Was bringet ihr fr Klage wider diesen Menschen? What accusation do you bring against this person?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,30a Sie antworteten und sprachen zu ihm: 18.30a They answered, and spoke to him:

John 18.28a [bars 13]: Jesus is led from the high priests residence to the
Richthaus (courthouse), the Roman Praetorium. Johns Greek is a simple trans-
literation of the Latin term (praitorion), the Greek is also provided by Olear-
ius.104 While Luther rendered the Greek as Richthaus (courthouse) the Praeto-
rium was more than that: it also contained the military headquarters, parade
ground and barracks of the Roman occupying forces, as well as the residence
of the Roman Prefect of Judea and Samaria, Pontius Pilate. Two sites are pos-
sible locations of Pilates Jerusalem Praetorium: the Antonia Fortress to the
north-east of the Temple and King Herods former palace on the site of todays
Citadel of David.105 At the time of Jesus, the Romans controlled both fortresses,
Josephus attests (Ant., 17: 93, War, 2: 438440).106 As in movement 2a [bars
13], Bachs recitative traces the journey von Kaipha vor das Richthaus (from
Caiaphas before [i.e. the place in front of] the courthouse) in music [bars 1
3].107

104 HS 5: 779: Richt-Hau. praetorion.

105 Jerome Murphy-OConnor, The Holy Land: An Archaeological Guide from earliest times to
1700 (Oxford: University Press, 2008), p. 37, explains that from the Middle Ages, Christian
opinion was divided as to the exact location of the Praetorium, one group located the
Praetorium and the palace of the high priest on Mount Sion; the other placed both north
of the Temple. OConnor himself, p. 23, opts for the Citadel of David, on Mount Zion, as
the most likely location.
106 Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, with an English Translation by H. St. J. Thackeray, Loeb
Classical Library 203 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967) [cited as War].
107 For similar uses of ascending lines to signify movement in earlier German Passions, see:
Jones (2000), p. 241.
commentary 187

John 18.28b [bar 3]: Jesus trial before Pilate takes place at the same time as the
discovery of the empty tomb in John 20.1: it was frhe (early). The Johannine
text is more specific, Olearius explains: it was proi, the hour after cockcrow
(alektorophonia), and therefore the end of the last nightwatch from 3am-6am,
daybreak.108 Bach not only had access to Olearius exhaustive commentary on
Johns Greek but, as a student in Lneburg, had studied the Gospels in their
original language: it is highly likely that the musical resemblance of und es war
frhe [bar 3] to the crowing of a rooster is intentional, and therefore deliberately
marking the conclusion of the hour after cockcrow and the beginning of a new
part in the trial of Jesus.109

John 18.28c [bars 36]: The party of priests did not enter the headquarters
of the Roman Prefect, auf da sie nicht unrein wrden (so that they would
not become [ritually] unclean). Olearius provides the relevant injunction from
Numbers 9.612.110 For observant Jews the complex of buildings within the
Roman fortress obviously constituted a gentile dwelling, and was therefore
ritually unclean under the laws of purity outlined in Tractate Ohalot (Tents, and
therefore by extension, Dwellings) 18, Mishnah 7.4.111 The same law goes on to
explain that open air spaces, such as courtyards or colonnades, are not subject
to the laws of ritual purity and therefore safe to enter (Ohalot 18, Mishnah
8.1), enabling the Temple hierarchy to enter the courtyard with their prisoner
without risking ritual defilement the day before Passover.
Luthers Ostern (Passover) is a direct translation of the Greek pascha, as
Olearius notes.112 Luthers Weekly Sermons on St John was in Bachs library and
also liberally cited in the Calov Bible. In them, Luther commented on the
narrow conscience of the chief priests:113 they were more concerned about
maintaining ritual purity than the fact that they were about to hand over

108 HS 5: 779, see also HS 5: 245.

109 Loewe (2011), p. 143, see also: Martin Petzoldt, Ut probus et doctus reddar: Zum Anteil
der Theologie bei der Schulausbildung Johann Sebastian Bachs in Eisenach, Ohrdruf und
Lneburg, Bach-Jahrbuch (1985), pp. 742.
110 HS 5: 779: Numbers 9.612 specifies that certain people who were unclean through touch-
ing a corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover were to keep the festival a month
later (9.11).
111 Tractate Ohalot, Mishnah 7.4: The dwelling-places of non-Jews are unclean.
112 HS 5: 779: Ostern. Pascha.
113 Luther, Wochenpredigten ber Johannes 1620 (15281529), WA 28: 292, 17: enge gewissen.
Wherever the Calov Bible cites Luthers Wochenpredigten, reference is made to the rele-
vant parallel passage.
188 chapter 8

an innocent man, Luther claimed, but that they crucify the Son of God for
them is no sin, only holiness.114 At the same time, in his Weekly Sermons
Luther translated the Passion narrative for a reformation audience by using
the chief priests reluctance to enter the Prefects headquarters to launch a
theological attack on hypocrisy (schande) among our own high priests and
elders: the bishops and princes.115 Bach provides a second translation in his
musical retelling of the Passion: by highlighting the actions of Jesus opponents
through music, Bach invites his audience to betrachte (consider) their own
sinfulness rather than historical events as the cause of Jesus suffering, and
to erwge (contemplate) the fruit of his Passion for their own lives [see the
discussion on movements 19 and 20].
The roosters call on es war frhe concludes the last hour of the night and
the hurried religious trial of Jesus. Now Bach sets to music the trial before
Pilate. In only three notes, he sums up the true nature of the place where
that trial is about to take place: the dissonant augmented fourth [d-g#] or tri-
tone on das Richthaus [bar 4] was known in Baroque music aesthetics as dia-
bolus in musica (the devil in music), connoting evil or oppression.116 Bachs
musical instinct that Pilates justice was diabolical is corrobated by the first-
century Jewish historian Josephus, a copy of whose Jewish Antiquities and Wars
Bach owned.117 Twice, Josephus describes how Pilate brutally quashed two
religiously-motivated uprisings in the open courtyard of the Praetorium (Ant.
18: 5662, War 2: 172177), in which large numbers of the Jews perished, some
from the blows which they received, others trodden to death by their compan-
ions in the ensuing flight (War 2: 177).

John 18.29 [bars 710]: Since the Jewish chief priests did not enter the Roman
Prefects residence, Pilate came out of his Richthaus to hear them in the open
courtyard of the Praetorium. Bach traces the Prefects movement zu ihnen
heraus (went out to them) in the evangelists melodic line [bars 78]. Facing the
Jerusalem hierarchy, the Prefect instructs the chief priests to make known their
charge against their prisoner: Was bringet ihr fr Klage wider diesen Menschen
(What accusation do you bring against this person?).

114 WA 28: 292, 17: Aber das sie Gottes Son creutzigen, das ist bey jnen keine Snde, sondern
lauter heiligkeit.
115 WA 28: 295, 2728, CB 3: 922: Das ist geschrieben zur schande unsern Hohenpriestern und
Eltesten, Bischoven und Frsten.
116 Mattheson (1713), p. 49; Johann Gottfried Walther, Musicalisches Lexicon/ oder/ Musicali-
sche Bibliothec (Leipzig, Wolffgang Deer: 1732), p. 618.
117 BB 8587.
 commentary 189

16b. Coro
ChorusFlutes I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Johannes 18,30b Wre dieser nicht ein beltter, John 18.30b Were this one not an evildoer,
18,30c wir htten dir ihn nicht berantwortet. 18.30c we would not have handed him over
to you.

John 18.30b [bars 123]: While the turbae choruses or dramatic crowd scenes in
the St John Passion all share similar musical material, in each Bach gives voice
to very different emotions.118 In this movement we encounter a group of up to
70 religious leaders, described by the Jewish historian Josephus as men of the
highest standing among us (Ant. 18: 64). This was a hierarchy that knew well
that they operated only under suffrance of the Roman authorities, Josephus
explains: the Romans policed Jewish religious life to such an extent that the
occupiers not only appointed the high priests (Ant. 18: 95), but even controlled
access to their vestments (Ant. 18: 9095). The group of chief priests assembled
in Pilates courtyard would have also been acutely aware of Pilates contempt
for their faith and their leadership and his unpredictable ire. On the same
flagstones on which they were gathered that daybreak, Pilate had executedin
cold blooda group of Jews who protested against his misappropriation of
temple funds for building an aqueduct (Ant. 18: 60, War 2: 175). Indeed, Olearius
suggests that Pilate turned to the chief priests and spoke to them with wrath.119
Their response to Pilates instruction to bring a charge against Jesus is equiv-
ocal and most probably indignant: Wre dieser nicht ein beltter, wir htten
ihn dir nicht berantwortet (If this one were not a evildoer, we would not have
handed him over to you). In his setting, Bach successfully conveys the sense of
a group of people talking at the same time. He uses a Baroque figure, named
Schwrmer by Johann Gottfried Walher because it suggests a swarm of insects
or, in this case, the hum of multiple speakers.120 The four rapid notes on one
pitch on wre dieser (if this one were) [bars 11 seq] are a textbook trope that
successfully conveys the sense of multiple speakers.121

118 Drr (2000), p. 65: Bach links the movements [2b, 2d, 16d, 18b, 13f] in two ways: (a)
by means of a model instrumental passage that serves a number of choruses as an (in
principle) unchanging frame into which to fit the respective choral passages; (b) by means
of parallels between the vocal pairs of choral movements, which are often made possible
by similarities in the biblical text [e.g. Jden Knig and der Jden Knig], but are not
exclusively determined by them.
119 HS 5: 780: Sprach Pilatus mit Zorn.
120 Walther (1732), p. 103.
121 Walther (1732), p. 103: Vier geschwinden Noten.
190 chapter 8

Bachs chromatic ascending lines on beltter (evildoer) [bars 1323] intro-

duce a more sinister subtext to the hierarchys rather bland indictment of Jesus.
The close resemblance of the melodic line on beltter (evildoer) to that on
tten (kill) in movement 16d [bars 4055] suggest that the act of bringing Jesus
to Pilate was in fact an expression of Caiaphas resolution, es wre gut, da ein
Mensch wrde umbracht fr das Volk (that it were better that one person would
be broken for the people; John 18.14, see the discussion on movement 6, above).
Bachs word setting also puts strong emphasis on -tter (doer), rather than the
natural German pronunciation, with its emphasis on bel- (evil). Throughout
St Johns Gospel, the hierarchy had expressed concerns about the signs Jesus
performed; in fact his doing of signs was one of the chief motivations for
Caiaphas resolution to have Jesus die for the people than to have the whole
nation destroyed (John 11.49). From now on, the only sign that Jesus will give
is the sign of being lifted up on a cross (John 3.14, 12.32).

John 30c [bars 3537]: In his Weekly Sermons, Luther particularly emphasised
the hierarchys sense of indignation at the Prefects instruction to bring their
charge against Jesus:

It is as if they were saying: Do have a good look at what kind of people we

are. Do you truly think that we holy fathers, High Priests and elders would
unjustly condemn this man or any other man? By no means. We are not
such people.122

In his setting Bach expresses that sense of indignation among the religious lead-
ers well. Browns suggestion of the chief priests insolence is an overstatement:
the hierarchy knew well that the success of this case and any future capital pun-
ishment trial depended on maintaining their fragile modus operandi with the
Roman occupiers.123 Here, they therefore assert strongly that their own judge-
ment of Jesus, while rushed, had nevertheless been a proper investigation into
severe breaches of religious law by the highest religious court in the land. Olear-
ius suggest that they might have reasoned with the Prefect as follows: Execute
him without any further concerns/ and do what is required by your office as

122 Luther, Wochenpredigten, WA 28: 301, 3035, CB 3: 923: Als solten sie sagen: sihe uns recht
an, was fur Leute wir sind, Meinstu, das wir heiligen veter, Hohenpriester, Schriftgelehrten
diesen oder einen andern unrecht beschuldigen oder verdammen wollten? Mit nichte,
Wir sind nicht solche Leute.
123 Brown (1970), p. 848.
 commentary 191

judge.124 Bachs four block-chords on nicht (not) [bars 3537] certainly make
for a robust, and unified, response by the chief priests.

16c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,31a Da sprach Pilatus zu ihnen: John 18.31a Then Pilate said to them:

Pilatus Pilate
So nehmet ihr ihn hin und richtet ihn Then take him yourselves and judge him
nach eurem Gesetze! according to your Laws!

Evangelist Evangelist
18,31b Da sprachen die Jden zu ihm: 18.31b Then the Jews spoke to him:

John 18.31a [bars 3841]: Pilate evidently remained unmoved by the early-
morning visitation of Jewish hierarchs seeking endorsement for their own cap-
ital sentence. His brusque interjection, So nehmet ihr ihn hin und richtet ihn
nach eurem Gesetze (then take him yourselves and judge him according to your
Laws) [bars 3940], is an attempt to dismiss both the assembled group of chief
priests and religious leaders, and their prisoner.125 Luthers sermons on Johns
Passion certainly saw the Prefects terse statement as an attempt to prevent any
Roman legal procedings:

That is put in Roman terms as if he had said: If you seek to be judges,

then also be his executioners. Take him yourselves, since you know the
accusation and reason for his death-sentence. And since you have your
own law, that law will show you how to deal with such cases.126

124 HS 5: 780: Exeqvire nur ohne Bedencken/ und verrichte/ was dein Richter-Ammt erfor-
dert. Olearius associates the chief priests assurances with the false assurances for the safe
conduct of the Czech reformer Jan Hus given by the Catholic hierarchy at the Council of
Constance. Like Luther, therefore, he uses this interchange to make an anti-Catholic
rather than an anti-Jewishpoint.
125 HS 5: 780: Pilate replied angrily: If you have done the business without me/ then you may
also execute him without me, with yourselves as judges (Habt ihr den Handel ohne mich
gerichtet/ so mget ihr auch als Richter ohne mich exeqviren).
126 WA 28: 302, 1417, CB 3: 923: Das ist auff Rmisch geredt als solt er sagen: So jr wollet
Richter sein, so seid auch Hencker uber jn, nemet jr jn hin, weil jr die Klag und ursach
des Todes wisset und dazu ewer Gesetz habt, so euch leret, wie jr in solchen Sachen faren
sollet.
192 chapter 8

Pilates lack of engagement with the Jewish religious leaders is well docu-
mented by Josephus who emphasised that the Prefect consistently underesti-
mated the intense religious zeal of the people of Jerusalem (War 2: 174). This
case was no different: Pilates statement either suggests that he was ignorant
of the Roman statutes preventing Jewish religious courts to execute a sentence
of capital punishment, or that he did not accept the accusations of the chief
priests as valid. The former is unlikely, since powers of capital punishment had
been been vested with the Roman occupiers for more than a decade, as Olearius
explains.127 The ensuing interrogation of Jesus by Pilate strongly suggests that
the latter was true: Pilate did not regard the chief priests accusation as valid
and sought to dismiss the accusers. Bach certainly highlights Pilates dismissal
und richtet ihn (and judge him) by an impressive leap of a seventh [bar 40].

John 18.31b [bars 4142]: Da sprachen die Jden zu ihm (Then the Jews spoke to
him): as in the remainder of the trial of Jesus, die Jden (the Jews) here mean
the assembled chief priests, a group of up to 70 clerics, their troops and their
servants. The debate on what John may have meant by the Jews is extensive
and ongoing.128 In this case, the chief priests were not suddenly joined by a
larger group of other Jews to witness their early morning efforts to bring formal
legal proceedings against Jesus. On the contrary, John 11.4853 makes clear that
it would have been in the interest of the religious authorities to keep the trial
of Jesus as private as possible: Jesus was popular among his fellow-believers,
many of whom already believed in him as Messiah (John 10.42, 11.45, 12.11 etc.).
The hierarchys fear that everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will
come and destroy both our holy place and our nation (John 11.48), meant
actively preventing Jesus from having contact with the crowds who believed
in him, which, incidentally, was also the key motivator for putting in motion
the process of having him executed (John 11.53).

127 HS 5: 780, citing Josephus who records that since the death of the ethnarch Archelaus in
18 ce only the Romans exercised capital punishment in Judea (War 2: 117118).
128 See: Reinhold Leistner, Antijudaismus im Johannesevangelium? Darstellung des Problems
in der neueren Auslegungsgeschichte und Untersuchung der Leidensgeschichte, Theologie
und Wirklichkeit, Beitrge aus den Fachbereichen Religionswissenschaften der Johann
Wolfgang Goethe Universitt Frankfurt am Main und der Justus Liebig-Universitt
Giessen, 3 (Bern: Herbert Lang, 1974), Bibliography; Urban von Wahlde, The Johannine
Jews: A survey, New Testament Studies 28 (1982), pp. 3355; Reimund Bieringer, Didier
Pollefeyt, Frederique Vandecasteele-Vanneuville, eds., Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel:
Papers of the Leuven Colloquium (Assen: Royal van Gorcum, 2001), pp. 549570.
 commentary 193

Martin Luther adopted the narrative of the Jews who believed in Jesus in
spite of a remote hierarchy that sought to maintain its powerbase by appeasing
the secular rulers for his movement of evangelical Christians. In his Weekly Ser-
mons on St John, he firmly applied the Johannine narrative to his Reformation
context:

Jew means: confessor, someone who gives thanks and praise. They are
people who give thanks for the good things they have received. When
we confess Christ, laud and praise him, proclaim his wisdom, holiness,
righteousness and power, and regard as nothing our own works, wisdom,
holiness, righteousness and powers, we are genuine Jews. And Christ is
King over such Jews who do not justify themselves by works.129

Rather than refer to the Jewish nation as a whole, or even the Jews who believed
in Jesus as Messiah, in this context the term die Jden (the Jews) seeks to distin-
guish the Jews who are present in the courtyard from the non-Jewish garrison
soldiers. Interestingly, the musical grammar of Bachs crowd scenes turbae does
not distinguish at all between the Jewish and non-Jewish opponents of Jesus:
many of the musical tropes used in his choruses refer back to the first turba in
movement 2b. For the composer therefore, the crowd scenes are first and fore-
most expressions of the arguments of the party opposing Jesus, regardless of
whether that party is represented by Jewish high priests or Roman soldiers or,
as at Jesus arrest and crucifixion, both.130

16d. Coro
ChorusFlauto traverso I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Johannes 18,31c Wir drfen niemand tten. John 18.31c We may not kill anyone.

The priest-judges reminder to the Prefect that the right to enforce capital pun-
ishment had been removed from the Jewish authorities is clearly a continua-

129 WA 28: 394, 1521: Jde heisst ein Bekenner, Dancksager, Lober. Das ist slcher Mensch
der da bekennet was er guts empfangen hat. Wenn wir nu zu Christum bekennen, loben
und preisen, Seine Werck, seine Weiheit, Heiligkeit, Gerechtigkeit und Krafft rhmen,
Und uns selbs mit unsern Wercken, Weiheit, Heiligkeit, Gerechtigkeit und Krefften fr
nichts halten, So sind wir rechte Jden. Und uber solche Jden, die sich durch jre eigne
Wercke nicht rechtfertigen ist Christus Knig.
130 Werner Breig, Zu den Turba-Chren von Bachs Johannespassion, Hamburger Jahrbuch
fr Musikwissenschaft 8 (1985), pp. 6596, p. 88: Reden der Gegenpartei.
 194 chapter 8

tion of the previous chorus [16b]. The composer again employs the Schwrmer-
figure on drfen niemand (may not anyone) [bars 43 and subsequent entries
throughout the movement] to suggest multiple speakers. Bachs setting relent-
lessly repeats niemand (not anyone) to underline that the religious courts had
no authority to put anyone to death, a fact highlighted by Olearius.131
However, for Bach the prohibition not to put anyone to death does not derive
from the Romans: it is a God-given commandment. The composer was fond of
representing numbers through music.132 The ascending chromatic line on tten
(kill), with its five rising semitones on the diphthong is a good example of this:
it emphasises the number five, and may well allude to the Fifth Commandment
You shall not murder (Exodus 20.13, Deuteronomy 5.17).133 The ultimate means
of execution is revealed through Augenmusik by the relentless cross-motifs in
the flute and first violin part [bars 4257], leading into a final cadenza and
resolution on niemand tten (not kill anyone) [bars 5758].

16e. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,32 Auf das erfllet wrde John 18.32 So that Jesus words would be
das Wort Jesu, welches er sagte, da er fulfilled, which he spoke, when he
deutete, welches Todes er sterben wrde. indicated what death he would die.

18,33a Da ging Pilatus wieder hinein in das Richthaus 18.33a Then Pilate went into the courthouse,
und rief Jesu und sprach zu ihm: again and called Jesus, and spoke to him:

Pilatus Pilate
18,33b Bist du der Jden Knig? 18.33b Are you the King of the Jews?

131 HS 5: 780: We may, ouk exesti, non licet, because we are subservient to the Romans (Wir
drffen. uk exesti. non licet weil wir den Rmern unterworffen).
132 For Bachs interest in numerology, see: Ruth Tatlow, Bach and the Riddle of the Number
Alphabet (Cambridge: University Press, 1991). Bach certainly owned a number of works
on numerology in Scripture, for instance Caspar Heunisch, Haupt-Schlssel ber die hohe
Offenbahrung S. Johannis/ Welcher durch Erklrung aller und jeder Zahlen/ die darinnen
vorkommen/ und eine gewisse Zeit bedeuten/ zu dem eigentlichen und richtigen Verstand
Oeffnung thut (Schleusingen: Sebastian Gbel, 1684), BB 135.
133 Martin Jansen, Bachs Zahlensymbolik, an seinen Passionen untersucht, Bach-Jahrbuch
34 (1937), pp. 96117, p. 99: The five chromatically ascending notes refer to the Fifth
Commandment (Die fnf in chromatischer Folge aufsteigenden Tne nennen das fnfte
Gebot).
 commentary 195

Evangelist Evangelist
18,34 Jesus antwortete: 18.34 Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Redest du das von dir selbst, Do you speak this for yourself,
oder habens dir andere von mir gesagt. or did others tell you about me?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,35 Pilatus antwortete: 18.35 Pilate answered:

Pilatus Pilate
Bin ich ein Jde? Dein Volk Am I a Jew? Your people
und die Hohenpriester haben dich mir and the chief priests have handed you
berantwortet; was hast du getan? over to me; what have you done?

Evangelist Evangelist
18.36 Jesus antwortete: 18.36 Jesus answered:

Jesus
Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt;
wre mein Reich von dieser Welt,
meine Diener wrden darob kmpfen,
da ich den Jden nicht berantwortet wrde;
aber nun ist mein Reich nicht von dannen.
Jesus
My kingdom is not from this world;
if my kingdom were from this world,
my servants would therefore be fighting
so that I would not be handed over to the Jews;
but now my kingdom is not from here.

John 18.32 [bars 59b62]: Where Oleariuss commentary from Bachs book col-
lection explains that St Johns text refers back to an earlier saying of Jesus (John
12.3233), Bachs music points to the crucifixion itself: the elaborate melsisma
on Todes er sterben wrde (kind of death he was to die) [bar 62] is based on a
cross-motif.134 In his interpretation of the passage in the Weekly Sermons on St
John, abstracted in Bachs Calov Bible, Martin Luther made reference to another
suitable synoptic parallel (Luke 18.3233), to confirm that the death of Jesus
took place at the hands of non-Jews:135

For the Son of Man will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be
mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they
will kill him and on the third day he will rise again.

134 HS 5: 780.
135 Olearius also makes this point, HS 5: 780: That they would hand him over to the Gentiles
to be crucified (Da sie Ihn berantworten wrden, den Heyden/ zu creutzigen).
196 chapter 8

Luther and, citing him, Calov leave no doubt at all that both the religious and
secular leadership in equal measure shared the responsibility for the death of
Jesus:

The Jews capture Jesus and hand him over to death, the Gentiles mock
and despise him, spit on him, bind and kill him. They both do evil
and murder the innocent Jesus: the Jews betray him; the Gentiles are his
executioners.136

John 18.33a [bars 6365]: Leaving the Jewish religious leaders outside in the
courtyard or colonnades of the Prefects headquarters, Pilate returned to the
Richthaus (courthouse). As in movement 16a, Bach again highlights the Jeru-
salem Praetorium as a place of flawed Roman justice by an augmented fourth,
the diabolus in musica, on das Richthaus [bar 64, see also above, movement
16a]. Pilate summons Jesus and begins his interrogation.

John 18.33b [bars 6667a]: The question of the kingship of Jesus is central to
the trial before Pilate. If Jesus were a rival claimant to the vacant throne of Judea
and Samaria, then he would automatically be guilty of insurrection against the
Roman overlords. However, Pilates Bist du der Jden Knig (Are you the King
of the Jews) is ambiguous: the question can refer either to the claimant to the
territory of Judea, or to the claimant to a religious kingship over the Jews, or
both.137 Josephus certainly used the title tn Ioudan basilus (the King of the
Jews) interchangeably. He used it to refer to both to the earlier Hasmonean
(Maccabean) dynasty of high priest kings (Ant. 16: 36) and to the Herodian
ethnarchs of Judea (Ant. 16: 311) who replaced them in the Hellenstic period.
At the end of the reign of the ethnarchs, in 18 ce, only fifteen years before
the events of the Passion, Judea was subsumed as the province of Judea and
Samaria into the Roman Empire (War 2: 117118).

136 WA 28: 303, 1920, 3536, CB 3: 924: Die Jden fahen Jhesum und uberantworten jn
zum tode, die Heiden verspotten, verschmehen, verspeien, geisseln und tdten jn. Sie
sind allzumal Schelcke und Mderer an dem Unschuldigen Jhesu. Die Jden sind seine
Verrheter. Die Heiden sind seine Hencker.
137 For the ambiguity and multiple meanings of the term the Jews in Johns Gospel and
in contemporary writers like Josephus, see: Malcolm Lowe, Who were the ?,
Novum Testamentum 18.2 (1976), pp. 101130, pp. 104105, and John Ashtons response to
Lowes article, The Identity and Function of the in John, Novum Testamentum
27.1 (1985), pp. 4075.
commentary 197

In his translation of the Bible Luther does not clear up this ambiguity as to
what tn Ioudan (of the Jews) might refer to, either: as in Johns Greek, in
Luthers German the terms die Jden (the Jews) or jdisch (Jewish) can also
refer both to the Jewish people and to the people of Judea: this ambiguity is
reflected well in his translation of the land of Judea as das jdische Land.138
While it may be possible to interpret Pilates question both as referring to a
spiritual and a physical kingship, in his Weekly Sermons on St John, however,
Luther clearly suggests that Pilate expected a rival claimant to the Hasmonean
throne, a reaction much like Herods when confronted with the news of the
birth of Jesus in Matthew 2.2.139 For Luther and subsequent Lutheran inter-
preters, the charge that the Prefect brings against Jesus, therefore, is insurrec-
tion: For the charge is that Jesus is an insurgent against the emperor, which
is why he needs to carry both the title [the King of the Jews] and the guilt.140
In his commentated Bible, Calov follows Luthers reading entirely: before the
Prefect, Jesus stands not as a religious king or Messiah, but as a pretender to
a vacant throne, and therefore someone accused of insurrection against the
Roman rulers.141

John 18.24 [bars 6770a]: Jesus does not give a straight answer to the Prefects
question, Bist du der Jden Knig (Are you the King of the Jews). Instead he
responds with his own counter-question: Redest du das von dir selbst (Do you
speak this for yourself?) [bars 6768a]. For John, Luther and Bach it is clear
who really is in charge of this trial. Bachs setting of Jesus carefully crafted
responses make clear that it really is Jesus who interrogated Pilate to ascertain
his motives. Olearius amplifies Jesus response to suggest that Pilates security
briefings were flawed: if I were a rebel, then you should have been briefed
more carefully. If others have told you, you should not believe it so readily,
for you see no such guilt in me.142 Luther, in turn, believed that Jesus first

138 WA DB John 3.22: in das Jdischeland. Unfortunately, Luther does not use das jdische
Land as an exclusive translation of Johns Ioudaa either, but sometimes renders the term
as das land Judea, for instance in John 4.3, 4.47 and 4.54.
139 Olearius echoes this, HS 5: 780: A king, v. 37, basileus, as your accusers say who were
so violently opposed to the Royal Progress and the Hosannas (Knig. V. 37. Basileus.
wie deine Anklger sagen welchen der Knigliche Einzug und das Hosianna so heftig
entgegen war.)
140 WA 28: 304, 2124, CB 3: 924: Es ist aber die Anklage, das Jhesus sey ein Auffrhrer wider
den Keiser, den titel und die Schuld mus er tragen.
141 CB 3: 924: JESUS sey ein Auffrhrer wieder [sic] den Kyser.
142 HS 5: 780: Wre ich ein Rebell/ so mchtest du wol dich zuvor grndlicher berichten
198 chapter 8

counter-question redest du das von dir selbst was the equivalent of a legal
oath:

[The Lord says:] You, Pilate, ask of me whether I am the King of the Jews,
that is to say that I am an insurgent against the emperor. I, in turn, put
your own conscience under oath whether you find me guilty on your own
or not?143

[bars 68b70a]: Jesus adds a second question: oder habens dir andere von mir
gesagt (or did others tell you about me?). Bach punctuates the two parts of
Jesus question to the Prefect by two carefully placed quaver rests [bar 68].
The composer highlights andere (others) [bar 69] by three repeated notes (d)
which, echoed by three repeated notes, a third lower, on Hohenpriester (chief
priests) in the Prefects response [bars 7071], provides a musical answer to
Jesus question: the Prefects interest in Jesus kingship is based on the previous
judgement by the high priests. For Luther and for Bach, therefore, it seems that
Jesus is tried on a charge of insurrection.

John 18.35 [bars 7073]: While he evidently accepted the high priests charge
that Jesus might be a rival claimant to the Judean throne, Pilate neither is inter-
ested in the Jewish faith nor does he really understand the relevance of Jewish
ritual law (Ant. 18: 59). Josephus reports that Pilate consistently misunderstood
or deliberately chose not to understand the demands of the Jewish faith (War
2: 169178). His brutality in quashing popular religious movements and Jewish
sects, for instance the Samaritans, is well documented and ultimately led to his
recall to Rome to give the emperor his account (Ant. 18: 8790).
This combination of ignorance and disdain explains the Prefects dismissive
question, Bin ich ein Jde? (Am I a Jew?) [bars 7071]. Bach carefully punctuates
Pilates subsequent observation from his dismissal of the Jewish faith with a
quaver rest [bar 71]. The statement dein Volk und die Hohenpriester haben dich
mir berantwortet (your people and the chief priests have handed you over to
me) [bars 7173a] outlines the legal basis for his continued interrogation of his
prisoner. In Bachs setting the Prefect immediately returns to his investigation
of the charge, instructing Jesus to respond to the charge of insurrection: Was has

lassen. Andere/ so soltest du nicht so bald es glauben/ denn du siehest an mir gar nichts
dergleichen.
143 WA 28: 307, 16, CB 3: 925: [Der Herr spricht:] Du Pilate fragest mich, ob ich der Jden Knig
sey, das ist so viel, ob ich ein Auffrhrer bin wider den Keiser. Ich zihe widerumb dein eigen
Gewissen zum Zeugnis an, ob du das von dir selber mir schuld gebest oder nicht.
commentary 199

du getan (What have you done) [bar 73]. Luther explained what Pilate might
have implied by his words:

I neither know of your Jewish laws and customs, nor do I know whether
you aspire to become a king or not. I do not ask these things of my own
accord, but because you have been thus charged before me. Therefore tell
me how it can be that you wish to be a king against the emperor.144

John 18.36 [bars 73b80]: Jesus answers Pilates initial question, bist du der
Jden Knig (are you the King of the Jews) [bars 6667] by an affirmation
of a kingship that ist nicht von dieser Welt (is not of this world) [bars 7475].
Pilate and the chief priests are not the first to misunderstand the nature of
Jesus kingship: earlier in the Gospel, after the feeding of the five thousand, the
gathered crowds were about to come and take him by force to make him king
(John 6.16). At his entry to Jerusalem, the crowds again hailed Jesus as the king
of Israel (John 12.13). On both occasions, they sought to make Jesus their king
because of the miracles he performed (John 12.18).
In setting Jesus own reflection on the true nature of his kingship to music,
Bach clearly contrasts mein Reich (my kingdom) [bar 74] from dieser Welt (this
world) [bar 75] by a descending melodic line: Jesus kingdom is above this
world, similar to Olearius suggestion that although it can be perceived in this
world, it is a heavenly kingdom.145 Were his kingdom a physical entity, Jesus
responds, meine Diener wrden darob kmpfen, da ich den Jden nicht berant-
wortet wrde (my servants would therefore be fighting so that I would not be
handed over to the Jews) [bars 7679a]. The a battuta (in exact beat) section on
darob kmpfen (fight for) [bar 77] resembles a clarion call summoning an army
to arms. Bachs martial musical setting matches Johns Greek more closely than
Luthers generic translation Diener (servants): the word huperetai is the same
term used to refer to the armed temple guards who came to apprehend Jesus in
the garden and conveyed him from the high priests trial to Pilate; in the Passion
narrative it clearly refers to an armed militia, which is why in his commentary
Olearius once again provides the Greek original.146

144 WA 28: 308, 32309, 7, CB 3: 926: Ich weis nicht von ewren Jdischen Gesetzen und hedeln,
ob du ein Knig werden wilt oder nicht, ich sage auch solches nicht von mir selbs, sondern
du bist also bey mir angeklaget. Darumb sage, wie es zugegangen ist das du ein Knig sein
wolltest wider den Keiser.
145 HS 5: 781: Obs gleich auch in dieser Welt zuverspren: Sondern es ist ein himmlisch Reich.
146 HS 5: 781: Diener. Hyperetai.
 200 chapter 8

At the end, the thought of armed servants who rally to rescue their master
from certain death remains a hypothetical idea only: a crochets rest isolates
aber (but) [bar 79] from Jesus previous statement, a semiquavers rest from
his affirmation that mein Reich ist nicht von dannen (my kingdom is not of
this world) [bars 7980]. This aber (but) exonerates Jesus from the charge of
sedition, Luther explains:

Thereby [the Lord] rejects the wrongful accusation: Thus I prove, he says,
that I have no kingdom against the emperor. For if I were an insurgent,
and sought to establish a kingdom against the emperor, I would have
servants surrounding me, who would aid me and who would prevent it
that I am handed over to the Jews.147

As in bar 74, Jesus Reich (kingdom) is above, highlighted by an ascending

melodic line, this time by an impressive octave leap [bars 7980]. While the
prisoners kingdom is clearly in heaven, Pilates political reality remains firmly
on the ground, an octave below the heavenly kingdom [bar 80]. As Luther
and Calov conclude: [Jesus] says: My kingdom neither challenges you, Pilate,
nor does it challenge the emperor.148 At the same time, Olearius explains,
Jesus kingdom is not an idle fantasy, either, but bears heavenly fruit, requiring
heavenly deeds and a heavenly disposition.149

17. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II, Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Ach groer Knig, gro zu allen Zeiten, Oh great King, King for all time,
Wie kann ich gnugsam diese Treu ausbreiten? How can I sufficiently broadcast this faithfulness?
Keins Menschen Herze mag indes ausdenken, No human heart is able to imagine, however,
Was dir zu schenken. What to give to you.

147 WA 28: 310, 1420: Sondern weiset die Anklage, daran er nicht schuldig ist, von sich. Damit
bewei ichs, spricht er, da ich kein Knigreich habe wider den Keyser. Denn so ich ein
Auffrhrer were und ein Knigreich wider den Keiser auffrichten wolte, hette ich diener
umb mich die mir dazu hlfen und wehreten, das ich den Jden nicht uberantwortet
wrde.
148 WA 28: 309, 17, CB 3: 926927: Mein Knigreich, spricht er, thut dir Pilate und dem Keiser
keinen schaden.
149 HS 5: 781: Keine weltliche Phantasey; Erfordert himmlische Verrichtung/ und Gemther/
es bringt himmlische Wolthaten.
 commentary 201

Ich kanns mit meinen Sinnen nicht erreichen, I cannot grasp it with my senses
Womit doch dein Erbarmen zu vergleichen. With what to compare your mercies
Wie kann ich dir denn deine Liebestaten How can I then your loving deeds
Im Werk erstatten? By works repay you?

Verses 8 and 9 of Herzliebster Jesu [bars 117]: Having used verse 7 of Heer-
manns hymn as a reflection on the arrest of Jesus, Bach here uses the next
two verses of this popular Passion-tide hymn as a reflection on Jesus kingship,
prompted by Jesus response to Pilate: My kingdom is not from this world
(John 18.36). Despite his apparent powerlessness as a captive prisoner of the
Roman governor, Jesus is in fact a king who is gro zu allen Zeiten (great for
all time). Heermann here holds in tension the dichotomy between the eter-
nal nature of Christs kingship in the cosmic order (1 Timothy 1.17, 6.15, Rev-
elation 19.16) and his temporal suffering, themes that form the basis for the
opening chorus of the Passion with its stark juxtaposition of sovereignty and
debasement. Where the religious authorities saw in Jesus an beltter (evil-
doer), Bachs congregation are invited to know him to be the eternal King of all
creation.
It is impossible to reflect on the greatness of Jesus Treu (faithfulness) to
those he came to save, Heermann explains, let alone render him any service
in return for his suffering: Keins Menschen Herze mag indes ausdenken/ Was
dir zu schenken (No human heart is able to imagine, however,/ What to give
to you). This is the first of a series of reflections on the Passion narrative
that centre on the emotional impact of the Passion on each listeners heart.
In this chorale; the chorale In meines Herzens Grunde (In the depth of my
heart) [movement 26]; the ariosos Betrachte, meine Seel (Consider, my soul)
[movement 19] and Mein Herz, in dem die ganze Welt (My heart, in whom the
whole world) [movement 34]; as well as the aria Zerfliee, mein Herze (Melt,
my heart) [movement 35], Bach uses the image of the feeling human heart
to outline human responses to the Passion of Jesus. They all communicate a
sense of awe at the immensity of an innocent human suffering for others, and
encourage Mitleid (compassion), literally co-suffering with Jesus, as the only
possible response to Jesus Treu (faithfulness).
Like Luther, Heermann believed that it was impossible to render any Werk
(work) in response to Jesus death. In this hymn he suggested that the Chris-
tians proper response to the death of Christ was disregard for the world (die
Welt fr nichts erachten) [verse 12], taking up ones cross (kein Kreuz nicht
achten) [verse 13] and firm reliance on Gods grace (in Gnaden wirst du dies von
mir annehmen) [verse 14]. Heermanns hope, expressed in the final verse of his
hymn, was that having lived life thus one day the believer would be able to
 202 chapter 8

render thanks to the Herr Jesu (Lord Jesus) face to face: da will ich dir, wenn alles
wird wohl klingen,/ Lob und Dank singen (there I want to sing to you, when all
is harmoniously [well] ringing,/ your praise and thanks).
Bachs continuo setting in the two verses of this chorale is not only distinct
from his use of the same musical material in movement 3, but is unique in
his Passion repertoire: a distinctive semiquaver walking bass line throughout
the chorale underpins the three upper voices. When performed with equal
emphasis on both semiquaver notes in each beat, the chorale sounds laboured.
When performed with a more obvious Affekt, emphasising the first pair of
each beat only, a more gracious performance can be achieved. Bachs setting
thus enables a deliberate musical juxtaposition in performance between the
laboured human inability to render any works to God (im Werk) [verse 2,
bars 810] and the more gracious and natural musical recollection of Gods
mercy (dein Erbarmen) [bar 45]. The fact that Bach uses this musical device
throughout the four voices to highlight keins Menschen Herze (no human heart)
and [bar 7] and dir zu schenken (to give you) [bar 10], as well as wie kann ich dir
(how can I) [verse 2, bar 7] and im Werk erstatten (by works repay you) [verse 2,
bar 10] certainly suggests a theological use of the semiquaver device: no human
heart can imagine a gift great enough for God; no one can render any work to
the King of kings.

18a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,37a Da sprach Pilatus zu ihm: John 18.37a Then Pilate spoke to him:

Pilatus Pilate
So bist du dennoch ein Knig? So you are nevertheless a king?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,37b Jesus antwortete: 18.37b Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Du sagsts, ich bin ein Knig. Ich bin dazu geboren You say it, I am a king. For this I was born,
und in die Welt kommen, da ich and came into the world, that I
die Wahrheit zeugen soll. should testify to the truth.
Wer aus der Wahrheit ist, Whoever belongs to the truth,
der hret meine Stimme. listens to my voice.

Evangelist Evangelist
18,38a Spricht Pilatus zu ihm: 18.38a Spoke Pilate to him:
 commentary 203

figure 10 Autograph Score, p. 34: answers into questions, though not in Bachs hand

Pilatus Pilate
Was ist Wahrheit? What is truth?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,38b Und da er das gesaget, ging er wieder 18.38b And after he had said this, he went
hinaus zu den Jden und spricht zu ihnen: out again to the Jews and spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Ich finde keine Schuld an ihm. I find no guilt in him.

18,39 Ihr habt aber eine Gewohnheit, 18.39 But you have a custom
da ich euch einen losgebe; that I let someone go for you;
wollt ihr nun, da ich euch do you therefore want me to let go for you
der Jden Knig losgebe? the King of the Jews?

Evangelist Evangelist
18,40a Da schrieen sie wieder allesamt 18.40a Once again they all shouted together
und sprachen: and spoke:

John 18.37a [bars 13]: Unlike Bachs congregation in the previous Chorale,
Pilate cannot comprehend how Jesus could possibly be a king. The autograph
score shows that in a previous version Pilates question so bist du dennoch ein
Knig (so you are nevertheless a king) [bars 3], was first set as a statement rather
than a question. In a section crossed out by the unknown copyist [Autograph
Score, p. 35: penultimate system, bar 2, see Figure 10], the Prefects voice drops
at the end of the phrase, as if he were giving an affirmative answer. The revised
rising bass line on dennoch ein Knig (nevertheless a king) [bar 2] turns Pilates
statement into a question.
204 chapter 8

John 18.37b [bars 3b9]: Jesus answer du sagsts (you say it) [bar 4] when read
is ambiguous, since it could be either an affirmation or a rejection of Pilates
question: you say that I am a king as well as you say so: I am indeed a king.150
For Luther, there was no such ambiguity in Jesus statement: You say it, that
is as much as saying, you have guessed correctly. You say it means: you
have got it in one.151 Olearius puts it even more succinctly: You say it: It is the
truth.152 Bach replicates this sense of certainty by introducing a semiquaver
rest between du sagsts (you say it) and ich bin ein Knig (I am a king) [bar 4],
turning both parts of Jesus statement into affirmatives.
Jesus kingship consists of testifying to the truth, and leading people into
all truth, Johns Gospel explains: you will know the truth and the truth will
set you free, Jesus assured the Jews who had believed in him (John 8.3132).
That truth is inextricably linked to the Incarnation and the crucifixion, the
beginning and end-point of Jesus earthly ministry, Jesus tells Pilate: Ich bin
dazu geboren und in die Welt kommen, da ich die Wahrheit zeugen soll (For
this I was born, and came into the world, that I should testify to the truth)
[bars 57]. For St John, truth is both an essential quality of the word made
flesh (John 1.14, 17) and the reason for Jesus rejection by others. Earlier in the
Gospel, Jesus told his opponents: You are trying to kill me, a man that has told
you the truth that heard from God (John 8.40). Olearius echoes this when he
defines Wahrheit (truth) as follows: The enduring eternal unchangable word
the essential impassible word of divine wisdom revealed for our blessed
instruction.153
Bach highlights Jesus testimony to Gods truth in two ways: a rising octave
in the melodic line on Wahrheit zeugen (testify to the truth) [bar 7] highlights
Jesus mission both as truth and life incarnate, the way, the truth, and life (John
14.6), and as a witness to God the Father (John 10.25). The nature of the message
that is being made known is indicated musically by the fact that all references
to truth are set in the key of D major, the key of glory, extremely well suited for
encouraging (auffmunternden) subjects.154 Jesus had explained earlier in the

150 Barrett (1978), p. 537: Jesus himself will neither affirm or deny his kingship.
151 WA 28: 314, 1923, CB 3: 927: Du sagests, das ist so viel, du hasts schier errahten. Du
sagests, das ist du hasts getroffen.
152 HS 5: 781: Du sagests. Es ist die Warheit.
153 HS 5: 770: Das bestndige ewige unverenderliche Wort/ das wesentliche unvergngliche
Wort der Gttlichen zu unsern seeligen Unterricht geoffenbareten Weisheit.
154 Mattheson (1713), p. 242: Auffmunternden Sachen wol am allerbequemsten. Bach uses the
same key for the opening movement of the Gloria of the B-minor Mass (BWV 232), and
for the Magnificat (BWV 243).
commentary 205

Gospel that he would lay down his life for those who listen to his voice (John
10.118). He therefore truly is, as Olearius suggested, the greatest and holiest
martyr.155 Those who listen to the voice of Jesus already belong to the truth,
and will have a share in the new life he promises: those who hear my voice, I
know, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,
Jesus promised earlier in the Gospel (John 10.2728). Bach singles out meine
(my) by breaking up the word into its two component syllables in two sets of
semiquavers [bar 9], thereby emphasising the message that it is through Jesus
voice alone that all who are prepared to listen to Jesus, and accept him as the
way to the Father (John 14.6), are reborn by the word of truth and will enter
eternal life.156

John 18.38a [bars 910]: St John leaves no doubt that Pilate and Jesus talk at
cross-purposes; Jesus speaks of a truth that Pilate cannot recognise, or acknowl-
edge as such. He cannot perceive that Jesus is Truth Incarnate and asks deri-
sively, was ist Wahrheit (what is truth) [bars 910], revealing himself as a
philosophical sceptic.157 Bach emphasises this profound miscommunication
between Pilate and Jesus by turning Pilates question on truth into a weak mir-
ror image of Jesus statements on truth. Where Jesus statements are supported
by strong cadences, Pilates are underpinned by weak cadences. While an unex-
pected tonicisation on Was ist (what is) [bar 10] eventually leads to D major on
Wahrheit (truth) [bar 11], Bachs setting suggests that Pilate only ever compre-
hended parts, or a weak version, of the truth.

John 18.38b [1115a]: Pilate is not really interested in whether Jesus may have
anything further to say about truth, and does not wait to hear Jesus answer
to his question. Calov rightly identifies Pilates response as a mockery.158
Rather than listen to Jesus truth he turns away from his prisoner to inform
the high priests ich finde keine Schuld an ihm (I find no guilt in him). Pilate is

155 HS 5: 781: Der allergrsseste und allerheiligste Mrtyrer, a word-play on the Greek wit-
nessing. martyreso (Zeugen. martyreso).
156 HS 5: 781: Ist wiedergebohren durchs Wort der Warheit.
157 HS 5: 781: Spricht hnisch. A Latin anagram neatly turns Pilates question into an answer,
Quid est veritas? (What is truth?) Est vir qui adest (It is the man who is here), suggesting
that the Prefect was blind to the claims to divine truth made by Jesus. For an analysis of
Christian receptions of truth, see: J.H. (Amie) van Wyk, Quid est veritas? Augustinus oor
waarheid en leuen, Hervormde Teologiese Studies 56.23 (2000), pp. 456491, in particular
p. 478.
158 CB 3: 928: Eine Spottrede.
206 chapter 8

unconvinced of the accusers suggestion that Jesus was a potential insurgent.

His statement does not claim that Jesus was innocent under Jewish religious
law. Rather, Pilate refers to the political innocence of the prisoner.

John 18.39a [bars 15b17a]: There are no examples outside the Passion Gospels
of a Passover amnesty, though there are examples of such releases at certain
Roman festivals.159 Bachs libretto omits the words auff Ostern (at the Passover),
which are contained in Luthers translation.160 The composer had enjoyed a
classical education, and he or his unknown librettist may have been aware of
the Roman customs described by Livy of releasing prisoners at the Lectister-
nia.161 Olearius claims that the custom of releasing prisoners derived from a
re-enactment of the Passover, from slavery to freedom.162 Regardless of whether
or not a similar custom of releasing a prisoner at high Jewish festivals existed,
Bach uses the Prefects statement ihr habt aber eine Gewohnheit, da ich euch
einen losgebe (but you have a custom that I let someone go for you) in order
to emphasise Pilates authority.163 Singling out ich (I) [bar 16] with a rising
octave in the melodic line, he underlines that only Pilate now has the author-
ity to set the prisoner free. This mirrors the similar claim to authority by
Jesus, similarly emphasised by Bachs setting, in meine Stimme (my voice) (John
18.37b).

John 18.39b [bars 17b18]: There is no doubt that Pilate neither regarded Jesus
as a king, nor would ever have acknowledged him as such. His suggestion that

159 Titus Livius [Livy], Ab Urbe condita libri, W. Weissenborn, H.J. Mller eds. (Leipzig: Teub-
ner, 1898) [cited as: Livy, History of Rome] 5: 13, 8: vinctis quoque dempta in eos dies
vincula; religioni deinde fuisse, quibus eam open dei tulissent, vinciri (even prisoners
were loosed from their chains on those days, and they were reluctant to imprison again
men whom the gods had befriended in that manner). Aelius Dionysius, Karl Jacoby, ed.,
Antiquitates Romanae (Leipzig: Teubner, 1905) 12: 9, 10: Tn therapntn hsous prteron
en tos desmos echon hoi desptai (all the slaves whom their masters had previously
kept in chains were then turned loose).
160 CB 3: 929.
161 Livy, History of Rome, 5: 13, 8.
162 HS 5: 250: The governor had to do this [release a prisoner at Passover-tide] for the
Jews had introduced the custom to recall their liberation from Egypt (Der Landpfleger
musste es thun denn die Jden hattens so eingefhret zum Andencken der Erlsung
aus Egypten).
163 Charles Chavel, The Releasing of a Prisoner at Passover, Journal of Biblical Literature 60.3
(1941), pp. 273278, p. 275, suspects a link between the custom reported in the four Gospels
and Tractate Pesahim 8.6.
 commentary 207

he might release der Jden Knig (the King of the Jews) therefore is intended as
a deliberate and highly offensive provocation of the assembled Jewish authori-
ties. The Prefects melodic line abounds with cross motifs, both on da ich euch
(that I [let go] for you) [bar 17b] and Knig losgebe (let go the king [of the Jews])
[bar 18]: regardless of what Pilate says, Jesus will still be crucified. The tritone, or
diabolus in musica, on losgebe (let go) [bar 18], provides a musical link with pre-
vious references to Roman justice (see the discussion on movements 16a and
16e, above), and strongly suggests that Bachs Pilate never had the intention to
set Jesus free.

John 18.40 [bars 18b19]: Pilates deliberate insults and power games were not
lost on the Jewish high priests. Both his use of the style der Jden Knig (the
King of the Jews) in describing their prisoner and his suggestion that he might
release Jesus offend the religious leaders to such an extent that they lose their
composure and respond to the Prefect by shouting, perhaps even crying out in
wordless clamour, allesamt (altogether) [bar 19].

18b. Chorus
Chorus (Oboe II with Sopranos, Violin II with Altos, Viola with Tenors; Flutes I/II,
Oboe I, Violin I, Organ and Continuo)

Johannes 18,40b Nicht diesen, sondern Barrabam! John 18.40b Not this one, rather Barrabas!

John 18.40b [bars 2123]: In Bachs setting, the Jewish hierarchy does indeed
speak allesamt (altogether), almost with one voice: in bars 20 and 22b23, all
four vocal parts speak in rhythmic unity. While in bar 21b22 the Basses repeat
the rhythmic pattern of the upper voices a crochet later than Sopranos, Altos
and Tenors, on the second sondern (but) [bar 22] the four voices return to share
their common rhythmic pattern. This gives the musical impression of a small
group of speakers who speak as one, with only a few people falling out of line
to suggest more than four speakers.
Where in the synoptic Passion stories the people demand the release of
Barrabas, in Johns account of the trial only the small group of chief priests,
led by Caiaphas, call for the release of Barrabam, the German retaining the
accusative of the criminals Latin name. The unspoken consequence of the
hierarchys demand to have a criminal released is the execution of Jesus, which
is revealed in music by a pattern of cross-shapes above the voices woven by the
first violin and woodwind lines. The movement concludes abruptly on the first,
and therefore accented, beat of bar 24, creating the effect of an exclamation
mark in music in the woodwind and first violin line.
 208 chapter 8

18c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 18,40c Barrabas aber war ein Mrder. John 18.40c But Barrabas was a murderer.

19,1 Da nahm Pilatus Jesum 19.1 Then Pilate took Jesus

und geielte ihn. and flogged him.

John 18.40c [bars 2425]: Unlike synoptic accounts of the Passion such as
Matthew 28.1523, which introduce Barrabas as a notorious prisoner Jesus
Barrabas, John gives no background information on the second prisoner
beyond a terse Barrabas aber war ein Mrder (but Barrabas was a murderer)
[bars 2425]. Where in Matthew it is Pilate who suggests Barrabas here, in
line with Marks and Lukes account, the chief priests call for Barrabas. That
the name is a patronymic, Bar Abba (Son of the Father) or Bar Rabban (Son of
the Teacher or Son of the Master), is suggested by Matthews account in which
Barrabas shares the same first name as Jesus.164 Olearius reads the name as son
of the Father and explains that the high priests clamour for the relase of Jesus,
son of the father, a criminal, a warped wayward son, while having Jesus, the
true Son who calls God his Father, crucified.165
Bachs angular melodic line, with its awkward harmony on aber war (but
was) [bar 24], and two carefully placed rests to isolate ein Mrder (a mur-
derer) [bars 2425], reflects well the outrage conveyed by the evangelist: Pilate
releases an evil murderer and has the innocent Jesus murdered. Luther com-
mented on the passage on very similar lines, applying the injustice suffered by
Jesus to the rejection, legal persecution and violence suffered by his own fol-
lowers:

This indicates well how the Gospel, and all those who live according to
the Gospel, fare in the world. If you wish to survive in the world, then
learn the saying: Barrabas got off; Christ the Saviour is condemned. What
does it matter that your neighbour acts violently and unjustly against you
when Christ the Lord has been condemned? Therefore, whenever you are

164 Brown (2008), p. 856: Some of the textual witnesses to Matthew present the mans name
as Jesus Barabbas, a reading already ancient in Origens time.
165 HS 5: 250: Barrabas. Mark 15.7, John 18.49, bar and abba, son of the father. (Barrabas. Marc.
15/7. Johann. 18/49. und filius patris); Ein Verzogener ungerathner Sohn.
commentary 209

subject to violence or suffer injustice, then say: That is the rule of the
world; if you wish to live in the world, then you need to expect such a
rule.166

John 19.1 [bars 2529]: The scourging of Jesus is musically represented by an

impressively dynamic downward melodic line of 16 groups of three notes on
geielte (scourged) [bars 26b28]. It is unlikely that Pilate would have been
aware that in Halakhic convention the lashes were administered in sets of
three, but quite probable that Bach knew that this was so:167 Johann Mllers
Judaismus oder Jdenthum, a copy of which Bach owned, deals at length with
the subjects of Jewish ritual law and the suffering of the Messiah, including the
scourging.168 While Mllers book uses Jewish sources in order to construct an
overall anti-Jewish polemic, he does not on the whole misrepresent the Jewish
originals he cites. Olearius also states that the Jews preferred to give one
stroke less [than forty] than give too many, thus suggesting they whipped in
13 rounds of three.169 However in his setting, Bach gives Jesus 48 lashes, an
excessive and illegal punishment under Halakhic rules.
The slightly varied rhythm in the first eight groups of three evokes an image
of a brutal first set of scourges delivered with more vigour than the remaining
eight. The rhythmic continuo line provides a dynamic counterpoint to the
melodic line. Again, Bach leaves no doubt that the scourging of Jesus is merely
a precursor to a much more brutal death: the melodic line on Pilatus Je[sum]
(Pilate [took] Jesus) [bars 2526] traces the shape of a cross.

166 WA 28: 329, 1018: Es ist aber damit angezeiget, wie es dem Euangelio in der welt gehet
und allen denen so da Evangelisch leben. Wiltu in der welt sein, so lerne das sprichwort:
Barrabas sol los werde, Christus der Heiland wird verdampt. Was ists, das dein Nachbar dir
gewalt und unrecht thut, gegen dem, das Christus der Heiland verdampt word? So dir nu
gewalt und unrecht geschicht, sprich: das ist der welt Regiment, wiltu in der welt leben,
so mustu das gewarten.
167 Moses ben Maimonides specified in his commentary on Tractate Sanhedrin, Sefer Shofe-
tim: Hilkhot Sanhedrin, 17.1, that no more than 40 lashes should be administered. Mai-
monides view that forty less one lashes should be administered for punishment was
widely shared. The insistence that the total number of lashes be divisible by three was
adopted to prevent exceeding 40 by accident.
168 Johann Mller, Judaismus/ oder/ Jdenthumb/ Das ist/ Ausfhrlicher Bericht von des/
Jdischen Volckes Vnglauben/ Blindheit vnd Verstockung (Hamburg: Johann Rebenlein,
1643), pp. 699712 and pp. 769770. For Bachs ownership of the work, see: BB 116.
169 HS 5: 252: Bey den Jden 5. Mos. c. 25/3. 2 Cor. 11/24 da man lieber einen Streich weniger/
als mehr gab, referring to Deuteronomy 25.3, and Pauls account of his own scourging in
2 Corinthians 11.24.
 210 chapter 8

19. Arioso
Tenor Arioso (Viola damore I/II, Lute continuo)

Betrachte, meine Seel, Consider, my soul,

mit ngstlichem Vergngen, with anxious delectation,
Mit bittrer Lust With bitter happiness
und halb beklemmtem Herzen and half anguished heart
Dein hchstes Gut Your highest good
in Jesu Schmerzen, in Jesus pains,
Wie dir auf Dornen, As on the thorns
so ihn stechen, that prick him
Die Himmelsschlsselblumen blhn! The heaven-key-flowers blossom!
Du kannst viel se Frucht You can much sweet fruit
von seiner Wermut brechen from this wormwood break
Drum sieh ohn Unterla auf ihn! Therefore behold him without ceasing!

Variant of Brockes Passion, p. 379 [bars 118]: Brockes Passion provides a

poetic reflection on the scourging of Jesus. Sung in Brockes Passion by die
glubige Seele (the believing soul), the soul can see das Himmelreich in Seinen
Schmertzen (the kingdom of heaven in his pains). The key that unlocks the
kingdom of heaven for Brockes are the pains that Jesus suffered. Johann Heer-
mann, the author of the Passion Chorale, reminds the readers of his seventeeth-
century Passion meditations Crux Christi, that Jerome had first likened the
shedding of Christs blood to a key that was able to open Paradise to human-
kind:

The blood of Christ is the Key of Paradise, Jerome says/ The droplets of
blood that Christ shed are the real Keys to Paradise/ that can open for
you the Gate of Heaven/ so that you may exclaim with St Stephen: I see
the heavens opened, I see Heaven open.170

The key of heaven is poetically symbolised by the Himmelschlsselblumen

(literally heaven-key-flowers, cowslipssometimes in English called Keys

170 Johann Heermann, Crux Christi das ist Die schmertzliche Marter-Woche/ unsers hochver-
dienten Heylandes Jesu Christi/ Darau zu sehen/ Wie Blutsauer es Ihme worden/ uns zu
erlsen/ Betrachtet au dem schnen Passions-Bchlein der vier Evangelisten/ und in Eilff
Lehr- und Trostreichen Predigten erklret/ Durch Johannem Heermannum, P.L.C., Pfarrern
zu Kthen (Jena: Erhard Berger, 1660), p. 75: Sanguis Christi est Clavis Paradysi, spricht
Hieronymus/ Christi vergossene Blutstrfflein sind die rechten Paradi-Schlssel/ welche
dir die Himmels Pforte erffnen/ da du mit S. Stephano sagen kanst: Video coelos aper-
tos, Ich sehe den Himmel offen.
commentary 211

of Heavenwhose resemblance to small keys gave them their poetic folk

name).171
Brockes florid Baroque poetry is toned down by the librettist of the St John
Passion to create a more intimate and personal appeal to the human soul:
rather than counsel the soul to Schau, wie die Mrder Ihm auf seinen Rcken
pflgen (Look, how the murderers plough across his back), Bachs Passion
encourages the ceaseless contemplation of Jesus, Drum sie ohn Unterla auf
ihn! (So look on him without ceasing!). The adaptation of Brockes text from a
reflection on the Roman soldiers ploughing their whips across the beaten back
of Jesus to an invitation to contemplate the heavenly image of Christs suffering
enables the composer to link this arioso with two subsequent movements that
reinforce the same appeal.172 Both the direct companion of this movement, the
ensuing aria Erwge (Consider) [movement 20], and the Herzstck-Chorale In
meines Herzens Grunde (In the depths of my heart) [movement 26] reiterate
the invitation to contemplate the suffering of Christ that stands at the heart
of a Lutheran spirituality of the Passion. As Luther reflected in his Sermon on
Preparing to Die from the early part of his reformation:

[Christ] is the living and undying image against the death that he himself
has suffered, and yet has conquered with his resurrection from the dead
in his life. He is the image of Gods grace against the sin that he has taken
on himself and has conquered by his immovable obedience. He is the
heavenly image who, abandoned by God, as a damned man, and by his
conquering of hell through his almighty love, testifies that he is the most
beloved Son, and gives us the same right to own, so that we may share this
belief.173

The transition from Brockes graphic description of the bloody scourges of Jesus
to Bachs encouragement to quiet contemplation of the suffering of Christ is

171 The primrose or cowslip had long been a symbol of endurance. Indeed, its Latin name,
primula veris, is itself a comment on that fact that it is one of the first flowers to blossom
after winter, heralding the arrival of spring.
172 Luther, Ein Sermon von der Bereitung zum Sterben 1519, WA 2: 691, 19: Das hymelisch bild.
173 WA 2: 691, 1521: [Christ] ist das lebendig und unsterblich bild widder den tod, den er
erlitten, und doch mit seyner ufferstand von todtenn ubirwunden yn seynem leben. Er ist
das bild der gnaden gottis widder die sund, die er auff sich genommen und durch seynen
unubirwindlichen gehorsam ubirwunden. Er ist das hymelisch bild, der vorlassen von gott,
al eyn vordampter, und durch syn aller mechtigst liebe die hell ubirwunden, bezeugt, das
er der liebst sun sey und un allen dasselb zu eygen geben, o wir alo glauben.
212 chapter 8

reinforced by the intimate musical atmosphere created by the continuo scor-

ing. The obbligato lute continuo is unique in Bachs repertoire and well conveys
the inner dialogue as the tenor soloist addresses his soul to contemplate the
Word-made-Flesh in his pains. The choice of register follows convention: in
Baroque musical allegory, the tenor voice represented both the hearts that give
faith and the unblemished life/ where all members/ submit to the Word of
God.174
The underlying harmonies are intricate and complex: a detailed harmonic
analysis reveals an elongated E flat-major pedal introduction [bars 12], fol-
lowed by a progression of mostly inverted, diminished, augmented and applied
dominant chords, finally leading to G minor [bar 9], before returning immedi-
ately to E flat-major [bar 10]. What follows is a protracted cadence in the tonic
major [bars 1113], followed by a reprise of the introductory material. The over-
all unsettled nature of the progression from bars 39, primarily displayed in
the lack of root position chords, reflects well in music the human souls own
ngstliches Vergngen (anxious delectation): gazing on Jesus pains mit bittrer
Lust und halb-beklemmtem Herzen (with bitter happiness and half-anguished
heart). The protracted cadence in bars 1215, in turn, mirrors the unceasing
gaze of the faithful towards their suffering Saviour, Drum sieh ohn Unterla auf
ihn (Therefore behold him without ceasing). The call to contemplate Jesus in
his pains is repeated three times, the first centred around a cross-motif in the
melodic line on Unterla auf (without ceasing) [bar 12], indicating the end-
point of the journey of faith: the cross.
In 1749, Bach substantially revised the conclusion of the arioso to give further
emphasis to Heermanns insight that the droplets of blood that Christ shed are
the real Keys to Paradise/ that can open for you the Gate of Heaven.175 Where
in the earlier versions of the St John Passion the soloist assures the anxious
soul Du kannst viel se Frucht/ von seiner Wermut brechen (You can very sweet
fruit/ from his wormwood break), in the 1749 version, the soul is reminded
of the salvific effects the shedding of Christs blood on the cross has had on
believers. Echoing movement 29, where Jesus is handed a branch of hyssop
before exclaiming Es ist vollbracht (It is accomplished; see the discussion on
movement 29, below), in this revision hyssop is also used as a symbol of
purification:

174 Saubert (1625), 3r, Suavissima Musica Christo: Aller Christen nothwendige Musik: Pectora
datque fidem, Der Tenor ist das vnstrfflich Leben/ Da sich die Glieder all/ nach Gottes
Wort ergeben (See Figure 11).
175 Heermann (1660), p. 75: Christi vergossene Blutstrfflein sind die rechten Paradi-
Schlssel/ welche dir die Himmels Pforte erffnen.
 commentary 213

Vor deine Schuld den Isop blhn Before your guilt the hyssops blossoms
Und Jesu Blut auf dich And on you Jesus blood
zur Reinigung versprengen for purification sprinkle
Drum sieh ohn Unterla auf ihn! Therefore behold him without ceasing!

The hyssop here does not only function as a purging herb, but as an aspergillum,
an instrument to sprinkle the blood of Christ on those whose hearts are halb
beklemmt (half anguished) and so literally to bring them salvation by being
sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, to be made white in the blood of the Lamb
(Revelation 7.14). As Martin Moller explained in his late-sixteenth-century
Soliloquia de Passione Christi, it was the prerogative of each Christian to ponder
the events of their salvation without ceasing as a symbol of their gratitude for
Christs redemptive act:

Thus I will contemplate/ your holy cross and suffering. Yes, the same holy
cross and suffering/ I will always carry in my heart/ in my body/ and my
mouth/ For I will daily, and without ceasing think thereon.176

20. Aria
Tenor Aria (Viola damore I/II, Organ and Viola da gamba)

Erwge, wie sein blutgefrbter Rcken
In allen Stcken
Dem Himmel gleiche geht,
Daran, nachdem die Wasserwogen
Von unsrer Sndflut sich verzogen,
Der allerschnste Regenbogen
Als Gottes Gnadenzeichen steht!
Contemplate, how his blood-coloured back
in each strip
goes straight to heaven,
On it, after the water-waves
of our sin-flood have receded,
the most beautiful rainbow of all
Stands as a sign of Gods mercy!

Variant of Brockes Passion, pp. 379380: The companion aria to the preced-
ing movement introduces a slight shift in emphasis. Where movement 19,

176 Martin Moller, SOLILOQVIA De Passione Iesu Christi. Wie ein jeder Christen Mensch/ das
allerheyligste Leyden vnd Sterben vnsers HERRN Jesu Christi/ in seinem Hertzen bey sich
selbst betrachten/ Allerley schne Lehren vnd heylsamen Trost daraus schpffen/ vnd zu
einem Christlichen Leben/ vnd seligen Sterben/ in tglichem Gebet vnd Seufftzen/ ntzlich
gebrauchen sol (Grlitz: Johann Rhambaw, 1587), p. 6r: Da wil ich betrachten/ dein heyli-
ges Creutze vnd Leyden. Ja dasselbe dein heyliges Creutz vnd Leyden/ wil ich allzeit in
meinem Hertzen/ an meinem Leibe/ vnd in meinem Munde tragen. Ich wils in meinem
Hertzen tragen/ Denn ich wil tglich/ vnd ohne vnterla daran gedencken. For Moller
(15471606), see: Theodor Mahlmann, Moller, Martin, in: BBKL 6: cols. 4548.
 214 chapter 8

Betrachte, meine Seel (Consider, my soul), reflected on the benefits of Christs

Passion for the individual who sieh[t] ohn Unterla auf ihn (look[s] on him
without ceasing), this movement explores the effects of Christs suffering for
the entire human family by placing it in the context of covenant history.
As noted in the discussion on movement 19, in his Passion meditations the
Lutheran theologian Martin Moller had encouraged contemplation without
ceasing (ohne vnterla) of the scourges of Christ as a libation for sin for individ-
ual Christians, enjoining believers to see, and behold/ how his blood pours
out/ How it flows as if it were a well or a source to earth, from his entire body.177
The theological basis for this aria is more akin to the work of Johann Arndt who
first introduced a deliberate link between the scourges of Christ and the inau-
guration of the New Covenant in [his] blood which is poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 22.20). For Arndt, the blood Christ shed was
a covenantal sign of the New Covenant, just as the rainbow had been an ever-
lasting covenant between God and every living creature after the flood of Noah
(Genesis 9.16): the rainbow of Christs blood, was the spiritual rainbow, with its
colours of water and blood, that God has set in the clouds. When God sees the
same, he will show us his grace.178
The libretto deliberately changes Brockes poem to reflect this theological
shift from the individual to every living creature by introducing the injunction
to active contemplation, Erwge (Contemplate):

Brockes Passion St John Passion

Dem Himmel gleicht Sein bunt-gestriemter Rcken
Den Regen-Bgen ohne Zahl,
Als lauter Gnaden-Zeychen schmcken:
Die (da die Sndfluht unsrer Schuld versieget)
Der holden Liebe Sonne-Stral,
In Seines Blutes Wolken, zeiget.
Erwge, wie sein blutgefrbter Rcken
In allen Stcken dem Himmel gleiche geht,
Daran, nachdem die Wasserwogen
Von unsrer Sndflut sich verzogen,
Der allerschnste Regenbogen
Als Gottes Gnadenzeichen steht.

Heaven equals his colourfully welted back Contemplate, how his blood-coloured back
in which rainbows without number In each strip goes equally to heaven
as pure mercy-signs decorate: On it, after the water-waves

177 Moller (1587), p. 183r: Sihe vnd betrachte/ wie lauffen jhm seine Striemen auff? Wie
dringet das Blut heraus? Wie fleusset es wie ein Quellbrnnlein von seinem gantzen Leibe
an die Erde?
178 Johann Arndt, Postilla, Das ist: Geistreiche Erklrung der Evangelischen Texten [sic]/ auff
die Sonn- Hohe- und andere Fest- und Apostel-Tage (Leipzig: Steinmann, 1616), p. 442: Di
ist der geistliche Regenbogen, mit seiner Wasser- und Blutfarbe, den Gott als einen Zeugen
in die Wolcken gesetzet hat. Wann Gott denselben ansiehet, so will er uns gndig seyn.
 commentary 215

Which (where the sin-flood of our guilt dries up) of our sin-flood have receded
of his gracious Love a sunbeam the most beautiful rainbow of all
in the clouds of his blood, reveals. Stands as a sign of Gods mercy.

Both the adaptation of Brockes text from passive reflection to active contem-
plation, and the orchestration and instrumentation leave no doubt that this
aria was written to provide a companion piece to the preceding arioso, enabling
a sustained reflection on the suffering of Christ; in this movement from the per-
spective of heaven. The viola damore and viola da gamba continuo accompani-
ment continue to provide an intimate, meditative and therefore introspective
setting, especially in the interplay between soloist and strings in the open-
ing Erwge (Contemplate) [bars 46 and repeats].179 The soloists drawn out
diphthongs on -wge (Contemplate) [bar 6 and repeats] gives an additional
impression of active, extensive contemplation.
The deeply-cut bloody stripes on Jesus back, in allen Stcken (in each slice),
are underlined by an ascending and descending rhythmic semi- and demisemi-
quaver figure in the continuo part [bars 78 and repeats], which is repeated
throughout the movement: during the raging of the flood, die Wasserwogen
von unsrer Sndflut (the water-waves of our sin-flood), and at the appearance
of der allerschnste Regenbogen (the most beautiful rainbow of all). In the
vocal part, Erwge (consider), Himmel (heaven), blutgefrbter Rcken (blood-
coloured back) and Stcken (strips) all are linked by semiquaver figures [bars
78 and repeats] that literally tear up the melodic line; a further reminder in
music of the Roman soldiers brutal scourges.
While the combination of viola damore and viola da gamba certainly create
a sense of introspection in the first part of the aria [bars 122], in the middle sec-
tion of the aria [bars 2242], they also have the ability to represent rainfall and
deluge giving way to clear skies and the appearance of the rainbow. Bachs musi-
cal word-painting is particularly impressive in the creation of a musical flood,
with viola da gamba and tenor imitating the crushing of waves, as different
Wasserwogen (water waves)symbolising the human Sndflut (sin-flood)
rise and break [bars 2124]. The subsequent textual repeats rely on the same
musical interaction between soloist and strings, with the violas damore join-
ing the continuo to create large waves [bars 3234]. A multitude of rainbow-
shapes in the continuo part first display the symbol of Gods grace in bars
2530 of the score. They reappear in bar 34, concluding the section with a

179 For a discussion on the use of the viola da gamba in the continuo part, see Kritischer
Bericht, p. 11.
 216 chapter 8

superabundance of rainbow-shaped semi- and demisemiquaver flourishes in

the continuo line [bars 4042].
In his 1725 version of the Passion, Bach concludes the entire work with the
same musical patterns that open and close this movement: the Erwge-motif
[movement 20, bar 1] stands at the beginning of his Christe, du Lamm Gottes
(O Lamb of God) [movement 40 ii, bars 13 and seq], while the rainbow-shape
[movement 20, bars 2530 and seq] concludes the Passion as a whole. Luthers
Dorian-mode final Amen lent its distinctive rainbow-shape to Bachs conclud-
ing Amens at the end of the 1725 St John Passion [movement 40 ii, bars 5158].
The rainbow-shaped plainchant Amen of Luthers Agnus Dei may well also
have inspired the recurring rainbow-patterns of this movement.180 Since the
Agnus Dei at the end of the 1725 version of the St John Passion closely follows
that of the Passion Cantata BWV 23, Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn, it is almost
certain that Bach noty only borrowed the rainbow-pattern but also the Erwge-
motif from this Cantata.181
The fact that, in the poetry of this movement, Jesus stripes are represented
by a rainbow, means that the rainbow-shaped Amens of Luthers Agnus Dei
may well have provided an attractive musical and theological link for the com-
poser, to encourage contemplation of the image of the man of sorrows by
whose stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53.5). In his final version of the Passion,
completed a year before his own death, Bach or a collaborator certainly sub-
stantially changed the poetry of the movement to reflect more closely on the
redemptive power of the death of Jesus on the life of the believer. Only the rain-
bows in the score of the 1749 version now remain to tell the story of the New
Covenant:

Mein Jesu, ach! Dein schmerzhaft bitter Leiden
Bringt tausend Freuden,
Er tilgt der Snden Not.
Ich sehe zwar mit vielen Schrecken
Den heilgen Leib mit Blute decken;
Doch mu mir dies auch Lust erwecken,
Es macht mich frei von Hll und Tod.
My Jesus, oh! Your painful, bitter suffering
Brings a thousand joys,
It wipes away the adversity of sin.
I see, in fact, with many terrors
the holy body robed in blood,
Indeed, this also must awaken happiness in me,
It makes me free from hell and death.

180 The rainbow-pattern is inherent to the Dorian-mode Amens of Luthers German trans-
lation of the Agnus Dei, Christe, du Lamm Gottes, see: Robin Leaver, Luthers Liturgical
Music: Principles and Implications, Lutheran Quarterly Books (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
2007), pp. 185188, p. 198.
181 Cantata BWV 23 precedes the St John Passion by at least five years. It was written in Kthen,
and first performed at St Thomas Leipzig as one of two audition pieces at Bachs audition
for the post of Thomaskantor on 7 February 1723.
 commentary 217

21a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,2 Und die Kriegsknechte flochten John 19.2 And the mercenaries wove
eine Krone von Dornen und satzten sie a crown of thorns and placed it
auf sein Haupt und legten ihm it on his head and they put on him
ein Purpurkleid an a purple robe
19,3a und sprachen: 19.3a and spoke:

John 19.23a [bars 15]: Having scourged Jesus, the Roman soldiers humilate
him by dressing him to look like a king.182 There is no need for John to specify
that Jesus was stripped of his outer garments, as Matthew does (Matthew
27.28): Jesus would have been stripped at the scourging. Luther believed that
the motivation for the soldiers derision was in part based on the chief priests
accusation that Jesus had claimed to be the King of the Jews and in part on
Jesus affirmation before Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world (John
18.36):

The soldiers abuse Jesus confession as if they wanted to say: He himself

told us that he was a king. That is why we will dress him up, and crown
him king. [They] cast him in a carnival play, put him in royal robes and
crown him with thorns. That is poisonous mockery indeed.183

The mocking of Jesus might have been the reason for staging similar later
mockings in the diaspora. Philo reports that, during a Passover visit to Alexan-
dria of King Agrippa I half a decade or so after the death of Jesus, the peo-
ple dressed up a madman named Carabas in royal garments.184 The Roman
soldiers insignia of royal authority were more cruel than those used by the
Alexandrians to entertain King Agrippa: rather than use a papyrus leaf for a

182 The Roman soldies are always designated Kriegsknechte (mercenaries) rather than the
Schar (troops) of the Jewish authorities.
183 Luther, Wochenpredigten, WA 28: 335, 2834: Misbrauchen die Kriegsknechte solch
Bekentnis, als solten sie sagen: Er hat selbs bekand, das er ein Knig sey, Darumb wollen
wir jn schmcken und krnen als einen Knig; fahen derhalben mit jm ein Fasnachtspiel
an, zihen jm knigliche Kleider an und krnen jn mit drnen. Das ist eine gifftige spotting
gewesen.
184 Agrippa I was appointed to rule Judea during a brief interlude in Roman occupation in
41 ce. Philo, In Flaccum [Eis Phlakkon] P. Wendland, ed. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1962), 6: 36:
Memvs noma Karabs.
 218 chapter 8

diadem, the soldiers make a crown from thorns and place it on Jesus head.185
Jesus crown of thorns was a painful equivalent of the laurel wreath first worn by
commanders of victorious Roman armies and subsequently by Roman emper-
ors and their vassal kings.186
For Bach, the placing of the crown of thorns on Jesus head seems a straight-
forward act: the soldiers weaving of a crown of thorns is not represented in
music [bars 12]. Bach merely highlights Purpur (imperial purple) [bar 4]:
this may well be a pointer to the paradox that only those who hear the Pas-
sion story from the perspective of the resurrection can ever know that Jesus
truly is the King of all kings, and therefore rightfully wears the imperial purple
robe.

21b. Coro
Chorus (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II, Violin I/II, Organ, Continuo)

Johannes 19,3b Sei gegret, lieber Jdenknig! John 19.3b Hail, beloved King of the Jews!

The mocking of Jesus probably took place inside the Roman garrison, away
from the chief priests and their company. Certainly, Marks and Matthews
accounts specify that the mocking took place inside the governors headquar-
ters (Mark 16.16, Matthew 27.27). Whereas Mark and Matthew suggest that the
whole cohort, some 600 men, witnessed the event (Mark 16.16, Matthew 27.27),
John does not tell how many soldiers might have been present.
The overall musical effect of the soldiers mockery is dance-like:187 the com-
pound duple signature contributes to its feel suggestive of constant, almost
graceful, movement as group after group of soldiers make cynical obeisance
before the king who does not have a kingdom on earth.188 This movement
expresses well in music what was omitted in Luthers German: where Johns
Gospel text has and kept on coming up to him and said, movement 21a, bar 5

185 Philo, In Flaccum 6: 3738.

186 HS 5: 784: The damned thorns are our blessing/ crown and honour (Genesis 3, Psalm 8)
and gain for us the royal crown (Revelation 1) (Die verfluchten Dornen sind unser Seegen/
Crone und Ehre 1. Mos 3. Ps. 8. und erwerben uns die knigliche Crone Offenbarung 1).
187 For a comprehensive overview on the different uses of dance-idioms in Bachs vocal
music see: Doris Finke-Hecklinger, Tanzcharaktere in Johann Sebastian Bachs Vokalmusik:
Studien zu ihrer Rhythmik und ihrer Chronologie, Tbinger Bach-Studien 6 (Trossingen:
Hohner, 1970).
188 The autograph score corrects the 6/8 time signature to compound duple (6/4) [Autograph,
p. 42].
 commentary 219

only has und sagten (and said). Nevertheless, Bachs music makes very clear that
time and again the soldiers come to Jesus and hail him as a king.189 The elegant
descending woodwind lines in this context sound mocking rather than courtly,
and successfully convey a feeling of deliberate ridicule.190 Bach follows Luther
in adding the word lieber (beloved) between, sei gegret (hail) and Jdenknig
to Johns text with its straightforward hail, King of the Jews, adding further sar-
casm that Bach highlights musically by elongating the first syllable of lieber
(beloved) in each repetition of the full phrase sei gegret, lieber Jdenknig
[bars 713].
This movement finds its musical parallel in the chief priests protest at
Pilates title above the cross, Schreibe nicht (Do not write) [movement 25b].
Although the two groupscynical Roman soldiers on the one hand, offended
chief priests on the othercould not be more different, they are united by
their common misapprehension of the nature and call of Jesus to be a king:
Bach emphasises through his music that neither group recognise the king in
the broken man before their eyes, which is why they resort to mockery and
affront. Ultimately, it was the soldiers rejection of Gods truth and not their
mockery or scourging which caused most pain, Luther explained:

This, then, causes most hurt: scorging may cause pain. But such mockery
and barbed spite is even more painful because Gods truth has not only
been cruelly rejected, but has been besmirched with appalling insults.191

21c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,3c Und gaben ihm Backenstreiche. John 19.3c And gave him slaps in the face.

189 Olearius, HS 5: 253, speaks of a group of people who move in concert, dance-like com-
parable to an orderly coiled rope that rearranges itself so that they are woven as if they
were in the shape of a pretzel and then spread out like broadcast seed (Welche als ein
Seil ordentlich zusammen gedrehet/ und wie eine Brezel ineinander geschlungen/ sich
hernach ausbreitet/ als ein ausgestreueter Saamen); Brown (2008), p. 875, referring back
to J.H. Moulton, ed., N. Turner, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. 3. Syntax (Edin-
burgh: T. & T. Clark, 1962), p. 66, has the missing rchonto (kept on coming up to him) as
one of the instances of an imperfect used to make the narrative continuous.
190 HS 5: 253: Hail. chaire is evil German (Gegrsset. chaire sey bse Deutsch).
191 WA 28: 337, 1420: Solches thut denn seer wehe, Geisseln mag wehe thun, Aber solcher
Hohn und spitzige schmehung thut noch wehere, das Gottes Warheit nicht allein so
greulich verachtet, sondern auch so schendlich mit schmachwort besudelt wird.
 220 chapter 8

19,4 Da ging Pilatus wieder heraus 19.4 There Pilate again went out
und sprach zu ihnen: and spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Sehet, ich fhre ihn heraus zu euch, Behold, I am leading him out to you
da ihr erkennet, da ich so you can recognise that I
keine Schuld an ihm finde. find no guilt in him.

Evangelist Evangelist
19,5a Also ging Jesus heraus 19.5a Thus Jesus came out
und trug eine Dornenkrone und Purpurkleid. and wore a crown of thorns and purple robe.
Und er sprach zu ihnen: And he [Pilate] spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
19,5b Sehet, welch ein Mensch! 19.5b Behold, what a person!

Evangelist Evangelist
19,6a Da ihn die Hohenpriester 19.6a There the chief priests
und die Diener sahen, schrieen sie and their servants saw him, they shouted
und sprachen: and spoke:

John 19.3c [bars 1617]: Having paid mock homage to the King of the Jews, the
soldiers strike Jesus on the cheeks. In doing so, they exceeded their authority,
Luther suggests: By hitting Jesus [on the cheeks], they do more than was
commanded them.192 Bach emphasises their unjust action by an augmented
fourth on ihm Bak[kenstreiche] (struck him in the face) [bar 17, see the dis-
cussion on the Baroque use of the diabolus in musica above, movement 16a].
The force with which they hit Jesus is depicted in music by an abrupt retoni-
cisation, that is a move in the harmony that sounds jarring, on G minor [bar
17].

John 19.4 [bars 1822]: Pilate leaves his headquarters to instruct the chief
priests that he does not find Jesus guilty of the charge of insurrection brought
against him. Bachs recitative replicates the Prefects movement in music by a
rising melodic line on heraus (outside) [bars 1718]. He addresses the initial
accusers advising them that he intends to bring Jesus out to the courtyard in
order that they might see for themselves that the appropriate punishment has
already been delivered. The cross shape on keine Schuld an ihm (no guilt in him)

192 WA 28: 335, 1720: In dem die Kriegsknechte und diener Jhesum steupn und geisseln, thun
sie mehr denn jnen befolhen ist.
commentary 221

[bar 22], however, leaves little doubt that for Bach Pilates words do not match
his intentions: regardless of what the Prefect may say, Jesus will be handed over
to death.193

John 19.5a [bars 2325]: Jesus is not led out as a prisoner but rather makes his
own way from the courthouse to the courtyard, in his mock imperial robes,
with a crown of thorns on his head. As with Pilate [bars 1818], Bach also traces
Jesus movement in the evangelists melodic line [bar 23]. The tritone on und
Pur[purkleid] (and robes of imperial purple) [bar 24] again emphasises the pur-
ple robe, and provides another musical comment on the soldiers humiliation
of Jesus.

John 19.5b [bar 26]: Pilate addresses the assembled the chief-priests and their
staff (John 19.6) who remain in the courtyard to await his verdict, presenting
Jesus to them with the words Sehet, welch ein Mensch (Behold, what a person)
[bar 26]. Olearius interprets his words as follows: Behold the suffering and
miserable form, and take pity on the poor person, and be content with this
cruel sentence and pain.194
In the recitatives in the St John Passion, Bach uses melismas sparingly, in
keeping with the overall recitative style. This is why the six melismas used in
the Passionhere, on nicht (not) in Peters denial [movements 10, bar 1415
and 12c, bar 24]; on ich geschrieben (I have written) at Pilates affirmation that he
would not alter the inscription above the cross [movement 25c, bar 31]; on Rock
(coat) at the moment when the soldiers divide Jesus clothing [movement 27a,
bar 5] and, finally, at the moment of completion on vollbracht (accomplished)
[movement 29, bar 14]stand out. All are passages that speak of brokenness:
the brokenness of the dissembling Peter; the brokenness of the Man of Sorrows;
the brokenness of the chief priests hope that the problem of the King of the
Jews might be resolved; the division of Jesus clothing and the brokenness of
the crucified at the moment of death.
The moment of the presentation by Pilate of Jesus as the Schmerzensmann
(Man of Sorrows) is not only an allusion to Isaiahs Servant Songs about the
suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53.3), but the subject of numerous late-medieval and
early-modern altarpieces or statues, and would almost certainly have evoked

193 Olearius, HS 5: 784, amplifies the Prefects words as follows: No guilt, v. 6, udemian aitian.
No reason for death (Keine Schuld. V. 6. udemian aitian. keine Ursach de Todes).
194 HS 5: 784: Sehet. ide ho anthropos. schauet doch das Elend und jmmerliche Gestalt/ und
lasset euch de armen Menschen jammern/ und an dieser grausamen Straffe und Pein
begngen.
222 chapter 8

a visual response in Bachs hearers. It is also the subject of many devotional

Lutheran hymns, including Adam Thebesius Du groer Schmerzensmann (O
great Man of Sorrows) and Paul Gerhardts O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (O
Sacred Head), which again would directly have influenced the reception of
Pilates presentation of Jesus with the words, Sehet, welch ein Mensch (Behold,
what a person).195 Certainly, by the time of Luther, Pilates words were inter-
preted entirely to signify compassion with the broken humanity of Jesus: It is
as if he were to say: Will you not let yourselves have compassion on this man?
You see that he has already received more punishment than he deserves.196 At
the same time, the image of suffering is one that brings comfort to the believer,
the Schreck-Bild (Image of Horror) becomes a Trost-Bild (Image of Comfort) as
well as a Tugend-Bild (Image of Virtue) that encourages godly living.197

John 19.6a [bars 26b29a]: The late-medieval image of an empathetic Pilate

appealing for a compassionate release for the Schmerzensmann in mock impe-
rial robes proposed by Luther, however, does not fully account for the forceful
response of the chief priests and their staff who schrieen (shouted) in response
to Pilates statement. Luther had interpreted the powerful reaction of the reli-
gious leaders gathered in the Prefects courtyard entirely in terms of hatred and
envy of the truth that Jesus came to make known.198 Bach, on the other hand,
brings attention to the brokenness of Jesus humanity by a melisma on Mensch
(person) [bar 26].
Pilates statement is not only about brokenness or an appeal for compassion.
Even Luther acknowledged that the Prefect was a real bloodhound, who knew
well how to provoke his opponents.199 The words ho anthropos the man, the
person (Mensch can also be translated the man, the person) certainly had
Messianic connotations; Isaiahs Servant Songs, from which the image of the
Schmerzensmann (Man of Sorrows) derives were certainly interpreted to refer
to the coming of the Messiah.200 Other Messianic prophecies, for instance
Numbers 24.17, 2Samuel 23.14, also refer to the coming Messiah in terms
of the man. Bach may well have been aware of the Messianic overtones of

195 Adam Thebesius (15961652), EG 87.

196 WA 28: 338, 3134, CB 3: 932: Als solt er sagen: wolt jr euch denn nicht lassen uber jn
erbarmen? Jr sehet, das er ubeler gehandelt ist denn er verdienet hat.
197 HS 5: 784.
198 WA 28: 340, 2729, CB 3: 933: Has und Neid wider die Warhet.
199 WA 28: 338, 24, CB 3: 932: Ein rechter Bluthund.
200 HS 5: 784 gives both the Greek etymology and makes the link with Esa 53 (the final Servant
Song in Isaiah 53) explicit.
 commentary 223

the Prefects statement: Mllers Judaismus deals at length with the Messianic
prophecies of Isaiahs Servant Songs, while Olearius further links the passage
with Daniels eschatological vision of the coming Son of Man to judge the world
with power.201
Whether or not Pilate was aware of the Messianic overtones of his state-
ment, his words Sehet, welch ein Mensch (Behold, what a person) were certainly
intended as a deliberate insult of the Jewish authorities: the presentation of
the broken Jesus dressed as a broken king alone would have been perceived
as a deliberate reminder of the powerlessness of the Jewish leadership under
Roman occupation. Its combination with what would have sounded remark-
ably like a Roman endorsement of the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy in
Jesus, fully explains the chief priests irate response, which Bach emphasises
by a descending sixth on schrieen (cried) [28].

21d. Coro
Chorus (Oboe I with Sopranos; Oboe II with Altos; Flutes I/II with Tenors; Violin I/II,
Viola, Organ, Continuo)

Johannes 19,6b Kreuzige, kreuzige! John 19.6b Crucify, crucify!

John 19.6b [bars 2930]: This carefully constructed movement finds its musi-
cal counterpart in the second part of movement 23c, in which the call kreuzige
(crucify) is repeated. The percussionate Schwrmer (buzzing, bustle, riot) fig-
ure on the opening kreuzige in the lower voices and the violin accompaniment
give the impression of a larger group of people, not only the chief priests but
their Diener (servants), and Schar (troops), members of the temple police who
had also apprehended Jesus (John 19.6a). The long-drawn, syncopated disso-
nances in the upper voices accompanied by the oboes accompanied by restless
quaver- and semiquaver lines in the string and continuo accompaniment con-
vey an impression of tension and unrest [bars 2930].

[bars 3139]: While the overall effect of this movement is one of dynamic chaos,
its underlying musical construction is rigid: every two bars, the percussionnate
kreuzige (crucify) sequence and its dissonant counterpart change register as
they are taken up in turn by the upper and lower voices in an unyielding
Fortspinnung (spinning-forth, amplification of the motif) form. As would be

201 Mller (1643), pp. 800810, HS 5:784: Behold the righteous, behold the Holy One (Daniel
9) (Ecce justus, ecce sanctus Dan. 9).
224 chapter 8

expected, Bachs word painting here makes extensive use of the cross-motif,
which can be traced both in the two sequences themselves, as well as in the
frequent crossing-over of sequences.

[bars 4051]: Led by the upper voices, the vocal parts introduce a new se-
quence, taking up the restless lines of the underlying string accompaniment.
This new rhythmic sequence alternates with the long-drawn sequence of disso-
nant cross-motifs, adding an impression of relentless movement. The two-bar
pedal on d in the bass part at once introduces further harmonic dissonance
and signals the conclusion of Fortspinnung [bars 5051]. The overall rhythmic
instability and harmonic dissonance is only resolved in the final bar of the
movement [bar 52], when all instrumental and vocal parts join a last time in
calling to have Jesus crucified.
In her Music Libel against the Jews, Ruth HaCohen convincingly shows that
Western composers often replicated what she calls an ethnographic mani-
festation of the synagogal soundscape, when they gave an impression of Lrm
(noise): shouts, exclamations bustle, fuss.202 There was a fundamental
dichotymy between Christian harmony and Jewish noise, HaCohen suggests:

While the sound that emerged from the Christian house of prayer was ever
conceived and perceived (by the Christians) as harmonious, created out
of distinct, pitched components properly combined (and ostensibly in
accordance with universal, mathematical-philosophical and metaphys-
ical laws), traditional Jewish sound cannot avoid its categorisation as a
cacophonous, indefinably obscure mixture.203

It is significant that Bach achieves the effect of confusion that many pre-
and post-Enlightenment hearers associated with Jewish sound by adopting a
rigorous Baroque Fortspinnung (spinning-forth) figure. Notwithstanding this
conventionally constructed Lrm (noise), the overall intent of this movement
is one of portraying a weak and confused Jewish leadership. Because it comes so
dangerously close to stereotyping, this movement is rightly suspected of being
an example of anti-Judaism in Bachs music.204

202 Ruth HaCohen, The Music Libel against the Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011),
p. 127.
203 HaCohen (2001), p. 128.
204 Chiefly by Dagmar Hoffmann-Axthelm, Bach und die perfidia Iudaica: Zur Symmetrie der
Juden-Turbae in der Johannes-Passion, in: Basler Jahrbuch fr historische Musikpraxis, 13
(1989), pp. 3154, p. 33 and, implicitly, by Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach: Johannes-
 commentary 225

However, unlike contemporary caricatures of Jewish noise, such as Johann

Caspar Seyferts Die Juden Schul, which drew on distorted or deliberately mis-
remembered Hebrew, and made use of mock-adaptations of synagogal chant
in order to amuse or startle, this movement seeks not to caricature.205 Rather,
it is deadly serious: while the movement may sound like random noise and
therefore give the impression of a deliberate musical allusion to Jewish noise,
its careful sequential construction with its multiple cross-motifs and crossing
voices, in fact, reveals a powerful meta-narrative of the weakness of both the
Roman and Jewish authorities contrasted with the powerful submissive weak-
ness of Jesus shaped by and centred on the cross.

21e. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,6c Pilatus sprach zu ihnen: John 19.6c Pilate spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Nehmet ihr ihn hin und kreuziget ihn; You take him yourselves and crucify him;
denn ich finde keine Schuld an ihm! for I find no guilt in him!

Evangelist Evangelist
19,7a Die Jden antworteten ihm: 19.7a The Jews answered him:

John 19.6c [bars 5255]: In Johns Gospel there is no symbolic washing of hands
in front of the assembled chief priests and temple police, as in Matthew 27.24.
Instead, Pilate attempts to make Jesus accusers responsibile for the fate of
their prisoner: Nehmet ihr ihn hin (You take him yourselves), Bach emphasising
ihn (him) [bar 53]. His recommendation that the chief priests crucify him,

passion BWV 245, Meisterwerke der Musik: Werkmonographien 7, Musikgeschichte 55

(Mnchen: Wilhem Fink Verlag, 1991), p. 85, who also points to Seyferts Die Juden-Schul
as an example of anti-Jewish Baroque onomatopoetic (lautmalerische) music (see below,
note 205).
205 Johann Caspar Seyfert, Vierte Tracht des Ohren-vergngenden und Gemth-ergtzenden
Tafel-Confects: Die Juden-Schul (Fourth Example of the table candy to amuse the ear and
delight the disposition: The Jewish Shul), Musikarchiv Stift Stams, MS A.a. N.9, L VI 58
(1746), has his Raabi and Manasses sing Ethanai mischimai, probably a distorted form
of Havu lAdonai mishpchot amim, the opening words of the second Shabbat Psalm: Havu
lAdonai mishpchot amim, havu lAdonai kavod vaoz (Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the
peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, Psalm 98.7).
 226 chapter 8

Kreuziget ihn (crucify him), appropriately is based on the cross-motif [bar 54].
As is the case with most of Pilates statements in this trial, the Prefects words
ich finde keine Schuld an ihm (I find no guilt in him) for Bach do not ring true:
Pilate might claim that he does not find Jesus guilty, but the tritone (augmented
fourth, a striking dischord) on keine (no) [bar 55] suggests that, regardless of his
actual statements, Pilates statements do not match his true intentions.

John 19.7a [bar 56]: The Jews in this movement again refer to the chief priests
and their staff who had been assembled in the courtyard of the Prefect since
early morning (see the detailed discussion on movement 16c, above). While
there is a sense of a group of people, there is no large mob, baying for the life
of Jesus. As suggested above, it was in the interest of the hierarchy to keep this
extraordinary trial as private as possible in order to prevent Jesus supporters
who, only days earlier, had honoured him with a royal progress into Jerusalem,
from coming to his support.

21f. Coro
Chorus (Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Oboe II and Violin II with Altos; Flutes I/II in
octave and Viola with Tenors, Organ Continuo)

Johannes 19,7b Wir haben ein Gesetz, John 19.7b We have a Law,
und nach dem Gesetz soll er sterben; and according to that Law he shall die;
denn er hat sich selbst zu Gottes Sohn gemacht. since he has made himself the son of God.

19.7b [bar 5789]: The chief priests respond to Pilates suggestion that he does
not find Jesus guilty of their erstwhile charge of insurgence by bringing a second
charge against Jesus: in his teaching in the temple (John 10.2239) the prisoner
had made himself the Son of God and therefore was guilty of blasphemy under
Jewish law. Leviticus 24.16 confirms that one who blasphemes the name of the
Lord shall be put to death by stoning, though does not define in any detail the
grounds for blasphemy charges.
In keeping with the strict legalism of his characters rejoinder to Pilate, Bach
turns the chief priests secondary charge into a strict permutation fugue (Per-
mutationsfuge, a fugal movement that follows a series of strict compositional
rules).206 This movement is a monument in music to Biblical Law. Not only is

206 Paul Walker, Theories of Fugue: From the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach (Rochester:
University of Rochester Press, 2000), p. 232, explains: A fugal movement with three to six
melodic units put together according to five structural restrictions: (1) the voices enter
successively, as in a fugues, (2) entries alternate between tonic (final) and dominant,
commentary 227

the entire fugal theme [bars 5767 and repeats] repeated ten times, an allusion
to the Ten Commandments, but the opening theme Wir haben ein Gesetz (We
have a Law) [bars 5758] echoes the first line of Luthers metric version of the
Decalogue, Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot (These are the holy Ten Command-
ments, 1524).207 The death called for by the priest-judges is crucifixion rather
than stoning, Bach asserts: the first four notes of er sterben (he [shall] die) form
the much-used cross-motif [bar 5859 and repeats].
For Luther the blasphemy of which Jesus stood now accused, making him-
self the Son of God, was mirrored by his contemporaries resistance to grace
and over-reliance on their own strength:

For our wisdom, our money and goods shall bring us our salvation. Those
are the things we trust rather than Gods grace and mercy. The saying
therefore is true and well put: whosoever makes himself Gods Son shall
die. The law is harshest to those who have made themselves Gods Son,
that is we ourselves.208

That Bach gives the tune of Luthers chorale about the Ten Commandments to
his legalists to sing, suggests that he shared Luthers insight that it was he and
his own contemporaries who ultimately bore the responsibility for rejecting
Gods saving grace, by relying on their own work and righteousness in order to
attain righteousness.209 Luthers beliefs that the Law without grace is death is
clearly articulated in music by the composer, by arranging the words und nach
dem Gesetz (and according to the law) [bars 5859 and repeats] in the form of
a cross.

possibly incorporating tonal answers, (3) each voice always presents the melodic units
in the same order, (4) the melodic units appear as in Stimmtausch, i.e. in invertible
counterpoint, and (5) there is little or no free counterpoint, i.e. non-thematic material.
207 The rising melodic line on Wir haben ein Gesetz (we have a Law) follows Luthers heilgen
zehn Gebot (holy Ten Commandments), see: Martin Jansen, Bachs Zahlenzymbolik, an
seinen Passionen untersucht, Bach-Jahrbuch 1937, pp. 96117, pp. 9899; for Bachs setting
of the chorale in his Cantata BWV 77, Du sollt Gott deinen Herren lieben (You shall love the
Lord your God), see: Eric T. Chafe, Analyzing Bach Cantatas (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2000), pp. 161174.
208 WA 28: 349, 24350, 8: Denn unser Weisheit, unser geld und gut sols thun. Darauff
verlassen wir uns und vertrawen nicht auff Gottes gte und Barmhertzigkeit. Darumb
ists recht und wolgesaget: wer sich zu Gottes Son machet, sol des todes sterben: das also
das Gesetze am aller meisten gehet uber den, so sich zu Gottes Son machete, das sind wir.
209 WA 28: 350, 1619: Vertrawet auff seine eigene wreck und gerechtigkeit, das er dadurch
selig werde.
 228 chapter 8

Luther suggested that all humans had the tendency to make themselves into
gods; people who believed that it was by relying on their own strength alone
that they could attain salvation: we humans have all made ourselves into Gods
son. That is why we deserve death.210 Yet Luther also claimed that it was in the
same courtyard that Christ stands, the innocent Lamb, and bears for us our
sin, of which we are guilty. For the false accusation levelled against him is in
truth an accusation against us all.211 Bach turns into music Luthers insight that
the accusation against Christ was directed against all people by filling Pilates
courtyard with his own contemporaries. In calling on Jesus to be convicted
of blasphemy by singing Luthers Ten Commandment hymn they do, in fact,
convict themselves and their own sense of pride.

21g. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,8 Da Pilatus das Wort hrete, John 19.8 There Pilate heard the word,
frchtet er sich noch mehr he was yet more afraid

19,9 und ging wieder hinein 19.9 and went into the courthouse again,
in das Richthaus und spricht zu Jesu: and spoke to Jesus:

Pilatus Pilate
Von wannen bist du? Where are you from?

Evangelist Evangelist
Aber Jesus gab ihm keine Antwort. But Jesus gave him no answer.

19,10 Da sprach Pilatus zu ihm: 19.10 Therefore Pilate spoke to him:

Pilatus Pilate
Redest du nicht mit mir? Do you refuse to address me?
Weiest du nicht, da ich Macht habe, Do you not know that I have power
dich zu kreuzigen, und Macht habe, to crucify you, and have power
dich loszugeben? to let you go?

210 WA 28: 348, 3538: Wir Menschen alle haben uns zu Gottes Son gemacht. Darumb sind
wir alle des todes schldig.
211 WA 28: 343, 2931, CB 3: 934: Da stehet nun Christus, das unschuldige Lamb, und treget fur
uns die Schuld, daran wir schuldig sind. Denn die falsche Anklage so uber jn gehet, gehet
mir Warheit uber uns.
 commentary 229

Evangelist Evangelist
19,11 Jesus antwortete: 19.11 Jesus answered:

Jesus Jesus
Du httest keine Macht ber mich, You would have no power over me
wenn sie dir nicht wre von oben herab gegeben; unless it had been given you from above;
darum, der mich dir berantwortet hat, therefore the one who handed me over to you
der hats grre Snde. he has the greater sin.

Evangelist Evangelist
19,12a Von dem an trachtete Pilatus, 19.12a From then on Pilate sought
wie er ihn losliee. how to let him go.

John 19.8 [bars 8991]: Throughout this trial Pilate has conformed to Luthers
characterisation of him as deliberately seeking to provoke his opponents by
barbed comments and confrontational actions, such as pretending to take the
chief priests accusation that Jesus made himself the King of the Jews at face
value and calling him your King. Here, however, Pilate here has his other aspect
highlightedthe fact that his personal choices are limited by his position, with
little power of his own, only what he has derived from Rome. Da Pilatus das
Wort hrete frcht er sich noch mehr (There Pilate heard the word, he was yet
more afraid) [bars 8991], Pilate hears, and his pre-existing fear is made more
acute. The Wort (what they said) is the chief priests secondary charge that
by making himself the Son of God Jesus was guilty of blasphemy, another
capital charge (John 19.7). Now even the Prefect realises that das Wort (what
they said) will invariably lead to his giving in to the accusers demand for
a capital sentence, Bach suggests, by embedding a cross-motif on [Pila]tus
das Wort [bar 90]. However, there is also a clear emphasis on the Word as a
name of Jesus earlier in Johns Gospel (1.1), and often synonymous with Jesus
teaching.

John 19.9 [bars 9195]: Pilate leaves the courtyard with the assembled chief
priests and Temple police and returns to the Richthaus (courthouse) for a
private conversation with Jesus. Luther suggests that the reason for seeking
another conversation with Jesus is Pilates belief that Jesus may well be the son
of a Roman god:

When he heard that [Jesus] was the Son of God, [Pilate] was even more
afraid, not because of the Jews, but because of the Romans. While he does
not believe that Christ is the Son of the true and living God (since he
does not know that God), he asks himself (since the Romans have many
230 chapter 8

and diverse gods): Who knows whether he is one of these gods? For one
frequently hears how the gods walked the earth in human form among
the pagans.212

Pilates question, von wannen bist du (where are you from) [bars 9394], can
indeed be interpreted in supernatural terms. Luther certainly suggests that
Pilate now believes that Christ is one of the pagan gods, a view echoed by Calov
and Olearius.213 The fact that Jesus refuses him an answer would have further
irritated the Prefect.

John 19.10 [bars 9699]: Pilate forces an answer by reminding Jesus that he
had power to release him and save his life. Bach puts an emphasis on Macht
(power), the highest point in Pilates melodic line [bar 97]. Two embedded tri-
tones, on zu kreuzigen (to crucify you) [bars 9798] and und Macht (and power)
[bar 98] imply through music that both the method of death, crucifixion, and
the Prefects use and abuse of power, is evil.

John 19.11 [bars 99102]: Jesus reminds Pilate that his authority has been given
von oben herab (to [you] from above) [bar 101], highlighted by a rising and
falling melodic line. Jesus answer is ambiguous: while Pilate probably heard a
reminder that he was not a sovereign but a man under imperial authority, Jesus
here refers to a different kind of authority altogether. In his Gospel, St John
clearly distinguishes between above and of the earth: The one who comes
from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and
speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all,
Jesus had made clear earlier in the Gospel (John 3.31). For Jesus, the power
that is given from above, then, is the power of God. Just as he described his
earlier opponents as from below of this world, so Pilate is very clearly firmly
rooted in this world, and therefore has no authority over the incarnate Son of

212 WA 28: 352, 2433, CB 3: 935: Zu der furcht kompt nu eine andere furcht: da er hret,
das er Gottes Son sey, furcht er [Pilate] sich noch mehr nicht fur den Jden, sondern
auch fur den Rmern. Er helts wol nicht dafr, das Christus des waren lebendigen Gottes
Son sey (Denn von dem Gott weis er nichts), Sondern gedenckt (weil die Rmer viel und
mancherley Gtter haben): wer weis, ob er vielleicht derselbigen Gtter einer ist? Denn
man offt hret, das in der Heidenschafft die Gtter in menschlicher Gestalt auff erden
gewandelt haben.
213 WA 28: 352, 21, CB 3: 935: So gedenckt nu Pilatus, Christus sey ein solcher Gott der Heiden,
HS 5: 785: He feared that he would lay hands on a Divine Being (Furchte damit er
sich nicht in einer solchen Gttlichen Person vergreiffen mchte).
commentary 231

God. That authority rests above, in God. Luther saw Jesus answer as his formal
condemnation of Pilate: [Jesus] is saying: Pilate, you act sinfully, for you act
against God and abuse your power in having me crucified.214

John 19.11b [bars 102104]: Jesus adds: Darum, der mich berantwortet hat,
der hats grre Snde (Therefore the one who handed me over to you is
guilty of a greater sin). The singular form der (the one) is confusing. Luther
attempts an explanation: But who is the same he? He is Caiaphas, Hannas,
Judas and all their collaborators who captured Christ and handed him over to
Pilate.215 Whether this is indeed a collective singular (singulare pro plurali) as
Luther suspected, or a reference to a specific individual in the Passion story,
such as Judas who betrayed (verriet) Jesus [movement 2a], or Caiaphas who
actually did hand him over (berantwortet) to Pilate [movement 16e], remains
unresolved. What is clear is that Jesus sees both his crucifixion, and his being
handed over to the Roman authorities, in terms of Snde (sin). According to
Luther, the greater sin, however, was that of being handed over to a man such
as Pilate, who neither hears nor understands Jesus and his message: Therefore
Christ pronounces a terrible judgement on the one, who has handed him over
to Pilate.216

John 19.12 [bars 104106]: As a direct consequence of Jesus rejoinder Pilate is

said to have endeavoured to see wie er ihn losliee (how to release him). Luther
casts Pilate in the role of the captive, held in his prison of loyalty to Rome; the
earthly authority given to Pilate from above. As such, he might have sought to
find ways to release Jesus, Luther argues:

But the word you are no friend of the Emperors imprisons him and fells
him. Thus it tends to be in this world: the saying you are no friend of the
Emperors makes one fall from truth like the leaves fall from the trees in
autumn.217

214 WA 28: 363, 1924, CB 3: 937: Wil also sagen: Pilate, du thust unrecht, denn du handelst
wider Gott und misbrauchst deiner gewalt, das du mich creutzigest.
215 WA 28: 364, 1115, CB 9: 937: Wer ist aber derselbige DER? Es ist Caiphas, Hannas, Judas
und alle die in dieser rotten sind, welche Christum gefangen haben und jn Pilato uberant-
wortet.
216 WA 28: 364, 810, CB 3: 937: ER fellet aber ein greulich Urteil uber den, welcher jn dem
Pilato uberantwort hat.
217 WA 28: 368, 2730, CB 3: 937: Aber das wort du bist des Keisers freund nicht nimpt jn
gefangen und wirfft jn dahin. So pflegets zugehen in der welt: uber dem wort du bist des
 232 chapter 8

Luther and his followers were both suspicious of Pilates true intentions
and felt that his hands were tied: for them, the Roman Prefect had no choice
other than to convict Jesus if he wanted to hold on to the power given him
from above (John 19.11); Caesars mandate for Judea from the Emperor in
Rome.

22. Choral
Chorale (Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola with
Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Durch dein Gefngnis, Gottes Sohn,
Mu uns die Freiheit kommen;
Dein Kerker ist der Gnadenthron,
Die Freistatt aller Frommen;
Denn gingst du nicht die Knechtschaft ein,
Mt unsre Knechtschaft ewig sein.
Through your prison, Son of God,
Freedom must come to us.
Your dungeon is the throne of mercy,
The refuge of all the pious;
If you had not gone into slavery
Our slavery must have been forever.

Poem by Johann Heinrich Postel [bars 112]: Bach comments on Johns sugges-
tion that Pilate intended to release Jesus through a religious poem that looks
and sounds like a chorale, and was indeed called Choral by the composer [Auto-
graph, p. 50]. In fact, the poem by the Leipzig and Hamburg librettist Christian
Heinrich Postel used by Bach as his text had been written for use as a poetic
duet in Das Lied des Lammes by Johann Mattheson, a Passion based on St Johns
Gospel written and performed in Hamburg a year before Bachs.218 Mattheson
had previously set a version of the Brockes Passion (1712), so the two were draw-
ing a common pool of libretto sources. Like Bach, Mattheson also used Postels
poem to reflect on John 19.12.
Rather than use the poem for a duet or aria like Mattheson, though, Bach set
it to a familiar Lutheran hymn tune written by a seventeenth-century predeces-
sor. Thomaskantor Johann Hermann Schein had adapted Bartolomus Gesius

Keisers freund nicht hebet sichs, das man von der Warheit fellet wie die bletter von den
beumen im Herbst.
218 For Matthesons Das Lied des Lammes/ i.e. / J. Matthesonii/ in/ Passionem Christi/ Melos/
M.DCC.XXIII, the manuscript edition of which was lodged in Hamburgs City Library
and was destroyed in the Second World War but survived as a microfilm, and was later
published by Beekman C. Cannon ed., Johann Mattheson: Das Lied des Lammes, Col-
legium Musicum: Yale University, Second Series III (Madison: A-R Editions, 1971), Irmgard
Scheitler, Deutschsprachige Oratorienlibretti: Von den Anfngen bis 1730 (Paderborn: Ferdi-
nand Schningh, 2005), 106108. Postels poem was also used in the St John Passion by the
Dresden and Hamburg composer Christian Ritter (1645/51725).
commentary 233

melody line (1605) for his hymn Machs mit mit Gott, nach deiner Gt (Make
with with God, after your goodness, 1628). Scheins hymn tune was the basis
for a number of other hymns centring on discipleship, Anfechtung (temptation
and trouble, see the full discussion in movement 24 below), and living in the
light of eternity. It is highly probable that Bach chose the tune to make a delib-
erate link with Scheins hymn or Johann Schefflers Mir nach, spricht Christus
unser Held (Follow me, says Christ our hero, 1688). Where the autograph score
normally only gives the first line of a chorale, for this Chorale the autograph
provides the full text [Autograph, p. 50].
Postel was the son of a Lutheran pastor, and in his libretto he reflected the
Pauline dichotomy between law and grace central to Luthers theology of justi-
fication by his juxtaposition of Gefngnis (prison) and Freiheit (freedom). Just
as Paul believed that we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith
was revealed (Galatians 3.23), so Luther considered the late-medieval laws of
justification and its associated good works to be a prison.219 Christs obedient
conforming to the will of the Father, his voluntary entering into Knechtschaft
(slavery), justified the believer, Paul explained: now we are discharged from
the law, dead to that which held us captive (Romans 7.6). Postel turns Pilates
Kerker (dungeon) into the throne room of God, the Holy of Holies, the Gnaden-
thron (throne of mercy): a place where the King of Heaven is seated on his
throne, and where die Frommen (the pious) can plead for their own liberation
from sin and death. Had Jesus not subjected himself to the captivity of sin and
death, denn gingst du nicht die Knechtschaft ein (if you had not gone into slav-
ery), Postel explains, mt unsre Knechtschaft ewig sein (our slavery must have
been forever). Bach highlights this by an elaborate chromatic final cadence on
unsre Knechtschaft (our slavery) [bars 1011], which also serves as a musical
reminder of the chromatic cadence on flschlich verklaget (wrongly accused)
in the opening chorale of the second part of the Passion [movement 15, bars
1112].
The fact that this chorale has theological significance for Bach is made clear
not only through its music but also through its structural location in the St
John Passion. In a groundbreaking article on the architecture of the St John
Passion (1926), Friedrich Smend first identified the chorale as the centre of the
Herzstck (heart piece) of the Passion. As shown in the following diagram, this
chorale is singled out, through its isolated position in the midst of four groups

219 For Luthers rejection of the late-medieval system of justification, see: Alister E. McGrath,
Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification (Cambridge: University Press,
1997), pp. 188218.
234 chapter 8

of five chiastically arranged movements with an introductory and concluding

group of two recitatives centred around a chorale.220

16eRecitative: Da ging Pilatus

17Chorale: Ach groer Knig
18aRecitative: Da sprach Pilatus
18bChorus: Nicht diesen, sondern Barrabam
18cRecitative: Barrabas aber war ein Mrder
19Arioso: Betrachte, meine Seele
20Aria: Erwge
21aRecitative: Und die Kriegsknechte flochten
21bChorus: Sei gegret, lieber Jdenknig
21cRecitative: Und gaben ihm Backenstreiche
21dChorus: Kreuzige, kreuzige
21eRecitative: Pilatus sprach zu ihnen
21fChorus: Wir haben ein Gesetz
21gRecitative: Da Pilatus das Wort hrete
22Chorale: Durch dein Gefngnis
23aRecitative: Die Jden aber schrieen
23bChorus: Lssest du diesen los
23cRecitative: Da Pilatus das Wort hrete
23dChorus: Weg, weg mit dem! Kreuzige
23eRecitative: Spricht Pilatus zu ihnen
23fChrous: Wir haben keinen Knig
23gRecitative: Da berantwortete er ihn
24Aria/Chorus: Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen
25aRecitative: Allda kreuzigten sie ihn
25bChorus: Schreibe nicht: der Jden Knig
25cRecitative: Pilatus antwortet
26Chorale: In meines Herzens Grunde
27aRecitative: Die Kriegsknechte aber

Smends work on the symmetrical structure of the St John Passion has been
widely, though not universally, accepted.221 He first suggested that this chorale
turns out to be the centre of the whole work, and its climax. Prior to this the

220 Friedrich Smend, Die Johannes-Passion von Bach. Auf ihren Bau untersucht, Bach-
Jahrbuch 23 (1926), pp. 105128, Reinmar Emans, Sven Hiemke, eds., Bachs Passionen, Ora-
torien und Motetten. Das Bach-Handbuch 3 (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 2009), pp. 180186.
221 Robin A. Leaver, The mature vocal words and their theological and liturgical context,
 commentary 235

action ascends, and from this point on it descends.222 Subsequent analyses of

the architecture of the St John Passion all adopt Smends insight that Durch dein
Gefngnis marks a turning point in the Passion, and that it may act as the pivot
on which the entire work is hinged.
Eric Chafes analysis of the architecture of the Passion extends Smends
scheme to the first part of the Passion as well. Chafe examines both the chias-
tic structure of each group of movements as well as Bachs use of key-signatures
throughout the Passion in order to show the composers overall musico-
theological intent.223 Chafes work is by no means universally accepted: indeed,
some of his conclusions have since been regarded as too far-reaching and prob-
lematic.224 However, it is clear that this chorale is at the heart of a carefully
structured musical section that, as Smend first supected, extends from move-
ment 16a [Da ging Pilatus zu ihnen heraus] to movement 27b [Die Kriegsknechte
aber, da sie Jesum gekreuziget hatten]. Drr takes issue with the inclusion of the
casting of lots over Jesus garments in Smends scheme, believing the action
of the soldiers not sufficiently closely connected with the death of Jesus.225
The casting of lots by the soldiers, however, marks the final Roman act against
Jesus. Smends Herzstck (heart piece) therefore covers the entire Roman trial
and Passion. Beginning with the interrogation and judgement by the Roman
Prefect and concluding the gambling of the Roman guard to see wes er sein
soll (whose it [the coat] shall be) [movement 27b], it includes all actions taken
against Jesus by the Romans, whether by the highest Roman authority in the
land or the lowest.

23a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,12b Die Jden aber schrieen John 19.12b But the Jews shouted
und sprachen: and spoke:

in: John Butt, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge: University Press, 1997),
pp. 86122, p. 101. Emans (2009), pp. 8594, 110111.
222 Smend (1926), 120: Dieser Choral erweist sich als Mittelpunkt des ganzen Werkes, als sein
Hhepunkt. Bis zu ihm steigt die Handlung an, von nun an fllt sie.
223 Chafe (1989), pp. 75112.
224 Drr (2000), p. 100: Several problems become apparent when one examines this scheme
more closely. In particular there is the question of whether such a formalistic interpreta-
tion of the key scheme can possibly correspond to Bachs intentions.
225 Drr (2000), p. 97: Smend ought not to have mentioned chorus 27b at this jucture.
 236 chapter 8

John 19.12b [bars 12]: While there is no description of the Prefects return to
the courtyard, or of his communicating his intention to seek ways to release
Jesus to the assembled chief priests and their servants, from their reaction, it
has to be assumed that die Jden (the Jews) somehow came to know of Pilates
intentions. As in the two previous movements [16c and 21e] in which John
merely introduced die Jden (the Jews), this term here is used to distinguish the
assembled Jewish religious leaders in the courtyard from the Roman garrison in
the Richthaus (courthouse). As in movements 16c and 21e, there is no evidence
in the Gospel text that a larger group of fellow Jews have been admitted to
the courtyard by the Roman authorities in the meantime: die Jden (the Jews)
here therefore also refers to the assembled chief priests, and their servants
and troops.226 The minor seventh which underpins the brief section gives a
realistic impression of a group of people crying out. Bach uses the tritone
to point sometimes to evil, sometimes to emotional pain, and sometimes to
moments of extreme conflict. The tritone here on [a-]ber schrieen (but cried
out) [bar 2] both provides a poignant musical link to Pilates realisation that
he is unable to serve both justice and Caesar at the end of movement 21g [bars
104105] and points forward to the next movement, which addresses the same
dilemma.

23b. Coro
ChorusOboe and Violin I with Sopranos, Oboe dAmore and Violin II with Altos,
Flutes I/II in octave and Viola with Tenors, organ, continuo

Johannes 19,12c Lssest du diesen los, John 19.12c If you let this one go,
so bist du des Kaisers Freund nicht; then you are no friend of the Emperors;
denn wer sich zum Knige machet, for everyone who makes himself a king,
der ist wider den Kaiser. sets himself against the Emperor.

John 19.12c [bar 232]: This movement is based on multiple representations

of the cross in a strict permutation fugue (a form which combines elements of
fugue and strict canon), like its structural counterpart, Wir haben ein Gesetz (We
have a Law) [movement 21f, see the diagram at movement 22 for a schematic
representation of the structure of the centre of the St John Passion]. The claim
that letting Jesus go put Pilate outside of friendship with the Emperor was a seri-
ous one. Friendship with the Emperor was an important concept in the Roman

226 For the discussion on why it would have been in the chief priests interest to keep the trial
as low key and private as possible, see the discussions on movement 16c and 21e, above.
commentary 237

Empire of the first century: half a decade after the death of Jesus, the Jewish vas-
sal King Agrippa I (10bce44ce), for instance, publicly declared his friendship
with the Emperor by issuing special coinage proclaiming him Basileus Mega[s]
Agrippas Filokaisar [sic] (Great King Agrippa, friend of Caesar).227 In an age
where foreign vassal kings took such pains to affirm their friendship with the
Emperor, a Roman Prefects friendship with the Emperor would have needed
to have been above any suspicion, the Jewish hierarchy remind Pilate. In his
Judaismus, Johann Mller explained:

At the time of King Herod, the scepter and rule passed from the Jews to the
Romans In the Passion of the Lord Christ the Jews always appealed to
the Emperor/ [claiming that] Christ was an insurgent/ who had forbidden
to pay taxes to the Emperor/ They threatened Pilate with the Emperor:
If you let this man go, you are no friend of the Emperors: Indeed, they
ultimately say it without any prevarication/ we have no king but the
Emperor.228

[bars 26 and fugal imitations] The first part of the fugal theme re-states
Pilates dilemma, Lssest du diesen los, so bist du des Kaisers Freund nicht (If
you let this man go, you are no friend of the Emperor). Bach highlights diesen
(this one) by a semiquaver ornamentation. While Jesus is not in view of the
chief priests and their staff, it is almost as if he is musically present among
them. A cross-motif on Freund (friend) [bars 45] hints both at the difficult
relationship with the Roman authorities and the ultimate cost of maintaining

227 Andrew Burnett, The Coinage of King Agrippa I of Judea and a New Coin of King Herod of
Chalcis, H. Huvelin, M. Christol, G. Gautier, eds. et al., Mlanges de Numismatique, offerts
Pierre Bastien l occasion de son 75e anniversaire (Wetteren: Editions Numismatique
Romaine, 1987), pp. 2538; Mark Chancey, Greco-Roman Culture and the Galilee of Jesus,
Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 134 (Cambridge: University Press,
2005), p. 183. The same holds true for the vassal king of Emesa in Northern Syria, Sohaemus,
who was proclaimed Philocaesar (friend of Caesar) as well as Philo[r]ohmaeus [sic]
(friend of the Romans), in an inscription from Heliopolis, see: Cornelius Tacitus, Histories,
Book II, ed. Rhiannon Ash (Cambridge: University Press, 2007), p. 315.
228 Mller (1643), p. 205: Zu Herodes Zeiten [ist] das Scepter vnd Regiment von den Jden auff
die Rmer kommen In der Passion des Herren Christi berieffen sich die Juden immer
auff den Kyser/ Christus wre ein Auffrhrer/ er htte verboten dem Kyser den Scho
zu geben/ Bedrweten Pilatum mit dem Kyser: Lsst du diesen lo/ so bist du des Kysers
Freund nicht: Ja sie sagtens endlich gerade heraus/ wir haben keinen Knig den [sic] den
Kyser.
238 chapter 8

such a friendship: while Jesus crucifixion buys Pilate and the Jewish leaders
time, ultimately, their own friendships with the Emperor will ruin them. Bach
owned Josephus accounts of the Jewish War and Antiquities and would have
known that both Pilate and Caiaphas soon fell from the grace of their friend,
the Emperor [Ant. 18: 35, 8889, 95].229

[bars 712 and fugal imitations] The second part of the fugal theme makes
explicit what had thus far only ever been implied by the chief priests, in their
chrous Wre dieser nicht ein beltter (Were this man not an evildoer) [move-
ment 16b]: that Jesus has made himself a king against the Roman overlords.
Now they bring a charge of insurrection against Jesus: denn wer sich zum Knige
machet, der ist wider den Kaiser (since everyone who makes himself a king, he
is against the Emperor). The Schwrmer (buzzing) figure on sich zum Knige
machet (makes himself a king) [bars 7 and fugal imitations] is an established
Baroque means to imitate the buzz (Schwarm) of a crowd, yet here it also
adds a direct percussionate, opposite to the long-drawn cross-motif on Freund
(friend).
Bach re-uses the impressive octave leap on [wider den] Kaiser (against the
Emperor) [bar 8 and fugal imitations] on Knig (King) during the chief priests
objection to the title placed above the cross, Schreibe nicht (Do not write)
[movement 25b, bars 21, 23 and 29]. In this movement, the octave leap creates a
musical sense of opposition, wider den Kaiser (against the Emperor), a similar
function to that of its counterpart in 25b, where a striking descending octave is
again employed to emphasise the speakers opposition, this time both to Jesus
and the Roman Prefect.

[bars 3234]: The closing section of the chorus once more employs the Schwr-
mer figure, as before on Knige (King), this time in all four voices [bars 32 and

229 BB 8591: Indeed, Bach used Josephus work for his own compositions, loosely basing the
free-verse movements of the libretto of his Cantata BWV 46, Schauet doch und sehet, ob
irgendein Schmerz sei, on Josephus destruction account of Jerusalem. For a considera-
tion of the Cantata, and the public reading of Josephus destruction account in Lutheran
churches on the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, and any potential associated anti-Judaism,
see: Michael Marissen, The Character and Sources of the Anti-Judaism in Bachs Can-
tata 46, Harvard Theological Review 96.1 (2003), pp. 6399, and Renate Steiger, Johann
Sebastian Bachs Kantaten zum 10. Sonntag nach Trinitatis und die Frage nach dem Anti-
judaismus, in: Arndt Meinhold and Angelika Berlejung, eds., Der Freund des Menschen:
Festschrift fr Georg Christian Macholz zur Vollendung des 70. Lebensjahr (Neukirchen-
Vluyn: Neukirchener-Verlag, 2003), pp. 283323.
 commentary 239

33] to suggest a multitude of speakers. Since the the lower voices final entry is
syncopated and therefore out of synch, they speak as an almost united group.
Their reminder that by seeking to release Jesus Pilate was betraying his alle-
giance to Rome had the desired effect. Luther explained how the chief priests
accusation that Pilate was setting free a potential rival claimant to the vacant
throne of Judea, propelled him into action to save his own skin by passing the
death sentence over Jesus:

For the saying if you release Jesus you are no friend of the Emperors, has
frightened him and overthrown all his ideas about justice. The belly is
more important to him. Temporal power and worldly honour count more
for him than truth. For the maintenance of the Emperors friendship, that
is for the sake of his own belly and enjoyment, he falls. Therefore he no
longer questions Jesus, but rushes to the judgement seat.230

23c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,13 Da Pilatus das Wort hrete,
fhrete er Jesum heraus
und satzte sich auf den Richtstuhl,
an der Sttte, die da heiet: Hochpflaster,
auf Ebrisch aber: Gabbatha.
Evangelist
John 19.13 There Pilate heard the word,
he led Jesus outside
and sat on the judgement seat,
at the site that is called: High Pavement,
but in Hebrew: Gabbatha.

19,14 Es war aber der Rsttag in Ostern But it was the day of Preparation
um die sechste Stunde, und er spricht for the Passover, about the sixth hour,
zu den Jden: and he spoke to the Jews:

Pilatus Pilate
Sehet, das ist euer Knig! Behold, that is your King!

Evangelist Evangelist
19,15a Sie schrieen aber: But they shouted:

230 WA 372: 1220, CB 3: 983: Denn das wort lessestu Jhesum los, so bistu des Keisers freund
nicht hat jn geschrecket und alle seine gerechtigkeit zu boden geschlagen. Der Bauch ist
jm lieber und Weltliche Gewalt und Ehre gilt bey jm mehr weder die Warheit. Umb des
Keisers Freundschaft, Das ists umbs Bauchs und Geniesses willen fellet er dahin, Fraget
Jhesum nicht weiter, sonder eilet zum Richstuel.
240 chapter 8

John 19.13 [bars 34b37]: The Prefect re-enters the Richthaus (courthouse) and
hrete Jesum heraus (led Jesus outside). As in previous movements [move-
ments 16a and 21c], Bach traces the journey in music by an ascending line [bar
7]. Taking his place on the Richtstuhl (judgement seat), he prepares to pass
judgement.231 A major sixth rising interval on Hochpflaster is a musical play
on the name of the place of judgement, High Pavement [bar 38]. Its Hebrew
counterpart, Gabbatha is introduced by a tritone on [a-]ber Gab-[batha] which,
combined with a cross-motive [bar 39], points both to the evil intent that
underlies Pilates judgement and the means by which the capital sentence will
be carried out.232

John 19.14 [4143]: Jesus trial before the Prefect has gone on for six hours;
the religious authorities had brought him to the Praetorium, frhe (at cock
crow) [movement 16a]. Bach translates the time into music with a sixth on
Stunde (hour) in the continuo line [bar 42].233 Because of the coming Rsttag in
Ostern (the day of preparation for the Passover), it was absolutely necessary to
conclude legal proceedings as soon as possible, in order to ensure that the exe-
cution and removal of the dead body from the cross could be concluded before
the beginning of Passover at sundown. From sundown on the Rsttag (Day of
preparation) the ritual slaughter of paschal lambs in the Temple precinct by an
army of priests seeking to provide a lamb for the more than 100,000 Passover
participants in Jersualem commenced, probably following the model set down
in 2Chronicles 35.1017.234 The sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1.29,
36) on the day of preparation, therefore mirrors the ritual sacrifice of the tradi-
tional Passover lamb.

John 19.14b15 [bars 4344]: Pilate may well have felt the pressure to pass
judgement in order to demonstrate his loyalty to the Emperor, but he does not
seem to have lost his antagonism for the Jewish leaders. He presents Jesus to
them with the words, Sehet, das ist euer Knig (Behold, that is your King) [bars
3444]. Bach renders the dramatic presentation of the accused by carefully

231 Josephus concurs with St Johns description of the place of judgement, both call it a bma
(tribunal), Olearius supplies the Greek, HS 5: 785. Josephus adds that it was placed in front
of the palace [War 2: 301]. Olearius again provides the necessary reference.
232 Elsewhere Josephus translates Gabbatha as lophos, ridge, crest, high place [War 2: 51].
233 CB 3: 938939 provides a thorough overview of the Roman and Jewish ways of marking
the hours of the day.
234 Brown (2008), 883: By Jesus time this slaughtering was no longer done at home but in
the Temple precincts by the priests.
 commentary 241

punctuating Pilates statement by a quaver rest after sehet (behold) [bar 43].
The arpeggiated A major proclamation of Jesus as the King of the Jews is almost
regal.
Pilates barbed introduction had its desired effect: the assembled religious
leaders, certainly pressed for time and probably frustatrated by Pilates power
games, schrieen (shouted; cried out). This is the only time schrieen is used alone,
rather than the more moderated phrase schrieen und sprachen (shouted and
spoke). The tritone on sie schrie-[en] (they cried out) [bar 44] is a musical
reflection on the moment of extreme tension and dissonance in the drama.

23d. Coro
Chorus(Oboes I with Sopranos, Oboe damore with Altos, Flutes I/II in octave
with Tenors), Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Johannes 19,15b Weg, weg mit dem, John 19.15b Away, away with him,
kreuzige ihn! crucify him!

John 19.15b [bars 4558]: A series of Schwrmer (buzzing) figures on Weg,

weg (away, away) create the impression of a large group of people speaking
[bars 4648]. The percussionate setting of Weg, weg (away, away), in turn, con-
veys the sense of impatience and frustration as the chief priests are presented
with their prisoner by the disliked Roman Prefect, arrayed not only as a king
in imperial purple but introduced by the words euer Knig (your king). Bach
recreates well the forceful repetition of their interjection Weg (away) high-
lighted by Olearius.235 The fact that the German Weg can stand for both away
and path means that when Bach adds a series of cross-motifs on Weg to the
Schwrmer-figures on the same word [bars 4648], he is also able to trace out
in music the way to the place to which Jesus will be led away: the way of the
cross.
The remainder of the movement closely follows the composition of its struc-
tural counterpart, movement 21d: Kreuzige (Crucify him). As in 21d Bach con-
structs a permutation fugue around the cross. The percussionate mit dem, weg,
weg (with him, away) [bars 5052 passim] form cross-motifs within the indi-
vidual parts. The elongated kreuzige (crucify) [bars 4849 passim] form larger
crosses across two parts, first across the soprano and alto parts [bars 4849 pas-
sim], then across the tenors and basses [bars 4950 passim].

235 HS 5: 786: Heftigen Wiederholung.

 242 chapter 8

[bars 5871]: In the second part of the movement the voices closely imitate
musical material from movement 21d [21d: bars 4043] consisting of percus-
sionate quaver and semiquaver cross-motifs on kreuzige (crucify) used in bars
5861. These alternate with elongated cross-motifs on kreuzige over a range
of voices [bars 6364 passim], as in the first part of the movement. The over-
all effect of this fugue is Augenmusik (music for the eye): as the voices cross
over, they paint a series of large crosses made up of many smaller crosses in the
score. A final percussionate kreuzige ihn! (crucify him!) [bar 71], with sopranos
and basses sharing the same note two octaves apart, gives the impression of
a multitude speaking forcefully with one voice, resolutely calling for a capital
sentence.

23e. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,15c Spricht Pilatus zu ihnen: John 19.15c Pilate spoke to them:

Pilatus Pilate
Soll ich euren Knig kreuzigen? Shall I crucify your king?

Evangelist Evangelist
Die Hohenpriester antworteten. The chief priests answered.

John 19.15c [bars 7274]: Pilate counters the forceful response of the chief
priests with a barbed final question. As in all of his encounters with the Jewish
hierarchy, this response is also deliberately calculated to cause offence: in
appearing to take the chief priests initial accusation that Jesus was an insurgent
claimant to the Judean throne at face value, and therefore calling Jesus euren
Knig (your king) [bar 71], he deliberately insults the high priest, the spiritual
successor of the great Maccabean (Hasmonean) kings. As Olearius explains:
the realm has been lost; the Jewish throne had by this time been vacant for
more than a dozen years, and the hopes to regain sovereignty independent from
Rome seemed slim.236 Bach musically singles out the office of the chief priests
Hohenpriester by an inverted fifth on Hohen- (chief) combined with major sixth
on Priester (priests) in the evangelists line [bar 74], thus setting their reponse
apart from the wider crowd responses.

236 HS 5: 786: Das Regiment war verlohren, see: War 2: 117118.

 commentary 243

23f. Coro
ChorusFlutes I/II, Oboe with Violin I, Oboe damore with Violin II, Viola, Organ,
Continuo

Johannes 19,15d Wir haben keinen Knig John 19.15d We have no king
denn den Kaiser. but the Emperor.

John 19.15d [bars 7578]: Bachs chief priests clearly speak as one body: wir
haben keinen Knig denn den Kaiser (we have no king but the Emperor). Unlike
the complex fugal arrangement of the previous movement suggesting multiple
voices speaking, this movement compels by its simplicity. Bach uses a full
beats rest between the first two occurences of wir [we] and provides a bassono
grosso, a low contrabassoon, to the contiunuo part, adding to the weight of
the chief priests utterance.237 As in movement 23b, Lssest du diesen los (If
you let this one go), the chief priests challenge Pilate to affirm his allegiance
through being seen to affirm their own loyalty to the Emperor. A simple quaver
setting of the text, unadorned by any passing notes or syncopations further
suggests uniformity of opinion among the chief priests. Significant movement
is restricted to the accompanying woodwind and violins; the virtuosic flute line
is entirely based on a series of cross motifs.
Bach reuses the same musical material a decade later, in the Cantata Ehre
sei dir Gott gesungen (Honour be sung unto you, God) [BWV 248/5, 1735], to
give voice to the magi who question the high priests and scribes assembled at
the court of Herod the Great for the whereabouts of the king born under the
guiding star, Wo ist der neugeborne Knig der Jden? (Where is the newborn
King of the Jews?) [BWV 248/5, movement 3]. In this way, Bach provides a link
in music between the Passion and the birth of Jesus. When reusing the material
in his Christmas Oratorio, Bach combines the chorus with an alto aria. The
soloist comments: Blessed are you who have witnessed this light/ it is arisen for
your salvation.238 The chief priests negation of their God-given right to kingly
sovereignty and their acceptance of the oppressive rule of the Emperor brings
an abrupt end to Jesus trial before Pilate, and hastens Jesus prophecy earlier
in the Gospel of John: The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you

237 For the use of the contrabassoon and its development history, see Herbert Heyde, Con-
trabassoons in the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Century, The Galpin Society Journal
40 (1987), pp. 2436, pp. 34; Lyndesay G. Langwill, The Double-Bassoon: Its Origin and
Evolution, Proceedings of the Musical Association 69.1 (1942), pp. 233, p. 4.
238 BWV 248/5, 3: Wohl euch, die ihr dies Licht gesehen,/ es ist zu eurem Heil geschehen.
 244 chapter 8

have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the
darkness, you do not know where you are going (John 12.35).

23g. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,16a Da berantwortete er ihn, John 19.16 There he handed him over,
da er gekreuziget wrde. that he would be crucified.

19,16b Sie nahmen aber Jesum und fhreten ihn hin. 19.16b But they took Jesus and led him away.

19,17 Und er trug sein Kreuz und ging hinaus zur 19.17 And he carried his cross and went out to
Sttte, die da heiet Schdelsttt, welche heiet auf the site that is called The Place of the Scull,
Ebrisch: Golgatha. which is called in Hebrew: Golgotha.

John 19.16 [bars 7981]: In Johns account of the Passion there is no ritual
washing of hands by the Roman Prefect as reported in Matthew 27.24, nor does
Pilate charge a larger group of people with the responsibility for the death of
Jesus. Rather, John puts the responsibility for the death of Jesus jointly on the
shoulders of the Roman and the Jewish religious leadership. Bach does the
same in music: a tritone on berantwortete (handed him over) [bar 79] makes
clear that Pilates decision to pass the death sentence and to hand Jesus over to
his accusers was evil.
Bach expresses in music what Luther and, following him, Calov and Olearius,
state explicitly in their exegesis: Pilate is guilty of the blood of this righteous
man, even though he himself testified to his innocence and made known
that there was no reason whatever to condemn him to death.239 An elaborate
cross-motiv on gekreuziget (crucified) [bars 8081] points to the enormity of
Pilates condemnation. The melismas on gekreuziget are also a musical allusion
to human brokenness [see the discussion in movement 10]. Here in particular,
they point forward to the brokenness of the body of Jesus on the cross at the
moment of completion, again represented by a melisma, es ist vollbracht (it is
accomplished) [movement 29, bar 1314].

239 WA 28: 378, 3033: Da wird [Pilatus] schuldig an des Gerechten Blut, ob er wol von
seiner Unschuld zeugnis gegeben hat und offt bekand, das keine Schuld des todes an jm zu
finden sey. See also: CB 3: 941, HS 5: 786: Regardless of his evident innocence (Ungeachtet
der offenbaren Unschuld).
commentary 245

19.16b [bars 8283]: The combined forces of Jewish Temple servants and
Roman soldiers who captured Jesus (John 18.3, 12) also led him away from the
Praetorium to the place of execution. Fhreten ihn hin (led him away) echoes
the Latin death sentence, duci iussit, the literal he ordered him to be led away
was a euphemism for he condemned him to be executed.240

John 19.17 [bars 8388]: Jesus received the horizontal cross bar and carried it
from the place of judgement.241 Luther draws a parallel with the experience
of Jesus followers: Each will need to carry their own cross. I have my own
gallows, I have my own cross. In the same way Christ carries his cross, and that
same cross can no one carry other than Christ alone.242 The words er trug sein
Kreuz (he carried his cross) form a cross in the score. Sein Kreuz [bar 84] is also
based on a tritone, the second time that Bach combines two powerful recurrent
musical motifs: the diabolus in musica and the cross motif [see movement 23c,
bars 3839, above].
As in previous movements, Bach traces the movement ging hinaus (went
out) [bar 84] by an ascending melodic line in the evangelists part. In the
St John Passion, hinaus (out) has connotations both of darkness and denial
and courage and confession: in the first recitative of the Passion, Jesus went
hinaus to identify himself to his captors and to set his disciples free (John 18.4)
[movement 2a, bar 15]. Conversely, at the moment of Peters denial, Peter also
went hinaus into the darkness of the moonless night before sunrise weeping
bitterly (Matthew 26.75) [movement 12c, bars 3233]. Here, Jesus combines
both emotions: he courageously carries his cross, but at the same time walks
out into the darkness of execution. Similarly, the people leading him away to
death here share in both emotions: while the Jewish clergy denied his kingship,
the Roman soldiers unwittingly confessed him to be a king.
Jesus is led away to Golgotha, the subject of the ensuing aria [movement 24].
The name of the place of execution is given in German Schdelsttt (Place of
the Scull) and Hebrew, Bach highlighting Golgotha rhythmically [bar 87].

240 Olearius points to the Greek, HS 5: 786: Fhreten. apegagon; Lucius Annaeus Seneca,
Dialogi, De Ira 1: 18, 5: He condemned him to be executed (duci iussit).
241 John Granger Cook, Envisioning Crucifixion: Light from Several Inscriptions and the
Palatine Graffito, Novum Testamentum 50 (2008), pp. 262285, pp. 266267, explains that
the crossbar, or patibulum, was often called the cross (crux). Permanent cross-stakes were
provided by the Roman municipal authorities for the purposes of public executions, Cook
explains, p. 265.
242 WA 28, 384, 2730, CB 3: 942: Ein jglicher wird das seine [Kreuz] tragen mssen. Ich habe
meinen Galgen. Ich trage mein Creutz. Ein ander hat seinen Galgen und Creutz. Also
treget auch Christus sein Creutz, und dasselb kan niemand tragen denn Christus alleine.
 246 chapter 8

24. Aria
Bass and Chorus (Violin I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo)

Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen, Hurry, you troubled souls,

Geht aus euren Marterhhlen,
EiltWohin?nach Golgatha!
Nehmet an des Glaubens Flgel,
FliehtWohin?zum Kreuzeshgel,
Eure Wohlfahrt blht allda!
Come out of your torture chambers,
Hurry!Where to?to Golgotha!
Take on the wings of faith,
FlyWhere to?to the hill of the cross,
Your welfare blossoms there.

Variant of Brockes Passion, p. 384: As Jesus is led away to Golgotha, the listener
is invited to join the journey to the Kreuzeshgel (hill of the cross) in spirit. The
libretto adapts a poetic dialogue from the Brockes Passion between Tochter Zion
(Daughter Zion), representing faith in general and the church in particular, and
a dramatic chorus, representing humanity as a whole. As in movements 19 and
20, Bachs libretto makes significant changes to tone down Brockes language
and theology:

Tochter Zion Daughter Zion

Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen! Hurry, you troubled souls,
Geht aus Achsaphs Mrder-Hlen! Come out of Asaphs murder chambers!
Kommt. Come.

Chor Choir
Wohin? Where to?

Tochter Zion Daughter Zion

Nach Golgatha To Golgotha
Nehmt des Glaubens-Flgel! Take on the wings of faith!
Fliegt! Fly!

Chor Choir
Wohin? Where to?

Tochter Zion Daughter Zion

zum Schdel-Hgel to the hill of the skull
Eure Wohlfahrt blhet da Your welfare blossoms there
Kommt Come

Chor Choir
Wohin? Where to?
 commentary 247

Tochter Zion Daughter Zion

Nach Golgatha. To Golgotha.

A substantial departure from Brockes poem is the removal of Brockes anti-

Jewish references: Bach changes the second line from Brockes clearly anti-
Jewish geht aus Achsaphs Mder-Hlen [sic] (come out of Asaphs murder
chambers) to the generic geht aus euren Marterhhlen (come out of your torture
chambers) [see the discussion on the precise meaning of the revised word-
ing below]. Brockes original refers to the Levite Asasph, King Davids recorder,
psalmist and leader of the singers in the first temple (1 Chronicles 25.17).
One of the most annotated passages in Bachs Calov Bible was the account of
the dedication of the First Temple:243

For Bach, the ordering of the sons of Asaph and of Heman, the inspired
Capellmeister of David as Temple musicians not only provided an exam-
ple of the true foundation of all God-pleasing church music but also an
exemplar of musical clans and families working under gifted composer-
fathers.244

Bach further annotated the preface to the Book of Psalms in his Calov Bible,
highlighting Asaphs and Hemans names by underlining them in red ink.245
Calov called Asaph a Capellmeister, and Bach clearly considered him as an out-
standing musician and fellow-Capellmeister.246 The establishment of a God-
pleasing church music under Asaph and Heman was central to Bachs self-
understanding as a musician.247 Greer suggests that:

Bachs view of his musical calling and his membership in a large, musically
gifted family appear to have been shaped at the most fundamental level
by his reading of Old Testament passages pertaining to the families of
musicians who were called to serve in the Temple.248

243 CB 1/1: 20472049, see also 2 Chronicles 5.13.

244 Loewe (2011), p. 150.
245 CB 1/2: 545.
246 CB 1/2: 441, in the introduction of Psalms 50 and 73 denotes Asaph a Capellmeister.
247 CB 1/1: 20472049: Dieses Capitel ist das wahre Fundament aller gottgeflliger Kirchen
Music; see: Helene Werthemann, Bachs Fundament aller gottgeflliger Kirchenmusik,
in: Frank Beyer and Christoph Trautmann, 51. Bachfest der Neuen Bachgesellschaft:
Bachfest-Vortrge 1976 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1976), pp. 317, p. 3.
248 Mary Dalton Greer, From the House of Aaron to the House of Johann Sebastian: Old
248 chapter 8

If Bach did indeed regard himself as a fellow musician in the tradition of

Asaph the Levitical Psalmist and Heman the Cohenite Singer, it should not
surprise that Bach or his unknown librettist removed any reference to Tochter
Zion (Daughter of Zion) and excised any references to Achsaphs Mrder-Hlen
(Asaphs murder chambers) from Brockes text. Asaphs music shaped the foun-
dational narrative of Bachs vocation as a church musician: the Psalms and
the ordered music of this proto-Capellmeister for Bach expressed true devo-
tional music [at which] God is always present with his grace, as he wrote in
the margins of the Chroniclers account of the dedication of the Temple in his
Calov-Bible (2Chronicles 5.13).249
Instead, the libretto of Bachs St John Passion turns Brockes anti-Jewish
term Achsaphs Mder-Hlen (Asaphs murder-chambers) into an opportunity
to reflect on Luthers theology of redemption: the term Marterhhlen (torture
chambers) chosen to replace Brockes Mrderhhlen is almost certainly a ref-
erence to one of Johann Heermanns Passion reflections. Heermann contrasts
the torturous experience of human sin with the salvation brought through the
wounds of the crucified. He likens Christs wounds to a Hhle (chamber or
cave), in which sinners may shelter to be saved:

For this is the crack or chamber/ in which you may hide yourself
when the thundrous wrath of God gathers and seeks to consume you
because of your sin, so that it may pass you over.250

The Marterhhle (torture chamber) is a place where sin abounds, a hell-like

place far removed from Gods grace. It is the direct opposite of Heermans
Hle [sic] (rock chamber, cave) in which you may save yourself.251 This jux-
taposition between the place of sin and the place of shelter from wrath is
common to many Lutheran interpreters: Heinrich Mller, whose work Bach
owned, as well as a late-seventeenth-century pastor of St Thomas Leipzig,
August Pfeiffer, both adopt the same analogy to illustrate the redemptive power

Testament Roots for the Bach Family Tree, in Gregory Butler, George Stauffer, Mary Dalton
Greer (eds. et al.), About Bach (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008), pp. 1534,
p. 16.
249 CB 1/1: 2088: Bey einer andchtigen Musique ist allzeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden-
Gegenwart.
250 Heermann (1660), pp. 373374: Denn sie ist der Ritz oder die Hle/ darein du dich
verbergen kannst wann sich das Zornwetter GOttes findet und dich deiner Snde
halben verzehren wil, so wird dichs nicht treffen.
251 Heermann (1660), p. 373: Die Hle/ darein du dich verbergen kannst.
commentary 249

of Christ to provide shelter from the wrath of God, drawing on the Song of
Songs (2.14) for their imagery of shelter and safety in rock chambers and stone
clefts.252
Another important literary change to Brockes poem is the removal of the
repeated call, Kommt (come): the libretto of Bachs Passion replaces Brockes
invitation to come to Gologtha by the invitation, Eilt (hurry) to the Kreuzes-
hgel (hill of the cross). This change determines much of the musical setting
of the aria, especially its recurrent canonic running figures: the opening figure
of the aria musically depicts more than one figure running, the unison upper
strings [bars 12 and canonic repeats] are imitated by the continuo part [bars
34 and canonic repeats], giving an impression of more than one voice fol-
lowing one another, hurrying to Golgotha. The overall effect of bars 14 and
repeats is suggestive of a chase. In bar 17 Bach adds the bass solo voice to
this chase pattern, the soloist precedes the strings and continuo, which imi-
tate his call to the angefochtnen Seelen (troubled souls) to hurry (Eilt!) [bars
1722].
The term angefochtnen (troubled) is a direct allusion to Luthers theology.
For the reformer, Anfechtung was a crucial theological concept, denoting both
temptation and trouble, often connected with the realisation of a sense of
personal failure to live up to Gods will, an emotion that had its origin in
the juxtaposition of Gods demands and the power of Satan.253 At the same
time, it was only the experience of Anfechtungen that enabled the believer to
experience the liberating power of the Gospel. Anfechtungen, then, for Luther

252 Mller (1720), p. 460: Since Hell and Devil frighten/ Jesus opens his wounds [to sinners]/
and calls out firmly: Come, my dove/ into the rock-chamber/ into the stone-clefts, Song of
Songs 1. There the sinner confidently enters in (Weil Hlle und Teuffel schrecken/ so
ffnet ihm JEsus seine Wunden/ rufft berlaut: Komm meine Taube/ in die Fels-Lcher/
in die Stein-ritzen. Cant. 1 [Song of Solomon 1.14]. Da springt der Snder getrost hinein),
August Pfeiffer, Paions-Register/ Oder Das Leiden und Sterben unsers Heylands Jesu Christi
(Leipzig: Michael, 1682), p. 360.
253 Berndt Hamm, Der frhe Luther: Etappen reformatorischer Neuorientierung (Tbingen:
Mohr-Siebeck, 2010), 3: Die Verankerung der Anfechtungen in Luthers Theologie, espe-
cially p. 31: Without the self-realisation of the sinner who, when confronted with Gods
Law, is revealed to be tempted and troubled by his own sin, and hemmed in between the
judgement of God and the hellish power of Satan, there can be no liberating experience
of God through the Gospel (Ohne die durch Gottes Gesetz erffnete Selbsterkenntnis des
Snders, der sich als Angefochtener von der eignenen Snde, dem Gericht Gottes und der
Hllenmacht Satans umstellt sieht, kann es keine befreiende Gotteserkenntnis durch das
Evangelium geben).
250 chapter 8

and his followers, were the cross that the disciple had to take up daily in order
to follow Jesus (Luke 9.23), a point Bach underlines by a series of cross-motifs
in the elaborate melodic line on angefochtnen (troubled) [bars 2729 and
repeats].254
The same insight holds for the experience of life in the souls Marterhhlen
(torture chambers). The fear that the power of human sin could hold believ-
ers captive forever was a heavier burden to carry than the daily Anfechtungen
(troubles) which formed a regular part of the believers day-to-day life: Bachs
musical rendering of these mental Marterhhlen (torture chambers) is also
based on a series of cross-motifs in the vocal line [bars 4246] though, appro-
priately, more dramatic and elaborate. Luther likened this kind of existence to
the overwhelming, paralysing, experience that:

Here God appears in terrible wrath, and with him all creation. There is
no chance for flight, no consolation, neither within nor without: every-
thing accuses us. There is nothing else but the bare desire for help,
and a terrible sighing, yet [the soul] does not know where to go for
help.255

Bachs setting renders the tortured agony of life in the Marterhhlen (torture
chambers) by the frequent use of cross-motifs over a diminished seventh, both
of which mirror the melodic line and harmonies on gekreuziget (crucified) in
the previous movement [movement 23g, bar 80]. The movement is also set in
g minor, the Baroque key associated with tragedy and sadness. Furthermore,
by introducing the repeated Wohin? (where to) motif in the first violins [bars
4245], he also makes explicit the souls desperate search for consolation: later
in the movement [bars 4951], the upper voices will give voice to the strings
Wohin-motif by articulating their questions for direction: Wohin (where to) may
the believer turn in times of temptation?
Because of the lack of a bass part in the chorus, the three upper voices
appear disembodied and ethereal. The bass soloists insistent call Eilt (hurry),

254 Hamm (2010), p. 47: Anfechtung (temptation) as cross and as grace (Anfechtung (tentatio)
als Kreuz und als Gnade).
255 Luther, Resolutiones disputationum de indulgentiarum virtute, 1518 (Resolutions for dispute
on the virtue of indulgences), WA 1: 557, 37558, 5: Hic Deus apparet horribiliter iratus, et
cum eo pariter universa creatura. Tum nulla fuga, nulla consolatio, nec intus nec foris,
sed omnium accusatio. Solum relinquiture nudum desiderium auxillii et horrendus
gemitus, sed necit [the soul], unde petat auxilium.
commentary 251

in combination with the voices repeated question Wohin (where to)first in

two sets of three questions [bars 4951 and 5455] then in a set of two [bars
5657], then as an isolated Wohin? (where to) [bar 62], indicates the souls lack
of direction: held captive in their Anfechtung (troubles), they have nowhere
to turn for consolation. The bass soloists answer to the upper voices provides
the sought-for direction: nach Golgotha (to Golgotha) [bars 6465]. Bach here
inverts the melodic setting of the place of the scull in movement 23 [bar 88];
its placement at the end of the A section [bars 165] and the beginning the B
section [bars 65125] at once concludes the souls hurried flight and initiates a
second chase to Golgotha.
The B section of the movement elaborates on the way in which human
souls will find consolation: by taking des Glaubens Flgel (the wings of faith),
symbolised in the score by a set of unison wing shapes, first in the continuo part
[bars 8081], then taken up immediately by the upper strings [bars 8283]. The
bass soloist and upper string both develop the wing motif on Flgel (wings)
[bars 8586]. The soloists insistent call to fly (flieht) [bars 91105]here the
imperative of to take flightrepeats much of the musical material from the
earlier interchange between bass and upper voices [bars 4962]. The place of
rest, the Kreuzeshgel (hill of the cross) [bars 100103] shares the rhythmic
characteristics of gekreuziget (crucified) in the previous movement [23g, bars
8081] and, as would be expected, is centred on a cross-motif on Hgel (hill)
[bar 101].
It is there, at the Kreuzeshgel (hill of the cross) that the souls welfare
blossoms: this time the hill of the cross [bars 105106] is given the shape of a hill,
rising and falling in a melodic arc, while the blossoming of the souls welfare,
blht (blossoms) is shaped like a cross [bar 115]. The blossoming cross is a
symbol of resurrection, while the act of blossoming itself in Lutheran hymnody
is a popular sign of Incarnation.256 Both signify the coming of salvation through
the agency of the self-sacrifice of Jesus (Philippians 2.58) [see discussion in
movement 1 above].
Having directed the angefochtnen Seelen (troubled souls) to the place of their
Wohlfahrt (welfare), the movements A section is repeated. A final appeal to
the disembodied souls to join the journey to Golgatha on the Glaubenflgel
(wings of faith) ends the movement, and prepares the listener for the moment
of crucifixion itself.

256 For instance in Martin Luthers Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, WA 35: 149150.
 252 chapter 8

25a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Johannes 19,18 Allda kreuzigten sie ihn, John 19.18 There they crucified him,
und mit ihm zween andere zu beiden Seiten, and with him two others on either side,
Jesum aber mitten inne. but Jesus amidst them.

19,19 Pilatus aber schrieb eine berschrift und 19.19 But Pilate wrote an inscription and
satzte sie auf das Kreuz, und war geschrieben: set it on the cross, and it was written:
Jesus von Nazareth, der Jden Knig. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

19,20 Diese berschrift lasen viele Jden, 19.20 Many of the Jews read this inscription,
denn die Sttte war nahe bei der Stadt, da Jesus since the site where Jesus was crucified was
gekreuziget ist. Und es war geschrieben auf near the city. And it was written in the Hebrew,
ebrische, griechische und lateinische Sprache. Greek and Latin languages.

19,21a Da sprachen die Hohenpriester der Jden 19.21a There the chief priests of the Jews spoke
zu Pilato. to Pilate.

John 19.18 [bars 14]: Having taken his listeners to Golgotha on musically
evocative wings of faith in the preceding aria, Bachs representation of the
crucifixion itself is notable for its starkness. Having been handed over to be
killed, the crucifixion is a passive process: allda kreuzigten sie ihn (there they
crucified him). Kreuzigten (crucified) is based on a cross motif, as is und mit
ihm zween (and with him two [others]) and zu beiden Seiten (on either side).
Punctuated by two quaver rests, Bach paints the outline of the Schdelsttte
(Place of the Scull), complete with three crosses: Jesum aber mitten inne (but
Jesus admist them) [bars 34]. The evil nature of the execution is alluded to
by a tritone, the Baroque diabolus in musica, on kreuzigten (crucified) [bar
1].

John 19.19 [bars 59]: Pilates inscription, or berschrift (literally writing

above) [bar 6] is highlighted by the composer by a leap of a major sixth in the
evangelists line, and can be said to be truly superscribed. With his inscription,
the Roman Prefect literally writes out Jesus death sentence, Bach suggests: und
ward geschrieben (and was written) [bar 7] is centred on another of the many
cross-motifs that make up this movement. The title itself reflects Johns irony:
neither Pilate nor the chief priests ever believed Jesus truly to be the King of
the Jews. Even the majority of Jesus own disciples who had fled from the scene
of his arrest would not have recognised the king in the marred and crucified
Jesus: Yet before God and before Gods children he is the king of glory, Luther
commentary 253

wrote.257 Bach underlines this mystery of the suffering king who reigns from
a cross by a retardation to adagio (the stately time signature, that can be
translated at ease) [bars 89], and a resolution to the major key (Ab) on
Knig [bar 9].258 Thus the moment of greatest suffering and insult is made
into a stately moment of resolution. This is one of only four instances that
a time signature is marked in the recitative sections in the Autograph score,
underlying its significance.

John 19.20 [bars 1013]: As earlier in the movement the evangelists report
about Pilates berschrift (inscription) is superscribed in music, this time by
a leap of a perfect fifth [bar 10]. From the report of Pilates title onwards to the
end of the section, the melodic does not rise above the g on berschrift (inscrip-
tion). Because the place of crucifixion was close to Jerusalem, many were able
to read Pilates title. This movements use of Jden (Jews) is one of the few
moments in the Johannine Passion narrative where the word refers to ordinary
Jewish people going about their day to day business, rather than the religious
elite who organised Jesus arrest and trial. The melodic line on gekreuziget (cru-
cified) is again shaped around the form of an elaborate cross-motif [bar 13].
Pilates inscription had been written into the three languages of the Roman
Province: Hebrew, Greek and Latin, in order that it might be understood by
anyone able to read.259 John gives the fullest title of the four Gospels, which
includes Jesus hometown. These refer the Gospel readers back to Philips
description of Jesus, as him about whom Moses in the law and also the
prophets wrote: Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth (John 1.45), and Nathanaels
confession of Jesus before Philip in the same passage, Rabbi, you are the Son
of God! You are the King of Israel (John 1.49).260 Bach punctuates the three
languages carefully by a crotchets rest between each, and includes a barbed
musical reference to the chief priests by outlining a tritone on the language of
the Temple, Ebrische (Hebrew) [bar 15].

257 WA 28: 395, 1014: Aber fr Gott und fr Gottes Kindern ist er ein Knig der Ehren.
258 For an analysis of the rare uses of time signatures in the recitatives of Bachs St John Passion,
see: Dieter Zahn, Zu den Rezitativen in Johann Sebastian Bachs Johannes-Passion und
ihrer Ausfhrung, Musik und Kirche 41.1 (1977), pp. 914, p. 10.
259 WA 28: 394, 33395, 8; CB 3: 944: So that everyone could see, read, hear and comprehend
the reason why Christ had been crucified (Auff das jederman die ursach sehen, lesen,
hren und verstehen knne, Warumb Christus gecreutziget sey).
260 Matthew 27.37 has This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, while the synoptic parallels in Mark
15.26 and Luke 23.38 merely have [This is] the King of the Jews.
 254 chapter 8

John 19.21a [bars 1718]: The chief priests return to the Praetorium to chal-
lenge the Prefects inscription. This is another example of Johanine ironythe
revealing of Jesus glory even unwittingly or unwillingly. Neither Pilate nor his
erstwhile accusers do, in fact, regard Jesus as any kind of king, John implies, yet
they speak the deeper truth, that Jesus is the King of all kings. Luther shares
this view: We take Jesus title seriously. But for Pilate it is mere derision, who
inscribes the title to plague Christ and to save his own back.261

25b. Coro
Chorus(Flutes I/II, Oboes I/II, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ and continuo)

Johannes 19,21b Schreibe nicht: John 19.21b: Do not write:

der Jden Knig, the King of the Jews,
sondern da er gesaget habe: but rather that he said:
Ich bin der Jden Knig. I am the King of the Jews.

John 19.21b [bars 1819]: In the first three bars of this movement, Bach skilfully
combines a Schwrmer (buzzing)-figure with block chords, suggesting a group
of speakers who nevertheless speak with one intent and voice, as in its struc-
tural counterpart, Wir haben keinen Knig denn den Kaiser (We have no king
but the Emperor) [movement 23f].

[bars 1921 and fugal imitations]: The remaining musical material closely
echoes another chorus associated with kingship: the Roman soldiers mockery
of the scourged Jesus, Sei gegret, lieber Jdenknig (Hail, beloved King of
the Jews) [movement 21d]. As in 21d, the material is arranged fugally, the
compound duple signature redolent of a minuet again contributes to the sense
of dance-like graceful movement.
While in Johns Gospel the chief priests do put forward their opinion vehe-
mently, suggesting that Pilate change the wording of the title from der Jden
Knig (the King of the Jews) to da er gesaget habe: ich bin der Jden Knig
(that he has said: I am the King of the Jews), Bachs musical setting belies and
somewhat tempers the forceful nature of their statement: his chief priests are
clearly petitioners at a Baroque court, versed in courtly behaviour. Here, the
religious leaders make obeisance to the Roman Prefect in order to persuade
him to change his mind. Bach seems to express in music what Olearius pointed
out in his commentary: Subjects are not to dictate to their superiors, but rather

261 WA 28: 394, 2628: Wir machen ein Ernst aus dem Titel. Aber Pilato ist es ein Spot, Der
schreibet solchen Title Christo zur Schmach und sich damit zubewahren.
 commentary 255

to make known their views in an appropriate manner.262 The religious leaders

end their petition as they began it: with one voice [bars 2829], expressing their
unanimity of opinion.

25c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Pilate (bass), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,22 Pilatus antwortet: John 19.22 Pilate answered:

Pilatus Pilatus
Was ich geschrieben habe, das habe ich geschrieben. What I have written, that I have written.

John 19.22 [bars 2931]: In this final encounter between the Prefect and the
chief priests in the St John Passion, Pilate curtly dismisses the chief priests
petition to have the title above the cross changed. Olearius amplifies Pilates
simple statement: It has been written after due consideration, and therefore it
shall remain unaltered in spite of your desire.263 As in the musical description
of Pilates berschrift (inscription) in movement 25a [bar 10], here the second
syllable of geschrieben (written) also towers over the remaining melodic line,
providing a musical reminder of the words that had been superscribed above
the cross. In commenting on this passage, Luther points to the glory that is
hidden under Pilates title:

Just as his death, a shameful, miserable and galling death, has now turned
to glory and Christs own victory and triumph for his Christians over sin,
death, devil and the portals of hell, so this title also has come to great
glory. There is nothing more holy, nothing more innocent than this title.
And whosoever is not placed under this title, will be condemned.264

262 HS 5: 787: Unterthanen haben dem Obern nicht vor zuschreiben/ sondern ihre Meynung
gebrend anzuzeigen.
263 HS 5: 787: Es ist mit gutem Bedacht geschrieben/ umb euren Willen wirds demnach wol
ungeendert bleiben.
264 WA 28: 394, 514: Gleich wie sein Tod, welcher ein schendlicher, schmehlicher und
ergerlicher Tod war, nu zu Ehren worden ist Und Christus einiger Sieg und Triumph ist
fr seine Christen wider Snd, Tod, Teuffel und der Hellen Pforten. Also ist dieser Titel zu
solchen grossen Ehren kommen, das nichts heiligers noch unschldigers ist denn dieser
Titel, Und wer nicht unter diesem Titel ist, Der ist verdampt.
 256 chapter 8

26. Choral
Chorale(Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

In meines Herzens Grunde In the depths of my heart,

Dein Nam und Kreuz allein Your name and cross alone
Funkelt all Zeit und Stunde, Sparkles for all time and at all hours,
Drauf kann ich frhlich sein. Because of it I can be cheerful.
Erschein mir in dem Bilde Appear to me in the picture
Zu Trost in meiner Not, For consolation in my adversity
Wie du, Herr Christ, so milde As you, Lord Christ, so charitable
Dich hast geblut zu Tod! You have bled to death!

Verse 3 of Valet will ich dir geben [bars 116]: Bach comments on Pilates
resolute answer what I have written, I have written, made in response to the
chief priests petition to change the inscription above the cross in movement
25, by a verse from Valerius Herbergers hymn Valet will ich dir geben (O world,
so vain, I leave you). Herberger was the Lutheran pastor of Fraustadt in Posen
(now Wschowa in Poland). His sole surviving hymn was written during an
episode of the Black Death in Fraustadt in 1613. Set to music the same year by
the Fraustadt cantor Melchior Teschner, it is said to have been sung at every
funeral there for the duration of the epidemic. The introduction to the hymn,
published in Herbergers collection of hearty, useful funeral sermons, records
the effects of the Black Death on the city, recalling how the author was faced
with death every hour, but was graciously and indeed as miraculously preserved
as the three men in the Fiery Furnace of Babylon.265 Bach uses Herbergers
chorale also to reflect on the idea of a gracious preservation when faced with
death every hour: the idea that the Nam und Kreuz (name and cross) of Christ
can bring comfort in suffering now, and that the blood of Christ will bring
salvation for eternity.
While Herbergers understanding of the protective nature of Nam und Kreuz
(name and cross) [bar 4] reflects the very real image, or Bild, of suffering and
death during the Fraunstadt epidemic of 1614, it has its theological roots in

265 Valet Valerii Herbergeri, Das er der Welt gegeben, Anno 1613, im Herbst, da er alle stun-
den den Tod fr augen gesehen, aber dennoch gnedignlich, vnd ja so wnderlich als die
drey Mnner im Babylonischen Fewrofen erhalten worden, in: idem, Der Dritte Theil/ Der
Geistlichen/ Trawrbinden/ Valerii Herbergi,/ Predigers bey dem Kriplein Christi/ in Frawen-
stadt/ Gewircket von lauter safftigen/ ntzlichen Leichpredigten/ derer zahl bald nach der
Vorrede/ zu finden./ Zu ehren etlichen frommen Christlichen/ jetzo in Gott ruhenden Hert-
zen./ Gedruckt/ zu Leipzig (Leipzig: Schrers Erben, 1614).
commentary 257

Luthers attempts to counter early-modern fears of death, sin and hell. In his
Sermon on how to prepare for death (1519), Luther described the fear of dying as
a series of three horror Bilder (images): the terrifying image of death, the horri-
ble recurrent image of sin and the third, the unbearable and inevitable image of
hell and eternal damnation.266 This fear was not only a constant mental image,
but was given expression in contemporary large-scale wall-paintings or altar
pieces, such as for instance Matthias Grnewalds altarpiece in Isenheim (1506
1515). Grnewalds composition emphasises the realistic depiction of the suffer-
ing of Christ on the principal panels of the altarpieceshowing in uncomfort-
able detail the wounds, boils and scars of the crucified body of Jesusand the
depiction of sin in the depiction of the temptations of St Anthony on the third
panels of the altarshowing the Saint hemmed in by fantastic long-teethed
monsters and birds of prey seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5.8). Luther
counters these images of terror with the hope of the Gnadenbild, the image of
the grace of Christs death:

The image of grace is none other than Christ crucified surrounded by all
his saints. This is grace and mercy: that on the cross Christ has taken
away your sin, that he carries your sin for you and crushes it for you. And
that those who firmly believe this, and have this image before their inner
eyes, do not doubt this. That is what it means to gaze on the image of grace
and to set it up within oneself.267

Following Luther closely, in Herbergers chorale Christs Nam und Kreuz (Name
and Cross) is shown to be like a funkelnd (sparkling, radiant) ensign set up, as
it were on a battle field, in meines Herzens Grunde (in the depth of my heart),
using the word play of Grunde as both depths and grounds or fields. All Zeit
und Stunde (at all time and every hour), the cross sheds its bright light over
the darkness of Not (suffering), but particularly so in the hour of death. It is at
the moment of death, that the image of horror of Christ who has geblut zu Tod
(bled to death) becomes an image of Jesus so milde (so charitable) and grace:

266 Luther, Ein Sermon von der Bereitung zum Sterben, 1519, WA 2: 686, 3335: Das erschrock-
liche bild des todts, die ander das graulich manichfeltig bilde der sund, die dritte das
untreglich und unvormeydliche bild der hellen und ewiges vordammn.
267 WA 2: 689, 2829, 3034: Der gnaden bild ist nit anders, dan Christus am Creutz und
alle seyne lieben heyligen. Wie vorsteht man das? Das ist gnade und barmhertzickeit,
das Christus am Creutz deyne sund von dir nymmet, tregt sie fur dich und erwurget sie,
und dasselb festiglich glauben und vor augen haben, nit drann zweyfellnn, das heyst das
gnaden bild ansehen und ynn sich bilden.
 258 chapter 8

Luthers Gnadenbild, which enables the believer to be frhlich (cheerful) even

in the depth of suffering.
But the librettist did not only choose this verse to create a musical link to
Luthers idea of the Gnadenbild: it was chosen because of the unusual combi-
nation of dein Nam und Kreuz (your name and cross). The verse chosen from
Herbergers chorale refers not only to the power of the name of Jesus to appear
before the believers eye zu Trost in meiner Not (to comfort me in my affliction)
[bars 812], but also provides a clear allusion to the inscription, the title and
name above the cross, placed there by the Roman Prefect. These multiple lay-
ers of meaning make this verse such an apt reflection on Pilates decision to
place a title above the cross. In his Weekly Sermons on St John 1620 (1528
1529), Luther had already explicitly linked Pilates derogative title with Christs
name: Christ has to carry this title and name (Titel und Namen) before the
world and its children. But for God and for the children of God he is a King
of Glory. Luther then explained: We read this title in earnest, but for Pilate it
was meant in derison [see also the discussion above, movement 25a].268 There
is no hint of derision in Bachs musical interpretation of the Nam und Kreuz: the
first half of the chorale [bars 15] with its simple setting is clearly in earnest,
almost stately. The chromatic cadence on so milde/ dich hast geblut zu Tod! (so
graciously/ have bled to death for me!) [bars 1315] not only evokes the Gnaden-
bild (image of grace) of the crucified and his sacrifice on behalf of the believer,
but provides a seamless musical link to the ensuing recitative and chorus.
In the Christmas Oratorio [BWV 248/4, 1735], Bach would further elaborate
on the idea of the power of the Gnadenbild of the crucified to bring peace at
times of doubt and assurance at the moment of death, in his Cantata Fallt mit
Danken for the feast of the Naming of Jesus:

Mein Jesus soll mir immerfort My Jesus shall forevermore,

Vor meinen Augen schweben. be suspended before my eyes.
Mein Jesus heiet meine Lust, My Jesus is the name of my happiness,
Mein Jesus labet Herz und Brust. My Jesus succours heart and breast.269

In his Christmas Oratorio Bach once more implants the image of grace in the
heart of the believer, mein Herze soll dich nimmer lassen (my heart shall never

268 Luther, Wochenpredigten ber Johannes 1620, 1528/29, WA 28: 395, 1014: So mus nu
Christus den Titel und Namen haben fr der Welt und jren Kindern. Aber fr Gott und
fr Gottes Kindern ist er ein Knig der Ehren; 394, 2627: Aber Pilato ist es ein Spot, Der
schreibet solchen Titel Christo zur Schmach.
269 BWV 248/4, movement 3, Immanuel, o ses Wort.
 commentary 259

let you go), in order to enable them to face Not, Gefahr und Ungemach (suffer-
ing, danger and discomfort). Knowing that dein Name steht in mir geschrieben
(your name is written in my heart), the believer wei ich, da ich nicht verderbe
(knows I shall not perish), wenn ich sterbe (when I die), since the name of
Jesus hat des Todes Furcht vertrieben (has driven away the fear of death) and,
Bachs Christmas Oratorio aria implies, has conquered death itself.270 The affir-
mation wohlan, dein Name soll allein/ In meinem Herzen sein! (henceforth your
name alone/ shall be in my heart), underlines the similarity between In meines
Herzens Grunde and Bachs later Christmas-tide Cantata Fallt mit Danken.271

IV. CRUXJESUS DIES ON THE CROSS:

27a. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Johannes 19,23 Die Kriegsknechte aber,
da sie Jesum gekreuziget hatten,
nahmen seine Kleider und machten vier Teile,
einem jeglichen Kriegesknechte sein Teil,
dazu auch den Rock.
Der Rock aber war ungenhet, von oben an
gewrket durch und durch.
John 19.23 But the mercenaries
there had crucified Jesus,
they took his clothes and made four portions,
one portion for each mercenary.
They also took his tunic.
But the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top.

19,24a Da sprachen sie untereinander: 19.24a Then they spoke among themselves:

John 19.23 [bars 18]: Having stripped Jesus of his clothing, the four Roman sol-
diers who had crucified him, divide his garments. A perfect fourth on vier Teile
(four parts) [bar 3] is one of a number of occasions in the Passion where Bach
represents numerical values by the relevant musical interval [see for instance
movement 23c, bar 42]. In the recitatives of his St John Passion, Bach uses melis-
mas infrequently: as in other recitatives [see the discussion on movement 10],
the melisma on Rock (tunic) [bar 5] again is a musical reference to brokenness;
the breaking up of the seamless tunic. However, since the robe was gewrket
durch und durch (woven in one piece), the Kriegsknechte (mercenaries) decide
not to divide it into four parts. John notes specifically that the robe was woven
von oben an (from the top). Bach represents this observation musically in the
evangelists descending melodic line [bar 7, see also movement 33 bar 3 where

270 BWV 248/4, 3: Wenn ich sterbe,/ so wei ich, da ich nicht verderbe,/ Dein Name steht in
mir geschrieben,/ Der hat des Todes Furcht vertrieben.
271 BWV 248/4, 5.
 260 chapter 8

von oben is represented in the same way]. Having divided all of Jesus garments
apart from the seamless robe, the four soldiers discuss untereinander (among
themselves) how to distribute the robe.

27b. Coro
Chorus(Flutes I/II, Oboe I, Oboe damore, Violin I/II, Viola, Organ and Continuo)

Johannes 19,24b Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen, John 19.24b Let us not divide it,
sondern losen, wes er sein soll. but instead cast lots, to see whose it shall be.

John 19.24b [bars 118 and fugal imitations]: Bach uses a strict permutation
fugue to depict the soldiers deliberations about the fate of Jesus seamless
robe. The movement is built around multiples of four: the fugal motif itself
falls into four distinctive parts repeated by all four voices, with entries a bar
apart.272 The first part of the motif, lasset uns den nicht (let us not) [bar 10]
is based on a Schwrmer (buzzing)-figure, its multiple repeated notes sug-
gesting the clamour of different voices talking at the same time. The sec-
ond part, zerteilen (divide), is centred on a cross-motif, which may well be
a musical allusion to the place of the soldiers transaction, beneath the bro-
ken body of Jesus suspended on the cross. The third part, sondern darum losen
(but rather cast lots) [bars 1213], with its ascending line and sudden octave
drop is suggestive of the casting and falling of lots while the final part, wes
er sein soll (whose it shall be), provides a decisive conclusion for the fugal
motif.
The movements underlying constant Alberti-bass (with its rattling arpeg-
gios) is suggestive of the throwing of dice. Combined with the repeated rising
semiquaver movement on losen (cast lots), it may well reference Luthers com-
mentary on the passage, in which the soldiers settle their disputes not only by
casting lots (probably bones or stones) as in St Johns account, but by the cast-
ing of lots and the throwing of dice.273 For Bach, the division of Jesus garments

272 Geck (1991), p. 89, following Hans Joachim Moser, Geschichte der deutschen Musik, 2 vols.,
2/1: Vom Beginn des dreiigjhrigen Krieges bis zum Tode Joseph Haydns (Stuttgart and
Berlin: J.G. Cottasche Buchhandlung: 1922), p. 221, identifies five parts of the fugal motif:
I: bar 10 lasset uns den nicht, II: bars 1012, zerteilen, III: bar 12, sondern darum, IV: bar
13, losen, V: bars 1415, wes er sein soll. Mosers and Gecks sections III and IV, however,
clearly form a single structural unit, leading to a four-part rather than a five-part fugal
motif.
273 For Luther WA 28: 397, 2026 and, following him, Olearius, HS 5: 787, the division of
Jesus garments prefigured the divisions of the church. It was a prophecy about different
 commentary 261

gave rise to the longest and arguably one of the most musically stimulating
crowd scenes in the entire Passion: 54 bars of rhythmically varied material
based on multiple figures of four, four voices developing a theme based on four
distinctive parts in eight fugal entries, make for a fittingly evocative final crowd
scene of four soldiers who, as Luther suggests, are happy and full of mirth as if
at a job well done.274

27c. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,24c Auf da erfllet wrde John 19.24c So that the Scripture would be
die Schrift, die da saget: fulfilled which says:
Sie haben meine Kleider unter sich geteilet They have apportioned my clothes
und haben ber meinen Rock among themselves and for my tunic
das Los geworfen. they cast the lot.

19,25a Solches taten die Kriegesknechte. 19.25a Such is what the mercenaries did.

19,25b Es stund aber bei dem Kreuze Jesu 19.25b But by the cross of Jesus stood
seine Mutter und seiner Mutter Schwester, his mother, and his mothers sister,
Maria, Kleophas Weib, Mary, the wife of Cleophas,
und Maria Magdalena. and Mary Magdalene.

19,26 Da nun Jesus seine Mutter sahe und 19.26 Now Jesus saw his mother, and the
den Jnger dabei stehen, den er lieb hatte, disciple standing by, whom he loved,
spricht er zu seiner Mutter: he speaks to his mother:

factions of the church seeking to divide the indivisibleScripture and the church: Weil
der Rock ungeneet ist, von oben an gewircket durch und durch, Das ist Weil die Schrifft in
einander dermassen gefasset ist, das sie sich nicht allwege trennen noch teilen lesst, Wie
Christus spricht Johan[nes]. 10. Die Schrifft kan nicht gebrochen werden, So lassen sie
die Schrifft unzurissen bleiben, Spielen aber und lossen darumb, wes sie sein sol, Lencken,
dehnen und zwingen die Schrifft auff jren Sinn und Verstand, und ein jeder wil die gantze
Schrifft haben, Doch durchs Los und Wrffelspiel (The garment was seamless, woven in
one piece from the top, means that because Scripture is composed in such a way that
it can never be divided or shared as Christ says in John 10[.35], the Scripture cannot be
divided, they leave the Scriptures undivided, but gamble for it and cast lots over it, whose
it shall be. They direct, expand and force Scripture into their own moulds, and each wants
a share of the entire Scriptures, yet they do so by throwing of lots and the casting of
dice).
274 WA 28: 398, 2930: Sind frhlich und guter ding, als haben sie es wol ausgericht.
 262 chapter 8

Jesus Jesus
Weib, siehe, das ist dein Sohn! Woman, behold, that is your son!

Evangelist Evangelist
19,27a Darnach spricht er zu dem Jnger: 19.27a After that he speaks to the disciple:

Jesus Jesus
Siehe, das ist deine Mutter! Behold, that is your mother!

John 19.24c25a [bars 6571]: John is the only evangelist to cite die Schrift (the
Scripture) that is being fulfilled by the soldiers gambling for Jesus seamless
robe in full: sie haben meine Kleider unter sich geteilt und haben ber meine Rock
das Los geworfen (they have apportioned my clothes among themselves, and for
my tunic they cast the lot, Psalm 20.19) [bars 6669]. The other three Passion
accounts merely report the division of his garments, and omit the soldiers
action (see Mark 15.24, Matthew 27.35 and Luke 23.34). Bach highlights the
evangelists Psalm quotation by an a battuta section strictly on the beat, and a
retardation to adagio [bars 6669]. Psalm 22 is central to the Passion tradition:
in Marks and (more importantly for Bach) Matthews account of the Passion,
moments before his death Jesus prays the opening verse of that same Psalm in
Aramaic, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Psalm 22.1, Mark 15.34,
Matthew 27.46).
The division of Jesus garments is the final action of the Kriegesknechte
(mercenaries, the Roman footsoldiers) before Jesus death: unlike the synoptic
accounts of the Passion, there is no mockery of the crucified by the assembled
crowd and soldiers. Instead, the scene now shifts to Jesus, his mother Mary, the
women who had accompanied her, and the beloved disciple. Where Luther and
Olearius have three women named Mary, associating Jesus mothers nameless
sister with Mary, the wife of Cleophas, Bach seems to identify four women, iso-
lating each by a semiquaver pause:275 Mary the mother of Jesus, seiner Mutter
Schwester (her nameless sister) [bar 73], Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary
Magdalene. Luther and Olearius identify Cleophas with the disciple of the same
name in Lukes resurrection encounter on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24.18).276

John 25b27a [bars 7183]: John records only few words from the cross, here
and in the following recitative [movement 29]: Jesus neither speaks of his

275 WA 28: 401, 514, HS 5: 787.

276 WA 28: 401, 68, HS 5: 787: This Cleophas is the one who walks to Emmaus on Easter Day
(Dieser Cleophas ist der am Ostertage gen Emmaus gehet).
commentary 263

abandonment in the words of a Psalm as in Mark and Matthew, nor does he

forgive those who mocked him as in Luke (Luke 23.34). Instead, John is unique
among the four evangelists in recording the interchange between Jesus, his
mother and his best friend. For Matthew, Mary and her kinswomen looked on
from a distance (Matthew 27.5556). John places them directly bei dem Kreuze
(by the cross) [bar 71].
Jesus recognition of his mother, sahe (saw) [bar 77] is underscored by a
tritone, an augmented fourth; here perhaps an expression of the agony of
parting. Jesus words from the cross are introduced by a cross-motif on [spricht]
er zu seiner [Mutter] (he speaks to his mother) [bar 79]. Jesus entrusts the
disciple whom he loved to his mother, and his mother to the disciples care
by severing his own ties to them and establishing new family-ties: siehe, das
ist dein Sohn (behold, that is your son), and siehe, das ist deine Mutter (behold,
that is your mother) [bars 7983]. The augmented fourth on siehe (behold) [bar
80], echoes the earlier tritone and its representation in music of the pain of the
breaking up of close family ties. Luther certainly interprets this final farewell in
terms of ultimate loss:

The dear Lord Christ seeks to bless the entire world and part from it
without a single thing. He does not possess anything at all on earth,
neither money nor possessions, neither robe nor garments. Instead he is
hanging on the cross, naked; has no place to rest his head, not even a foots
width of ground on which to die, he does not lie on a wooden board, but
hangs freely in the air. He now only has his mother and his dear disciple.
As he parts from the world, he also gives away his mother, and the disciple
he loved best, who lay on his breast at the Last Supper. That is great agony
indeed.277

Similarly, Olearius speaks of the pain of parting in terms of the sword piercing
her [Marys] soul.278 Regardless of whether it was their reading of the final

277 WA 28: 401, 32402, 5: Der liebe Herr Christus wil die Welt gantz und gar gesegnen und
blos von jr scheiden. Er hat nichts mehr auff erden, weder geld noch gut, weder Rock
noch Kleider, Sondern henget am Creutz blos, hat nich da er sein Heubt hinleget, hat
auch nicht eines fussesbreit von der erden, darauf er strbe, er ligt nicht auf einem bret,
Sondern hanget frey in der lufft. Allein hat er noch seine Mutter und seinen lieben Jnger.
Da scheidet er nu gantz und gar von der Welt und gibt seine Mutter auch hinweg und
seinen liebsten Jnger der jm auff der brust lag im Abendmal. Solchs ist ein grosser
schmertz.
278 HS 5: 787: Das Schwerdt durch ihre Seele drang. (Luke, 2.35).
 264 chapter 8

parting as soul-destroying that motivated Bach to embed tritones on the sahe

(saw) and siehe (behold) that introduce this painful exchange, the perfect fifth
on the second siehe (behold) [bar 82] provides a suitable resolution to A minor,
and a textbook transition to the ensuing chorale.

28. Choral
Chorale(Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Er nahm alles wohl in acht He took care of everything,

In der letzten Stunde, In the last hour,
Seine Mutter noch bedacht, He still thought of his mother,
Setzt ihr ein Vormunde. And set for her a guardian.
O Mensch, mache Richtigkeit, O human, act with righteousness,
Gott und Menschen liebe, Love God and and human.
Stirb darauf ohn alles Leid, After that may you die without any pain
Und dich nicht betrbe! And do not grieve!

Verse 20, Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod [bars 116]: Stockmanns hymn serves as
the basis for a recurrent reflection on the relationship between Christ and the
apostles and, through their actions and inactions, the relationship between
Christ and individual believers. Each verse falls into two distinctive parts: the
first couplet [bars 18] comprises a part of the historical events of the Passion,
while the second [bars 916] encourages its application, that is, personal
reflection and action by the believer.279
The libretto previously used a verse from this hymn at the conclusion of the
first part of the Passion, following the betrayal of Peter [movement 14]. Then
the verse sought to encourage individual believers to think about their own
sinfulness and lack of repentance, praying that Jesus himself would rhre mein
Gewissen (stir up my conscience). Here, it urges believers to emulate Jesus in
putting their own affairs right in good time, just as Jesus nahm alles wohl in acht/
in der letzten Stunde (he took care of everything/ in the last hour) [bars 14].280
With his penultimate word from the cross Jesus entrusts his mother to the care
of the beloved disciple (John 19.27). Stockmann interpreted Jesus action as
initiating a formal relationship between Mary and John. Setzt ihr ein Vormunde
(and set for her a guardian) [bars 78] speaks of a relationship determined by

279 Stockmann (1641), p. A ir: Einen Theil von der Historien begreifft, desselben Theils
Nutzen.
280 Stockmann (1641), p. A vv.
 commentary 265

legal adoption, a point also made by Olearius, and a possible allusion to Romans
8.15 and the promise of divine adoption as children of God.281
In line with this thought, Stockmanns application urges hearers to put
their spiritual lives in order by seeking the friendship of God and neighbour:
O Mensch, mache Richtigkeit,/ Gott und Menschen liebe (O person, act with
righteousness/ Love God and people) [bars 1112]. Having made peace with
God and their fellows, listeners can then die in peace ohn alles Leid (without
any pain). Bach stresses this invitation to die a holy death, stirb, with a G minor
sixth on stirb (die) [bar 13]. Interestingly, this is one of only three occasions
where the autograph score provides the full text of a published chorale rather
than the opening words alone [Autograph, p. 68].282

29. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), continuo

Johannes 19,27b Und von Stund an nahm sie John 19.27b And from that hour on
der Jnger zu sich. the disciple took her to himself.

19,28a Darnach, als Jesus wute, da schon alles 19.28 After this, when Jesus knew that all had
vollbracht war already been accomplished,

19,28b da die Schrift erfllet wrde, spricht er: 19.28b in order to fulfil the Scripture, he speaks:

Jesus Jesus
Mich drstet! I thirst!

Evangelist
19,29 Da stund ein Gefe voll Essigs.
Sie flleten aber einen Schwamm mit Essig
und legten ihn um einen Isopen,
und hielten es ihm dar zum Munde.
Evangelist
19.29 A container full of vinegar was standing
there.
But they filled a sponge with vinegar
and laid it on a branch of hyssop,
and held it up to him to his mouth.

19,30a Da nun Jesus den Essig genommen hatte 19.30a When Jesus had taken the vinegar there,
sprach er: he speaks:

281 HS 5: 787: This is your son/ who shall provide for you/ as if he were your physical son (Das
ist dein Sohn/ der dich hinfro versorgen soll/ als wre er dein leiblicher Sohn).
282 The other occasions on which Bach supplies a full Chorale text in the Autograph Score are
Wer hat dich so geschlagen (p. 21), Petrus, der nicht denkt zurck (pp. 2627), and the Aria
and Chorale, Jesu, der du warest tot (pp. 7276).
 266 chapter 8

Jesus Jesus
Es ist vollbracht! It is accomplished!

John 19.27b [bars 12]: A large cross-motif spanning an entire octave in the
evangelists melodic line underlies the decisive moment in the new relation-
ship between Jesus mother and the disciple whom he loved: von Stund an nahm
sie der Jnger zu sich (from that hour the disciple took her to himself) [bar 1].
For John the Stunde (hour) is always associated with the moment of decision
and completion which, in turn, is centred on the cross (John 12.2733). Bach
combines both Johannine themes in the cross-shape on und von Stund an (and
from that hour) that commences and shapes the remainder of the movement.
As in the previous Words from the Cross in John 19.2627, Jesus speaks in the
present tense, thus underlining the significance of this hour.

John 19.28a [bars 34]: Bach highlights the fact that Jesus has accomplished
all by a minor seventh interval on schon al-[les] (all had been) driving towards
resolution on vollbracht (accomplished, fulfillment) [bar 4]. Christs work of
reconciliation has already been accomplished. He has completed the work of
adoption, establishing new family ties where former ties have been broken
both for the members of his own family and the human family as a whole
[see movement 27c]. He also accomplished the fulfilment of Scripture and the
redemption of the human race, as both Luther and Calov note.283

John 19.28b29 [bars 511]: Having fulfilled all Scripture in his crucifixion,
there remains one further Scripture to be fulfilled. Jesus speaks for the penulti-
mate time in the Passion: mich drstet (I thirst). As Jesus speaks his last words,
the continuo provides a brief resolution to F sharp-major [bar 6]. Again, Jesus
words allude to the Passion Psalm 22 [see movement 27c]: My mouth is dried
up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of
death (Psalm 22.15).284
In order to quench Jesus thirst, he is given a drinkprobably of posca (sour
wine mixed with water and herbs, widely drunk by the Roman army at the
time)on a hyssop reed, Isopen [bar 10].285 Olearius is right in suggesting that

283 WA 28: 406, 1213, CB 3: 947: Der Schrift erfllung und der Erlsung des menschlichen
geschlechts volbringung ist.
284 Olearius, HS 5: 788, provides the necessary reference.
285 Posca is the term used in the Classical era, which was usually translated oxos (vinegar) in
Greek, and therefore translated back into Vulgate latin as acetum (vinegar). Luthers trans-
lation to the German Essig (vinegar) is therefore a correct rendition of the Biblical sources.
 commentary 267

the use of hyssop is a deliberate reference to Psalm 51, purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean let the bones that you have crushed rejoice (Psalm
51.78), representing the payment of the ransom for the sins of the entire
world.286 Bach traces the upward movement of the hyssop reed in music by
a rising minor sixth on dar (up to) [bar 10].

John 19.30a [bars 1114]: One he has received the vinegar, Jesus speaks his
last: the simple affirmation, es ist vollbracht (it is accomplished, brought to
fulfilment) [bars 1314] concludes the movement. The descending melodic line
as well as the continuo trace the dying breath of the crucified as he breathes his
last. As in previous movements, the melisma on [voll]-bracht (accomplished)
signifies brokenness [see the discussion on movement 10, bars 1014]. Jesus
brokenness on the cross has brought healing to a broken humanity: certainly,
for Luther and his followers Calov and Olearius, Jesus death was the victory
over the powers of evil that held humankind enthralled.287 In an almost poetic
reflection on the passage, Luther concludes:

It is accomplished: the Lamb of God has been slaughtered and offered

up for the sins of the world. The true high priest has accomplished his
offering, Gods Son has given up his life and body to pay the price for sin.
Sin is erased, Gods wrath appeased, death conquered, heaven opened. All
is fulfilled and accomplished; no one may dispute this fact, as if there was
something else to fulfil and accomplish.288

30. Aria
Alto Aria(Violin I/II, Viola, Viola da gamba, Organo, Continuo)

Es ist vollbracht! It is accomplished!

O Trost vor die gekrnkten Seelen! O consolation for the injured souls!
Die Trauernacht The night of mourning

286 HS 5: 789: Das vllige Lsegeld vor der gantzen Welt Snde bezahlet.
287 HS 5: 789: The battle is won/ the victory has been gained (Die Schlacht ist vollbracht/ der
Sieg ist erlangt).
288 WA 28: 406, 1320, CB 3: 947: Es ist volbracht: Gottes Lamb ist fur der Welt Snde
geschlachtet und geopffert, Der rechte Hohepriester hat sein Opffer vollendet, Gottes Son
hat sein Leib und Leben zur bezalung fur die Snde dahin gegeben und auffgeopffert, die
Snde ist getilget, Gottes zorn versnet, der Tod uberwunden, das himelreich erworben
und der Himmel aufgeschlossen. Es ist alles erfllet und vollendet und darff niemand
disputieren, als sey noch etwas dahinden zuerfllen und zu vollbringen.
 268 chapter 8

Lt nun die letzte Stunde zhlen. May now count its last hour.
Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht The hero of Judah triumphs with power
Und schliet den Kampf. And concludes the conflict.
Es ist vollbracht! It is accomplished!

Variant of a poem attributed to Christian Heinrich Postel: A poem proba-

bly written by the Leipzig and Hamburg lawyer-librettist Christian Heinrich
Postel serves as the textual basis for this two-part aria which skilfully juxta-
poses mourning for the death of Jesus with triumph for the redemption of the
world.289 The previous Postel poem Durch dein Gefngnis Gottes Sohn (Through
your prison, Son of God) [movement 22], used in Bachs Passion, had formed the
basis for a duet in Johann Matthesons Passion Oratorio Das Lied des Lammes
(1723) written the year before. This poem also forms part of Matthesons orato-
rio, where it was set as a bass aria to reflect on John 19.30a, it is accomplished:

O groes Werk! O great work!

Im Paradies schon angefangen, Already begun in Paradise,
O Riesenstrk! O strength of giants!
Die Christum lt den Sieg erlangen. Which lets Christ gain the triumph.
Da nach dem Streit, in Siegespracht, That following the strife, in glorious triumph,
Er sprechen kann: He can speak:
Es ist vollbracht. It is accomplished.

As with most of its poetic sources, Bachs libretto makes far-reaching changes to
the source text. In fact, only the metre and rhyme-scheme as well as the closing
line of Postels original remain. Where Postels aria viewed the Passion entirely
in terms of an eternally-predetermined victory, O groes Werk! Im Paradies
schon angefangen (O great work! Already begun in Paradise), Bachs aria falls
into two distinctive parts, which give shape to the musical form of the aria.
The first four lines as well as the concluding line of the aria give voice to the
believers lament for the death of Jesus. Postels unalloyed joy over the cosmic
victory of Christ over the powers of darkness is restricted to two lines.
Even the two remaining lines are changed entirely: rather than adopt Pos-
tels rather generic Die Christum lt den Sieg erlangen/ Da nach dem Streit, in
Siegespracht/ Er sprechen kann (Which lets Christ gain the triumph/ That fol-

289 For Postel, see the discussion on movement 22, above. The fact that much of the remaining
poetry of Matthesons Das Lied des Lammes, a contemporary St John Passion, was written
by Postel makes the attribution highly probable, see: Daniel R. Melamed, J.S. Bach and
the Oratorio Tradition, Bach Perspectives 8 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press: 2011),
p. 38.
commentary 269

lowing the strife, in glorious triumph/ he can speak), the libretto in Bachs aria
roots the victory over sin and death entirely in Scripture. For his Der Held aus
Juda siegt mit Macht/ Und schliet den Kampf (The hero of Juda triumphs with
power/ And concludes the conflict), the libretto draws on messianic imagery
from Genesis 49.910:

Judah is a lions whelp;

from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lionesswho dares rouse him up?
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor the sceptre from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and the obedience of the peoples is his.

Bachs Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht/ Und schliet den Kampf (The hero
of Judah triumphs with power/ And concludes the conflict) follows the under-
standing, first articulated in Revelation 5.4, that the death of Christ on the cross
completed the Messianic prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures: See, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered (Revelation 5.4). Caspar
Heunisch, a commentator on the book of Revelation whose work Bach owned,
emphatically directly associates the Lion/ who is from the tribe of Judah with
the opening of the Ark of the Covenant, which marked the moment of recon-
ciliation and symbolised the LORD Christ himself.290
Where Revelation and, commenting on it Heunisch, celebrated the victory
of Christ, the Lion of Judah over death and sin, Bachs aria celebrates the
cross. Certainly, the recurring Es ist vollbracht (It is accomplished) figures are
centred on a cross-motif [bar 5 and repeats], making the link to the means
of Christs victory explicit. Furthermore, by choosing the Messianic Prophecy
from Genesis that the Lion of Judah would triumph, the aria is ablein a
roundabout wayto incorporate the cross even into the brief celebration of
Christs victory.
The Hebrew word for the sceptre (shevet, )that was not to depart from
Judah (Genesis 49.10), can also be translated as cross.291 In his Judaismus,
Johann Mller reflected at length on the Genesis prophecy. Bach owned and

290 Heunisch (1684), p. 132: Der Lwe/ der da ist vom Geschlecht Juda; p. 136: Die Bundes-
Lade aber bedeutete den HERRN Christum selbst.
291 For Bachs schooling and his knowledge of Biblical languages, see: Loewe (2011), p. 143:
As a student at St Michaels School Lneburg, he certainly learnt New Testament Greek
270 chapter 8

may well have used the work [see the discussion on movement 18c, above], and
thus may have been familiar with Mllers refutation of the messianic theology
of the Lusitanian Rabbi, Amatus Lusitano.292 Lusitano had used the Genesis
prophecy in order to argue that the Messiah was yet to come: if the tribe of
Judah still had to bear the cross and misery of life in diaspora, then the Messiah
clearly could not have come yet: the sceptre of rule would only be taken up at
the coming of the Messiah.293 Until such time, Rabbi Lusitano argued, shevet
meant cross, Mller reports:

Rabbi Lusitanus says/ the little word shevet here did not mean scepter
or rule/ but meant as much as cross and misery/ a sceptre of tyranny
The misery of their exile shall not be removed from them/ until the arrival
of the Lords Messiah. Since the cross and tyranny of their exile endures,
they conclude that Messiah [sic] has not yet come.294

While Mller admits that Rabbi Lusitanos reading is etymologically correct,

he refutes his theological conclusion that the Messiah was yet to come.295 This
aria, intriguingly, affirms both the reading of shevet as cross and the coming of
the Messiah: it is clear that in this aria, the Held aus Juda (hero of Judah) has
arrived and conquered death by accepting the sceptre of the cross.

and may even have taken the optional Hebrew classes offered by the schools deputy
headmaster. See also: Martin Petzoldt, Ut probus & doctus reddar: Zum Anteil der
Theologie bei der Schulausbildung Johann Sebastian Bachs in Eisenach, Ohrdruf und
Lneburg, Bach- Jahrbuch (1985), pp. 742, p. 11.
292 For Amatus Lusitanus (15111568), see: Gershon Lewental, Amatus Lusitanus (Amato
Lusitano), Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Norman A. Stillman, ed. (Leiden: Brill,
2010).
293 Mller (1643), p. 206: Creutz vnd Trbsal, p. 209: Scepter vnd Regiment.
294 Mller (1643), p. 206: Rabbi Lusitanus in Colloq. Mittelb. p. 61, 71 [Colloquium Theo-
logicum Rabbini Lusitani cum Theologos Christianos Abrahamo, Mittelburgi: MS Folio]
saget/ das Wrtlein Schevet heisse allhier nicht Scepter vnd Regiment/ sondern bedeute
so viel/ als einen Stecken oder Rute/ das ist/ Creutz vnd Trbsal/ ein Tyranisches Scepter/
sey demnach dieses die meynung Jacobs/ Es sol die Trbsal jhrer Gefngn von jhnen nit
genomen warden/ bi da des HErn Messias komme. Nun aber bleibe das Creutz vnd die
Trbsal jhrer Gefngn noch jmmer zu: daraus sie schliessen/ da Messias noch nicht
kommen sey.
295 Mller (1643), p. 206: It is not denied/ that in Scripture shevet can, from time to time, mean
punishment or misery (Nicht geleugnet wird/ da Scheveth biweilen in der Schrift Straffe
oder Trbsal bedeute).
commentary 271

The aria falls into two distinctive parts. First, an intimate and introspective
setting for viola da gamba and continuo senza Bassono grossowithout cham-
ber organ and contrabassoonthat gives voice to a mournful reflection on the
death of Jesus [bars 119]. Second, a triumphant celebration of the victory of
the cross in which a full string and continuo section, including organ and con-
trabassoon, join the viola da gamba and the solo voice [bars 2040]. The fact
that the plaintive viola da gamba joins forces with the remaining strings in the
triumphant vivace (lively) section may well be a reflection in music on the the-
ological insight that the sceptre of the conquering hero is a cross, and that it is
in his grte Niedrigkeit (deepest lowliness) that the Son of God has been glori-
fied [see the discussion on movement 1, bars 58b95]. It may also suggest that
the death on the cross is the moment of life.

[bars 119]: The combination of a molt andante (moderately slow) tempo and
intimate string setting of viola da gamba, complemented by a violone continuo
rather than a chamber organ, offers a reflective musical framework for the
alto soloists mournful contemplation of the dying Jesus. In Baroque musical
allegory the alto voice was equated with the Holy Spirit: the choice of the solo
voice is very likely a reflection on Jesus giving up his spirit, an act that, in Johns
Gospel, finds its parallel in Jesus second resurrection appearance, at which he
breathed on [his disciples] and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit (John
20.22).296 The Es ist vollbracht (It is accomplished) pattern opens and closes
the movement and is repeated throughout. It imitates the final words of the
previous movement, simply a major sixth higher [movement 29, bar 1314].
Another frequent device in this aria is the use of melismas to reference
human brokenness [see the discussion on movement 10]. In the St John Passion
Bach rarely uses melismas: there is no other movement in which this device
is used more frequently than here. In this aria, melismas highlight important
themes: the death of Christ has vollbracht (accomplished) [bar 5 and repeats]
the work of salvation, bringing Trost (consolation) [bar 6] for injured Seelen
(souls) [bar 9], all of which are marked by melismas. Similarly, the hope that the
Trauernacht (night of mourning) [bar 12] may be broken, and a new day would
dawn, when night will count its last hour (zhlen) [bar 15 and repeats] and the
dawn of resurrection will shine forth its light, are also marked by melismas.
When contemplating the broken Saviour on the cross, there is still reason for
hope: even the Trauernacht (night of mourning), with its sustained monotone

296 Saubert (1625), 3r, Suavissima Musica Christo: Aller Christen nothwendige Musik: altus.
(Figure 11).
272 chapter 8

figure 11 Johann Saubert, DYODEKAS emblematum sacrorum (1625): The alto voice as an
expression of the Holy Spirit
 commentary 273

on the lowest note of the opening molt adagio section [bars 1314] and its
cross-motif [bar 16], will come to an end: just as Jesus hour has come for him
to be glorified by his death on the cross (John 12.23), so the hour has come for
the Trauernacht (night of mourning) to come to an end.

[bars 2040]: The vivace (lively) section heralds the victor whose rule is estab-
lished on a cross. Joined by upper strings, and full continuo con bassono grosso
(with contrabassoon) Bach introduces a jubilant call to arms [bar 40]. Der
Held aus Juda (The hero of Juda) is a triumphant victor, whose appellation
functions as a clarion call which is taken up by the entire string section [bar
2225 and 3234]. Where in the opening molt adagio section melismas indi-
cated the human brokenness both of the victor and his followers, the exul-
tant coloraturas on Kampf (battle) [bars 2631] and Macht (power) [bars
3637] leave no doubt that the battle, ultimately, has been won and is now
closed.

[bars 4144]: A retardation to adagio, and a return to the reduced musical

forces of the opening molt adagio section re-introduce the Es ist vollbracht
(It is accomplished) figure [bar 40]. At the end of the movement, the soloist
echoes the last words of the dying Jesus, transposed a forth higher, that now
all has been accomplished. Unlike the vivace section, which afforded a glimpse
of vivid resurrection light during the three-hour eclipse of Good Friday, there
is now no longer any hint of new life, simply the overcoming of death by
death.

31. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist Evangelist
Johannes 19,30b Und neiget das Haupt John 19.30b And bowed the head
und verschied. and died.

John 19.30b [bars 12]: Following the triumphant representation of the battle
for salvation in the previous aria, this sober two-bar movement merely con-
firms the death of the crucified. Unlike the accounts in Matthews Passion
where Jesus cried with a loud voice and breathed his last (Matthew 27.51),
or Lukes where Jesus commends his spirit to God at the moment of his death
(Luke 23.46), here he merely neiget das Haupt (bows the head) and dies. Bach
traces the bowing of Jesus head in death by a gentle downward movement in
the evangelists melodic line [bar 1]. Although he has in fact bowed his head, in
 274 chapter 8

music Jesus dies with his head held high: the d on Haupt is the highest note in
the movement, providing possibly a musical illustration of Olearius claim that
the Lord of death dies of his own free will, when and how he pleases.297 The
report of Jesus actual death, und verschied (and died) [bar 1], uses the same
melodic material as the concluding words of the two preceding movements, es
ist vollbracht (it is accomplished).

32. Aria e Coro

Bass Aria and Chorale(Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola with Tenors)

Mein teurer Heiland, la dich fragen,
Jesu, der du warest tot,
Da du nunmehr ans Kreuz geschlagen
Und selbst gesagt: Es ist vollbracht,
Lebest nun ohn Ende,
Bin ich vom Sterben frei gemacht?
In der letzten Todesnot
Nirgend mich hinwende
Kann ich durch deine Pein und Sterben
Das Himmelreich ererben?
Ist aller Welt Erlsung da?
Als zu dir, der mich vershnt,
O du lieber Herre!
Du kannst vor Schmerzen zwar nichts sagen;
Gib mir nur, was du verdient,
Doch neigest du das Haupt
Und sprichst stillschweigend: ja.
Mehr ich nicht begehre!
My dear Saviour, let me ask you
Jesu, you who were dead,
There you are now stricken on the Cross
And you said yourself: it is accomplished!
Live now without end,
Have I been set free from dying?
In the last adversity of death
I turn towards nowehere
Can I through your agony and dying
The Kingdom of Heaven inherit?
Is all the worlds redemption there?
As to you, who reconciles me,
O you beloved Lord!
In fact you cannot speak for the pains
Give me only what you deserved,
Indeed you bow your head
And speak tacitly: yes.
More I do not desire!

Bass Aria, Brockes Passion: The libretto adapts a dialogue between Tochter
Zion (Daughter Zion) and the glubige Seele (believing soul) from the Brockes
Passion for the second part [bars 2043] of his reflection on the completion
of Christs work on the cross. Again, the libretto substantially changes Brockes
lyrics, and also adds a new couplet to introduce the altered Brockes poem:

Tochter Zion Daughter Zion

Kan ich durch deine Quaal und Sterben Can I through your agony and dying
Nunmehr das Paradies ererben? Now inherit Paradise?
Ist aller Welt Erlsung nah? Is all the worlds redemption there?

297 HS 5: 789: Der HERR des Todes stirbt freywillig/ wenn und wie es ihm gefllt.
 commentary 275

Glubige Seele: Believing soul

Die sind der Tochter Zion Fragen. These are the questions of Daughter Zion.
Weil Jesus nun nichts kan, fr Schmerzen, sagen; Because Jesus now nothing can, for pains, say
So neiget Er Sein Haupt so he bows he head
und winket and waves
Ja. Yes.

The changes to Brockes poetry are as much theological as they are practical:
they render Brockes libretto more singable by rendering the clumsy Weil Jesus
nun nichts kan, fr Schmerzen, sagen (Because Jesus now nothing can, for
pains, say) with Du kannst vor Schmerzen zwar nichts sagen (lit.: You can for
pains in fact nothing say) [bars 3034], and as in movement 24, scraps the
distinction between Tochter Zion (Daughter Zion) and glubige Seele (believing
soul). For Bach and his collaborators, this aria is no longer a dialogue between
the representative of the people of God and a disembodied believing soul as
it was for Brockes. Instead, this aria is about full human beings with bodies
that can die and feel pain, and not, as in Brockes libretto, their souls alone.
It reflects on the coming of Gods kingdom from heaven to earth, embodies
Gods kingdom in the lives of real believers, a theological change that is marked
by Bachs allocating the aria to a robust Bass voice accompanied by a full
string orchestra, rather than the plaintive Soprano accompanied by gamba
continuo as in Handels setting of Brockes text [HW 48]. Finally, where Brockes
concentrated on the question on whether Paradise could be regained, Bachs
aria clearly points to the hope that through Jesus death on the cross believers
can hope to live in Gods presence forever. By the completion of the events of
the cross, Gods kingdom has become close to earth, and life eternal has become
a hope for all those who believe in the power of the cross. In order to provide a
frame for these important textual changes, Bachs unknown librettist supplied
a new couplet to introduce the edited Brockes text which emphasises his belief
in Jesus as teurer Heiland (dear Saviour) who can set individuals free from death
(vom Sterben frei gemacht).
Textually and musically, this aria and chorale form a companion piece to Eilt,
ihr angefochtnen Seelen (Hurry you troubled souls) [movement 24]. For Bach,
the prefect movement marks the completion of the souls agonised journey
to the foot of the cross where, surveying the broken body on the cross, the
souls hope of life eternal is confirmed. This completion is expressed musically
by providing a bass line as a musical foundation, added to the disembodied
upper three choir voices (standing in for souls) in movement 24. Where in
Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen (Hurry, you troubled souls) only the upper voices
accompanied the bass obbligato, here a full four-part choir joins the soloist.
276 chapter 8

Where in Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen the three upper voices interrupted the
obbligato with their repeated demands for direction, Wohin? (Where to?), here
the roles are reversed: the soloists asks while the four voices provide an answer
by way of a Lutheran chorale exemplifying the certainty of faith of the believer.
Finally, where Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen was set in G minor, the Baroque key
associated with tragedy and sadness, this aria and chorale are set in compound
quadruple time and in D major, the Baroque key of glory.

Broken Chorale: Verse 34, Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod: The three uses of Paul
Stockmanns Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod (Jesus suffering, death and pain) in
the Passion introduce specific petitions: here, in the final section, the hearer
is enjoined to turn to Christ in order to share in his death and ressurection
[see also movements 14 and 28]. The final three verses of Stockmanns Jesu
Leiden, Pein und Tod, break the two-couplet pattern of narrative and application
that characterised the remainder of the hymn. In 1714 Bach had used the
penultimate verse, Jesu, deine Passion/ ist mir lauter Freude, to conclude his
Palm Sunday Cantata Himmelsknig, sei Willkommen [BWV 185].298
This verse leads beyond the cross and grave, to heaven.299 Bach uses it to
comment on the point of completion at the end of Johns crucifixion narrative:
and bowed his head, and died (John 19.30b). The chorale is a prayer addressed
to the risen Christ, the Jesus, der du warest tot (Jesus, you who were dead)
and who lebest nun ohne Ende (live now without end): the believers confess
their confidence in the power of Christs reconciling power, turning nirgend
(nowhere) als zu dir, der mich vershnt (as to you, who reconciles me), the
believers lieber Herre (beloved Lord). The prayer concludes with the prayer-
ful desire to be given a share in the merits Christ has gained, gib mir nur, was
du verdient (give me only what you deserved), and so to be justified. Christs
Verdienst (merit) is both the believers highest good and their greatest need:
mehr ich nicht begehre! (more I do not desire), their prayer concludes confi-
dently.

Aria and Chorale: Together, chorale and aria provide a powerful theological
response to the Johannine sense of completion expressed in the preceding
two movements. They give voice to the hope of resurrection: both the imma-
nent resurrection of Christ and, through him, the general resurrection of all
believers. While Bachs elaborate ornamentations in the solo part on ans Kreuz

298 Stockmann (1641), A viiv.

299 Stockmann (1641), A viijr.
commentary 277

geschlagen (you are now stricken on the cross) [bars 910], ererben (inherit)
[bar 23], Erlsung (redemption) [bars 2528], Schmerzen (pains) [bars 3133]
and neigest du das Haupt (you bow your head) [bars 3839] provide first musi-
cal pointers, the movements key messages are conveyed in the carefully con-
structed questions and answers between soloist and choir. This movement is
defined by significant questions and answers, and Bachs music makes that
clear: the opening ritornello [bars 12] mimics the raising of the human voice
at the end of a question. Morever, the bass soloists opening Mein teurer Hei-
land (My dear Saviour) [bar 3] might, with some imagination, be thought
of as resembling a question mark that has been placed horizontally in the
score.
The first couplet of Bachs aria reveals the multi-focussed persectives of
the movement. The bass obbligato reflects on the events in time from the
perspective of Golgotha: Jesus has died and all is accomplished, as he himself
has said (und selbst gesagt; Es ist vollbracht) [bars 1112]. However, the choirs
chorale, sung above the bass obbligato, offers a different reading of the same
events in eternity and from the perspective of heaven: Jesus now lives forever
(lebest ohne Ende) [bars 1112]. Through a series of questions and responses the
heavenly perspective informs the earthly until, at the end of the movement,
the two view-points merge to enable soloist and choir to articulate one shared
hope of life in Gods presence and according to Gods purpose.
The bass soloist voices a trinity of existential human questions: Bin ich vom
Sterben frei gemacht? (Have I been set free from dying?) [bars 1419], Kann
ich durch deine Pein und Sterben/ Das Himmelreich ererben? (Can I through
your agony and dying/ the Kingdom of Heaven inherit?) [bars 2023], Ist aller
Welt Erlsung da? (Is all the worlds redemption there?) [bars 2429]. Bach
does not employ another solo voice to answer these fundamental questions,
as he would later in the Christmas Oratorios famous echo aria [BWV 248/4, 4].
Rather, the soloists trinity of questions are first answered by the choir alone:
der mich vershnt (who reconciles me) [bar 27], and O du lieber Herre (O you
beloved Lord) [bars 2930]. Later, the voices of soloist and choir are combined
to provide an answer: Ja! Mehr ich nicht begehre! (Yes! More I do not desire!)
[bars 3738]. Finally the questioner himself answers his own questions by a
threefold resounding Ja declaimed by the soloist [bars 4043]. The overall
effect is one of conversion: by allowing the perspective of eternity to illuminate
the present reality, the questioner is brought to firm belief and, like Jesus on the
cross, submits to the will of God.
The following scheme gives a brief overview of the carefully layered dia-
logues between solo voice and choir in framing and answering these questions
of conversion:
 278 chapter 8

[Bars 1419:] Bin ich vom Sterben frei Have I been set free from
gemacht? dying?
[Bars 1718:] In der letzten Todesnot In the last misery of death
[Bars 2022:] nirgend mich hinwende. I turn towards nowhere.
[Bars 2023:] Kann ich das Himmelreich Can I the Kingdom of
ererben? Heaven inherit?
[Bars 2429:] Ist aller Welt Erlsung da? Is all the worlds redemption
there?
[Bars 2628:] Als zu Dir, der mich As to you, who reconciles
vershnt, me,
[Bars 2930:] O du lieber Herre. O you beloved Lord.
[Bars 3638:] Du sprichst You say, tacitly: Yes.
stillschweigend: Ja.
[Bars 3738:] Mehr ich nicht begehre! More I do not desire!

Bachs carefully composed sound picture paints the moment when heaven
and earth have come together: Jesus once was dead, but now reigns and rules
at Gods right hand in heaven [bars 46, 1112]. He is a Saviour whom the
faithful can readily approach, even at the time of their own deaths [bars 1718,
2022]. Believers can establish a relationship of love with this redeemer and
hold him dear [bar 29]. His suffering and death have opened heaven to all and
granted humans their greatest desire: the possibility of life in Gods presence
forever [bars 3738]. At the foot of the cross, contemplating the dying Jesus,
the bystanders come to realise that it is true that Jesus death has brought about
their own salvation and the salvation of the entire cosmos [bars 2428], and are
converted. While the Saviours voice has been silenced by death [bars 3034],
he affirms their questions and grants their desires silently, by bowing his head.
This affirmation from the cross invites the believers to make their own response
of assent to Gods purposes, which they make resolutely and with joy, and in
a single voice: Ja! Mehr ich nicht begehre! (Yes! More I do not desire!) [bars
3738].

33. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist
Matthus 27,51 Und siehe da, der Vorhang
im Tempel zerri in zwei Stck
von oben an bis unten aus.
Und die Erde erbebete, und die Felsen zerrissen,
Evangelist
Matthew 27.51 And behold there, the curtain
in the temple was torn in two strips,
from top to bottom.
And the earth quaked, and the rocks were torn,
 commentary 279

27,52 und die Grber tten sich auf, 27.52 and the tombs opened up,
und stunden auf viel Leiber der Heiligen. and many of the bodies of the saints arose.

Matthew 27.51 [bars 13]: Here, the libretto borrows two verses from Matthews
Passion story to illustrate the response of the universe to the death of Jesus: the
fruits of the Passion are shown forth as Christ is addressed, zeig uns durch deine
Passion (show us through your Passion) [movement 1] that the world is changed
forever.
What for John has been summed up in three simple words es ist vollbracht
(it is accomplished) [see movements 29 and 30], for Matthew is reflected in a
spectacle and in spectacular ruptures in nature. The temple curtain in front of
the Holy of Holies, place of the Ark of the Covenant and the Tablets of the Law, a
visible reminder of the separation of sacred and profane, is torn in two. Through
the death of Christ, this barrier between God and humankind is removed: the
Holy of Holies is opened and Heaven is opened to all, to approach the throne
of grace.300 Caspar Heunisch, a Lutheran theologian whose work Bach owned,
elaborates:

This Temple/ the Holy of Holies/ has been opened/ once and for ever
by the bloody offering of Christ on the Cross/ when the curtain in the
Jerusalem Temple was torn apart/ so that the Ark of the Covenant was
revealed But the Ark of the Covenant symbolised the LORD Christ
himself.301

The libretto had made a similar connection, through using the same word,
Stck (strip, piece), to describe both the pieces of the torn curtain and Jesus
bloody back after the flogging in movement 20, in allen Stcken dem Himmel
gleiche geht (in each strip goes equally, or straight, to heaven). The tearing of
the Temple curtain is musically represented by a downward melodic line on
oben an bis unten aus (top to bottom) [bar 3]. The descending demisemiquaver
continuo line seamlessly leads into a musical representation of the earthquake
that accompanied the death of Jesus [bars 45].302

300 HS 5: 260: Das allerheiligste erffnet/ und der Himmel iedermann offen zu dem
Gnaden-Thron.
301 Heunisch (1684), p. 136: Dieser Tempel/ das Allerheiligste/ ist aufgethan worden/ ein mal
durch Christi blutiges Creutz-Opffer/ da der Vorhang im Tempel zu Jerusalem mitten
voneinander gerissen/ da die Bundes-Lade hat knnen gesehen werden/ Die Bundes-
Lade aber bedeutete den HERRN Christum selbst.
302 Josephus reports an earthquake in War 1: 370: In the early spring [of 31ce] an earthquake
destroyed cattle innumerable and 30,000 souls, adding in Ant. 15: 121: There was an
 280 chapter 8

In many ways this movement is a dress-rehearsal for its more dramatic

counterpart in the St Matthew Passion [BWV 244, movement 63a], though both
draw on the same musical imagery: the tearing of the tombs, Grber tten
sich auf [bar 5] and the resurrection of the saints in anticipation of Christs
resurrection three days later, stunden auf viel Leiber der Heiligen [bars 67],
both use upward melodic scales to represent the breaking open of the earth
and the rising of the dead. The longer counterpart in the Great Passion does
the same on a much grander scale.303

34. Arioso
Tenor AriosoFlutes I/II, Oboe da caccia I/II, Violins I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo

Mein Herz, in dem die ganze Welt
Bei Jesu Leiden gleichfalls leidet,
Die Sonne sich in Trauer kleidet,
Der Vorhang reit, der Fels zerfllt,
Die Erde bebt, die Grber spalten,
Weil sie den Schpfer sehn erkalten,
Was willst du deines Ortes tun?
My heart, in whom the whole world
With Jesus suffering equally suffers,
The sun dresses herself in mourning
The curtain tears, the rocks crumble
The earth quakes, the graves split
Because they see the Creator grow cold
What will do in your own place?

Unknown librettist: This brief arioso invites reflection on the powerful

response by naturethe solar eclipse, tearing of the Temple Curtain and earth-
quakethat accompanied Jesus death in Matthews account of the death of
Jesus (Matthew 27.51). The entire creation responds to the death of the Creator,
weil sie den Schpfer sehn erkalten (because they see the Creator grow cold). The
Schpfer (Creator) is, in this case, the creative Word of the Father made flesh,
Jesus. His death invites the librettists own heart, and that of his listeners, to
make a response themselves: was willst du deines Ortes tun? (what will you do
in your place?)
In this appeal, the movement closely follows the intent and imagery of the
late-sixteenth-century Passion devotions of Martin Moller, who also supplies a
Lutheran response to Jesus death:

earthquake in Judea such as had not been seen before; Jefferson B. Williams, Markus
J. Schwab and A. Brauer, An early first-century earthquake in the Dead Sea, International
Geology Review 54.10 (2011), pp. 12191228, provide geological evidence for a large-scale
seismic event in the timeframe. Whether the event actually took place at the time of the
crucifixion or whether Matthew deliberately redacted earlier accounts of the crucifixion
to include the earthquake is uncertain.
303 For a close-reading of the relevant movements from the St Matthew Passion, see: Loewe
(2011), pp. 168170.
commentary 281

Then/ dear soul/ marvel at this miracle/ and take to heart the death of
your Lord. The sun divests itself of its bright beam/ why then do you not
lay down your hypocrisy and false glory? The Temple Curtain is torn/
why then do you not tear up the veil of unbelief and incomprehension/
that is in front of the eyes of your heart? The earth quakes/ although it
is firmly established/ why then does your heart not quake also/ and is
terrified at the weight of your sins/ that the righteous Son of God has to
carry? The hard rocks break open/ why then does your heart not break
open, either/ and is opened to/ admit the power of the blood of Christ?
The graves open/ so that the dead may be awakened/ Why then will your
own heart not awaken/ which is dead because of sin? O dear soul/ beat
your own breast with genuine remorse/ and turn away from your evil
life.304

As in the previous movement, Bachs representation in music of the trembling

human heart, the solar eclipse, the rending of the Temple Curtain, and earth-
quake may seem somewhat subdued when compared with its much more dra-
matic counterpart in the St Matthew Passion [BWV 244, movement 63a]. Yet, at
the time of its first performance, the musical imagery employed in this arioso
would have sounded theatrical: music that now seems archetypically tradi-
tional was therefore actually associated with innovation and secular music,
in many eyes dubious qualities for the religious sphere.305 Eight years after
the first performance of the work Christian Gerber reported a reaction to such
musical innovations in church music: An old widow of the nobility said, God

304 Moller (1587), p. 238v239r: Also/ liebe Seele/ entsetze du dich auch fr diesen Wunderzei-
chen/ vnd la dir den Todt deines HERRN zu Hertzen gehen. Die Sonne verhekt jhren
hellen Schein/ Warumb legestu auch nicht abe deine heucheley vnd falschen Schein? Der
Vorhang im Tempel zureisset/ Warumb zurreisset nicht auch die Decke deines Vnglau-
bens vnd Vnuerstandes/ die vor den Augen deines Hertzen henget? Die Erde erbebet/
welche feste gegrndet ist/ Warumb erzittert nicht auch dein Hertze/ vnd erschrickt fr
der Lat deiner Snden/ welche der gerechte Son Gottes tragen mu? Die harten Felsen
zuspringen/ Warumb zurspringet nicht auch dein Hertze/ vnd thut sich auff/ das die
Krafft des Blutes Christi hinein kan? Die Grber thun sich auff/ das die Todten erwachen/
Warumb wil denn dein Hertze nicht erwachen/ welches Todt ist in Snden? O liebe Seel/
schlag auch an deine Brust mit gantzem ernst/ vnd wende wider umb aus deinem bsen
Leben.
305 Kevorkian (2007), p. 39: Many of the citizens of Leipzig would have been familiar with
opera and, because Bachs tenure in Leipzig began after the closure of the Opera House in
1720, which had been set up in 1693 to provide performances during the Leipzig trade fair,
the churches became more important places to mingle and hear music.
282 chapter 8

save us, my children! It is just as if one were at an Opera Comedy.306 The intent
is, however, not comedy but cathartic tragedy: Jesus is dead, and the entire cos-
mos mourns his death.
The movement opens with a demisemiquaver unison string-figure which,
in combination with the tenor soloists exclamation mein Herz (my heart),
here provides an allusion to Mollers heart-quake [bars 1]. The string-figure
establishes a musical framework for the remainder of the movement: it is
used to represent the solar eclipse [bar 5] and, in slightly variations suited to
each of the mirculous natural events that accompanied the death of Christ, to
symbolise the rending of the Temple Curtain, der Vorhang reit, and splitting
of rocks, der Fels zerfllt [bar 5], as well as the earthquake, die Erde bebt, and
the opening of graves, die Grber spalten [bars 67]. The cross-motif on der
Vorhang reit (the curtain tears) parallels Olearius observation that, through
the cross, the Holy of Holies is opened and Heaven opened for everyone to
access the throne of grace.307 Likewise, the cross-motif on der Fels zerfllt (the
rocks crumble) [bars 56] may well be a reference to Olearius observation that
the crumbling rocks were a sign of grace/ that stony hearts should be broken
open and become converted/ because innocence and the divine majesty of
Christ have conquered in the events of the cross.308 The Pietist Johann Arndt,
whose work Bach also owned, certainly shared the same insight:

The cleft rocks teach us to allow the shameful, bitter death of Christ to
tear open our hearts and break down our hardness and pride, for if a rock
is torn open, then surely our hearts can be moved as well.309

306 NBR no. 324, Christian Gerber, Geschichte der Kirchen Ceremonien in Sachsen (Dresden:
Saueressig, 1732), p. 283: Eine alte Adeliche Wittwe sagte: Gott behte, ihr Kinder! Ist es
doch, als ob man in einer Opera-Comdie ware. As a staunch Pietist, Gerber was biased
against Lutheran Orthodox practise, but a negative reaction of some citizens to the use
of dramatic music in Leipzigs churches nevertheless prevailed, see: Kevorkian (2007),
pp. 131133.
307 HS 5: 206: Das allerheiligste [ist] erffnet/ Hebr. C. 9. C. 7 und der Himmel iedermann
offen zu dem Gnaden-Thron.
308 HS 5: 261: Ein Gnaden-Zeichen/ da die steinernen Herzen zermalmet Jer. Cap. 23 und
bekehret werden solten/ weil sie die Unschuld und gttliche Majestt Christi den Sieg
erhalten.
309 Arndt (1616), p. 605: Lehren uns die Felsen-Klffte, da wir den schmhlichen bittern Tod
Christi sollen lassen unsere steinerne Hertzen zureissn und zuknirschen, da wir doch
nicht so hart und grob seyn, da ehe ein Felsen zurreusset, dann unsere Hertzen knnen
bewogen werden.
 commentary 283

A retardation to adagio introduces a different, more instrospective, mood

to introduce the challenge to individual believers, Was willst du deines Ortes
tun? (What will do in your place?) [bar 8]. Drr suggests that the believers
assent to the charge to open their hearts in response to the death of Christ on
the cross, is represented in music in the penultimate bar by a sigh and Bebung
(bow vibrato figure) as an answer of the Christians response to these events.310
The following aria further develops the theme of the believers response to the
death of Jesus.

35. Aria
Soprano AriaFlutes I/II, Oboe da caccia I/II, Organ, Continuo

Zerfliee, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zhren Melt, my heart, in floods of brine
Dem Hchsten zu Ehren! The Highest to honour!
Erzhle der Welt und dem Himmel die Not: Tell the world and heaven the misery:
Dein Jesus ist tot! Your Jesus is dead!

Variant of Brockes Passion, p. 391: For the final time in the Passion, the libretto
adapts a poem from the Brockes Passion, in which the Glubige Seele (believing
soul) mourns the death of Jesus:

Was thust denn du mein Herz? What then will you do my heart?
Ersticke, Gott zu Ehren, Choke, to honour God,
In einer Sndflut bittrer Zhren. In a sin-flood of bitter brine.

Where in previous adapations, the libretto maintained much of Brockes poetry,

though with significant alterations to suit the new context, here only a few ele-
ments of the original poem survive. Placing the Fluten Zhren (floods of brine)
at the beginning, rather than the conclusion of the poem, enables the musical
depiction of tears throughout the movement and revises Brockes somewhat
flawed theology: following the death of Christ there is no more need for a Snd-
flut (sin-flood), rather, the New Covenant has already been inaugurated on the
cross. Similarly the strange and excessively physical imagery of ersticke, Gott zu
Ehren (choke, to honour God) is replaced with the evocative image of a melt-
ing heart. The change of text also creates greater continuity with the previous
arioso, which also called on the human Herz (heart) to respond to the death of
the Creator. Here, the human hearts response is shown in the proclamation of

310 Drr (2000), p. 92.

284 chapter 8

the sense of loss that the death of Jesus has brought about, telling der Welt und
dem Himmel die Not (the world and heaven the misery) by its fervent Fluten der
Trnen (floods of brine).
Bach scored the movement for four solo voicesthe soprano, solo oboe
da caccia (hunting oboe), solo flute and continuoto create an introspec-
tive setting for this final appeal to the human heart to turn to Christ, and
melt in response to his death. The reduced forces give full expression to the
plaintive sound of the oboe da caccia and flute which, in turn, is echoed in
the melodic line. In this elegaic setting, the soprano soloist gives expression
to the contrition of the believer. It has been noted above [movement 9, bars
44112] that in Baroque musical allegory, the soprano voice symbolised human
life and the prayers of the individual believers. The choice of register is there-
fore a deliberate expression of the believers repentant prayer/ ascending to
God like the descant.311 Bachs word-setting reinforces the mournful mood,
the demisemiquaver and semiquaver patterns on zerfliee (melt) [bar 17 and
repeats] and Fluten der Zhren (floods of brine) paints a dynamic musical
image of the melting heart, with the continuo line adding a regular heartbeat-
like pattern [bars 19 and seq.]. God, who hears the believers prayers and
accepts the floods of remorseful tears, dwells above: the Highest (Hchste)
is expressed either by sustained high notes [bars 3336] or ascending lines
throughout the movement [bars 47 and 123].
The composer similarly contrasts Welt (world) and Himmel (Heaven) [bars
5961]. Both in Johns Gospel narrative and in Bachs musical cosmos the world
is below and heaven above. As John had suggested earlier in his Gospel, The
one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to
the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven
is above all (John 3.31). Though above all the earth and all earthly desires,
heaven is also a place where the believers contrite prayers are heard and
accepted by the Highest, a concept Bach realises by replicating the zerfliee-
pattern on Hchsten (Highest) [bar 47] and Himmel (heaven) [bar 61 and
65].
In the end, even though the believers contrite response to the death of Jesus
has been accepted by God in heaven, there remains genuine sorrow and Not
(misery). As in previous movements [movement 9, bar 156; movement 19, bar
15; movement 21c, bar 26; movement 23g, bar 80; movement 29, bar 14 and
movement 30], Bach uses the melisma to indicate brokenness: the death of

311 Saubert (1625), 3r, Suavissima Musica Christo: Aller Christen nothwendige Musik: Das
Gebet/ wie ein Discant auffsteiget (Figure 11).
 commentary 285

Jesus and the believers sorrow honours (Ehren) the Highest [bars 4849], yet
the misery (Not) [bars 62 and 66] of the loss of Jesus [bar 67] is genuine and
real. The extended melismas on tot (dead) [bars 73, 8083 and 88] reinforce
the message of the entire Passion that the reconciliation of the believer with
their Creator has been brought about by the self-giving of Jesus on the cross.
In the light of this insight, the believers floods of tears (Fluten der Zhren) to
honour (Ehren) this sacrifice is the only possible human response, a point that
is reinforced in the arias theological counterpart in the St Matthew Passion:
Erbarme dich, mein Gott, um meiner Zhren willen! (Have mercy on me, O God,
for the sake of my brine!) [BWV 244, movement 39].

36. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,31 Die Jden aber, dieweil es
der Rsttag war, da nicht die Leichname
am Kreuze blieben den Sabbath ber
(denn desselbigen Sabbaths Tag
war sehr gro), baten sie Pilatum, da ihre
Beine gebrochen und sie abgenommen wrden.
Evangelist
John 19.31 But the Jews, because it was
the Day of Preparation, that the corpses
would not stay on the crosses over the Sabbath
(since that particular Sabbath Day was very
important), they petitioned Pilate, that their
legs would be broken and they would be taken
down.

19,32 Da kamen die Kriegsknechte und brachen 19.32 There the mercenaries came and broke
dem ersten die Beine und dem andern, the legs of the first and of the other
der mit ihm gekreuziget war. who had been crucified with him.

19,33 Als sie aber zu Jesu kamen, da sie sahen, 19.33 But when they came to Jesus, there they
da er schon gestorben war, brachen sie ihm saw that he had already died, they did not
die Beine nicht; break his legs;

19,34 sondern der Kriegsknechte einer erffnete 19.34 rather, one of the mercenaries opened
seine Seite mit einem Speer, und alsobald his side with a spear, and at once
ging Blut und Wasser heraus. blood and water came out.

19,35 Und der das gesehen hat, der hat es bezeuget, 19.35 And he who saw that, he has testified to
und sein Zeugnis ist wahr, und derselbige wei, it, and his testimony is true, and the same one
da er die Wahrheit saget, auf da ihr glubet. knows that he tells the truth, so that you also
may believe in that.

19,36 Denn solches ist geschehen, auf da 19.36 Then such things were done so that
die Schrift erfllet wrde: Ihr sollet ihm kein the Scripture would be fulfilled: They shall not
Bein zerbrechen. break any of his bones.
 286 chapter 8

19,37 Und abermal spricht eine andere Schrift: 19.37 And but again another Scripture says:
Sie werden sehen, in welchen sie gestochen haben. They will behold, whom they have stabbed.

John 19.3132 [bars 111]: The longest recitative of the Passion tells how the
religious authorities ask Pilate to remove the bodies of Jesus, and the two
criminals who were crucified with him. As in most movements in the Passion,
die Jden (the Jews) here refers to the religious hierarchy who had brought Jesus
to trial. As in movement 25b, they send a delegation to Pilate to ask him to
remove the bodies. Olearius points out that ordinarily the Romans would have
had no regard [for the crucified]/ and let the dead rot on the cross.312 John
indicates the reason for the chief priests petition, denn desselbigen Sabbaths
Tag war sehr gro (since that particular Sabbath day was very important): the
religious authorities did not wish for the bodies to remain on the cross during
the Passover festivities. Luther adds this explanation: It was a Jewish manner
and customnot only a custom, in fact, but also Gods commandmentnot
to leave crucified or hanged dead bodies unburied after sunset.313 Bach sets
Johns parenthetical text in bars 45 as an aside to the contemporary audience,
piano (quietly).
Their request to have the bones of the three crucified men broken to speed
up their death, and to have their bodies removed is marked forte (strong, loud),
perhaps suggesting a forceful request, perhaps marking the violence of the
act [bar 6]. Olearius suggests that the bones to be broken are thigh-bones
(Schnenkel) based on his reading of Pliny.314 The breaking of bones is high-
lighted by a tritone on die Beine (the bones) in the melodic line, thus marking
it as a moment of both extreme pain and cruelty. The request for deposition
from the cross, on abgenommen (taken down), is based on one of the last cross-
motifs in the Passion [bar 8]. From now onwards, Bach uses the cross-motif very
sparingly, and increasingly references the place of crucifixion by a sharp key-
signature, in German, Kreuz (cross), in the score: when Pilate sends a group of
soldiers to the place of crucifixion to break the bones of the two men who had

312 HS 5: 789: Die Rmer achtens gar nicht/ die liessen auch wol die Todten am Creutz
verfaulen.
313 WA 28: 407, 814, CB 3: 948: BEy den Jden war die Weise und gewonheit, ja nicht
allein gewonheit, Sondern auch Gottes gebot, das der gecreutzigten oder gehenckten tode
Leichnam nicht unbegraben blieben bis zu Nidergang der Sonnen.
314 HS 5: 790: The breaking of bones stabs the nerve, leading to lethal convulsions and
deadly tremors (Der Bein-Bruch die Nerven sticht/ Woraus convulsiones lethales, und
tdliches Zucken entstehet), Olearius claims, citing Pliny. In reality, the broken thigh-bone
makes the upper body and the lungs collapse, leading to death by asphyxiation.
commentary 287

been crucified with him (mit ihm gekreuziget war), for instance, Bach marks
[ge-]kreuziget (crucified) with a sharp [bar 11].

John 19.3234 [bars 1219]: Having ascertained that Jesus was indeed already
dead, schon gestorben war, the soldiers decide not to break Jesus bones. A
descending scale on schon gestor-[ben] (already died) [bar 14] points to the
impending deposition (taking down from the cross) of the dead body. Instead
of breaking Jesus bones, therefore, one of the soldiers opens his side with a
spear. The upward thrust of the spear is set by Bach by an octave leap in the
evangelists line on Erffnete (opened) [bar 16]. A tritone puts emphasis on the
cruelty and rupture of the piercing of [sei-]ne Seite (his side). The withdrawal
of the spear is reflected in music by a descending fifth, immediately followed
by a dissonant minor sixth on einem Speer (a spear) [bar 17]. Blood and water
flowed from the broken side: again Bach uses a melisma, on heraus (out), to
suggest brokenness [bars 1819, see the discussion above, movement 10 and
35].
Water and blood are not only the signs of the two Lutheran sacraments,
this powerful water, the dear Baptism, and the holy Sacrament of his body and
blood, the medicine of our soul and refreshment, but had further theological
significance for Luther and his followers.315 The reformer explains that:

The blood that flowed forth from the side of the Lord Jesus is the treasure
of our salvation, the price and satisfaction for our sin. The same blood
represents us before God and cries without ceasing to God: Grace, forgive,
forgive. It obtains for us Gods grace, forgiveness of sins, righteousness
and salvation.316

John 19.3537 [bars 1930]: The eye-witness to this miracle, der das gesehen
hat, der hat es bezeuget (he who saw that, he has testified), is a rare reference to
the writer of the Fourth Gospel himself: his testimony has the character of an
oath and, in contrast to the testimony of the two false witnesses in Matthews
account of the Passion [BWV 244, movement 33], his testimony is true (wahr).
The evangelists witness to the truth of the events of the cross, because he

315 WA 28: 413, 1924:

316 WA 28: 410, 926, CB 3: 950: Das blut, so aus des HErrn Jhesu Seiten fleusst, ist der Schatz
unser Erlsung, die bezalung und gnugthuung fur unser Snde. Dasselb blut Christi
vertrit uns bey Gott und ruffet fur uns on unterlas zu Gott: Gnade, vergib, vergib und
erwirbt uns Gottes gnade, vergebung der Snde, Gerechtigkeit und seligkeit.
 288 chapter 8

himself has seen it, is made so that the hearers of the Passion may believe.317
Bachs setting of da er die Wahrheit saget, auf da ihr glubet (he tells the truth,
so that you also may believe in that) [bars 2122] is highly declamatory and
resembles a clarion call to believe in Jesus; the Truth Incarnate questioned and
rejected by Pilate [see movement 18a].
For Luther, the blood and water that flowed from the wound in Jesus side
themselves act as witnesses to the events of the cross: There are three wit-
nesses; the Spirit, the water and the blood, and the three are joint witnesses.318
Although they were separate, they came forth from Jesus body together: the
Spririt when he died; the blood and water when his side was pierced. As such,
for Luther, they acted not only as witnesses to the veracity of the events of the
cross, but also as a symbol of the Holy Trinity: The three are together; two are
revealed and numbered in this passage, water and blood.319 For the Gospel
writer, their witness was corrobated by Scripture: an a battuta (on the beat)
section with a retardation, rhythmically highlights the two quotations from
the Hebrew Scriptures. The first, ihr sollet ihm kein Bein zerbrechen (they shall
not break any of his bones) from Exodus 12.46 [bars 2425]set in the same
declamatory manner as St Johns clarion call to believe, in bars 2122and sie
werden sehen, in welchen sie gestochen haben (they will behold, whom they have
stabbed) from the prophecy of Zechariah 12.10 [bars 2829], with the words sie
gestochen (whom they have stabbed) arranged to form a musical cross [bar 29].

37. Chorale
Chorale(Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II and Violin I with Sopranos; Violin II with Altos; Viola
with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn, O help, Christ, Gods Son

Durch dein bitter Leiden, Through your bitter suffering
Da wir dir stets untertan That we, always obedient to you
All Untugend meiden, All wrongs avoid,
Deinen Tod und sein Ursach Your death and its cause
Fruchtbarlich bedenken, Think upon fruitfully
Dafr, wiewohl arm und schwach, For that, although poor and weak,
Dir Dankopfer schenken! Present a thank-offering to you!

317 HS 5: 790: Denn er hats selbst gesehen.

318 WA 28: 410, 2: Drey sind die da zeugen, der Geist und das wasser und das blut, und die
drey sind beysamen.
319 WA 28: 410, 3: Die drey sind beysamen: aud denselben dreien Stcken werden allhie zwey
stck angezeiget und beschrieben, Wasser und Blut.
commentary 289

Verse 8, Christus, der uns selig macht [bars 117]: The final verse of Michael
Weisses translation of Patris Sapientiae, the fourteenth-century Latin hymn
written to mark the Hours of the Cross, the canonical hours of Good Friday
[see the discussion above, movement 15], concludes the contemplation of the
cross and death of Jesus, and opens the way for the final act of the Passion.
This verse offers an overall reflection on the Passion of Christ, unlike the pre-
ceding verses of the hymn which were each written to be sung at a different
monastic office on Good Friday, linking individual events on Jesus journey to
the cross and grave with their proper liturgical times. In the medieval Hours
of the Cross, the final verse would have been sung during the so-called short
hours after Compline and like Weisses hymn, provided a recommendatio or
invitation to reflect on Christs redemptive work cum devocione (with devo-
tion).320
The chorale takes up the theme of submission to the will of God also ex-
pressed in movement 32. The contemplation of the events of the cross call for
an active response from believers to subject themselves to their redeemer, dir
stets untertan (always obedient to you) [bars 56]. From this submission to
Christ, reflected musically by the descending fifth in the tenor line on unter
[bar 6], flow a number of obligations: the first is the avoidance of Untugend
(wrongs) [bar 7], the second the commitment to contemplate the events of the
cross and their reason, deinen Tod und sein Ursach (your death and its cause)
[bars 910]. For Weisse, the Ursach (cause) of Christs death was human sinful-
ness, so that fruitful contemplation ( fruchtbarlich bedenken) of it [bars 1112]
was at once an invitation to ponder ones own shortcomings and the univer-
sal redemptive work of Christ. An affirmation of human dependance on Gods
grace concludes the couplet: the only sacrifice believers can make in response
to the sacrifice of Calvary, arm und schwach (poor and weak) as they are, is to
Dankopfer schenken (present a thank-offering) [bars 1516].
In this chorale Bach uses passing notes sparingly so that they emphasise
individual words or key concepts: Christe, Gottes Sohn (Christ, Gods Son) [bars
12]; dir stets untertan (always obedient to you) [bars 56]; meiden (avoid)
[bar 8]; sein Ursach/ fruchtbarlich bedenken (think upon [the cause of Christs
death] fruitfully) [bar 1012]; wiewohl arm und schwach (although poor and
weak) [bars 1314]; and Dankopfer schenken (present a thank-offering) [bars
1516]. In this way, the passing notes highlight the underlying Lutheran the-
ological meaning of Weisses words: always subject to Christ, the Son of God,

320 Horae de Sancta Cruce, in: Horae ad Usum Romanum, Copenhagen: Det Kongelike Bib-
liothek, MS GKS 1607 4o, f. 18rv.
 290 chapter 8

believers are called on to contemplate his sacrifice for their sins and, acknowl-
edging their own weakness and constant reliance on Gods grace, bear fruit
by offering the worship of their own lives as a thankoffering to God. In the
second (1725) and third (ca. 1730) versions of the Passion, this would have
been the concluding Chorale of the work: the closing Chorale Ach Herr, la
dein lieb Engelein [movement 40] would have either been omitted completely
(1730) or been replaced by a German setting of the Agnus Dei [movement
40 ii].

V. SEPULCHRUMJESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB:

38. Recitativo
RecitativeEvangelist (tenor), continuo

Evangelist
Johannes 19,38 Darnach bat Pilatum
Joseph von Arimathia, der ein Jnger Jesu war
(doch heimlich aus Furcht vor den Jden)
da er mchte abnehmen den Leichnam Jesu.
Und Pilatus erlaubete es. Derowegen kam er
und nahm den Leichnam Jesu herab.
Evangelist
John 19.38 After that,
Joseph of Arimathia, who was a disciple
of Jesus (yet secretly for fear of the Jews),
petitioned Pilate that he wanted to take down
the corpse of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it.
Therefore he came and took down
the corpse of Jesus.

18,39 Es kam aber auch Nikodemus, der vormals 18.39 But Nicodemus also came, who
bei der Nacht zu Jesu kommen war, und brachte previously came to Jesus in the night, and
Myrrhen und Aloen untereinander, bei brought mixed myrrh and aloes, about
hundert Pfunden. a hundred pounds.

18,40 Da nahmen sie den Leichnam Jesu und bunden 18.40 There they took the corpse of Jesus and
ihn in Leinen Tcher mit Spezereien, wie die Jden wrapped it in linen cloths with spices,
pflegen zu begraben. as the Jews take care for the act of burial.

18,41 Es war aber an der Sttte, da er gekreuziget 18.41 But there was at the place,
ward, ein Garten, und im Garten ein neu Grab, there where he was crucified, a garden, and
in welches niemand je geleget war. in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had
ever been laid.

18,42 Daselbst hin legten sie Jesum, um des Rsttags 18.42 In that place they laid Jesus,
willen der Jden, dieweil das Grab nahe war. on account of the Jewish Day of Preparation,
and because the tomb was nearby.

John 19.38 [bars 17]: Joseph of Arimathia, whom the synoptic Gospels de-
scribe as a respected member of the Sanhedrin (Mark 15.43) was another key
Jewish leader who went to petition the Roman Prefect. Joseph requested that
commentary 291

Pilate release the body of Jesus for burial. John describes Joseph as a secret
disciple aus Furcht fr den Jden (for fear of the Jews), and Bach renders this
secrecy by marking bars 34 piano (quietly). Die Jden (the Jews) here are
clearly Josephs fellow-members of the religious elite: if Joseph was himself a
member of the Sanhedrin as Mark suggests, there was every reason to keep his
discipleship secret from his fellow Jewish lawmakers. His boldness in entering
the Roman Prefects residence and risking ritual defilement [see the discussion
on ritual defilement at movement 16a] and exposure as a disciple of the cruci-
fied Jesus is reflected in music by Bachs marking Josephs petition for the body
of Jesus forte (strong, loud) [bars 45]. Josephs request for deposition, that he
mchte abnehmen (wanted to take down), is rendered in music by an impres-
sive descending line extending over more than an octave [bar 5].
Josephs request for the release of the body of Jesus gives a rare insight into
the careful handling of sources in preparation of the libretto: neither Luthers
translation of the text nor Olearius commentary translates the latter part of
verse 38, elthen oun kai ren to sma tou Isou (Therefore he came and took
down the corpse of Jesus).321 The Calov Bible however does include the pas-
sage. Moreover, it provides the highly unusual German word for the there-
fore (derowegen), as a translation for the Greek oun. In the Greek text fol-
lows: therefore (derowegen) he came/ and took down the corpse of Jesus, Calov
wrote, adding Which word is omitted in the current German translation of the
Bible.322 The inclusion in Bachs libretto [bars 78] clearly shows that Bach or
his unknown librettist used multiple commentated versions of Luthers trans-
lation of the Bible to generate the Biblical texts for the recitatives, including
Calovs annotated Bible.

John 19.3940 [bars 913]: One secret disciple is joined in his mission by a
second clandestine follower of Jesus: Joseph is assisted in his preparations for
burial by Nicodemus der vormals bei der Nacht zu Jesu kommen war (who had
previously come to Jesus in the night) to talk about Jesus teaching, discussing
the question of spiritual rebirth (John 3.120). John describes Nicodemus as a
Pharisee and a leader of the Jews (John 3.1). This position explains the need
to seek Jesus counsel bei der Nacht (in the night). Bach highlights the need for
discretion by the careful insertion of rests to isolate and highlight der vormals
bei der Nacht (who had preveiously come in the night) [bars 1011].

321 HS 5: 791.
322 CB 3: 954: Hierauf folget im Griechischen Text: Derowegen kam er/ und nahm den Leib
Jesu herab. Welches Wort in ietziger deutschen Bibel ausgelassen sind.
 292 chapter 8

Joseph and Nicodemus handled the body of Jesus, thereby making them-
selves ritually unclean and unable to celebrate the Passover with their fellow-
believers. Having brought a great values worth of aloes and myrrh, Spezereien,
wie die Jden pflegen zu begraben (spices, as the Jews [take] care for [the act
of] burying; lit.: care to bury) [bars 1516], they went on to embalm the body of
Jesus.323 This is one moment in which die Jden (the Jews) is used of the whole
people, and is used to describe an act of care and generosity. Jesus burial is
alluded to in music by a descending line on begraben (bury) reaching a bottom
c, the lowest note in the recitative [bar 17].

John 19.4142 [bars 1825]: The story that began in one garden ends in another.
The embalmed Jesus is taken to ein Garten (a garden) in which there was ein
neu Grab (a new tomb), that is a tomb in which niemand je geleget war (no
one had ever been laid). As with all other references to Jesus burial, geleget
war (ever been laid), and daselbst legeten sie Jesum (in that place they laid
Jesus) both descend to a bottom C [bars 2122]. The first C, on je geleget war
(ever been laid), is set over a dominant C seventh [bar 21] dissonance, which is
resolved only when Jesum (Jesus) is laid into the tomb [bar 22]. All this the
two secret disciples needed to accomplish on des Rsttags der Jden (the
Jewish day of preparation), as no work could be done the next day, the Sabbath
of Passover. The garden and new tomb was nahe (near) to Golgotha. Golgotha
is definitively referenced: the evangelists line on nahe in bar 24 clearly imitates
the first reference to Golgotha in movement 23e, bar 87.

39. Coro
Chorus(Flutes I/II, Oboe I/II, Violins I/II, Viola, Organ, Continuo)

Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine,
Die ich nun weiter nicht beweine,
Ruht wohl und bringt auch mich zur Ruh!
Das Grab, so euch bestimmet ist
Und ferner keine Not umschliet,
Macht mir den Himmel auf
und schliet die Hlle zu.
Rest well, you holy bones,
I will now not weep for you any longer,
Rest well, and bring me also to rest.
The grave, so is destined for you
And futher no misery surrounds,
Makes Heaven open
And Hell shut to me.

Variant of Brockes, 392: The libretto adopts a poetic reflection on the burial
of Jesus from the Brockes Passion in which the Glubige Seele (believing soul)
ponders the cosmic effects of the death of the redeemer. The libretto changes

323 HS 5: 791: Der grosse Werth.

commentary 293

the wording of the second half of the Chorus. Brockes has Sein ausgesperrter324
Arm und Sein/ geschlones325 Auge/ Sperrt326 dir den Himmel auf, und/ schliet
die Hlle zu (His locked out arm and his/ closed eye/ unlocks heaven for you,
and/ locks the gates of hell). His concern is on the cross and its value as a key to
lock and unlock. But Bach and his collaborators chose to draw the attention
from the cross to the grave, as Luther himself had counselled: Ponder the
grave of Christ with the inner eyes of faith, let each say: Christs tomb is for
me, his shroud is for me.327 After the burial of the conqueror of death, the
grave holds no further terrors for believers: Das Grab, so euch bestimmet ist/
Und ferner keine Not umschliet (The grave, so is destined for you/ And further
no misery surrounds). Indeed, as Luther explained, Christs grave sanctifies our
own burial:

That is why the grave of Christ is called, and is indeed, the Holy Sepulchre
because all our sin, sorrow, pain, death and damnation are buried
therein. Which is why it makes our own grave blessed.328

A Section [bars 160 and 72112, and dal segno]: The overall musical effect of
this Chorus is one of a plaintive lullaby. The stately beat gives the movement a
quiet and reflective dignity. The overall effect suggests a reflection on the quiet
confidence possessed by the believer in Luthers theology of justification: God
be praised and thanked: I am no longer afraid of any sins, for all my sins have
been covered and buried in the grave of Christ.329
As in the previous movement, the deposition of the heiligen Gebeine (holy
bones) is suggested in music by a long descending line [bars 1516]. The fact
that the melodic lines in the soprano and bass parts on beweine (weep for)
are broken into semiquavers suggestive of tears appear to belie the librettos

324 Ausgesperrter: shut out, locked out, spaced out. Here, Jesus arms are locked in rigor mortis
on the cross, and are also held wide open.
325 Geschlones: closed. All the words here refer to kinds of closedness.
326 Sperrt auf : to unblock, unlock.
327 WA 421, 1517: Darumb sol man Christus Grab mit den innerlichen Augen des Glaubens
ansehen, Das ein jeder sage: Christus Grab ist fr mich, Die Tcher darein Christus ist
gewickelt worden, gelten mir.
328 WA 28: 420, 1013: Darumb Christus Grab auch heisst und ist ein heilig Grab darumb
das alle unsere Snde, Jamer, Elend, Tod und Verdamnis darinne begraben ligt Und das es
unser Grab selig macht.
329 WA 28: 421, 2628: Gott sey Lob und Danck, Ich frchte mich fr keiner Snden mehr,
Denn alle meine Snde liegen in Christus Grabe verschorren und begraben.
294 chapter 8

encouragement to mourn the dead Jesus no more [1819]. However, as the

sixteenth-century Lutheran preacher Moller emphasised, there is good reason
for Christians to mourn their own sinfulness and to shed tears of joy for their
redemption:

Let your eyes overflow/ dear soul/ with tears/ and do not cease/ Do not
mourn your LORD however/ for that profits him little/ He suffers willingly
for you/ and gives his life a ransom for you and for many/ who know him/
Rather weep over your own life/ and your sins/ Believe in him/ and show
forth righteous fruits of contrition.330

The eternal rest that the death of Jesus promises the believer is rendered in
music by descending lines on mich zur Ruh (bring me to rest) in the soprano
and bass parts [bars 2425]. Bach uses the presence or absence of woodwind to
distinguish between the various repeat sections of the movement: the B Section
[see the discussion below] is performed entirely without woodwind, as are bars
4143, with the re-introduction of the Ruht wohl (Rest well) theme. The section
closes with the prayer, articulated on behalf of all believers that they might find
rest, und bringt auch mich zur Ruh, with all four voices descending to the lowest
notes in the entire movement on the final Ruh (rest) of the A Section [bar 48].
As Olearius pointed out:

And because [Jesus] is buried/ henceforth all Christian graves are also
sanctuaries/ and where a Christian lies buried/ there lies a living Saint.
Not for his own sake or because of his own holiness/ but because he has
died in the faith/ of the holy/ crucified/ died and buried Son of God.331

B Section [bars 6072 and 112124]: The removal of woodwind, senza Flauti ed
Oboi gives the middle section a sense of intimacy, as the focus shifts from the
buried Jesus to the fruits of his death for the individual. Where in the preceding

330 Moller (1587), p. 197v: La deine Augen fliessen/ liebe Seele/ mit Threnen/ vnd la nicht
abe/ Weine aber nicht vber deinen HERRN/ denn damit ist jm wenig gedienet/ Er leidet
das alles willig/ vnd gibt sein Leben zum Lsegeldt fr dich vnd fr viele/ die jn kennen:
Sondern weine vber dich/ vnd vber deine Snde/ Gleube an jn/ vnd thue rechtschaffene
frchte der Busse.
331 HS 5: 265: Und weil er [Jesus] begraben ist/ so mssen nun alle Christen-Grber auch
Heiligthmer seyn/ und wo ein Christe liegt/ da da liege ein lebendiger Heilige. Nicht
umb seines Wesens und eigener Heiligkeit willen/ sondern darumb da Er gestorben ist
im Glauben/ an den heyligen/ gecreutizgten/ gestorbenen und begrabenen Sohn Gottes.
 commentary 295

recitative and A section all references to burial and eternal rest were rendered
by descending lines [movement 38, bars 2122], the Grab, so euch bestimmet
ist (the grave, so is destined for you) and, indeed, Not (misery) are marked by
ascending lines [bars 6067 and repeats]: grave and distress not only have lost
their power; they are, in fact, a gateway to heaven. Indeed, Jesus unlocking
of heaven, his macht mir den Himmel auf (makes Heaven open for me) [bars
6870], appropriately is also symbolised by parallel rising lines in the soprano
and bass parts, while the locking of hell, und schliet die Hlle zu [bars 7072] is
expressed in music by ringing melismas and trills in the upper strings and vocal
line on Hlle [bar 71]. The repeat [bars 1360] with its final petition that through
the final rest of Jesus the believer now might also rest in peace, concludes the
movement.

40. Chorale
Chorale(Flute I, Oboe I and Violin I with Sopranos; Flute II, Oboe II and Violin II
with Altos; Viola with Tenors; Continuo with Basses)

Ach Herr, la dein lieb Engelein
Am letzten End die Seele mein
In Abrahams Scho tragen,
Den Leib in seim Schlafkmmerlein
Gar sanft ohn einge Qual und Pein
Ruhn bis am jngsten Tage!
Alsdenn vom Tod erwecke mich,
Da meine Augen sehen dich
In aller Freud, o Gottes Sohn,
Mein Heiland und Genadenthron!
Herr Jesu Christ, erhre mich,
Ich will dich preisen ewiglich!
O Lord, let your lovely little angels
at the last end, this soul of mine,
carry into Abrahams bosom.
The body in its little sleeping chamber
gently without any torment or agony at all
Rest until doomsday!
Thereupon from death awaken me,
that my eyes see you
in all joy, O Son of God,
My Saviour and throne of mercy
Lord Jesus Christ, receive my prayer
I want to praise you forever!

Verse 3, Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, O Herr [bars 128s]: Martin Schalling (1532
1608) used a hymn tune from his native Straburg for his late-sixteenth-century
hymn of commitment, dedication and love for Jesus, Herzlich lieb hab ich dich,
O Herr (Hearfelt love have I for you, O Lord). Each of the three verses bridges
the private and the public spheres, the present and the eternal, and expresses
a deep longing to remain close to Christ forever. The first verse asks for the
gift of Christs constant presence by his grace, ich bitt, wollst sein von mir nicht
fern/ mit deiner Gt und Gnaden (I pray, that you will never be far from me/
with your grace and mercy), especially at times of affliction. The second is
a prayer of commitment to follow as a faithful disciple, and to use all ones
possessions and gifts/ my body, soul and all I have (Gschenk und Gab/ mein
296 chapter 8

Leib und Seel und was ich hab) to the praise of God and in use and service of my
neighbour (zum Lobe dein,/ zu Nutz und Dienst des Nchsten mein), in words
reminiscent of Bachs dedication of his Orgel-Bchlein [BWV 599644].332 The
final verse, used here to conclude the Passion, speaks of the end of the Christian
journey and the hope of life forever in Christs presence.
Even in his description of the Last Judgement in the present verse of his
hymn, Schalling manages to evoke a sense of great intimacy: the believer
prays that, his death in seim Schlafkmmerlein (in its little sleeping chamber,
using the diminuative form) would be gar sanft ohn alle Qual und Pein (gently,
without any torment or agony at all). Schalling here echoes contemporary
meditations on the Passion of Christ or on holy dying, such as Martin Mollers
influential Soliloqvia de Passione Christi, which mirror many of the musical
reflections on the believers response to the death of Jesus in Bachs St John
Passion:333

[Your Saviour] bids the body rest in his chamber/ while the souls of the
faithful are in the hand of God, Then do not fear/ your grave/ dear soul/
wherein you will be laid./ Remember that the Lord consecrated it/ and
made it a delightful bed chamber for you. Therefore when your hour has
come/ enter your little chamber (Kmmerlein) with joy/ and lock the door
behind you.334

In the same meditation Moller had affirmed his belief that the souls of the
righteous are in the hand of God (Wisdom of Solomon 3.1). Schalling shares
this belief but draws on another Biblical image to express this hope, from the

332 Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinz Lhlein, ed., Orgelwerke Band 1: Orgelbchlein, Schbler-
Chorle, Choralpartiten, Johann Sebastian Bach, Neue Ausgabe smtlicher Werke, Serie IV:
Orgelwerke, Band 1 (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1983): Dem hchsten Gott allein zu Ehren, dem
Nechsten sich draus zu belehren (To the glory of God most high alone, and for the edifi-
cation and education of my neighbour).
333 Moller (1587), For Mollers work and its wide reception, see: Axmacher (1989) and Mar-
tin Brecht, Neue Frmmigkeit und Gemeindesituation bei Martin Moller, in: Monika
Hagenmaier, Sabine Holtz, eds., Krisenbewutsein und Krisenbewltigung in der frhen
Neuzeit, Festschrift Hans-Christoph Rublack (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1992), pp. 217
219.
334 Moller (1587), 253r: Frchte duch auch nicht/ liebe Seele/ fr deinem Grabe/ darein du
solt gelegt werden/ Bedencke das dirs der HERR geweyhet/ vnd zu einem lieblichen
Schlaffheulin gemacht habe. Darumb wenn dein Stndlin da ist/ so gehe mit frewden
in dein Kmmerlein/ vnd schleu die Thr nach dir zu.
commentary 297

parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16.1931), praying that am letzten End
(at my last end), the little angels of God (also using an intimate, diminuative
form) would carry the soul to Abrahams Scho (Abrahams bosom).335 The
body safely asleep in its grave chamber awaits the general resurrection am
jngsten Tage (until doomsday). As in the previous two verses, the present verse
also conveys a sense of great intimacy and confidence in Christs promise to
save those who love him: Alsdenn vom Tod erwecke mich/ da meine Augen
sehen dich/ in aller Freud (thereupon from death awaken me/ that my eyes see
you/ in all joy).
For Schalling, and for Bach, death and judgement are no longer to be feared.
The work of salvation has been accomplished by Jesus death on the cross.
All that is now required is love and commitment to Jesus as Saviour for the
grave to become a Schlafkmmerlein (little sleeping chamber) and for the day
of judgement to become a day of grace and joy. The believer prays that Christ
will raise him from the dead, asks to behold him as personal Saviour (mein
Heiland) and Genadenthron (throne of mercy or judgement seat).336 Standing
before the risen and ascended Jesus, meine Augen sehen dich/ in aller Freud
(my eyes see you/ in all joy), for Jesus himself has become the Gnadenthron,
the place of judgement and reconciliation between God and humans. The
Gnadenthron was a neologism coined by Luther to provide a translation for the
Greek technical term hilasterion in his German Bible (and, following Luther,
rendered mercy-seat in the King James Bible). Bach frequently related the
image of the heavenly Gnadenthron to the cross and the redemptive work of
Jesus.337 In the alto aria of Cantata Mit Fried und Freud fahr ich dahin [BWV 125,
movement 5], for instance, Bach makes the link between cross and Throne of
Grace explicit: through Jesus es wird der Welt/ Ein Stuhl der Gnaden/ Und
Siegeszeichen aufgestellt (a throne of grace/ and sign of victory is set up/ for

335 Moller (1587), 235r: Den Leib bringet er zur Ruhe in seine Kammer/ Der Seelen aber der
Gerechten sind inn Gottes Handt/ vnd keine Qual rret sie an
336 For the significance of the image of the Gnadenthron in Bachs work, see: Helene Werthe-
mann, Jesus Christus, vorgestellt zu einem Gnadenstuhl durch den Glauben in seinem
Blut, in: A.A. Clement, ed., Das Blut Jesu und die Lehre der Vershnung im Werk Johann
Sebastian Bachs, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Weten-
schappen, Afdeling Letterkunde, New Series, Vol. 164 (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1995),
pp. 6378, p. 69.
337 For instance in the Christmas Oratorios Cantata Fallt mit Danken [BWV 248/4], written
for the Feast of the Naming of Jesus, and Cantatas Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde {BWV 83]
and Mit Fried und Freud fahr ich dahin [BWV 125], both written for the Feast of the
Presentation.
298 chapter 8

the world).338 Here, the Gnadenthron is neither an ensign nor a throne but a
person: the glorified Jesus himself is the mercy-seat, and gives joy to believers.
The believers response to the hope of a quiet death and eternal salvation is
eternal praise: ich will dich preisen ewiglich (I want to praise you forever).

338 See: Werthemann, p. 69: This, then, implies a world-wide almost cosmic dimension (Es
geht also um eine weltweite ja, fast kosmische Dimension).
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, Tonartsymbolik zu Bachs Zeit, Bach-Jahrbuch 8 (1911), pp. 6074
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5 Secondary Source Materials: Unpublished Dissertations

Birke, Joachim, Die Passionsmusiken von Thomas Selle (15991663) (Heidelberg Univer-
sity: Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, 1957)
Heuchemer, Dane Owen, Italian Musicians in Dresden in the Second Half of the Sixteenth
Century, with an Emphasis on the Lives and Works of Antonio Scandello and Giovanni
Battista Pinello di Ghirardi (University of Cincinnati: Unpublished Doctoral Disser-
tation, 1997)
Jones, Tamsin D., Passions in Perspective: An Analytical Discussion of the three Passion
Settings of Heinrich Schtz (15851672) against their Historical and Stylistic Back-
grounds (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation: Birmingham University, 2000)
Lloyd, Rebecca, Bach among the Conservatives: The Quest for Theological Truth (Unpub-
lished Doctoral Dissertation: Kings College London, 2006)
Rossin, Thomas, The Calov Bible of Johann Sebastian Bach (Unpublished Doctoral Dis-
sertation: University of Minnesota, 1992)
Index of Names
Abraham (Patriarch), 133, 295, 297
Agrippa I (King of Judea), 217, 237
Anhalt-Bernburg, Princess Friderica Henrietta
of, 55
Anhalt-Kthen, Prince Leopold of, 32, 5455,
60, 79
Annas (High Priest), see Hannas
Arimathea, Joseph of, see Joseph of Arimathea
Arndt, Johann, 153, 214, 282
Asaph (Psalmist), 38, 41, 247248
Axmacher, Elke, 8, 78n, 88n
Bach, Johann Ambrosius (Father of Johann
Sebastian), 21, 24
, Johann Jakob (Brother of Johann
Sebastian), 21
, Johann Christoph (Brother of Johann
Sebastian), 21
, Christoph (First cousin of Johann
Sebastian), 24
, Anna Magdalena, 66
, Carl Friedemann, 66
, Carl Philipp Emanuel, 66
Barabbas, 100, 118, 207208
Barbarino, Bartolomeo, 46
Barrett, C.K. (Charles Kingsley), 162
Berenburg, Princess of, see Anhalt-Bernburg,
Princess Friderica Henrietta of
Berti, Giovanni, 46
Biller, Christoph (Thomaskantor), xx
Blankenburg, Werner, 6
Blume, Friedrich, 45
Blumenberg, Hans, 1112
Boyd, Malcolm, 56n
Brandenburg-Schwedt, Christian Ludwig,
Margrave of, 56
Braun, August, 2728
Breitkopf, Berndhard Christoph, 66
Britten, Benjamin, 2
Brockes, Barthold Heinrich, 63, 7778, 8283,
85, 162166, 210211, 214215, 232, 246249,
274275, 283, 293
Brown, Raymond, 176, 190
Bugenhagen, Johannes, 68, 80
Butt, John, 18, 167
Caiaphas (High Priest), 108, 112, 114, 160162,
171, 175176, 190, 207, 231, 238
Calov, Abraham, 16, 3335, 3743, 135137,
196197, 200, 205, 230, 244, 266, 291
Chafe, Eric, 8, 235
Clayton, Alfred, 2
Copland, Aaron, 5
Crger, Johann, 156
David (King of Israel and Judah, Psalmist), 38,
41, 247
Deyling, Solomon, 58
Dibelius, Martin, 175
Dilherr, Johann Michael, 164, 175
Drr, Alfred, 2, 5, 75, 80, 142, 283
Eco, Umberto, 52, 53n
Fasch, Johann Friedrich, 85n
Firth, Katherine, xiv, xxi, 2298
Franc, Guillaume, 156n
Franck, Salomo, 4953
Frescobaldi, Girolamo, 27
Gallus, Jacobus, see Handl, Jakob
Gaudlitz, Gottlieb, 66n
Geck, Martin, 58
Gerber, Christian, 281
Gerhard, Johann, 33, 88, 135, 163
Gerhardt, Paul, 174, 222
Gesius, Bartholomus, 73, 232
Gottsched, Johann Christoph, 61
Grffenhayn, Gottfried Christoph, 30
Grandi, Alessandro, 46
Graupner, Johann Christoph, 56
Greer, Mary Dalton, 4041, 247
Greff, Johannes, 6970
index of names
HaCohen, Ruth, xx, 224
Hammerschmidt, Andreas, 2729
Handel, George Frederick, 85n, 163, 275
Handl, Jakob, 27
Hannas (High Priest), 100, 108, 112, 160161, 164,
175176, 231
Hassler, Hans Leo, 27
Heermann, Johann, 156157, 180, 201, 210, 212,
248
Heman (Levitical Priest), 38, 247248
Henrici, Christian Friedrich, 50, 61, 62n, 63n.
Herberger, Valerius, 243258
Herda, Elias, 21
Herlicius, Johann David, 36
Herod the Great (King of Judaea), xiv, 186, 197
Heunisch, Caspar, 269, 279
Heyden, Sebald, 141, 182
Hoffmann-Axthelm, Dagmar, 9
Holst, Imogen, 2
Hutter, Leonhard, 22
Jansen, Martin, 4
Jerome (Church Father), 210
John (Beloved Disciple), 127, 262264
John (Disciple, son of Zebedee), 164
Jones, Richard, 49
Joseph of Arimathea (Follower of Jesus), xvi,
132, 290292
Josephus, Flavius, xx, 161, 186, 188189, 196,
198, 238
Judas (Disciple), xv, 105, 147149, 152153, 158,
169, 181, 231n
Keiser, Richard, 85n, 163
Kirste, Reinhard, 35
Knpfer, Sebastian, 179
Kobelius, Johann August, 30, 54
Koopman, Ton, xiv
Koppy (Leipzig goldleaf merchant), 76
Kuhnau, Johann, 51, 56, 7475, 77
Lange (Leipzig Councillor), 56n
Lassus, Orlande de, 27
Lazarus (Follower of Jesus), 163, 297
Leaver, Robin, xxi, 7, 138
323
Lehmann (Leipzig Lord Mayor), 59
Lloyd, Rebecca, 1011
Loewe, Johann Jacob, 27
Lusitano, Amatus, 270
Luther, Martin, xivxv, 11, 13, 16, 3336,
135140, 146150, 159162, 170, 184, 186188,
191193, 195197, 199, 201, 204, 208, 211,
216220, 222, 229, 231233, 239, 244245,
250, 254, 257, 260263, 266267, 286288,
291, 293, 297
Magdalene, Mary (Apostle), 127, 261262
Malchus (Servant of the High Priest), 107, 158
Manasseh (King of Judah), 174
Marissen, Michael, 2, 10
Mary (Mother of Jesus), 127, 261264
Mary (Spouse of Cleophas), 127, 261262
Mattheson, Johann, 43, 47, 85n, 163, 232, 268
McGrath, Alister E., 95
Meiland, Jakob, 71
Mendel, Arthur, 99
Milanuzzi, Carlo, 46
Moller, Martin, 213214, 280, 282, 294, 296
Mller, Heinrich, 154, 173, 182183, 248
, Johann, 209, 223, 269270
Neumann, Werner, 5
Neumeister, Erdmann, 44, 46, 4950, 53
Nicodemus (Follower of Jesus), 171, 291292
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 3
Noah (Patriarch), 214
Novello, Ivor, 2
Olearius, Johannes, 16, 33, 3738, 135
138, 143, 150, 153154, 159, 171, 189
190, 191n, 192, 194195, 199200, 204
206, 208, 223, 230, 241242, 244, 254,
262263, 265267, 274, 282, 286, 291,
294
, Johann Gottfried, 40, 44
Paul (Apostle), 233
Pears, Peter, 2
Pelican, Jaroslav, 7
Peter, Simon (Apostle), xvi, xviii, 80, 107,
324 index of names

Peter, Simon (cont.), 109110, 112114, 158159, Schweitzer, Albert, 3

164171, 175166, 180183, 221, 245
Petzoldt, Martin, xx, 8, 30, 35, 75, 77, 77n, 89
Pfeiffer, August, 248
Philo of Alexandria, 217
Picander, see Henrici, Christian Friedrich
Pilate, Pontius (Roman Prefect), xv, xiv, xvii,
xviii, 80, 92, 102, 115, 106, 116, 117, 118, 132,
141, 150, 170, 186188, 191192, 194204,
207, 217, 219223, 225, 228232, 236244,
252256, 258, 285286, 290291
Platz (Leipzig Councillor), 58
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus), 286
Postel, Christian Heinrich, 8283, 85n,
232233, 268
Praetorius, Michael, 27, 42
, Friedrich Emanuel, 74
Rambach, Johann Jakob, 95, 173
Rathey, Markus, xxi
Ritter, Christian, 85n
Rrer, Gnther, 25
Rost, Johann Christoph, 75, 156
Saubert, Johann, 167n
Saxe-Gotha, Prince Ernst of, 36, 42
Saxe-Weimar, Duke Johann Ernst of, 30
Saxe-Weissenfels, Duke Johann Georg of, 30
Scandello, Antonio, 72
Schalling, Martin, 295296
Scheffler, Johann, 233
Scheidt, Samuel, 27
Schein, Johann Hermann, 232233
Schmidt, Johann, 58
Schulze, Hans-Joachim, 5
Schtz, Heinrich, 2729, 44, 74, 142
Selle, Thomas, 7374
Selnecker, Nikolaus, 71
Seyfert, Johann Caspar, 225
Shakespeare, William, xvi
Simon Peter (Apostle), see Peter, Simon
Smend, Friedrich, 4, 81, 233235
Sderblom, Nathan, 3
Spitta, Philipp, 34, 78, 143144, 167
Steiger, Renate, 6, 910
Steiger, Lothar, 911
Stockmann, Paul, 9091, 182, 264265, 276
Stlzel, Gottfried Heinrich, 85n
Telemann, Georg Philip, 56, 77n, 85n, 163
Teschner, Melchior, 256
Thebesius, Adam, 222
Trautmann, Christoph, 6
Troutbeck, John, 2
Vogler, Johann Gottfried, 77n
Vulpius, Melchior, 73
Wallmann, Johannes, 9
Walter, Johann, 15, 7172, 7677
Walther, Johann Gottfried, 189
Wecker, Christoph Gottlob, 32
Weise, Christian (Thomaspastor), 59, 61
, Christian (Zittau Schoolmaster), 76, 85,
179181
Weisse, Michael, 184185, 289
Wolff, Christoph, 27, 43, 45, 80
Wright, N.T. (Tom), xx
Ziegler, Mariane von, 61, 59n
Index of Places

Arnstadt, Latin School, 44 Kben, 156

, New Church, 15, 30, 32, 37, 44 Kthen, 5456, 78

Babylon, 256 Landskron, 184

Brandenburg, 174 Leipzig, New Church, 77
Breslau (Wrocaw), 184 , St Nikolai Church, 1, 17, 6061, 74, 7677
, St Thomas Choir School, 5960, 6667
Cambridge, Great St Marys Church, xix , St Thomas Church, xx, 17, 32, 5861,
Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Mo., 33, 136 6667, 7478
Liebfrauenkirche Halle, see Halle, Liebfrauen-
Damascus Road, 154 kirche
Lneburg, St Michaels School, 2123, 2530,
Eisenach, Latin School, 13, 19, 26, 29, 58 55, 58, 74, 187
, St Georges Church, 24
Emmaus, 262 Melbourne, St Pauls Cathedral, xx
, Trinity College, The University of
Fraunstadt (Wschowa), 256 Melbourne, xixxxi
Mhlhausen, St Blasius Church, 45, 4849
Georgenkirche Eisenach, see Eisenach, St
Georges Church Nikolaikirche Leipzig, see Leipzig, St Nikolai
Church
Halle, Liebfrauenkirche, 32
Ohrdruf, Lyceum Illustre, 2122, 24, 2627, 29,
Isenheim, 257 56, 58

Jerusalem, Antonia Fortress, 186 Rostock, 182

, Citadel of David, 186
, Gabbatha, 123, 239 Strassburg (Strasbourg), 295
, Garden of Gethsemane, 141, 160, 185
, Golgotha, 124125, 244247, 249, Thomaskirche Leipzig, see Leipzig, St Thomas
251252, 292 Church
, Kidron Valley, 100, 104, 147148 Thomasschule Leipzig, see Leipzig, St Thomas
, Praetorium (Headquarters of the Roman Choir School
Prefect, Richthaus), 116, 178, 187188,
196, 218, 220, 222, 229, 236, 240, 254 Wartburg, 36
, Temple, xivxv, 130, 154, 172, 247, Weimar, 15, 4951, 54
279282
, Via Dolorosa, 103, 106n
Index of Bachs Works by BWV Number
Klavierbchlein fr Wilhelm Friedemann
Bach, xxi
BWV 599644, Orgel-Bchlein, 43, 296
BWV Anh. 3, Cantata Gott, gib dein Gerichte
dem Knig, 64
BWV 4, Cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, 45,
47
BWV Anh. 4, Cantata Wnschet Jerusalem
Glck, 63
BWV Anh. 4a, Cantata Wnschet Jerusalem
Glck, 64
BWV Anh. 10, Cantata So kmpfet nun, ihr
muntren Tne, 64
BWV Anh. 11, Cantata Es lebe der Knig, der
Vater im Lande, 64
BWV 12, Cantata Alles nur nach Gottes Willen,
53
BWV Anh. 12, Cantata Frohes Volk, vergngtes
Sachsen, 64
BWV 19, Cantata Es erhub sich ein Streit, 62n
BWV 21, Cantata Ich hatte viel Bekmmernis,
144n
BWV 22, Cantata Jesus nahm zu sich die
Zwlfe, 56
BWV 23, Cantata Du wahrer Mensch und
Davids Sohn, 79, 216
BWV 31, Cantata Der Himmel lacht!, 53
BWV 36a, Cantata Steigt freudig in die Luft, 64
BMV 46, Cantata Schauet doch, 238n
BWV 66a, Cantata Der Himmel dacht auf
Anhalts Ruhm und Glck, 55n
BWV 68, Cantata Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt,
62
BWV 70, Cantata Wachet, betet, 53
BWV 71, Cantata Gott ist mein Knig, 48
BWV 74, Cantata Wer mich liebet, der wird
mein Wort halten, 62
BMV 77, Cantata Du sollst Gott deinen Herren
lieben, 227n
BWV 80, Cantata Ein feste Burg, 53
BWV 80a, Cantata Alles was von Gott geboren,
53
BMV 81, Cantata Jesus schlft, was soll ich
hoffen, 144n
BWV 84, Cantata Ich bin vergngt mit meinem
Glcke, 63
BWV 87, Cantata Bisher habt ihr nichts gebetet
in meinem Namen, 62
BWV 103, Cantata Ihr werdet weinen und
heulen, 62
BWV 105, Cantata Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht,
144n
BWV 106, Cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste
Zeit (Actus Tragicus), 48
BWV 108, Cantata Es ist gut, da ich hingehe,
62
BWV 120a, Cantata Gott, man lobet dich in der
Stille, 63
BWV 125, Cantata Mit Fried und Freud fahr ich
dahin, 297
BWV 128, Cantata Auf Christi Himmelfahrt
allein, 62
BWV 129, Cantata Gelobet sei der Herr, 38n
BWV 132, Cantata Bereitet die Wege, 53
BWV 134a, Cantata Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre
macht, 55n
BWV 145, Cantata Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu
deinem Ergtzen, 63
BWV 147, Cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und
Leben, 53
BWV 148, Cantata Bringet dem Herrn Ehre
seines Namens, 63
BWV 149, Cantata Man singet mit Freuden vom
Sieg in den Htten, 63
BWV 150, Cantata Nach dir, Herr verlangt
mich, 45
BWV 152, Cantata Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn,
53
BWV 155, Cantata Mein Gott wie lang, ach
lange, 53
BWV 156, Cantata Ich steh mit einem Fu im
Grabe, 63
BWV 157, Cantata Ich lasse dich nicht, du
segnest mich denn, 64
index of bachs works by bwv number
BWV 159, Cantata Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen
Jerusalem, 63, 182n
BWV 161, Cantata Komm, du se Todesstunde,
53
BWV 162, Cantata Ach ich sehe, itzt da ich zur
Hochzeit gehe, 53
BWV 163, Cantata Nur jedem das Seine, 53
BWV 165, Cantata Du heiliges Geist- und
Wasserbad, 53
BWV 168, Cantata Tue Rechnung, Donnerwort,
53
BWV 171, Cantata Gott, so wie dein Name, so ist
auch dein Ruhm, 63, 143
BWV 172, Cantata Erschallet, ihr Lieder, 53
BWV 173a, Cantata Durchlauchtester Leopold,
55n
BWV 174, Cantata Ich liebe den Hchsten von
ganzem Gemte, 63
BWV 175, Cantata Er rufet seine Schafe mit
Namen 62
BWV 176, Cantata Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt
Ding, 62
BWV 182, Cantata Himmelsknig, sei willkom-
men, 53, 176, 182n, 276
BWV 183, Cantata Sie werden euch in den Bann
tun, 62
BWV 186, Cantata rgre dich, o Seele, nicht, 53
BWV 188, Cantata Ich habe meine Zuversicht,
63
BWV 190a, Cantata Singet dem Herr ein neues
Lied, 63
BWV Anh. 190, Cantata Ich bin ein Pilgrim auf
dem Weg, 63
BWV 193a, Cantata Ihr Huser des Himmels,
ihr scheinenden Lichter, 64
327
BWV 196, Cantata, Der Herr denkt an uns, 45
BWV 197a, Cantata Ehre sei Gott in der Hhe,
63
BWV 198, Cantata La, Frstin, la noch einen
Strahl, 61n
BWV 201, Cantata Geschwinde, ihr wirbelden
Winde, 64
BWV 205, Cantata Zerreiet, zersprenget,
zertrmmert die Gruft, 64
BWV 208, Cantata Was mir behagt, ist nur die
muntre Jagd, 49, 53
BWV 211, Cantata Schweiget stille, plaudert
nicht, 64
BWV 212, Cantata Mer han en neue Oberkeet,
64
BWV 216, Cantata Vergngte Pleienstadt, 64
BWV 227, Jesu, meine Freude XVII
BWV 232, B-Minor Mass, 8, 204n
BMV 243, Magnificat, 204n
BWV 244, St Matthew Passion, 63, 280281,
285286
BWV 244a, Passion Music, Klagt, Kinder, klagt
es aller Welt, 63
BWV 247, Cantata Geh, Jesu, geh zu deiner
Pein, 63
BWV 248, Christmas Oratorio, 243, 258, 277
BWV 249a, Cantata Entfliehet, verschwindet,
entweichet ihr Sorgen, 64
BWV 249b, Cantata Verjaget, zerstreuet,
zerrttet ihr Sterne, 64
BWV 846893, Well-tempered Clavier, 54
BWV 81217, French Suites, 54
BWV 10461051, Brandenburg Concertos, 56
BWV 10411043, Concertos for solo and double
Violin, 54
Index of Themes

Affekt, 28, 84, 202 French, Bach learning, 23

Alberti bass, 260
Allegorical use of voice, Baroque, 167, 180, 212, German Research Foundation, 13
271, 284 Gnadenblick (Christs gaze of grace), 182
Anti-Judaism, see also Jews (Die Jden, Hoi Gnadengegenwart (Gods Presence in Music),
Ioudaoi), 910, 245249 40
Ark of the Covenant, 279 Greek, Bach learning, 23
Arnstadt Cantatas, 45
Hanukkah (Festival of Lights), 172
Bach Academy, International, 8 Hebrew, Bach possibly learning, 23
Bible, Hebrew, 23 Homiletics, Lutheran, 1415, 29
Bible, Greek, 23 Horizontabschreibung (Erosion of the cultural
Book Fair, Leipzig, see Leipzig, Book Fair horizon), 1112
Hymns, Lutheran, 2425
Calov Bible, 14, 3335, 3743, 135137, 187,
195197, 247, 291 Intermedi, 74, 84
, Bachs marginalia, 38, 4042 International Bach Academy, see Bach
Cantatas, Arnstadt, 45 Academy, International
, Franck, 5253 International Working Group for Theo-
, Geistliche Cantaten, 46 logical Bach Research (Internationale
, Leipzig, 4547 Arbeitsgemeinschaft fr theologische Bach-
, Leipzig, Annual Cycles ( Jahrgnge), forschung), 6, 811, 16
17231727, 46n, 47, 60 Israel, King of, see also Jews, King of the, xv,
, Neumeister, 44, 4750 100, 199, 253
, reform 42, 4748
, transitional 4849 Jews, King of the, xv, 100, 125, 150, 196204,
Capellmeister, 35 207, 217221, 229, 238, 241242, 252
Catechism, Lutheran, 25 254
Christus Victor, see Lutheran Doctrine, , (Die Jden, Hoi Ioudaoi), 192193, 197,
Atonement, Christus Victor 253, 286
Cross-motif, see St John Passion, Cross-motif Judah, Hero of, xvii, 129, 268270, 273
Curriculum, Lutheran, 22
Kantaten-Jahrgnge, see Cantatas, Leipzig,
Diabolus in Musica, see St John Passion, Annual Cycles ( Jahrgnge)
Tritone Kantorei, Lutheran, 28

Education, Lutheran, 14, 2123, 29 Lehrstck, see Lutheran, Teaching Drama

Election, Lutheran Doctrine of, 3435
Estate, Specification of Bachs, 7, 33, 135
Formula of Concord, 58
Fortspinnung, 151, 223224
Leicisternia, 206
Leipzig, Book Fair, 17
, Deplorable State of Music, 6667
Leipzig Cantatas, 4547, 60
Leipziger Kirchen-Staat, 17, 72
index of themes
Levitical Priests (as Temple Musicians), 10, 14,
36, 3840, 42, 247248
Lords Prayer, 159160
Lneburg Worship Order, 2728
Lutheran, Curriculum, 22
, Education, 14, 2122, 29
, German Mass, 71
, Homiletics, 1415, 29, 96
, Kantorei, 28
, Orthodoxy, 7, 1617, 32, 3738
, Orthodoxy, Bachs, 32, 35, 42
, Responsorial Passion, 68
, Sacraments, 287
, Teaching Drama, 15, 6970
Lutheran Doctrine, Anfechtung (Temptation,
Trouble), 249251
, Atonement, Christus Victor, 16
, Augsburg Confession, 58n
, Deus absconditus, 94
, Election, 3435
, Formula of Concord, 58
, Grace, 227, 233, 257, 295, 297
, Incarnation, 251
, Justification, 293
, Vocation, 32, 35, 42
, Theology of the Cross, 9496, 149
, Throne of Grace (Gnadenthron),
297298
Meistersinger, 6970
Neumeister Cantatas, 44, 4750
New Leipzig Hymnal, 7172
New Eisenach Hymnal, 25, 36
Order for Mattins and Vespers at St Michaels
Lneburg, see Lneburg Worship Order
Orthodoxy, Lutheran, 7, 1617, 32, 3738
, Lutheran, Bachs, 32, 58
Passion, Lutheran Responsorial, 68
, Oratorio, 68
, rhymed, 182
329
, Summa Passionis, 15, 68, 70, 7778, 84
, Weimar, Bachs, 54
Passover, 171, 186187, 206, 217, 240, 286, 292
Pharisees (Jewish Group), 105, 147, 149, 291
Pietism, 7, 95, 173, 282
Pre-Enlightenment, 1011
Priests, Levitical, see Levitical Priests
Reformation, Lutheran, 29
Sanhedrin (Religious Court), 171, 290
Schwarzburg Agenda, 44n
Specificatio, see Estate, Specification of Bachs
St John Passion, Actus Chorales, 8891
, Augenmusik (Music for the eyes), 194,
242
, Chorales, 86
, Cross-motif, 152, 156, 165, 194, 207, 209,
220, 224, 227, 241245, 252253, 266, 286
, Herzstck, 211, 233
, Interior Questions, 88
, Madrigalic texts, 8586
, Melismas, 195, 222, 244, 267, 271, 287
, Schwrmer-motif, 189, 194, 238, 241, 254,
260
, Tritone, 157n, 188, 207, 208, 226, 236, 241,
244245, 252
Succoth (Festival of Booths), 172
Summa Passionis, see Passion, Summa
Passionis
Temple Musicians, 10, 14, 3638, 41, 42
Teutsch Gesangbchlein, 25
Thirty Years War, 13, 36
Turba Chorus (Choral crowd scene), 70, 177,
193
Vocation, 32, 35, 42
Wahrheit (Truth), 205
Weimar Passion, Bachs, 54
Wittenberg Hymnal, 26