St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244

St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, Passion music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Its earliest verified performance was April 11, 1727—Good Friday—at Thomaskirche in Leipzig. It is the longest and most elaborate of all works by this Baroque master and represents the culmination of his sacred music and, indeed, of Baroque sacred music as a whole.

The St. Matthew Passion is one of hundreds of sacred pieces Bach wrote during his long tenure as director of church music and cantor of the school at Thomaskirche. The story for the work was taken mostly from the Gospel According to Matthew, but the actual verses that Bach set to music were provided by several contemporary poets. His principal contributor was Christian Friedrich Henrici, a poet who wrote under the name of Picander and also supplied the text for Bach’s secular Peasant Cantata (1742).

The St. Matthew Passion is divided into two parts, and its performance takes somewhat less than three hours. The first part concerns Jesus Christ’s betrayal, the Last Supper, and his prayers and arrest in Gethsemane. The second part presents the rest of the biblical story, including the Crucifixion, death, and burial of Christ. Throughout the work, there is more music for the four soloists—soprano, alto, tenor, and bass—than for the chorus. Often the chorus is called upon to present Bach’s new settings of existing chorales. Most prominent of those is the chorus “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” (“O Sacred Head Now Wounded”), which stands as 54th of the 68 sections.

The soloist’s parts are less solos than duets—not with each other but rather with performers drawn from the orchestra. The alto air “Buss und Reu” (“Guilt and Pain”; section 6) opens with a gently flowing flute line, and, even after the alto joins in, the flute remains prominent. That same effect happens in several other airs, sometimes with the singers receiving woodwind partners and sometimes viola da gamba and always further support from continuo parts. The soprano air “Ich will dir mein Herze schenken” (“I Will Thee My Heart Now Offer”; section 13) is distinct not only in that it matches the soprano with two oboes, rather than just one, but also in that it is the only genuinely cheerful section in the entire work.

The St. Matthew Passion was performed several times during the composer’s life, and a copy of its original manuscript exists in Bach’s own handwriting. However, at his death in 1750, the St. Matthew Passion, along with most Bach compositions, was forgotten. Nearly eight decades later the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn reintroduced the work when he conducted a 400-member chorus and a full orchestra in a 19th-century premiere at the Berlin Sing-Akadamie on March 11, 1829.