Best ten minutes - 3
The opening chorus of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, ("Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen" / "Come, ye daughters, help me mourn") is widely regarded as one of the most powerful and monumental openings in all of classical music. Bach's St Matthew is the second of two Passion settings by Bach that have survived in their entirety, the first being composed three years later than the St John Passion, and performed on Good Friday, in 1727, at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig.
The whole work of the Passion composes of the 26th and 27th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew from the Luther Bible put to music by J.S. Bach, with interspersed chorales and arias. Bach's librettist, Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as Picander, wrote mainly the text for the inlayed recitatives and arias, and for the large scale choral movements that open and close the Passion.
In Christian music at the time, a Passion is a setting of the Passion of Christ. Liturgically, most Passions were intended to be performed as part of church services in the Holy Week. Then the Passion of Christ may include, among other events, Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the Temple, his anointing, the Last Supper, his agony, his arrest, his trial before the Sanhedrin and his trial before Pontius Pilate, his crucifixion and death, and his burial. Those parts of the four canonical Gospels that describe these events are known as the Passion narratives.
While Passion music in Catholic countries had to compete with other devotions such as the Stations of the Cross, the Improperia and Tenebrae, in Protestant Germany settings of the Gospels became a focal point of Passiontide services, with Passion cantatas (and later Passions in oratorio format) performed on Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday and Good Friday. The passion began to be intoned (rather than just spoken) in the Middle Ages, at least as early at the Eight century.
Written for two choruses and two orchestras, the opening for Bach's St Matthew Passion creates an immediate sense of grandeur and tragedy. His most famous choral work opens thus with a 12/8 time siciliano rhythm (a so-called heartbeat-rhythm) that acts as a deep, pulsing heartbeat of lamentation, often described as a mix of a funeral march and a lullaby. It functions as a musical "funeral march", already setting the scene for the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus, in short the wider meaning here of the word "passion" and representing perfectly the long journey to Calvary.
While the choir opens up with singing "Kommt, ihr Töchter," a third, high children's chorus ("Soprano in ripieno") enters later, singing the chorale "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig," which adds a shimmering, angelic, and haunting texture to the complexity of the whole. Thus this highly complex opening layers a dramatic dialogue between the two choirs with one singing a soaring melody and the other singing their hymn continuously "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" (O innocent Lamb of God).
There's even the so-called "Wedding and Funeral" Effect to condend with where Bach's music effectively bridges contrasting emotions of grief and love, setting up the Gospel story as both a dramatic, heartbreaking narrative and a sublime, affectionate meditation. The lyrics themselves that one hears, written by said Picander, set up a constant dialogue of dramatic interrogation ("Look!—Where?—At our guilt!") that pulls the listener even more directly into the narrative of the Passion.
[media=https://youtu.be/xpUYe5-EPSM]
The whole work of the Passion composes of the 26th and 27th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew from the Luther Bible put to music by J.S. Bach, with interspersed chorales and arias. Bach's librettist, Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as Picander, wrote mainly the text for the inlayed recitatives and arias, and for the large scale choral movements that open and close the Passion.
In Christian music at the time, a Passion is a setting of the Passion of Christ. Liturgically, most Passions were intended to be performed as part of church services in the Holy Week. Then the Passion of Christ may include, among other events, Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the Temple, his anointing, the Last Supper, his agony, his arrest, his trial before the Sanhedrin and his trial before Pontius Pilate, his crucifixion and death, and his burial. Those parts of the four canonical Gospels that describe these events are known as the Passion narratives.
While Passion music in Catholic countries had to compete with other devotions such as the Stations of the Cross, the Improperia and Tenebrae, in Protestant Germany settings of the Gospels became a focal point of Passiontide services, with Passion cantatas (and later Passions in oratorio format) performed on Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday and Good Friday. The passion began to be intoned (rather than just spoken) in the Middle Ages, at least as early at the Eight century.
Written for two choruses and two orchestras, the opening for Bach's St Matthew Passion creates an immediate sense of grandeur and tragedy. His most famous choral work opens thus with a 12/8 time siciliano rhythm (a so-called heartbeat-rhythm) that acts as a deep, pulsing heartbeat of lamentation, often described as a mix of a funeral march and a lullaby. It functions as a musical "funeral march", already setting the scene for the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus, in short the wider meaning here of the word "passion" and representing perfectly the long journey to Calvary.
While the choir opens up with singing "Kommt, ihr Töchter," a third, high children's chorus ("Soprano in ripieno") enters later, singing the chorale "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig," which adds a shimmering, angelic, and haunting texture to the complexity of the whole. Thus this highly complex opening layers a dramatic dialogue between the two choirs with one singing a soaring melody and the other singing their hymn continuously "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" (O innocent Lamb of God).
There's even the so-called "Wedding and Funeral" Effect to condend with where Bach's music effectively bridges contrasting emotions of grief and love, setting up the Gospel story as both a dramatic, heartbreaking narrative and a sublime, affectionate meditation. The lyrics themselves that one hears, written by said Picander, set up a constant dialogue of dramatic interrogation ("Look!—Where?—At our guilt!") that pulls the listener even more directly into the narrative of the Passion.
[media=https://youtu.be/xpUYe5-EPSM]
