If you have listened to musical settings of the story of the Passion, odds are it was one by Johann Sebastian Bach. Given Bach’s astounding achievement in both of the two extant Gospel-based Passions, it’s easy to forget that he didn’t invent the form. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has observed that Bach’s “Olympian reputation invites avalanches to smother the achievements of distinguished forebears.”
In the program notes to a recording of the St. Matthew Passion of Orlande de Lassus, baritone Greg Skidmore points out:
setting the passion narrative to newly-composed music to be performed liturgically during Holy Week has been a constant practice in the Catholic church since the 14th century. Liturgically speaking, the roots go deeper. Passages from St Matthew’s gospel were instituted as lessons to be recited at Mass on Palm Sunday by Pope Leo the Great in the middle of the 5th century. From a very early time in the development of this liturgy, the fundamentally dramatic nature of the Gospel passages was emphasized. Sources from the 9th century exist in which are clearly notated changes in character (the narrative Evangelist, Christ, and the “turba” — referring to all of the other characters) and by the 13th century the practice of involving more than one singer in the recitation was common.
By the 16th century, it was common for composers to tell the story of the Passion by having a narrator chant the narrative, third-person text of the Gospel, and the direct speech of specific characters was presented in more intricate music, by soloists or by multiple voices.
Here, for example, is the opening of Lassus’s 1575 setting of the St. Matthew Passion. The narrator begins by identifying “The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.” He then chants “In illo tempore,” “and it came to pass,” before introducing words of Jesus to the disciples, sung by a bass soloist.
The Theatre of Voices; Paul Eliott, tenor; Paul Hillier, director
Then the conspiring of the chief priests and scribes is described. When voices are raised saying that grabbing Jesus “subtly” would incite an “uproar among the people,” a choir joins in (at about 1:11) to heighten the sense of dramatic tension.
A choir is also employed later (at 2:10) when the disciples complain indignantly about the wastefulness of the woman with the alabaster box of ointment, who poured it on Jesus’ head. When Jesus rebukes them, the bass soloist again chants the Lord’s words.
In the next scene — Judas agreeing to betray Jesus — the words of Judas (at 4:25) are sung by sopranos and altos, rather than being sung by a single male voice. Realism is not the point. Rather, dramatically conveying the significance of the words takes priority here.
Three Passions by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
Arguably the greatest German composer before Bach, Schütz composed at least three Passion settings. In 1665, his Lukas-Passion was published. It begins with a 4-part chorus, simply identifying the work as based on Luke’s Gospel:
Das Leiden unsers Herren Jesu Christi, wie uns das beschreibet der heilige Evangeliste Lukas.
The sufferings of our Lord, Jesus Christ, as told by the holy Evangelist Luke.
Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier, conductor
After the stage is set, the story begins, narrated by a tenor soloist singing the role of the Narrator/Evangelist (sung in this recording by Johan Linderoth). In earlier settings of the Passion, the Evangelist chanted the narration following patterns common plainchant. In later (and Lutheran) composition, the text of the Gospel is chanted in German, not Latin, and the chanting style is a bit more free than were the plainchant settings.
The Evangelist begins with the text taken from the beginning of chapter 22 of St. Luke’s Gospel: “Es war aber nahe das Fest der süßen Brot . . .” (“now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh . . .”).
(To follow the German text in the recordings below, along with a parallel English translation, you can download here a pdf file of the CD booklet that comes with this recording. The text begins on page 8 of the booklet. The booklet also includes an instructive essay by Daniel R. Melamed, comparing Schütz’s setting of the Passion story with those of J. S. Bach.)
The excerpt below takes us through St. Luke 22:38, concluding with the exchange with the disciples about moneybags and swords.
Ars Nova Copenhagen; Johan Linderoth, Evangelist;
Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Jesus; Paul Hillier, conductor
Note that whenever the text of the Gospel includes “dialogue” spoken by characters in the story — including especially Jesus — Schütz continues the convention of assigning those words to other singers, sometimes soloists, sometime an entire choir.
Note also that there are no instruments accompanying the singers, as they were still forbidden in Lutheran churches during Lent in Schütz’s time. But even with very spare melodic lines sung by the soloists, there is clearly room for emotional content to be conveyed.
In the excerpt below, the story picks up with Jesus and the disciples at the Mount of Olives (follow from page 13 in the booklet). At about 1:07, Jesus prays to the Father that the cup might be removed from him. At 2:40, Jesus asks the disciples why they fell asleep (Was schlafet ihr?). Then Judas shows up with “a multitude.” Jesus questions him directly (at 3:33), and soon (at 4:04) the disciples offer to defend Jesus with their swords.
The next scene in this excerpt (beginning at 6:25, page 15 in the booklet) is Peter’s denial of Jesus. We hear a female soloist for the first time (and briefly (at 7:01), in the person of the maid who claimed to have seen Peter with Jesus. This section of the Passion story has (if briefly) some of the most rapid dialogue. Note again how the anguish implied by the narrative is captured by the tenor soloist singing the part of the Evangelist.
Ars Nova Copenhagen; Johan Linderoth, Evangelist;
Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Jesus; Paul Hillier, conductor
The excerpt below picks up (on page 16 of the booklet) with the trial of Jesus, and has some brief animated choral passages depicting the sarcasm and scorn of the Jews (at :17) and High Priests (at 1:00). Right at the beginning, the tenor/Evangelist narrating the story exploits the sound of the German words for mocking, smiting, and blindfolding (verspotteten, verdeckten, and schlugen).
Ars Nova Copenhagen; Johan Linderoth, Evangelist;
Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Jesus; Paul Hillier, conductor
Schütz concludes his St. Luke Passion with a brief concluding chorus:
Wer Gottes Marter in ehren hat und oft betracht sein bittern Tod,
He who honours God’s suffering and often ponders His bitter death,
des will er eben pflegen wohl hie auf Erd mit seiner Gnad und dort in dem ewigen Leben.
will be well protected by His mercy here on earth, and there in eternal life.
Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier, conductor
A YouTube playlist for the entire Lukas-Passion is available here. While this is my favorite performance, playback of the entire work via this playlist will likely be interrupted by noisy advertising. It may be better to purchase a copy of this work. Another YouTube recording is available here. )
Heinrich Schütz also composed a setting of the account of Jesus’ passion as told by St. John. The Johannes-Passion dates to 1666. As was the case with his Lukas-Passion, this work begins with a choral Introduction:
Das Leiden unsers Herren Jesu Christi, wie uns das beschreibet der heilige evangeliste Johannes.
The Passion of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ as we find it written in Holy Scripture in the Gospel of Saint John.
Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier, conductor
The formal style of this Passion setting is identical with that of the Lukas-Passion: a cappella singing, a chanted narration by a tenor/Evangelist, and other solo or choral parts presenting the dialogue of characters in the story. The concluding chorus in each work gave Schütz an opportunity to display his skill in delicate and moving polyphony. Where the concluding chorus of the Lukas-Passion was a single-sentence sermonic observation, this text addresses our Lord directly:
O hilf Christe, Gottes sohn, durch dein bitter Leiden,
O help, Christ, O Son of God, through thy bitter passion,
daß wir dir stets untertan
that we, who thee ever serve,
all Untugend meiden,
May avoid all error,
deinen tot und sein Ursach, Fruchtbarlich bedenken
May thy death and its true cause fruitfully consider,
dafür wiewohl arm und schwach, dir Dankopfer schenken.
For which, although poor and weak, thee our thanks we offer!
Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier, conductor
The booklet for this performance of the Johannes-Passion also includes an essay by Daniel R. Melamed, author of Hearing Bach’s Passions (Oxford University Press, 2005).
A complete performance of Schütz’s Johannes-Passion is avilable here:
Daniel Melamed also contributed an essay to the booklet that accompanied the recording by Ars Nova Copenhagen of Schütz’s setting of the Matthäus-Passion (The Passion According to St. Matthew). If you plan on purchasing a recording of any or all of these Passion settings, I can vouch for the quality of all three performances by this fine ensemble and their attentive and thoughtful soloists. The performances by the Dresden Chamber Choir, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann, are also quite good. They are part of a larger project to record all of Schütz’s choral music.
I don’t have much to add to describe Schütz’s Matthäus-Passion. So instead of reading, take time to listen to a complete performance of the work embedded below, featuring the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Alfred Scholz. (The booklet prepared for the Ars Nova Copenhagen album contains the complete German text with English translation.)
Schütz’s Passion settings are clearly liturgical works, designed to be sung during Holy Week as an aid to devotion, not as a performance inviting applause. With the modern possibility of recordings, they also make for rich personal devotional listening, as individuals follows the text and reflect on the meaning of this story.
Württemberg Chamber Orchestra and Choir, Alfred Scholz, conductor