BACH'S ST MATTHEW'S PASSION
THE BACKSTORY
St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-Passion), BWV 244
Yo yo yo, what's good, fam, I'm Johann Sebastian Bach, and I'm about to spill the whole backstory of my St Matthew Passion, straight up, not even playin'! Lookin' back on it, playa, that story still hits me right in the feels, for real, for real! So are ya curious how that colossal beast of a piece even got born, or what, huh, huh?! Lean in, homie, 'cause I'm your guide through every twist and turn of the backstory of the St Matthew Passion, so stick with me, we're rollin' through it nice and deep, get it? And once I'm done spillin' the tea, I'll hook ya up with a whole stash of ways to dig deeper into the St Matthew Passion, bet, sheesh!
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Fresh Gig, Big Ambitions
Yo, yo, ayo, peep this, bruh, I'd been Thomaskantor in Leipzig since 1723, so I was basically the head honcho of the whole music scene in town, cross my heart! Born in Eisenach in 1685, small-town kid, and suddenly I'm runnin' the show in a big city, talk about a glow-up, deadass! So I figured, why not go hella big and cook up a Good Friday banger that'd make jaws hit the floor, ya heard? That monster is the St Matthew Passion, and it's lowkey the thing folks still stan me for, trust me!Picander Held the Pen
Now, I didn't write every single word myself, dude, 'cause my guy Picander, also known as Christian Friedrich Henrici, handled the lyrics, big shoutout to the homie! He grabbed Matthew chapters 26 and 27, the actual Bible drama, and wrapped chorales and arias all around it like sprinkles on a sundae, sick! Plot twist, my guy, the text ain't just straight scripture, 'cause Picander wrote the free poetry for the arias and the choruses, so he was cookin' up original lyrics like a mixtape producer, no joke! So the Bible parts tell the story, the poetry lets all the feelings spill out, and that combo is pure fire, legit!Good Friday Mystery Theater
Okay, so the premiere was probably on Good Friday, 11 April 1727, in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, so mark your calendar, bet! Probably, though, 'cause the story goes it may have been as late as Good Friday 1729, and older sources swear by that, so the date's lowkey sketchy, y'all! Another crew says anywhere between 1725 and 1728 or 1729, so the receipts are mad blurry, chief! The sources I've seen all point at the Thomaskirche, and no other church's confirmed, so that's my home turf for the night, ya feel me?Two Choirs, Two Bands, Zero Chill
Champ, I wrote this thing for two choirs and two orchestras plus soloists, which is basically a stadium tour squeezed into one church, bonkers! Flutes, oboes, violins, viola, viola da gamba and basso continuo are all in the mix, so the sound's thicker than a triple-fudge milkshake, highkey! Some oboes even swap into fancier cousins like the oboe d'amore and the oboe da caccia, which is like changin' sneakers mid-game, mad extra! And the Evangelist, the guy who narrates the whole saga, is a tenor, so picture the sickest podcast host ever, just singin' the news, no filter!Binge-Watching 68 Episodes
Alright, so a movement is like one episode of a binge-worthy show, a self-contained chunk with its own mood and its own key, and then the next one rolls right in, ya dig? My Passion packs 68 of these numbered episodes, split into two seasons, Part One with 29 and Part Two with 39, a marathon and a half, y'all! Episode 1 is the opening chorus 'Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen', the dramatic cold open, and episode 39 is the alto aria 'Erbarme dich, mein Gott', the gut-punch plot twist after Peter's denial, I'm not even playin'! Episode 57 is the bass aria 'Komm, süßes Kreuz', and the grand finale, number 68, is the closing chorus 'Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder', so yeah, pack a whole tissue box, boss!The Gamba Glow-Up
Real quick, number 57 is in D minor, and that's where the viola da gamba steps up like the lead guitarist next to the bass singer, solo-style, on my life! Hold up, some folks think the gamba's a lovechild of a cello and a guitar, but nope, it's a bowed string instrument in its own right, so give the gamba some respect, y'all! Its voice is warm and woody and kinda moody, like a velvet couch with a broken heart, bro! So the singer and the gamba trade vibes in D minor, and it's a duet that gives me straight-up chills, I'd put it on repeat all day!The Encore Tour
After the first go, I brought the Passion back on 15 April 1729, then on 30 March 1736, then on 23 March 1742, so it's basically my reunion tour, ayo! Three encores, man, and each one was a whole new chance to make a church full of people ugly-cry, I'm dead serious! Here's the receipt that matters, my manuscript from 1736 has survived, so we've got a legit piece of paper straight from my own hands, mind blown! A page that old is the ultimate vintage thrift find, and it's hangin' around like it's got no plans to quit, epic!Mendelssohn Pulls Up
Fast-forward, y'all, 'cause on 11 March 1829 a 20-year-old named Felix Mendelssohn conducted the Passion at the Berlin Singakademie, almost a hundred years after the work was last played, hella wild! Twenty years old, and most kids that age are still figurin' out laundry, but this one's out here revivin' a monster, what a flex! Carl Friedrich Zelter backed the whole plan like the hype man with the clout, and Eduard Devrient helped Mendelssohn with the arrangement and the conducting, total squad goals! So that's three guys, one dusty giant of a piece, and a crowd about to get its mind blown, let's gooo!Mendelssohn Held the Scissors
Now peep this, his version cut ten arias, four accompanied recitatives and six chorales, so he was swingin' those scissors like a barber on a deadline, wild! That's a whole lotta trimming, and normally I'd be salty, but the guy got the thing back on stage, so I'm lowkey chill with it, honestly! The show got repeated on 21 March 1829, and then again on Good Friday, 17 April 1829, with Zelter holdin' the baton that time, encore after encore, boom! Three performances of Passion madness in Berlin, total mic drop, no big deal!Revival Receipts and My Big Exit
History books call that 1829 show the first one outside Leipzig since I died, and Wikipedia even calls it the central event in the revival of my music, goated move, Felix! Yep, I died in Leipzig in 1750, so I missed the whole comeback, and I'm hella bummed I couldn't snag a front-row seat, oof! But hey, that's the thing about a masterpiece, it's like a sleeper hit that blows up way later and still has the crowd all choked up, super extra! So when that closing chorus rolls in, C minor, 3/4 time, sit back, sniffle like a champ, and send me a thumbs-up from the cheap seats, ya feel me?---
Yo, yo, ayo, we've hit the finish line, fam, and my heart's still thumpin' like a bass drum at a block party, straight up! So real talk, did ya enjoy diggin' into the backstory of St Matthew's Passion, or what? I mean, think about it, big dawg: a Good Friday banger from my Leipzig days comes back from the dead when Mendelssohn, a fresh-faced 20-year-old, conducts it in 1829, and that's a plot twist wilder than any binge-worthy show, believe that! But hold up, hold up, we've barely scratched the surface, homie, 'cause there's a whole mountain of St Matthew's Passion left to explore, deadass! Picture the weepy choirs, the sneaky solo moments and that closing chorus where everybody sits down in tears, and trust me, I've still got stories I haven't even whispered yet, jeez! So smash those links below, ya heard, and go dive in for more, 'cause this rabbit hole's deep, the vibes are immaculate and the snacks are free, yo! And whatever ya do, keep listenin', 'cause centuries later this music's still hittin' hearts like it's fresh off the press, and that's the realest flex I could ever ask for, peace!